Gong Meditation

It’s a Friday night at the end of January and instead of the usual drink (and a few) after work I’ve decided to try a Gong Meditation class at the Alchemy yoga centre in Camden. Perhaps it’s partly hangover from a particularly austere January or that fact I’ve been writing about detox all month, but I fancied ringing the changes, so to speak. Hey – a prolonged New Year’s resolution is better than nothing right?

I hadn’t got much of an idea of what to expect, except that there’d be a gong involved and I was pretty sure, but not completely sure, that I knew what one looked like. In my mind I’d imagined someone banging away solemnly on a gong, a bit like a Zen Buddhist. Maybe there’d be some chanting. Maybe we’d just lie there. Basically I hadn’t a clue.

Alchemy in Camden came recommended to me by a lovely yogi friend of mine, Steph Knight, who highly rated the classes there. They have a special offer on where you can try as many classes as you like for 10 days and only pay £10! It’s a great way to find a class that suits you. Gong Meditation sounded like the perfect initiation to the centre, which is hidden away amid the hubbub of Camden, just above the recently converted Stables Market. Inside it’s all bleached wood and serenity. A particular vibe and buzz to the place practically bounces off the walls and faces of those inside.

‘Gong’ as the class quickly becomes abbreviated to, is to be held in the circle room. Colourful cushions, yoga mats, and cosy red blankets line the walls which the people already laying on the floor have helped themselves to. Following suit, I take one of each and find a space. Three gongs stand majestically at the back of the room. When the teacher arrives, the room has completely filled up, the class is obviously popular. Moshik, the teacher, takes us through some simple Kundalini yoga exercises to warm us up, including breath work and some prayer like chanting which some people seem to know and others don’t. We’re instructed to keep our eyes closed, which I don’t quite manage as I want to check I’m doing it right!

When the time arrives, the lights are dimmed to nothing, and we lie back on our mats covered in the blankets. Memories of fireside camping trips spark in my head. Everyone is quiet and gently breathing. The gong starts. At first it’s low and trembling, just a small vibration moving through my head and shoulders, torso and toes. The sound is ethereal and incredibly beautiful, not at all what I expected. It’s pure music. Gong chimes tingle all the way up into the ceiling’s vaulted wooden rafters. Sometimes the sound is sparse and whispering as if I was in the far reaches of outer space. Other times it swells so loud I’m filled with vibrations to the point of bursting. Every cell in my body is resonating, realigning itself with this music, drifting and gliding as it washes through me. There is no teacher, there is no room there are no people there is just this sound, this amazing incredibly unworldly sound.

As the gong gradually fades, like the embers of a fire, you can also hear a few snores of The Very Relaxed rising with the sounds. The gong slowly vibes down and we rise slowly from the meditation into a final prayer before leaving into the chaos of Camden on a Friday night. From one frequency to the next.

For more on the benefits of meditation visit www.wellbeingescapes.co.uk, also to read an interview with a meditation guru here