In a “sound bath” or mindful sound meditation, a mindfulness and sound expert plays instruments such as the gong, singing bowls, and tingsha bells to curate an immersive sound experience. Students simply let their attention rest on the sounds arising and passing.

Participants often report feeling re-centered and relaxed after the Mindful Sound + Healing class, and this anecdotal evidence is supported by science. Sound waves move through the body differently than air, since the body is 65% water. Sound meditation has been shown to incite the relaxation response, which promotes the parasympathetic nervous system and allows for deep rest.

In today’s always-on world, multi-tasking is the norm. When you’re doing a lot of things at the same time, it can feel like you’re accomplishing more. It’s even common to feel guilty and unproductive when you are only doing one thing at a time.

However, neuroscience tells us that it is actually impossible to pay attention to two things at once. When we think we are doing two things simultaneously (like watching TV and answering email), we are actually “task-switching”—switching back and forth rapidly between two or more tasks.

Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is being hailed as a must-have for navigating both the corporate ladder and your most important relationships. Unlike traditional intelligence (IQ), which typically remains stable over a person’s lifespan, emotional intelligence is not fixed over time. In other words, EQ is something that can always be improved upon.