Freshen the mind with a Gong Bath
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.
Erika Grant and her sonic medicine kit.
Photo:
Holly Fenwick / Supplied
It was burnout that lead to the gongs. Burnout, and a bit of luck.
Erika Grant
is a 'gong bath' practitioner, playing the percussion instruments in a way that washes over the listener and helps to ease a fractured mind.
Her gongs will form part of a
Listening Occasion
in this year's
Lōemis midwinter festival in Wellington
with Berlin-based performer Lou Drago.
Speaking to RNZ Concert, Grant said she turned to the gongs after suffering burnout after touring overseas with the music group, Orchestra of Spheres.
She'd heard about using the sound of softly played gongs to reduce stress, and came across a beautiful set of the instruments which belonged to the Wellington percussionist Simon O'Rorke.
"I asked if I could borrow them, and he said 'no'."
But several years later, when O'Rorke decided to sell them, Grant was the first person he contacted.
Ready to wash over you.
Photo:
Erika Grant
Grant is passionate about the healing potential of gong sound, which she believes relaxes the mind because a typical gong beat creates lots of harmonics.
Harmonics are the sound waves that vibrate above the basic tone of any instrument, or voice. Every voice or instrument has different harmonics - it's how we're able to tell an oboe and a flute apart even if they're playing the same note.
But Grant also says it's important to be careful when dispensing gong therapy.
It's easy for a gong bath to be too loud, which can have the opposite effect on a listener to the relaxation they were hoping for.
A little bit of gong can go a long way.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Christchurch fraudster Diane Baumann used stranger's driver's licence to claim $30,000 in payments
By Al Williams , Open Justice reporter Diane Baumann used the driver's licence details of a stranger in a different city to create a fictious carer and receive payments while collecting ACC benefits. Photo: RNZ / Kate Newton A mother of five used a stranger's driver's licence details to create a fictitious carer for herself so she could get nearly $30,000 in payments, while also collecting Accident Compensation Corporation benefits. Diane Marie Baumann's deception only started to catch up with her when the real owner of the driver's licence, who lived in a different city, received correspondence from Inland Revenue. Soon after, the woman also discovered she had a poor credit rating score because of the multiple debts Baumann had run up in her name. Now Baumann, 39, also known as Diane Cox, has appeared for sentencing in the Christchurch District Court on multiple charges of using documents for pecuniary advantage. Between November 2020 and April 2021, Baumann received an Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) benefit while receiving regular payments from Custom Care Nursing Limited. She used her Rolleston address and her sibling's phone number as part of her client details. Baumann used another phone number as the contact for the fictitious carer she had created for herself, using the victim's driver's licence details. Over the next several months, Custom Care Nursing Limited deposited $26,957 into a bank account number allocated to Baumann under her alias, Diane Cox. At the same time, Baumann opened accounts with Spark New Zealand, One New Zealand and Zip Co, using the victim's driver's licence details. She received $3680 in services and products, which were never repaid. The deception continued when she spoke to police and Oranga Tamariki on multiple occasions in 2024 with concerns about a family member she said was in a relationship with an older teen, known as Male A. Baumann completed an unsupported child's benefit application form for Male A, requesting that benefit payments be made to an account named D. Cox. On the application, she said Male A had come into her care and that she was "fully supporting" him and denied having had any contact with a social worker from Oranga Tamariki or other authorised agencies. She then texted Male A's mother, saying she needed to meet her to get his medication. His mother replied, telling Baumann she would be getting the cops at her door and that it was not funny that she had not informed her that Male A was at her residence. Again, she completed an unsupported child's benefit interview form, recording that the arrangement for Male A to live with her had become permanent. The pair then attended a face-to-face interview with an assessor from Barnardos regarding the application, with Baumann claiming Male A would be staying in her spare bedroom, which had just been left vacant by her son. She said she had tried to get Male A's birth certificate and clothing from his mother but was unsuccessful. Baumann's son had not been living with her prior to the interview. At the end of the 2021 financial year, the woman who owned the driver's licence received correspondence from Inland Revenue regarding her employment at Customer Care Nursing Limited. She had never worked for them. In 2022, the victim's bank manager printed off her credit score, which showed debts accumulated in her name that she was not responsible for. The woman then conducted her own investigation using three debt collection agencies. Through them, she discovered that the addresses and phone numbers used in the accounts under her name were unknown to her. It turned out Baumann had managed to set up employee contracts, opt out of KiwiSaver and fill in tax code documents, all signed in the victim's name. She also used an email address with the victim's name which had no association to the victim. It remains unclear how Baumann got the woman's driver's licence and personal details as she declined to comment on any of the offending. She also refused to provide the Pin number to her cellphone. Judge Gerard Lynch said Baumann's offending had caused significant financial implications for the victim. "She was upset to find out she had a bad credit rating," Lynch said. "The victim says, 'I wish she would put this amount of effort into getting a real job'." The judge said Baumann had two previous convictions for theft and deception in 2017. She had used methamphetamine as a daily coping mechanism with regards to access to her children and there had been relationship issues. Judge Lynch said there was an ongoing need for rehabilitation and that he would impose home detention to promote her rehabilitation. "Given the personal background and drug misuse, I will adopt rehabilitation over a punitive approach. "When we deal with government departments, we can't expect them to drill down and check every application, if they did, things would ... grind to a stop." Judge Lynch said there were remorse, addiction and personal factors. "The reality here is there was no defence to these charges. "Nothing is going to be gained by sending you to prison, you are on notice now, if you offend again, you won't be bailed." The judge said there was no realistic prospect of reparation and partial reparation had been offered. He ordered that $7500 reparation be paid and sentenced Baumann to six months' home detention. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Holiday road toll: 5 dead and at least 10 injured
The official road toll period will end at 6am on Tuesday. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Five people have been killed and at least 10 injured in separate crashes in the first two days of the long weekend. A motorcyclist was killed in a crash on Harihari Highway, State Highway 6 on Sunday. The crash, at Kakapotahi near the Waitaha River Bridge, was reported to police at a 5.15pm. No other vehicles were involved. A woman died in hospital on Sunday after her vehicle rolled on Tuakau Bridge-Port Waikato Road in Waikato on Friday, just a few hours after the holiday road toll period began. Three others were injured in the single vehicle crash. A man died several hours later in a crash in the Waipā district , also in Waikato, after his vehicle left the road and rolled into a paddock. Just after midnight on Saturday, a person died in a two vehicle crash south of Kawakawa in Northland. And on Saturday night, a man died after his car ended up on its roof on State Highway 16 in Auckland . Four people were taken to hospital, two in a serious condition and two in moderate condition. The official road toll period will end at 6am on Tuesday. Last year, three people died on the roads during the King's Birthday holiday weekend.
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
Aquaculture animal welfare code 'anti-Kiwi', Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is ruling out an animal welfare code for aquaculture, saying it is "anti-Kiwi" and an "indulgence". The SPCA has called for a code to protect farmed fish, following a government plan to grow the industry's revenue to $3 billion annually by 2035. Scientific officer Marie McAninch said a code would also help give the aquaculture sector access to the sorts of international markets that land-based farmers benefit from, thanks to their animal welfare codes. "New Zealanders care about how farmed animals are treated - and so do people overseas who buy our products. They'll expect that farmed fish in aquaculture are treated well and that their welfare meets our animal welfare laws. "A code of welfare for aquaculture would help make that happen. But right now, New Zealand's Aquaculture Strategy - and the Aquaculture Development Strategy that Shane Jones announced in March - are both completely silent on the welfare of the animals being farmed." Jones said he would not be considering an animal welfare code. "Most certainly not. I think these impositions are anti-Kiwi. We are in the midst of a set of economic challenges where we must expand and grow the footprint of aquaculture. It's all going to end up [as food for] human consumption or pet consumption." Jones said existing fish farmers already did "a very good job" of looking after their stock. "All of these animal husbandry businesses, there's always scope for improvement. But regulatory codes ... only represent red tape and at a deeper level where does all this end? We're a small economy and a lot of these impositions are, in my view, indulgences. They're vanity projects and these debates need a clear set of contrasting views." But McAninch said New Zealanders cared about how farmed animals were treated - and so did people overseas who bought products from New Zealand fish farms. Fish were legally recognised as sentient beings, which meant they were capable of feeling pain, stress and positive emotional states, she said. The SPCA was not against aquaculture, McAninch said. "But we do believe it's crucial to make sure all farmed animals - and any wild animals affected by these systems - are properly protected. Our land-based farming sectors take pride in their animal welfare codes, and it's helped them with access to international markets. If the aquaculture sector doesn't plan for this now, they risk falling behind in a global environment where factory farming is increasingly under scrutiny." Jones said he was "the first to admit some of my views might be a bit difficult to stomach". But animal advocates were "on a trajectory of mission creep, and I kind of feel it's anti-Kiwi," he said. "I can understand that little kittens and dogs that bite children and other welfare considerations [are] an established part of rural life and our ethos, but suggesting that people growing salmon, new fish species and indeed shellfish ... we already have a system through the Resource Management Act that deals with the effects of such activity." Jones described a recent outcry by animal lovers about farming octopuses , which are sentient beings, as "the height of this folly". "We need to grow industry, we don't want to impose these urban based vanity beliefs of basic industrial growth prospects." Octopus farming was banned in the United States in Washington and California due to animal welfare concerns, and consideration of a ban is also underway in three more states. But Jones said New Zealand could not afford such "luxury indulgences". "It's not something that I'm going to encourage, it's certainly not something I'm going to push forward, or agree with, at a time we have large competing objectives and other goals that I think society should set its mind upon." The SPCA would welcome talks with the minister about how a welfare code could help ensure the aquaculture sector was sustainable and resilient, McAninch said. There is currently no code of welfare for farmed fish species, although the New Zealand Salmon Farmers Association has developed a voluntary welfare standard for farmed salmon in New Zealand. The Animal Welfare Act 1999 (the AWA) and the Code of Welfare for Commercial Slaughter applies to farmed fish and for any fish that are intended to be held or transported live. The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) has identified development of a code of welfare for farmed fish for consideration as a future priority. The Minister in charge of Animal Welfare, Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard said NAWAC set its own work programme and schedule for code reviews, but he had asked it to prioritise production livestock codes, and the rodeo code. "Several of these codes have been under review for some time and the industries concerned need certainty. I expect NAWAC to deliver on those codes before turning their attention to other animal species." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
