Zen Awakening

In the mornings, I often find myself disturbingly awoken by some cheesy pop song from the radio. Upon several hits of the snooze button, I finally wake up all groggy and still half asleep.

Well, imagine waking up to the serene, sweet sound of a gentle gong. I have been in yoga classes where the instructor will bring us back to awareness from savasana using a Tibetan gong. It is one of the most beautiful, energizing sounds in the world. This alarm clock from Now and Zen (what a cool name!) will do just that.

As mentioned on their site: "In the morning, its exquisite sounds summon your consciousness into awakening with a series of subtle gongs that provide an elegant beginning to your day. When the alarm is triggered, the gong strikes just once … then automatically, it strikes again in 3-1/2 minutes … then in 2 minutes … then in 1 minute … As shown in the chart below, the gong strikes gradually increase over 10 minutes, eventually striking every 5 seconds until turned off."

The only downside is it's quite steep for an alarm clock ($149.95). Whether you feel waking up to serene bells justifies $150 is up to you - I'm still deciding if it is... but it is definitely a neat idea!