Meet Benjamin Irons of Zen with Ben

I’m an Alternative Medicine provider, meditation guide, professional musician, and collaborating Sound Healing Artist for Dragonfly Percussion. I founded Zen with Ben as the culmination of my percussion and meditation training. I’m deeply passionate about the use of sound and vibration as alternative medicine for stress-related conditions. I facilitate sound therapy using antique Himalayan singing bowls and other instruments to relieve stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, pain, anger, addiction, and trauma.

I received my first meditation teacher certificate in 2014. In 2017, I started a program at Northern Arizona University’s Health Promotion Office (Flagstaff, AZ) teaching meditation for students with substance abuse disorders. In 2018, I went to work for a formal corporate-style meditation studio in Phoenix, where I first explored sound as a form of meditation. Coming from a classical music background this practice helped me to reconnect with my passion for music, boost my meditation practice, and find a more profound sense of peace by tuning into my own “frequency” in the silence after the “sound bath.” I’m constantly in awe of how quickly and deeply people connect with the present moment through music.

My practice took some big steps in 2019. I began a collaboration with Dragonfly Percussion in the design of their new “Resonance Line” gong mallets for sound practitioners. I opened doors in my private practice in Tempe, AZ. I obtained my Advanced Meditation Instructor certificate, and finished three levels of training at the Atma Buti® Sound & Vibrational School (Boulder, CO) under Master Suren Shrestha. I also began to explore my Lakota heritage, focusing on their wisdom in shamanic healing and drumming. I’m a descendant of Chief Solomon Iron Nation (Lower Brule Sioux tribe, 1815-1894). Iron Nation was a vital peace-keeper and education proponent throughout the 19th-century American Indian Wars; and, a signatory of the Fort Laramie treaty. In 2014, the National Park Service approved listing his gravesite along the Missouri River Bluffs on the National Register of Historic Places. The inscription reads: “We, the Lower Brule Indians / Put up this stone in memory of our / Dear Head Chief / Solomon Iron Nation / Who Died November 14, 1894 / Aged 79 years / Children, Love One Another.”

I’m excited to unify centuries of wisdom, sacred sound, mindfulness, and healing traditions from shaman around the world and share them with you in an effort to “Love one another!”

The primary challenge is educating the general public and bringing awareness for the type of healing work I do. The effects of the singing bowls can be deeply transformational. They’re exceptionally good at breaking up old behavioral patterns. Those types of experiences cannot be quantified. They have to be felt. My main task is helping people understand and feel comfortable enough with the practice to take the chance to feel that shift. Most people aren’t ready, but I’m here for them when they are.

I specialize in sound & vibration as a form of holistic healing and wellness. I integrate Atma Buti® techniques to open, energize, balance, harmonize, and align energy channels in the body. Using Himalayan singing bowls (and other therapeutic instruments) I facilitate protocols that activate the body’s relaxation response, alleviating stress-related conditions such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and trauma. As a recent client exclaimed, “It’s like a spa day for your soul!” I do my absolute best to provide a safe, informed, and comfortable healing experience for everyone who comes for treatment. I’m extremely proud of the multifaceted approach to healing incorporated at Zen with Ben. I have to be fluent in the acoustics, percussion techniques, culture & history of Himalayan healing, mindfulness techniques, quantum mechanics, altered states of consciousness, instrument knowledge, and small business acumen all wrapped up in one cohesive package in order to provide the absolute best service and experience for each and every client.

Success has to come from within. No one else is going to have the same vision, knowledge, interpretation, or first-person experience that you do. One of the hardest shifts in opening a business is realizing that every single person has an opinion about what and how you should be operating. Success is staying true to your own vision while upholding virtuous qualities like integrity and community. I think about this Hemingway quote frequently: “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” Granted, success and nobility are two different ideals, but I love the goal of leaving people and places nicer than I found them. That goes for my person, as well: my health, my knowledge, my practice, my patience, my compassion, etc. If I made even the smallest step forward, that feels like a win.