Silencing the Inner Critic With Sound

Things have suddenly been kicked up a few notches. The article in the Providence Journal did not hurt. Since then I have been asked to lead a stress reduction seminar at an event for Women & Infants corporate donors and possibly to become a part of the programming at The Cedars in Cranston, which from what I understand is a nursing home and rehabilitative care facility.

Meanwhile, I have been dealing with a respiratory infection while I am in the process of getting ready to go to Florida on a three-week road trip to teach some workshops, perform healing sound journeys and do private sessions! I have also been experimenting with some of my own music and exploring the effects.

Up until recently I rarely played back my own sound journeys. Last summer I performed a sound journey at Yoga4All in Seminole, FL. It was the day after the terrorist attacks on Paris when I was in a very open and vulnerable space. I make it a practice never to compare sound journeys but I when it was over I felt that it was quite possibly the most powerful sound journey I had ever done and I became curious about it. I listened to it when I got home a few weeks later and was genuinely surprised by both the quality and the effect of the sound and frequencies- I was as taken with it as I had been the night that I did it and felt that it could be very powerful as a healing tool.  I began using it regularly for healing sessions with some of my cancer patients.
About to begin "Après Paris" Sound Journey at Yoga4All, Seminole, FL 8.7.15
I have been recording all of my sound journeys for the past 2-3 years on my iPhone but not actually listening to them. Since the surprise of the recent recording I decided I needed to go through some of my others sound journeys and start listening to them and seeing if any were worth transferring to CD. Naturally they are nothing like the quality of a CD recorded in a studio but what I have been discovering is that the effects are profound, even with the recordings in their rawest form!

A few days ago when I was sick in bed, I decided to listen to a short sound journey that I had done at my friend Lynn Carol Henderson's house. Usually the sound journeys are a piece unto themselves and between 50-60 minutes long, but this was just over 20 minutes as it was part of a house concert I had done at her house. When I lay down to listen my mind was very active. Quickly my thoughts subsided and my witness consciousness observed my body and mind becoming very still- this is for someone listening with a critical ear. I was listening to myself playing music waiting for the flaws, the imperfections, the voice of my own inner critic. But what I experienced was a silencing of that entire part of my mind. It was extraordinary. I had no idea how powerful these sounds could be. I understood from the perspective of a totally objective listener who was there for a particular experience but I did not at all expect to have that same experience- the experience that people share with me over and over in their own unique ways after every sound journey.
Getting ready for Sound Journey at the Henderson home, St. Pete, FL- August 2015
So this gives me a lot of new information about the real power of these sounds. I have been performing Healing Sound Journeys for years simply because I love these sounds and I love the experience of creating and exploring vibratory frequencies and the nuances and subtleties of pure tones and overtones. I know and trust that they are powerful, that they will have an effect, that they will activate different areas of the brain, create new neural pathways, entrain the brainwaves to alpha and deep theta states- that they are restorative and healing on deep levels, some of which the listener may be aware of either during the journey or later, and some which they may never be conscious of. They may simply know that something has changed on a deep level.

Last night I was unable to get to sleep as I had taken Alka Seltzer PM cold medicine for 3 nights in a row because my head had been so stuffed up. I was desperate for something to clear my head out and it worked and I slept soundly each night. It's amazing how quickly the body becomes entrained to the frequency of medication! Last night my head was clear enough that I didn't need the medicine. I was quite tired and lay down to sleep about 12:30 after reading until I was nodding off. As soon as I turned the light off however, I could feel energy buzzing through my body and I couldn't sleep. I lay there, very still and quiet for 3 hours- awake! Finally at 3:30 I sat up and looked around for my tuning forks with the delta frequency- but they weren't in my room. I lay down again and then thought, Hmm- what about a sound journey? I put the sound journey on that I had recorded at Lynn Carol's.

I felt the stillness settle into my body and twenty minutes later I was asleep.

Revisiting the Road, 2nd Installment- A Lesson in Abundance!


Koi pond at Lynn Carol and George Henderson's house
Lynn Carol's art studio
My week in St. Pete was wonderfully full. Every time I've gone back in the last few years I have had so much to do- teaching workshops, closing up the center, moving stuff out of the house I lived in for 13+ years with my ex-boyfriend- and spending time with him because he still one of my dearest friends- that I was not able to find the time to see so many of the other people I was so close to when I was down there. This time I made sure that I took the time to visit everyone that I wanted to see- some of whom it was brief or I saw at one of my sound journeys, others I was able to hang out, walk with or share a meal. It was so wonderful to take that time and be sure that I saw all my old friends.

I stayed with my dear friends Lynn Carol and George Henderson, whose house is definitely my idea of heaven on earth!

Healing Sound Journey at Temple of the Living God
On August 6 I did a Healing Sound Journey at the Temple of the Living God. There was some kind of weird poverty consciousness going on before I got there. They asked me to lower my minimum which I had already discounted 70%! I decided that I was not going to join in their consciousness of lack so I said to my good friend Carol Mitchell who had arranged the gig for me, "Okay, here's what we are going to do- I am not going to charge a minimum. Instead, let's join our minds in this moment and set the intention that there will be at least 40 people at the Sound Journey." She heartily agreed. We set the intention and the night of the event, slowly but surely, the place filled up- 46 people for the Sound Journey! So many of them were dear old friends and people who had come to so many events at my sound healing center when I lived there. It really was the loveliest reunion- and I made what I would normally charge for my minimum rather than the heavily discounted price I had originally given them! The ladies at the church who were taking the money were stunned and delighted. Apparently they rarely get such a good turn out for their events. I would have to say that I was not as surprised as they were, but I was definitely very pleased!

A walk on the beach with my good friend, Brian Ransom               




Expectant journeyers!



Selby Gardens with my old friend Linda Romero

Happy day with my new friends Ilona and Agnieszka, who I met last year in the Bahamas and discovered they live in Sarasota and that we have a whole circle of very close friends in common!