Focus and Intention

Yin Yang Heart Mosaic by Rosie Warburton

Happy Valentine's World Sound Healing Day!

Missed a day of blogging yesterday due to internet being down. Today, prepared for blizzard! Picked up a little extra wood yesterday just in case power goes out. Sitting with a cup of sake, wood stove going, jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table and musical instruments- guitar, banjo, harmonium, tamboura, crystal and Tibetan singing bowls- all around.

Have had some lovely sonic experiences over the last two days. Last night I went to a fundraiser for  Sandywoods Center for the Arts in Tiverton. Six different bands- unfortunately I missed the first one, Bluebird Orchestra, but all who followed were great. The last one was Willard Grant Conspiracy- absolutely knocked me out.

Singer/guitarist Robert Fisher and viola player Dave Curry- I was left speechless... Haunting, atmospheric, breathtaking, and deeply moving... A quiet backdrop of slides with desert landscape and poetry. At one point Robert stopped after a few bars of a song and tuned his guitar. I observed him- I could almost say I studied him- in that process as he very quietly, with absolute focus and precision, tuned each string and I saw how deeply he listened. (Yes, I'm back to that again- deep listening- such a beautiful healing practice.) Description of Dave Curry's playing that I found on their website "Live and on record, Curry makes every note sound as if it is the first time it has been played; he embodies the concept of always being present and reacting to the moment. It is a roller coaster of twists and turns that keeps the listener on the edge of their seat." Pretty accurate. I don't have anything I could add to that. 

I was sitting in the back of the room because I had met a friend who had her 3 month old baby with her. As the set progressed I kept moving up, closer and closer, and at the end of each song I would be sitting there stunned, literally with my jaw hanging open- one after the other. Suffice to say, they blew my mind in the best way possible.

Today was (and still is until midnight!) World Sound Healing Day. I got up early and went into Newport to lead a chanting group. We started off listening to a short explanation of the global intention and focus directing the sound of "AH" from the heart to the planet and then we all toned together along with the sound of a Tibetan bowl. After we intoned the "AH" to Mother Gaia I asked if anyone would like to share anything about their experience. One woman said that she had an awareness that "Her heart is beating and it's so full of love." She was deeply moved. 

What she said really struck a chord in me and I realized in that moment that that is the most powerful awareness. When we think about healing the earth, if we can focus on the heart of love, rather than the pain, the suffering, the damage we have inflicted on her, that the effect will be so much more powerful. When we are in need of healing we often have to do whatever it takes to sidestep or get out of the pain and focus on the deeper awareness that is beyond the body. Often that is enough to affect a physical healing the body and in fact can sometimes produce what seems to be a miracle of healing in what looks like a hopeless situation. Our mind, aligned with our intention, is by far the most powerful tool that we have.

One last Valentine's gift- a few years ago when I had my sound healing center I made this video for Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

Back In The Saddle Again!

A whirlwind of "soundy thoughts" going through my head. Spent so long working on my new flyer today that I actually thought I had blogged already!
I see some things that still need tweaking. More refinement when I am done with this short update...

Saturday, February 14, as well as being Valentine's Day, is also World Sound Healing Day, an event initiated by world renowned sound healer Jonathan Goldman in 2002. I am still feeling slightly disheveled in my new pad, even though it looks and feels great so I hadn't set up an event here to join in. I gratefully accepted an invitation to lead a chanting group in Newport, Rhode Island on Saturday morning where we will start off by toning the heart sound "AH" along with hundreds of thousands of other people across the globe who will be sending a Sonic Valentine to Mother Gaia. The global intention is to heal Mother Gaia, her waters and raise the consciousness of all beings on the planet. We will follow this with an hour or more of toning, chanting and kirtan.

I am so happy to be able to do this as we did it every year when I had the center and I have taken a couple of years off due to major life changes. I feel like I'm getting back in the saddle- and it's a saddle that feels like Home!

Several organizations are involved in measuring the effect of prayer, meditation and other spiritual activities on the electromagnetic field of the earth as well as the consciousness of her people by gathering statistics on the numbers of violent crime at specific times across the globe. To see some interesting information on this, click on this link: http://www.healingsounds.com/world-sound-healing-day-4

Music for Massage- Escape Artist

The first time I ever saw this video of Zoe Keating playing "Escape Artist" I was hooked!

Somehow when I transferred all my data to my new phone a couple of weeks ago not all the music I had on the old one was transferred. So today, when I was going to give a massage, the music that I had hoped to play was not on there. The only thing that I thought might really work was Zoe Keating. I had never used it before and I wasn't sure but I thought I'd give it a try.

It was so good! Rhythmic, entraining... I felt my client's breathing become steadier and deeper, and my own movements became entrained to the music so that it felt like I was doing a rhythmic dance on the body- sometimes working broad flowing strokes in time to the music, sometimes focusing in on a very small area, an indentation at the base of the neck or kneading a small knot on the bottom of the foot. Next client- same music, same steady rhythmic flow. She went into a dreamlike state during the massage. They were both super-happy, much more relaxed, way less pain and I had a great experience as well. Thanks Zoe!

Not My Truth

I was looking for some inspiration regarding what to write about tonight so I went to Facebook to see what was happening today on the Your Turn Challenge page. There are always so many inspiring posts. I never got that far because as soon as I opened Facebook this post came across my screen and I felt compelled to respond.
I found myself so strongly disagreeing with the text on this picture. I know it's supposed to be inspirational but right from the first sentence the core of my being said "No, this is wrong." Usually I post something about music or sound healing but this really stopped me in my tracks.

Love and you will always be loved in return for you are love. Give and you will receive, because that is the law of the universe. ("To give and to receive are one in truth." Lesson 108, ACIM) When you offer help to another, it will come back to you. Nothing is ever taken away from you when you love, give, trust, forgive, or pray for others. When you give, you are you are giving to yourself as much as to the other person because the nature of love is expansive and all-encompassing. You cannot be left out of the equation! You can never subtract anything from yourself or make yourself "less" by giving to others. "All that I give is given to myself." (Lesson 126, ACIM).

We may not recognize the form in which our love, our prayers, our generosity comes back to us and it may not come back according to our "timeline". It may come back in the form of unseen unrecognized miracles. According to A Course in Miracles, "A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware." (Chapter 1, Text, #45 from the Principles of Miracles)

This is so important to remember as a healer. We need, always, to let go of our agenda and any perception of what we think "healing" should look like. We really have no idea what that might be for the other person and we must always trust that our intentions for the highest good will serve exactly that purpose.

Love, give, help, trust, pray, forgive and DON'T BE AFRAID! The one sentence I agreed with "NEVER EVER NEVER let anyone else stop you from being YOU." All of your goodness, all of your love, all of your prayers will come back to you in more ways than you could ever imagine or dream!

Okay, I rest my case!

Sympathetic Resonance

This morning I walked into my sound healing room to open the curtains and noticed my flute lying on one of the tables. I picked it up and played it for just a minute or two and was about to put it back when an extraordinary sound caught my attention. I could hear a very faint resonance of tones in the room. I blew a few notes on the flute again and stopped. Same thing...a barely audible harmony of sounds. I tried it again- where were these beautiful mysterious tones coming from?

I walked over to the circle of crystal and Tibetan bowls and played again. Ah yes, there it was! The tones of the flute were causing the other instruments that had the same frequencies to vibrate in sympathetic resonance. It was extraordinary, ethereal- and astonishing to me that in so many years of working with these instruments I had never heard such an enormous response from one instrument to another! So subtle and so beautiful.

I sat down in the circle of bowls and continued playing, sometimes pausing after one or two notes, sometimes playing a whole phrase. I sat and played, mesmerized by the tones that came forth, for probably close to an hour- me playing my flute and the bowls answering. Several times in the course of the day I went back in there and did it again. I wish had a recording device that would pick up such subtle tones- I definitely would have recorded it!

Over the years in my workshops I have shared many examples of sympathetic resonance as it is a key component in sound healing. Often when I am teaching and I have a gong next to me, my voice hits a certain tone that causes the gong to resonate. It is actually loud enough to distract me sometimes but it is also a great example of how one particular tone will cause another object (it doesn't have to be a musical instrument) to resonate if the tone is the same as said object's resonant frequency.

In its application to sound healing, knowing that all aspects of our physical body, our emotions and our thoughts have specific frequencies, we can effectively release trauma from the body by using this principle of sympathetic resonance.

In life we can simply observe and enjoy the interplay of tone and harmony as a subtle vibratory experience (sometimes not so subtle!) when we feel a resonance or connection to another. It could be the way a song makes us feel, or a tree, or a flower or the presence of another person.  On the flip side when we get triggered and are upset, anxious or in pain, then we have the opportunity to explore what can help us to shift our energy back to a state of calm or homeostasis. Again it could be a song, a tree, a particular healing modality, the presence of another person, the remembrance of our breath- any myriad of possibilities because everything is vibration. 

As it says in the Vedas, "Nada brahma." The world is sound.

Be Large- In Thought, In Word, In Deed

In October of 2004 I was living in St. Petersburg, FL and looking for an office to work out of. A series of hurricanes had caused too much water damage to our house and I could no longer use my healing room there. I was driving down the street one day and saw what looked like a residential building with a sign out front that said "Office for Rent." It was set back with a nice front yard, lots of shrubs and masses of azaleas in bloom.

I called the landlord and made an appointment to see it, thinking it was what the sign said- an office, one room. When I called him he told me the whole building was for rent- 6 rooms- a conference room, a small kitchenette, a large front room and 3 smaller rooms. I only needed one so I knew I would not be renting this place but I thought I should really get a feeling for what was available in my area so I went to see it and to meet him.

He and his wife, a lovely Peruvian couple, met me there. He was a retired doctor and she was a potter- of all things!  Clearly we had a connection. I had not been in the building more than 2 minutes when I suddenly realized it would be the perfect place for a sound healing center- which I had not, up til that moment, had any thought about starting. It was all perfect- a front room for gatherings, groups, meditations, classes, three treatment rooms for other sound healing practitioners, a reception/waiting room area, a kitchenette which would be available to all practitioners and to students when we had classes and workshops, plus a good-sized office away from the other treatment rooms with its own entrance for me and my clients.

Up to this point I had always worked out of my home- first as a potter and then for another 10 years as a sound therapist so this was really a stretch for me. The vision was so strong though that I couldn't turn my back on it. I immediately shared with Elias and Maria, the owners, my inspiration and vision and they loved the idea. A while later I left them and got in my car to go back home and think it over. When I drove away I burst out crying- not because I was upset but because the the vision and the excitement was so strong that I knew I couldn't walk away from it. I had no idea how I would make it happen as I had no working capital at all but I knew I had to do it.

There was no decision to make- only a commitment driven by intention. Up to this point I had been very good at staying under the radar. If I wanted this business to succeed that was not going to be an option. I was going to have to step up to the plate.

A few days later I made an another appointment to meet with Elias as I knew I would need three months to get the space ready to open. I told him there were some things I needed to discuss with him before I could sign the lease. I made a list of requests of what I needed from him in order to be able to move forward- changing out the carpet in some or all of the rooms, negotiating on the first 3 months rent since I wouldn't be opening til January 15, spreading out the payments for the security deposit, etc., etc. I don't remember what all was on the list but there were several other things and I was very nervous about presenting this it to him. Elias agreed to meet me and if we were in agreement I could sign the lease at the same time.

The morning of our meeting I was so nervous! I told Henry, my live-in boyfriend/partner of many years, how I was feeling. He said, "Why? Are you afraid he'll say no?" I said, "No- I'm afraid he'll say yes...[more tears] and then I'll really have to be big. I won't be able to hide. I will have to totally put myself out there to make this thing work."

On October 15, 2004 Elias left me a key so that I could go to the building before him. I told him I wanted to just sit in the space and feel it for a while so that I could be really sure that this was the right thing. This was a huge process for me. I decided before I went to the meeting to take a walk on the beach and clear my head. I had my list (of what I perceived to be unreasonable requests) with me. On the way to the beach I kept going over "The List" in my mind, having imaginary conversations with him, what I would say and how he would answer ("no, no and no"). I knew on some level that even if he said no to everything I would somehow find a way to do it anyway- because I had to. It wasn't about what I wanted- to hide and play safe. It was about something much bigger than me. It was simply the next right thing to do- or as Seth Godin would say, it was my turn.

So... I'm driving to the beach, nervous, projecting, tearful and suddenly I see a marquee in front of the Pass-A-Grille Women's League that says:

         BE LARGE
         IN THOUGHT
         IN WORD
         IN DEED

Whoa- doubletake! Did I really just see that? If ever there was a message that was meant for me... that was just crazy! I never saw that sign before and I have never seen it since.

I drove to the beach with an even greater sense of purpose, took a long walk, went to the building, sat down on the floor and started another list that was entitled "If I were queen..." Then I went into each room and envisioned what it would become, how it would be painted, decorated and used and put it on the list. After an hour or so Elias showed up by which time I was thoroughly inspired. I told him what I had been doing since I had gotten there and he loved it.

What kind of a man was this who thought it was simply brilliant that I had made a list with such a title? He said it reminded him of the Knights of the Round Table. How or why I am not exactly sure but we had a wonderful meeting that ranged from the Arthurian legend to the physics of sound. Then we discussed my other list- the scary one- and yes, he agreed to everything. We signed the lease on October 15, 2004 and on January 15, 2005, one week after my 50th birthday I opened the Sound Body Wholistic Health Center.

I ran the center for the next seven years. Elias and Maria were my angels. They believed in me and supported me through thick and thin. Sometimes I joked with them asking if their wings were hidden underneath their clothes. I believe they were. A huge community grew out of and around the center. It was an oasis of sacred sound and healing for that period of time. I gained many dear friends, met some amazing practitioners and had the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience of the healing power of sound with a great many people.

When something is meant to be there is just no getting around it.

Doing What I Love, Loving What I Do

Ceramic Vase by Rosie Warburton- 2011

The other day someone posted a blog on Your Turn Challenge Facebook page that was about working from the heart. Of course I totally resonated with it because this is what I have almost always done. It never made sense to me to be doing something I didn't love although I did try a few times.
 
My two main passions have always been art and music. My love of art eventually manifested as pottery and in my early 20's I apprenticed with a potter in Foster, Rhode Island. Then I took a break and had 4 boys pretty much one after the other. In my late 20's I bought a wheel and an electric kiln and set up a pottery studio in my basement. For the next 12 years my kids and my pottery were my life.

I also loved music and listened to it practically nonstop and played guitar and flute. I would never claim to be a musician- just someone who loved music and played it for my own enjoyment.

Over the course of time I got into a habit when I unloaded the kiln that seemed perfectly natural at the time but also might have foreshadowed a change in direction. When my pots came out of the kiln I would occasionally tap on a larger pot if I were suspicious that it might have a crack. If there was even the slightest crack, it would have a very dull sound but if there were none then the pot would have a clear ringing tone. I soon fell in love with the sound of the pots as much as their aesthetics and so I began setting up a little orchestra whenever I unloaded the kiln! Before they went to whomever they were going to I would set up all the larger pots on shelves- bowls, utility jars, and vases- according to their tones, then I would get two wooden spoons and I would play the pots. I could do this for long periods of time- I would usually have to force myself to stop eventually so I could go on to the next thing.

These days I won't buy wine glasses unless they have a nice ring to them. People probably think I'm crazy when they see me playing them in the store! Sometimes I tap them and they go right back on the shelf- other times I listen to them over and over. This morning I got up and set four crystal wine glasses on the kitchen table and proceeded to "play them" with chopsticks. That was my moring meditation- and in fact my evening meditation too!

Listening to the Body

I had a beautiful experience with an herbalist today. I have known her for many years but always in passing, through other people. We had been trying to get together for a couple of years since I moved back up to Rhode Island but apparently it wasn't time yet. I ended up going to see her today due to some physical issues I have been having- a problem clearing my lungs ever since an respiratory infection I had over 5 years ago.

When I arrived she invited me to stand with her while she did a sort of opening prayer/invocation. It was not memorized but clearly spoken in the moment as she was guided- asking for guidance, clarity, for the ability to get out of the way and be fully present to whatever wanted to be revealed, released or cleared. It was incredibly powerful to be given both an invitation and permission to simply be for that period of time- rather than being asked questions, to take the time to tune in and let go of everything else that had come before or that was to come. I closed my eyes and soon a huge smile came across my face. Tears of joy and deep relief began streaming down my face. It was the sense of being given permission that was so profound- to be present to myself, to my physical body and to my emotional body.

The other thing that blew me away was her ability to listen so deeply and so intently (that thing I talk so much about!) to the body and all of the different ways it expresses itself- through words, movement, illness, behaviors, energy patterns, cravings, habits, etc. We had tea and talked for quite a while in the beginning and she was extremely attentive and observant- that was clearly part of the process. Once we actually began the session she also used basic diagnostic tools- observing skin tone and texture, listening to the pulses, checking the tongue and fingernails. It was extraordinary to be with somebody who works on every level- physical, emotional and energetic- and pays equal amounts of attention to each one with no sense of hurry or concern for moving on til whatever we were attending to was complete.

She was equally as attentive to her herbs as s he was to me when she began creating a formula. She listened to my body and she listened to the herbs and thanked them. It felt deeply respectful. Everything was honored.

I talk a lot about listening but I am not sure that I have ever been around anyone who practices it to the level that I witnessed to day. As a sound therapist, massage therapist and energy healing practitioner I felt like I learned a lot about what I am teaching!

Listening to the Here and Now

I listened to the Julian Treasure video that I posted yesterday twice in two days. It had quite an impact on me, reinforcing some concepts around sound that I am very familiar with as well as presenting some new ideas. The one that I am pretty stuck on right now is "schizophonia"- the dislocation between what you see and what you hear caused by listening to sounds which are split off from their original source (i.e. you are in your living room in Florida talking on the phone with your sister who is in London).

Because of that, today was different for me. Each time I went to pick up my phone I thought it through and nine times out of ten I felt that I didn't really need to use it- so I didn't. Instead I used that time to be present to my surroundings, consciously listening and looking.

That used to be natural for me; however in the last two years however I find that I am quicker and quicker to pick up the phone to make a call or write a quick post on Facebook. Sharing ideas and having meaningful communication is a wonderful thing. It's much of what makes life worth living. Instant gratification can be addictive though. I find myself having to check in and make sure that what I am sharing is really worth the time and distraction from other things I could be accomplishing, or of simply being aware of the present moment and what is happening in the here and now. That's kind of a big deal since in truth this moment is all we have.

What I noticed today, by constantly pulling my awareness back to the present, listening to the sounds around me, noticing the external features of my surroundings- in my car, in my kitchen, wherever- was that I was quieter inside.

Social media brings forth another whole practice in mindfulness and self-awareness. It can be a meaningless exercise in self-absorption and self-importance or we can use it to put forth the very best of who we are and what we have to offer- ideas, inspiration, experience and knowledge. It calls for us to be attentive and to listen deeply if we want to have an impact or a truly meaningful connection with others.

Creating a Sound Environment

This is an excellent video by Julian Treasure, an expert on sound and the ways in which sound affects us, both negatively and positively, and how we can improve our health by being more conscious of what we listen to and how we listen to it.

As he says, "Ears are made not for hearing, but for listening." This is the basic premise for sound healing. Sound healing is not so much about specific sounds or frequencies being introduced from the outside to promote healing, but about learning to listen deeply, to open to sound and to become more and more aware of what sounds feed and nurture us and what sounds have a negative effect on us. Even deeper than that, if there is a positive effect, what is it specifically? Where do we feel it in our body? What is our response to it? Is it physical? Emotional?

Last week I was out driving and I put on a radio station that was playing 80's music which I still often enjoy. On this occasion though, I don't remember specifically what it was but I found myself becoming agitated. I thought I liked the music- I was singing along with it and knew it all by heart, obviously something I had listened to a lot at one time. But as I began paying attention to my body I realized that it really wasn't making me feel very good! I allowed myself to really tune into the experience and realized that it was music that I listened to when my life was not actually very joyful or fulfilling. I was doing a lot of drugs (cocaine, the drug of the 80's) at the time and, even though when it was happening I thought I was having "a good time" my body memory was telling me something very different- that this music was triggering feelings from a time in my life when on a deeper level I was very unhappy and really didn't like myself at all.  It was interesting because it didn't connect with one particular "bad experience". It was an overall pervasive feeling of discomfort. At that point I changed the station realizing that I wasn't actually having a positive experience from it at all.

Another concept he introduces that I love is "schizophonia"- a dislocation between what you see and what you hear. Much of the time we are introducing sound that is coming from somewhere else and unrelated to what is actually going on around us. I think this is something that may very well have a huge relationship to attention deficit "disorders". So much of the time we are trying to focus on phone conversations, videos, social networking, things that are not "current" so to speak. We actually make an effort to tune out our immediate environment so that we can have a conversation with someone who is not in our immediate vicinity. In some ways the ability to do this is most definitely a gift but I also agree with Julian Treasure that it can be at the expense of our sound health.

A few years ago I received a demo CD from White Swan Music- "Vibrational Healing" by Majorie de Muynck. The foundation is a layer of insect sounds with very meditative ambient music played over it. It was recommended by one of the sales people and I was actually very skeptical- I didn't really want to hear a Cd with a bunch of bugs on it! We weren't talking crickets- we were talking bees and they mentioned bats and frogs on the back of the CD as well; however the woman at White Swan was sure that I would love it once I heard it. I knew I would be using it for the sound table so I decided to check it out. I put the music on and lay down on the sound table. Within 30 seconds it was clear to me how important these sounds are! I realized almost immediately that they soothe and nourish the nervous system. They feed the brain. Now it is one of my most frequently played CDs for sound healing sessions!

Those sounds go along with what Julian Treasure says are 3 important sounds for our whole being- water, wind and birds... sounds that are integral to our environment and to our well-being. If you are not already doing it, start being mindful to ways in which you can create a sound environment. Take time out to listen deeply, listen to your breath, listen to the sounds in your inner being and your outer environment.  This is one simple and important way that we can balance the bombardment of mental stimuli from our advanced technology. Take time out!

Across the Radar

It has taken me all day to get to this as I had another writing project (unfortunately personal, not work related) that I had to complete on. I feel so grateful to work in a field that I love, that of healing and in particular healing with sound. I could pretty much write about that all day.

From the moment I woke up today I was thinking about sound and blogging and what I wanted to write about it. Here are just a few of the things that crossed my radar.

The sound of silence... What is that like for you? Have you ever in fact experienced total silence? When it gets very quiet I hear a very faint (and sometimes not so faint) internal sort of "white noise" that has a crystalline kind of a quality to it. There are variations in frequency- sometimes more like whooshing, sometimes higher frequencies like insects, sometimes lower humming tones. Good fuel for meditation, listening deeply and allowing your being to sink into the sound.

Bjork and the extraordinary things she can do with her voice... There was an article about her in the Sunday New York Times which reminded me that I need to revisit her work again. This is a very cool track from her most recent album.

 

Dame Evelyn Glennie... deaf percussionist with an extraordinarily fine-tuned sense of hearing- she has lost her auditory faculty so she hears with the rest of her body.

Wholistic Sound healing retreats... individualized sound healing retreats that I am offering at my new location in Tiverton, Rhode Island. One person or one couple at a time.

Vibroacoustic sound therapy... experiencing music with your whole body- a cellular musical massage either in a Somatron recliner, the Athena sound table, or the Soundweaver- a Somatron vibroacoustic mat on a massage table surrounded by a large copper dodecahedron. There are many other vibroacoustic sound environments as well, such as the Genesis, the Betar and the Innerdimensional Sound Chamber, all based on the same premise. The music is not only heard, it is felt throughout the entire body. One of my primary forms of therapy. Lots to say about that!

Chanting... for improved respiratory function and general well-being for depression. Chant and be happy!

And my book! Sound Possibilities: Restoring Balance and Harmony Through Sound and Music. I actually have been so busy with my recent move followed right up by the holidays, my 60th birthday, snowstorms and chest cold that I had actually forgotten about it until today. I have not worked on it since I have been in this house- time to dive back in!

I am feeling inspired and excited.

I am so grateful to Seth Godin, Winnie Kao and the tribe of bloggers I have connected with through #YourTurnChallenge for inspiring me to keep blogging every day and for being such an awesome support team. Thank you! 

Things To Do On A Snow Day

Do something creative...

Clean the wood stove...

Tune and practice tamboura...

Hang out with friends...

Write a blog post...

Quiet Mind

Still feeling dragged out by the emotions that came up on Saturday so I gave my self a short sound therapy treatment in the Somatron recliner.
CD Shaman's Eye by Liquid Bloom... 15 minutes was all it took.
Now I feel calm- a quieter mind is mine.
Slightly less tender more wholesome emotional body...

     Cooking curry in a crockpot...

           Hmmm... I think there's a song in there!

Akash and Animals

I was going to write something very profound and educational about sound and music today- specifically about akash, which is the purest and most subtle of the five elements in Vedanta. It is the energy that is left after sound fades. All sounds produce akash. More on that at another time as something else grabbed my attention when I sat down to write!

This video just came across my radar. You've probably already seen it. If you haven't it is really fun and also quite fascinating. It made me think about how animals relate to sound and the fact that they seem to (sometimes) love it and will even harmonize with it.  Pink Floyd did a song years ago, Seamus, on their album Meddle in which the dog howled along with the bluesy tune.

When I was in Florida I was playing Tibetan bowls for a meditation at a metaphysical church one Sunday. The organist was visually impaired so she had a service dog that was with her at all times. The whole time I played the dog was totally chilled out except for one bowl which clearly disturbed him. I couldn't play that bowl or he would immediately start getting agitated and I knew he would bark if I carried on with it at all- not conducive for a meditation so I didn't play that one!

Before I became a sound therapist I was a potter. During part of that time my pottery studio was in a barn behind our house in Jamestown, RI. The first floor of the barn was in good shape and that's where my studio was but the loft was not so great. The windows were all open and it was filled with barn swallows. They had nests all around the windows inside the barn. I always listened to music when I was doing pottery and one day I put on a tape by Mark Isham. I don't remember what it was but it was very rhythmic and within minutes the birds started singing. Not just singing- they always did that when I played music in the studio. No, they started singing in time to the music. It was the most amazing thing! From then on whenever I put that piece of music on they sang in time to it- a whole chorus of birds serenading from the hayloft. I experimented with other music but they never did it with anything else in that same way.

Sadness and Gratitude

Today was a very emotional day for me. Fortunately I woke up early and decided to start off "on the right note" by meditating to a recording by my beautiful nada yoga teacher, Sri Shyam Bhatnagar. Nada yoga is the yogic science and practice of sacred sound.  After my early morning practice of meditation and yoga I went about my day. About midday some personal issues arose which I was able to process through on the phone with a very dear friend and lots of tears.

When I was through with that I went online to check my email only to discover that my stepsister had died early this morning from a recurrence of breast cancer and lymphoma. She was a trooper and a believer in miracles with a vibrant spirit and after her first battle with it she had managed to keep it at bay for quite a few years.  She was a brilliant artist and although I didn't see her very often we had a deep affection for each other and had grown even closer over the last three or four years by being connected on Facebook and being able to Instant Message each other, which we often did late at night.

More tears... more cleansing...

By late afternoon I was feeling pretty sad and wrung out.
Nonetheless I was determined to write at least a short post. I wanted to share a little taste of Shyamji so I started searching on YouTube and came across the short sweet piece by him above. When I heard him sing even such a short chant, it instantly soothed my spirit.

Here is a picture of my stepsister Alejandra Vernon and, below it, one of my favorite pieces by her.
Loving you Alex, always... 

Finding Peace in the Moment

Wow... just had an amazing experience on the Somatron recliner! I have been going through major frustration having had a blocked ear for over two weeks now. The last few days it has periods where it starts to clear and then fills up again. Lying down usually helps and then when I get up in the morning after anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour it totally fills up again. Today it was worse then it had been for many days. After spending most of the day out doing errands I got home, built a fire and felt like the greatest relief would be if I could somehow hang upside down! I decided to go on the vibroacoustic recliner as at least I could put it back far enough to have my lower legs higher than my head.

I put an album on called "Qi Revolution" which Jamie Deva compiled for Jeff Primack's Supreme Science Qi Gong workshops. Just to add a little background here I will say that I attended one of these workshops and, at the risk of being very politically incorrect, was not at all impressed with the presentation. In fact I was totally turned off by it and couldn't get out of there fast enough. What I was turned on by however, was his excellent use of multimedia technology and in particular the use of music which is why I bought the CD. I had a feeling it would be great for my sound healing work. A lot of the music is by David Helpling and Jon Jenkins who are absolutely amazing and the very last track that I listened to was the one posted above by Marconi Union which is pretty incredible.



Listening to it simply as an audio experience is no doubt very nice indeed. Obviously I liked it enough when I first heard it to buy it, but now I just use it for balancing and healing- which means either I or someone else is lying on the sound table or recliner and experiencing the vibrations of the music through the entire body. So that's what I did. I put the recliner as far back as it could go, put the volume up high enough that there was a pretty strong vibrotactile response and let go for the ride.

The first thing that happened was that my ear cleared within about a minute. After that my whole body/being sort of "dropped in". By that I mean I quickly became deeply relaxed and soon all physical awareness was gone except the lower frequencies moving through me like waves. I could feel the different frequencies, especially the higher ones, sort of "pulling" at my brain, and the various rhythms and repetitive melodies short-circuiting my thinking mind, entraining my brainwaves and inducing a series of dreamlike imagery, both visual and auditory. The process seemed to quiet my conscious mind and allow my subconscious to come forth. And, although I was most definitely not asleep, as images morphed from one to the next I forgot what the one before it had been- an experience of being totally present and effortlessly letting go of each moment as it slipped away.

When I felt complete I turned it off feeling clear, cleansed, peaceful and open- wide open. Expansive...

The one thought I remember was very early on. I realized that my ear had cleared and had the awareness that the real issue was not physical. It was whether I could still be at peace if it filled up again. The ear is still open in this moment and so am I.

Stay tuned... (That's what I am trying to do!)

You Are Music

My turn- another day, another blog post! Musical inspiration- experiencing, teaching and healing- that is my life- being inspired and hopefully passing on some of the excitement I feel. Today the two words on my lips are "Tom Ze". Since I committed, about ten days ago, to blogging every day (for a week but now I don't want to stop) I have been each day looking for that spark of inspiration that makes me want to keep singing, keep dancing, keep teaching, keep writing and keep healing. Today it came from Tom Ze who I have been listening to a lot lately- particularly his most recent album "Vira Lata la Via Lactea". (Click on the title to download his album- it's fabulous!)

This afternoon I watched the film "Fabricando Tom Ze"- wonderful!- about a brilliant radical sensitive experimental musician from Brazil who has pushed the musical envelope for over 40 years, a man who almost faded into obscurity until David Byrne discovered one of his albums in a store in Rio de Janeiro in 1986. Here is an excerpt of an interview with David Byrne and Tom Ze.

Where would my life be, where would I be, who would I be without music? Music is as natural to us as breathing. Some people say they are not musical. Wrong- you ARE music! You are vibrating, you are pulsing, resonating, humming, buzzing, swooshing... waves are moving through your body in the form of raw energy, blood, lymph and all manner of bodily fluids. All the sounds you hear around you are within you. You are a solo symphony of sound and vibration, resonating with everything and everyone around you. Some you are in harmony with, some less so. With some you may feel a level of dischord- not just with people- it may be the "wrong" environment, the wrong food for you. It may be that some past trauma has caused some dischord within your vibratory being (physical, mental or emotional body) that causes you to feel like you are being "rubbed the wrong way" by a particular person, place or thing. The key is finding out how to get back in tune- whether the challenge is a flu, a thought, or a pain or any other manner of irritation in your physical or emotional body. It may not mean "curing"- it may simply be finding a way to become comfortable with that discomfort or dis-ease. Whatever is going on around you, it is always within you where you feel the discomfort and ultimately that is always the place where we must make the shift.

Tuning into our musical essence can be one of the fastest ways to restore peace. This can be as simple as listening deeply to your musical breath, the sweet steady rhythm of life. It may be playing or listening to your favorite piece of music or a simple sound like a Tibetan bowl, a flute or a gong. What is it that resonates with who you are and where you are today, now, in this moment?

At Home

Beautiful snow day today. The howling wind of the night had died down, the snow was deep and the whiteness of the landscape gentle on the eyes and mind. First thing when I got downstairs went on the sound table in my living room, bathing in vibroacoustic sound- very peaceful entrainment with the soothing music of Jean Philippe Rykiel and Lama Gyurme gently and deeply vibrating all of my cells.

Full of appreciation. Able to be in my house with my youngest son Nic and my grandson while the wind blew and the snow fell. After breakfast we all went outside and tromped around the house.

I am happy, grateful and in my element in every way.

Coming Together- Sound & Synchronicity

About 8 years ago I wandered into Bookman's Entertainment Center in Tucson, AZ which has a huge selection of used books. I went over to the DVD's and my eyes immediately landed on one called The Festival in the Desert. Turned out it was about a music festival in Mali that I had never heard of. I barely looked at. I just grabbed it and went and paid the $4 or whatever it was. I love African music and I knew in a heartbeat that it was going to be a great movie to show at my sound healing center. Every month we had a movie night and showed a different movie testifying in some way to the power of sound and music to connect, to create community and to heal.

This movie turned out to be about the power of music to bring people together in a war-torn country and celebrate their life and culture. The festival has been held every year in Timbuktu since 2002- up until 2012 when separatist rebels and Islamic militants seized control of Northern Mali.

I have not heard much in the mainstream about this festival. Two years ago Stephen Colbert had the band Tinariwen on his show who had been one of the organizers of the festival- that is as much as I have heard of them other than having one of their CD's (amazing!) and this wonderful DVD that I love.

Then about two weeks ago I was on an old friend's Facebook page checking out her movie picks (all of which looked like stuff I would love) and there was one called The Last Song Before the War. I clicked on it and lo and behold, it was about the most recent festival which has been moved to the southern city of Segou which has never been occupied by jihadists. I still have to order the DVD or the download so I haven't watched it yet but I was so excited to see it come across my screen and have now watched the trailer a couple of times, greatly anticipating seeing the film in the next couple of weeks.

Last week as some of you may know I participated in the Your Turn Challenge and was so excited by the energy that was created through blogging every day and connecting with a whole new community that was created in this period of 7 days. Through the process I felt a new energy and excitement and I knew that I wanted to keep up the momentum even though the "challenge" ended yesterday. A group of us have formed a Facebook page to stay connected with this community and I knew when I woke up today that I would at some point sit down and write. What was I going to write? I wanted to write about music, about community and about not allowing obstacles to stand in our way.

We have a huge blizzard bearing down on us and I had some things to complete and prepare in my home before I could get down to work. My son and grandson are both at my house so we can all be snowed in together, so I prepared food, stocked up the woodpile on the porch, various other things that needed to be done so we can be cozy and comfortable.

And THEN...  I was preparing to build a fire in my wood stove, crumbling up the New York Times from last Sunday and I opened a page and staring me in the face was a full page article about the upcoming Festival on the Niger! I thought what an incredible thing- these people whose lives and limbs literally are threatened, their instruments and music studios set on fire and yet they do not allow this to stop them from doing what they love, what sustains them, feeds them emotionally and spiritually- a total expression of joy and unity. This is good. Music is life.

The Greater Whole

So last week I took on Your Turn Challenge, a challenge put forth by Winnie Kao to blog every day 7 days. Today was the last day. This is the last post I submitted. There were over 4000 entries a day! It was really a fun challenge- and surprisingly challenging. Your Turn Challenge has come to and end but it is definitely not the last you have heard from me!

Day 7- the last day of #YourTurnChallenge. Here we are and I am really glad to be here. I have been looking forward all day to sitting down and writing. And I am a bit sad that this is the last day. Honestly I don’t know if anyone has read my posts. I do know that I have read some wonderful, thought-provoking, sensitive, honest, inspiring posts by others. One person said they felt it was a failure. How sad… And I so disagree. No, that’s not the right way of saying it. Let me say that for me it has not been a failure. It has been a great success on many levels.

What am I taking away from this challenge? On a personal level I feel a certain sense of empowerment- the awareness that yes, I can commit to something and I can fulfill, I can complete on my commitment. I remember the day that I first started seriously contemplating it. I read about the challenge in an email and the first thing I did was forward it to my son Namdev who first turned me on to Seth Godin and said, “Have you seen this? I am thinking about it. You should do this!” Then I put it aside for a few days- but for whatever reason it stayed with me. I kept thinking about it and I went back to it a couple of times. I watched Winnie’s video and I really wanted to do it. There was something very compelling about it- maybe partly just the fact that I have a blog and I knew that I was not working it the way I really wanted to. This seemed like such a great way to get back into it and revitalize it and to move forward with the changes I have made in my life in the last 3 years.

But the truth is, I WAS SCARED. I kept not hitting that final link that said, “Yes, I’m in!” I was afraid I would fail. Bad enough to let myself down but to have to admit to others that I had failed, I wasn’t ready for that. At the same time there was a gnawing inside of me that said, “This is really important for me. I have to do this.” That grew into an awareness that the discomfort I would feel by NOT attempting it was going to be far greater than any discomfort I might feel by actually failing at it- and of course there was the possibility that I would succeed and that was kind of an exciting possibility. Maybe that sounds overly dramatic but the simple truth is that it felt somewhat daunting to me and I do not like not seeing things through to completion. I have done it too many times in the past, letting down myself and others and it is a big trigger for me.

So, finally, the day before it started I jumped in. I made the commitment, I hit the link and I was in. And it is Day 7. And I am here!

Beyond all of that personal drama, and most importantly, I feel like in the course of a week I have connected with a powerful community and I am loving that! It’s as though a new tapestry has been created and there is a thread, or many threads that run through and connect us all. It is interesting because it’s on somewhat of a nonphysical level. It’s not like a piece of visual art or a film where we have all created something and you can actually look at the whole picture and see the fullness of the creation and all of the different contributions. There are simply too many entries. (I am curious in fact how many there actually are, or will be by the end of this evening.) (And wouldn’t it be cool if they were made into a book so that we could actually hang out and read the entries over time and begin to get to know each other a little bit?!)

It is so interesting because I haven’t really read very many posts- a few each day- but I have been amazed by them- some people who are really excellent writers, others who are just writing from their heart in a very open and real way, but what I feel is that we are all in this together and a meaningful connection has made on a level that is very powerful. We all took this challenge and we each made a specific commitment and intention, that we would take this on not just whenever we were ready but on a specific series of days. We started together and have gone on together step by step, day by day.

Intention is so powerful and it occurs to me in this moment that when my commitment began to waver perhaps it was then your commitment, our commitment as a group, that gave me the surge of energy- that reminded me, out of the blue last night, when I was into the last half hour of “Kill Bill” (yes I really was!) that I suddenly said, Oh my god- I haven’t blogged today! I have to pause this right now and do it! Maybe that was what carried me. I don’t know.

I have such a strong sense that the whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts. We all did this together.  We all contributed whatever we contributed and we all got whatever we got. I can’t shake the feeling of this energetic thread that is running through it/us all that has connected us, that has created a community that I am excited to be a part of. I understand the feeling of connection to those people whose posts I have read or who somehow I have connected with on Twitter through the Your Turn Challenge but what I am really surprised by is my sense of connection to everyone who has participated in this challenge- that is what really blows my mind. The truth is that I have gotten far more out of this than I could have imagined. Thank you Winnie Kao!