Falling Into Place

Falling...

            out

                        of


s        

         p        

                   a        
                              
                              c       

                                            e

             
                             into place and time

Life is good. 

Opportunities. Connections. Movement. Growth. Gratitude. 

Thank you. 

Five Days Later

Once again- a post I started 5 days ago and didn't finish!

(Sunday- 2.28.16) Today is a day of rest. Sort of... Will have to spend some time organizing my stuff to hit the road and head back up to New England in a couple of days. It has been a fabulous trip- and unlike my last road trip down here in August, the car has held up really well. The success of my time on the road however is definitely leading me strongly to think about getting a bigger vehicle.

Last week was Tallahassee- two sound journeys two nights in a row, both with full attendance and a very well attended workshop. I am loving the new community I have connected with there- wonderful new friends that will be friends for life and I am so grateful.

(Continued- 3.3.16) This past week- Thursday night... Sarasota Sound Journey, a small but wonderful group- seeing some old friends and making some new friends and a great new connection with Dr. Deanine Picciano, the owner of the Wellness Center that hosted me. Friday I did a Sound Journey to a full house in Seminole and then a one-day workshop for healers and massage therapists.

Between events I laid low and only saw a couple of very dear friends whom I hadn't seen in a long time and that felt really good, attending to my energy in a way that was regenerative rather than draining for me. Oh, and I stayed in Lynn Carol and George Henderson's house of magic which is the most nurturing and inspiring environment I could ever dream of- in fact it is quite like being in a dream, the juxtaposition of fascinating objects and elements. I always love being there.

On Sunday I went down to Sarasota and saw my dear friend, Course in Miracles sound soul sister, awesome musician Callie Chappell, and another dear friend, Diana Daffner, whom I hadn't seen in at least five years and danced for 3 hours- so much fun and much needed!

Now, 5 days since I started writing this, I am at my friends Mahesh and Mukta's house in North Carolina, taking it slow and easy before I head back up north. Two trips in a row now I have had huge success. The bar has definitely been substantially raised as to what I can expect, intend and ask for in regards to my work. I stuck to my guns for a long time, persistently determined to do work that I love and believe in. It is finally paying off. More and more people are becoming aware of the power of sound and vibrational medicine and the missing pieces in conventional western medicine which treats symptoms rather than the whole person.

As I said in the beginning of this, my car has held up well- the "Check engine" light did go on the day before yesterday on my way here but it seems to be running fine so hopefully it's nothing I need to worry about til I get home! Fingers crossed. ;-)

News From the Road

I am sitting at my good friends Mahesh and Mukta's house in Murphy, North Carolina. I arrived yesterday afternoon after a fabulous drive from New England over to I-81 through Virgina and then south and due west to Murphy. There was some alarm over an impending ice storm that was supposed to hit 81 at exactly the same time I was traveling on it but either it didn't happen I came in through the window. In any event, my drive was relatively painless with some extended periods of gratitude and bliss and lots of great music. Some of the highlights were Silvia Nakkach, Jai Uttal, and Tito la Rosa. There was lots more too but right now I am smelling delicious food cooking- kale and butternut squash and I am distracted. Mahesh can turn any ordinary vegetable into amazing Indian food! Yesterday when I arrived there was a pile of savory pancakes made from chickpea flour with grilled onions in them waiting for me- so delicious.

Not only that, but I walked into the house and one of my favorite songs by Tom Rush was playing. Not just that it's one of my favorites by Tom Rush- but I would say that if I had a top ten list of my favorite songs of all time, this would be on it. Feeling like I'm starting this trip in a good groove!

2.24.16
A very good groove- it's a been a week since I wrote that, maybe longer- I have been so busy I never got back to this!

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.

Creating Clarity

Demo with tuning fork after a sound journey at Women & Infants Hospital

Besides giving treatments at Integrative Care and doing Sound Journeys at the hospital I have been crazy busy getting ready for trip to FL- compiling instruments, going through paperwork, feeling inspired and full of new tools and ideas to bring to the workshops.

I also want to include here the link for the Providence Journal article which finally ran in last Sunday's paper and again, the link to the video.

http://www.providencejournal.com/special/20160124/in-ri-hospitals-program-tuning-forks-and-didgeridoos-help-you-heal

http://videos.providencejournal.com/providencejournal/vljjcu?v=default&e=default&opn=below_article_ticker

I have also gotten another shipment of amazing singing bowls and a 30" gong which is quite extraordinary. Unfortunately I haven't uploaded the pictures onto my computer yet but I will soon. Have been doing lots of reorganizing, opening space in my healing room as well as the rest of my house. Feel like I'm shifting some energy for greater clarity and openness as I step into this new year.

Sound Therapy for Oncology Patients

Very excited that my son just found this video online. Providence Journal was supposed to publish an article today on sound therapy at Women & Infants Hospital but it wasn't in the paper. Turns out, however, that this video was posted on their website on December 24! I had no idea.
Healing Sound Journey at Women & Infants Hospital, Providence, RI.

Sound Therapy at Women & Infants Hospital

A while back I was contacted by the Marketing Director of Women & Infants Hospital saying she would like to do an article on the sound therapy being offered at the hospital. I suggested that the best way for her to understand it would be for her to experience it for herself, so we set up a Sound Journey for a group of patients and staff at the hospital. This is the article that was inspired by that event.

Not long after that, the Providence Journal contacted me through the Integrative Care Program at the hospital. They were also interested in doing an article so I performed another Sound Journey there about two weeks ago, which was not only photographed but videotaped as well! I am told it will run on Sunday, January 17, 2016 in the "Thrive" section of the paper- there should also be some footage online. 

So this is all very exciting! 


Sound Therapy at Women & Infants Hospital 
by Susan McDonald

Women & Infants offers sound therapy for cancer patients and survivors

In a dimly lit room, lying on yoga mats with pillows and blankets for comfort, a handful of women were listening. So were their bodies.

Eyes closed, the sounds flowed over them – the deep tone of the Aboriginal didgeridoo wind instrument; the sonic reverberations of the Tibetan singing bowls; the whistling of air passing over the two reeds in the drone flute; the aquatic sounds of fingers rubbed along the top of the dolphin bowl.

This day in the Integrative Care Center at the Program in Women’s Oncology, the sounds were the therapy, offering a unique feeling of wellness to the women, all of whom have battled, or continue to battle, cancer.

“I thought I was relaxed at one point, then another part of my body would go down,” says Dori Gerhardt of North Kingstown after the session.

That was music to Rosie Warburton’s ears.

“When you feel the sound resonate in your body, it’s definitely having an effect. When the frequency of the bowl is the same as the body part, it vibrates and vibrates and vibrates until the body lets it go,” explains Warburton (pictured here), a licensed massage therapist and sound therapist who has started conducting sessions at the Integrative Care Center.

Holistic sound, she continues, is a non-invasive blend of healing modalities using sound, music and frequency to restore balance and harmony to the physical, mental and emotional bodies.

For the sound therapy group session, Warburton sat for a bit surrounded by the tools of her trade – bowls of metal and crystal, flutes, and a Freenote xylophone that operates on the pentatonic scale so there’s no wrong note. During the session, she walks quietly and slowly among the women, often standing before each to create various sounds ranging from high-pitched to lower and more primal. Periodically, she offers soft words encouraging the journey.

The goal is to release tension and even pain, balance the body’s energy and calm the spirit.

“Sound just does it. You can go so deep in a short amount of time,” she says simply. “Take the didgeridoo. It stills the thoughts and when your thoughts come back, it’s connecting you to your feelings. You feel more grounded. And, as it’s grounding you, it’s taking you out of your body at the same time.”

Different sounds speak to different parts of the body because of their frequency. If she knocks a tuning fork against the palm of her hand, for example, she can place it on joints, muscles and various acupuncture points to render relief from aches. It worked for Roxanne Lucas of Providence, who has neuropathy in both of her feet. Placing the vibrating tuning fork on the joints in each foot brought her instant relief. Minutes later, Gerhardt was experiencing the same relief when the tuning fork was placed on her wrist, which requires a brace for the effects of her Lyme Disease.

“I can feel it tingling down in all of my fingers. That’s great!” she exclaims.

Warburton smiles as she works on helping people understand the healing powers of sound.

“All matter has a resonant frequency it will vibrate at, including the bones, organs and other parts of the body. When you can find that frequency, you can release trauma from the body,” Warburton explains. “One tuning fork has the same resonant frequency as nitric oxide, and therefore stimulates the relaxation response, increasing oxygen flow, activating the parasympathetic system, and decreasing pain, stress and anxiety.”

In addition to the group sessions, Warburton also offers private sessions at the Integrative Care Center, using a combination of tuning forks, massage and craniosacral therapy. The results are “incredibly relaxing” and can help to increase range of motion while decreasing inflammation in the client. She also visits with women hospitalized with cancer at Women & Infants to help ease their discomfort.

Anyone interested in group or individual sound therapy sessions through the Integrative Care Program at Women & Infants, integrative therapies are offered in Providence, Middletown, and South County, RI, and Fall River, MA. For appointments in Providence, call (401) 274-1122, ext. 7143; in South County or Middletown, call (401) 846-0042; or in Fall River, call (508) 235-3500.