Now It's My Turn! (or What I Am Taking From "Your Turn Challenge")

Today is the 40th day of My Turn Challenge. It became "my turn" when, after 7 days, the official "Your Turn Challenge" was over and I decided to keep going, committing myself to shipping every day which, for me, means writing a blog post every day.

In the ancient Indian healing science of Ayurveda, it is said that it takes 40 days to break an habit, change a habit or create a new habit. Although it takes 21 days for a habit to create new neural pathways in the brain, it actually takes 40 days for those pathways to become fixed as a new habit.

I feel like I'm well on my way with the commitment to keeping up with my blog and believe it or not, my life is changing because of it. I wake up in the morning thinking about what I am going to write and can't wait to get to it. Last night I didn't get my blog posted until something like 11:53 pm but I still got it done before I turned into a pumpkin!

The word "practice" comes to mind. This is a practice. I am practicing essentially to become a bit more structured, a bit more disciplined, so that I can continue to make room for all the things I want to do, create, and accomplish- on a daily, weekly, yearly and lifelong basis- different levels of goals.

Yesterday I decided to add a new My Turn Challenge to my day and I have committed to doing a simple yet powerful group of exercises every day for 7 days- The Five Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation. About 12 years ago I did them consistently for two months. I began to feel very positive changes in my physiology after as little as two weeks and I would have to say that after two months the change was quite dramatic. Then one day I had a bad fall playing tennis a little too ambitiously, damaging my wrist and my knee, and I never got back to practicing the Five Rites consistently again. I do them sporadically, once very few days or weeks, usually when I have some sort of pain in my body which they typically seem to relieve quickly. I want to do them, I know they work wonders for me but I don't. What's up with that? Who knows... I don't need to figure it out- I just need to make a change.

Yesterday, waking up with a pain in my neck from carrying wood, I decided it was time to do them and then I thought, "Well, what if I just commit to doing them every day for a week just like I did with blogging?" Start with a simple doable goal. So that's My Turn Challenge for this week. I'm off and running with the blogging- I won't let go of one to pick up the other.

I also just started a book that my therapist recommended to me- Vinegar Into Honey by Ron Leifer. I was talking to him yesterday about the challenge of finding time to read during the day. Why should that be a challenge? I love to read but of late it is. I start to read just before I go to bed when I am so tired I can't read more than two pages typically! It suddenly occurred to me that I could use the My Turn Challenge idea for this too and I decided that when I wake up in the morning- before I check my phone for messages, emails, updates and suddenly discover an hour has gone by- that I will pick up the book and read for at least 15 minutes. Then I can get up do "The 5 Tibetans" (which is exactly what I did this morning- Day 2 of Tibetan Challenge).

One of my bigger goals is to finish writng a book on sound healing that I started well over ten years ago. What I am anticipating is that by getting in the flow of writing in my blog on a daily basis, very soon I will get back to writing something every day in my book and one day in the next year or so it will be done, completed, finito!

The working title, by the way is Sound Possibilities: Restoring Balance and Harmony Through Sound and Music.

Oh and by the way again- I am very excited that I have gone from typically less than 20 page views a month on my blog to 129 yesterday!

So again, a big shout out to Winnie Kao, creator of Your Turn Challenge, and Seth Godin whose work was the inspiration behind it, to all my Facebook Your Turn Challenge new friends, supporters and motivators who on some level I answer to every day and look to for continued inspiration. Also to all the people, friends known and unknown, who "like" my Wholistic Sound Facebook page, who are members of my Sound Body Wholistic Health Center Facebook page, who read this blog, who come for sessions, workshops, sound journeys and meditations and to my four amazing sons- Namdev, Moose, Ben and Nic- who I believe have all come to appreciate that I am always pushing the envelope and know I will always support and encourage them when they want to do the same, do something daring, think outside the box, take a chance, step into the unknown. I love you guys!

Whiplash (When Making Music Isn't Fun Anymore)

Just got back from seeing the movie Whiplash. Pretty rough. Brilliant acting, excellent music.  I hadn't heard of it til I watched the Academy Awards a few nights ago and knew I had to see it. JK Simmons is an amazing actor. I have only seen him in roles where he was loving, kind, gentle, sad- all the sweetest sides of being human. In this film he is utterly abusive, cruel, shaming and humiliating his students, ostensibly to push them toward manifesting their potential for greatness, if it is indeed there. The obvious question, does the end justify the means?

I have strong opinions about that due to my own past history. I once lived with a man with that type of personality- a rage-aholic and perfectionist to an extreme. He was the symptom for my self-loathing at that time in my life. It did not make for a happy household and I think took years for my sons to get over (think This Boy's Life)- in truth I think that it's nothing short of a miracle that they have turned out as amazing and functional and healthy as they have. They certainly had their work cut for them.

As for me, I eventually bottomed out on self-abuse (which is really how I see that relationship) and with a lot of work and commitment to myself, initially through the 12 Steps, then (and now) A Course in Miracles and a lot of transformational sound healing work I learned to forgive myself and eventually to love myself.

The gifts that came from that journey are that today I have a wonderful loving open relationships with each of my sons and that my understanding of low self-worth, lack of empowerment, and issues with addiction and codependence have made me a very sensitive healer. In my work, the most powerful thing I can offer to anyone is a safe space where they feel nurtured and free to be the fullest manifestation of who they are for the period of time that they are on the table- whether it is happy, sad, vulnerable, hurting... whatever. The sound and music assist in creating that space but ultimately the task lies with me and the space and intention that I hold and that the client and I co-create together.

So there were gifts. Do I think that justifies how those gifts were realized? Although I am grateful for who I am and where I am today both inwardly and outwardly, no, most definitely not. I think we in the modern Western world for the most part live in an extremely dysfunctional society. There are cultures where people have been raised with love and kindness from start to finish. That is the norm and they produce kind and loving people and I'm sure that their gifts for art, science, music, healing- whatever they may be- flourish in environment where they are nurtured and given permission to flourish.

My friend and master drummer from Senegal, Papa Malick Faye, told us when he was teaching drumming at the center how in his culture when a person has some kind of an emotional or mental break that all the drummers and dancers in the village go to that person's house and they drum for him or her and the women dance for 7 days and 7 nights. After the 7 days the person "has his mind back". There are very specific rhythms for all of the different issues that confront the people and also rhythms for every other event. When Malick was a little boy and was sent to the store, if he took too long his father would drum to let him know it was time to come home. When a person died in the village it was through drumming that they sent the message to all the people. I learned an African lullabye from a village where whenever a child is born the mother composes a lullabye for the child and then teaches it to all the people in the village in case something happens to her or she has to go away, so that no matter who is with the child it will feel safe and comforted.

Chill Music

I came across a similar video earlier today and was fascinated by it- stunning, both visually and sonically. I couldn't access it to upload but you can click here to watch it. I had seen some of the instruments before- the percussion ones and the horns but the cello and harp knocked me out! So beautiful... such extraordinary sounds.

As for some of my other personal inspiration today, I met with a woman whom I had "randomly" met in the grocery store last week. She has a very entrepreneurial spirit and has started a number of great businesses locally, one of them being one of the best restaurants in Newport- cool, funky and eclectic with consistently great food for over 20 years. We were discussing her latest venture, which is helping other small businesses get off the ground. After about five minutes (yes, I'm a little slow) I said, "Well, maybe you could help me." Here I am reconfiguring my business which, in its most recent incarnation, was a sound healing center open to the public on a daily basis for 7 years. Now, after a three year period of transition, it is in my home and I am still in the process of discerning what parts of the old formula I can use, what new pieces can be integrated, and what is to be either eliminated from the equation or transformed in some way to accomodate the space I am now in. So yes, I can use some help from a seasoned and successful entrepreneur who has both vision and know how in putting it all together

So she came out to my house, had a ride on the sound table (which she loved- surprise, surprise!) and we spent three hours discussing the numerous projects that I would like to bring to fruition- my private sessions, my book, traveling and teaching, offering individual sound healing retreats, integrating Expressive Art Therapy into my session work, creating short videos, recordings and more. (The "more" is still a secret project!)

So, I am excited!

Files, Piles and Binaural Beats

Having moved in October after being in temporary and transitional living spaces since spring of 2012, I got relatively settled in my new house pretty quickly. It had been a long time coming and I was "ready". People who come to visit are always surprised to see that it is pretty well set up and feels, as they say, as though I have lived here forever- in the best sense of that phrase! That being said, I still have some boxes and plastic tubs stashed away in closets and little storage spaces that they don't ever see. Once every couple of weeks or so, when I'm feeling adventurous, I haul out another box or two and put away some more books or art supplies, or the odd grouping of nonessential instruments. This week I discovered all my Sanskrit books, workbooks, notebooks and practice pads which is very exciting for me.

Last night I decided it's time to organize paperwork as I have an appointment with a tax person coming up fairly soon. (They called me this a.m. and told me they have to postpone my appointment for tomorrow until two weeks from now- looking at all my papers I breathed a sigh of relief!) So, at this moment, instead of my living room feeling like the sacred space- or at least relaxing space- that I like it to be, the floor is covered with paperwork! Some of it is from the last two years but the bulk of it is 7 years worth of files from my sound healing center- time to reorganize it and figure out where it's going to go. I use the word "file" loosely- most is in files but some is in piles- piles that need to be filed!

This morning I was feeling some anxiety and there was a lot of internal chatter going on with regard to old family stuff and between that and looking at my living room floor I thought, "This is a job for brain tuners!" The brain tuners are a very effective sound healing tool that use binaural beats to shift one's state of consciousness. Here is a description by John Beaulieu, inventor of the Biosonic Brain Tuners and developer of Biosonic Repatterning:
"Brain Tuners are based on brain wave studies using electroencephalography (EEG) technology to map different states of consciousness known as Delta, Theta, Alpha, and Beta. Delta is associated with deep sleep. Theta is associated with meditation and dream states. Alpha is associated with relaxed awareness, creativity, and heightened learning. Beta is associated with high alertness and focus.

When the Brain Tuners are simultaneously sounded – one in the left ear and the other in the right ear – the two hemispheres of the brain function together to integrate the two sounds, creating a third, different tone called a binaural beat. When the Fundamental Brain Tuner tuning fork is sounded with a Delta, Theta, Alpha, or Beta tuning fork the difference between the two tuning forks creates a binaural beat which is heard as a pulsation. The binaural beat gently signals the brain to shift into a different state of consciousness."

 I have been using the brain tuners for quite a few years now and sometimes carry them around with me like a sonic toolkit.  Today I was sitting at my kitchen table feeling a little jagged and thought I would first use the alpha tuner to relax my mind and then the beta tuner to help me get organized. I tapped the alpha tuners, held them up next to my ears, closed my eyes and sank into the frequency. When I opened my eyes I saw my kitchen. What I mean by that is that I saw my kitchen- I mean, I have a really great space! I know this, but I hadn't actually seen it for weeks. It was as if I suddenly woke up. All the unproductive internal dialogue was suddenly quiet and I realized how myopic my vision had been for weeks. My vision suddenly became as expansive and open as the space around me.

I was completely calm, completely at peace and the ability to be productive and creative took over. I never did use the beta tuners because relaxing my mind was actually all that I needed to shift my energy and start getting things done. Very cool!

Successes and Synchronicity

Today's successes...
Completed on new flyer for Wholistic Sound
Spent hours fixing my harmonium so that I could play it at class tonight
            *Thank you Daniel Tucker for the How To Fix Your Harmonium 101 at Kirtan Camp 2011!
Taught the first class on Mindful Yoga and Sacred Chant at Sandywoods with my friend Morgan Ford Brunketurner
            *Starting with an hour of yoga and then going on to chanting is definitely a recipe for success! And the acoustics in the room are wonderful!
Set up two kirtans in Newport (March 5 and March 15)
Spread paperwork all over the floor as the first step to pulling out stuff for tax person and organizing!
            *Definitely a job for brain tuners- results will be posted!
Through random synchronicity suddenly came across my book on The Tibetan Yoga of Dreams and Sleep
            *Very exciting since I am delving into that arena right now- taking a workshop on Sound and Dreams in June with John Beaulieu and Silvia Nakkach and going to sleep each night listening to Jeff Bridges' Sleeping Tapes, which is an amazing experience. If you haven't downloaded it yet I am urging you to GET ON IT!

Speaking of synchronicity here's a little throwback to 1983 for you! Love the backup singers- those girls are great!

"Synchronicity I"

With one breath, with one flow
You will know
Synchronicity

A sleep trance, a dream dance,
A shared romance,
Synchronicity

A connecting principle,
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible.
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Yet nothing is invincible.

If we share this nightmare
Then we can dream
Spiritus mundi.

If you act, as you think,
The missing link,
Synchronicity.

We know you, they know me
Extrasensory
Synchronicity.

A star fall, a phone call,
It joins all,
Synchronicity.

It's so deep, it's so wide
Your inside
Synchronicity.

Effect without a cause
Sub-atomic laws, scientific pause
Synchronicity

And on that note- if you like Sting, read his autobiography. He is a good writer and it's very engaging- pretty much about his life pre-Police and leading up to that point. Really good, at least I thought so. Very thoughtful.

Healing With Himalayan Singing Bowls

Today as I was looking through photos for my new flyer I began studying pictures of sound healing sessions I have done with Himalayan metal singing bowls. It is quite an experience working in this way with the bowls. All the bowls I use and sell are antique bowls, 200 to 400 years old.  What I discovered very early on is that bowls seem to have an "intelligence".  When I go to set them up around the body they seem to "tell me" first of all which ones want to be played and also where to place them. I have come to think of this as different "layouts" in much the same way as a tarot card reader does different layouts with the cards, depending on the situation. I have never done two sessions with the bowls laid out in the same way. And as you can see from the above video and from the pictures below, sometimes in the course of a session as things begin to clear the bowls then need to be moved around to move on to the next step in harmonizing the energies.

One woman I worked with wanted help in dealing with jet lag as she flew across the coutnry every week for her job. In the beginning of the session the bowls were placed very close around the physical body. As the energies began to clear the bowls moved further and further out (with my assistance!) until they took the shape of the giant angel wings around her body.

Sometimes many bowls are placed around the body- sometimes only a few. Because I sell the bowls, I have access to quite a few but one bowl can be very powerful. The truth is you can do a very effective session with only one bowl if you know how to play it properly. There is technique and subtlety to the approach, and if you listen to the bowl it will guide you.

 Good bowls, particularly the older ones, produce at least two to three audible tones at one time and many more subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) harmonics. Depending on the striker- or as Sister Dang Nhiem calls them "inviters", for we are inviting the sound of the bowl- you can coax many different sounds out of the bowl. The intervals between the tones of one bowl (the number of spaces between the notes) are the interval of a fifth, which has the effect of balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain. When this occurs the most natural response is to effortlessly enter into a state of meditation. Thus by the nature of their sound the bowls set up a perfect environment for healing because the entire nervous system almost instantly shifts into a state of deep relaxation.

Perhaps you are listening to the opening video while you are reading this. When you are done reading I suggest you go back and start the video over and just listen. Don't bother about watching it- it's really not that interesting other than watching as the bowls begin to be moved around! But the audio is surprisingly good given the camera I recorded it with and you can hear the pulsing of the tones at times which entrain the brainwaves to an alpha or theta state, slowing everything down. Just sit and close your eyes, or keep them open- whatever feels right for you, and observe what happens for you as you listen to the tones. Don't bother trying to relax- you won't have to try! There is a physiological response that is occurring automatically and activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which is in charge of the relaxation response.

 Once you drop into this deep state change can happen on a very deep level. The key is always intention. Get clear about what you want- what you want to let go of, what you would like to integrate more fully. You simply clear the path so you can see where you want to go and then let go and allow. The transformation happens very naturally. Sound is beautiful in the way that it flows much like water. It will go just where it's needed, feeding and nourishing all those spaces that are in need of healing.

Nothing, Pretending To Be Something

Fell asleep listening to Jeff again last night. Suddenly awoke with my heart pounding when I heard footsteps outside in the snow- crunch, crunch, crunch... Someone walking around my house.

Oh... no. It was just Jeff taking me for a walk up Temescal Canyon! Back to sleep. Slept like a log.

More good stuff in the works. Scheduled a couple of kirtans in Newport with a holistic counselor/life coach for her clients- a result of leading the chanting group last week.

Gave a kickass massage and sound treatment to a good friend this afternoon who has been dealing with a traumatic physical health issue and serious pain for many months at best. Her relief from the session was very significant, so that was a wonderful thing.

AND someone just reminded me of this fabulous band that was around for a few years- I saw them a couple of times at the Unity Church in St. Pete when I lived in FL and they were awesome. Excellent musicians, very conscious, and they rocked! Both times I saw them I danced nonstop through the entire show.

So here is a little treat for you. I strongly suggest you have your good speakers hooked up to your computer when you watch it. Here II Here, formerly Inner Voice...

Healing In The Dreamtime

Yes, I know. I already wrote about Jeff Bridges' new album, The Sleeping Tapes, a few days ago but I am kind of obsessed with it, especially now that I listened to it while going to sleep last night. Of course I missed however much I missed because I was falling asleep, but it is very interesting. It's not just pretty music to go to sleep to, or ambient music with delta waves to entrain the brain for deep sleep- he is setting you up for your dreamtime. As he says, sleeping implies other things as well. It implies dreaming, and it implies waking up.

I don't have any trouble sleeping. I love sleeping and I love dreaming. I wish I had time to do a lot more of it! I never put on music when I am going to sleep. I used to, years ago, but these days I spend so much of my time immersed in sound that I really enjoy the spaces without sound and music. I wanted to hear this however, because I had listened to the first few tracks of it a couple of days ago and found it both funny and fascinating. I knew that there was talking through at least some of it and I wondered how that would play into the non-act of falling asleep. Would it enhance it or make it more difficult?

As I listened I was also observing, and to some extent analyzing, with one part of my mind what he was actually doing with his words. As I said, it is not just music- it is for the most part a monologue, an odd quiet narrative, inserting imagery to influence one's dreams, all the while reminding us that we are headed off to sleep. For example, there is a part where he starts creating an image sequence about walking up a hill with him and someone (I don't remember who because I was half asleep) starts pulling Spanish doubloons out of their pocket. And then he gently suggests forgetting about the Spanish doubloons because we're here to sleep, not to find doubloons. But there you are, with doubloons set into your subconscious as you are nodding off.

It is so interestingly random and a sort of stream of consciousness word flow, and the music behind the words is very effective for shutting down any internal chatter, allowing one to fall into a deep state of relaxation very quickly. It begins to affect the direction of thought and imagery before you actually start to fall asleep. I will say here that generally I remember at least a chunk of my dreams when I first wake up. This morning I was aware when I woke up that I had been dreaming and in my mind I had a sense of some of the imagery from the recording but I had no full recollection of my dreams- only the awareness that the album seemed to have influenced my dreams. I had a "sense of memory" if you will, that seemed directly tied in to the album but nothing conscious- and obviously I had also had a very deep sleep so i would say it was effective in it's purpose.

Aside from the Jeff Bridges factor, this is a very fascinating topic for me. Ever since I was a teenager I have loved working with my dreams. I have gone through long periods where I wrote down my dreams every morning and found that, over time, I was able to work through some very big issues. For example, many years ago I had a relationship with a man who was very abusive to me and my children. He kept us all in a state of fear. through threat of violence and intimidation. I was at a very low point at that time in my life- totally disempowered and full of self-loathing. After I had finally had enough and was able to end the relationship I started doing a lot of work on myself. Some months after ending the relationship, I had a series of dreams. In the dreams he would show up at my house, at my door- maybe I'd come downstairs and he'd be in the kitchen and I would tell him he had to leave; that he was not welcome and could not treat my children and me in this way. I was totally unafraid of him. Sometimes I would tell him that I would call the police if he didn't leave.

One day about a year after we split up, the phone rang. I picked it up and it was him. My body registered- fear. My heart started pounding and I felt heat on the back of my neck. He wanted to "make amends"- to absolve himself. In spite of the cellular response in my body, my mind was totally calm and I told him very clearly and unequivocally that I no longer had people like him in my life. I even told him how my body was reacting in the moment because it had its own memory but that I was no longer afraid of him. I told him how he had damaged my children and never to call me again. I didn't get angry. I didn't get upset. I simply said everything I needed to say and then said, "And now I am going to get off the phone and I don't ever want to talk to you again." It was unbelievable, even to me!

I believe that through my dreams I had been able to "practice"- that they actually prepared me for when I would have to face him and stand up for myself. Not only was I able to do that when called upon, it also gave me an opportunity to see my own growth and self-empowerment. They could have just been really cool dreams in which I felt empowered but in fact the change had actually taken place on an internal, and very real, level.

Artwork by Jorge Ramirez- distributed by Henry J. Steffes, Jr

Revving Up

It's Friday, and I'm feeling good. It's been a full week and I have a sense of forward motion, for which I am grateful. My friend Morgan and I are ready to start teaching our class together on Mindful Yoga & Sacred Chant next Tuesday. We have talked about it for so long but there seemed to be one obstacle after another- Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha! The engine just wouldn't turn over. Suddenly it has kicked in and energy is moving!

I met with a therapist today as there are some things I really want to work and move through and that felt really good. He was clear and perceptive and I feel like I'll be able to do some good work which I am excited about. Time to peel away another layer...

I have a couple of different people to talk to next week as far as getting some more work out there- one who wants me to lead a chanting meditation at her office for a group of people and another who markets small businesses and might help give my business a jump start in this area. She is very interested in sound healing so partial trade may be an option too which is kind of nice.

I gave a lovely woman a session today at my house, which has really been my plan since I moved in- getting my business going here in my house. I moved in last October but there has been so much upheaval between getting the house and healing space set up followed by holidays, birthday, travel and being sick for three weeks that it has been a very slow start. She was one of the people who came to the chanting group last Saturday. I didn't charge for the group last week because their usually their donations go to the soup kitchen at the church, and I was very comfortable with that; and through that event I have at least one new client so it was well worth it. I loved that she felt her health issues were as she put it, "A problem with resonance." It's nice to work with someone whose operating premise is that restoring health is a matter of restoring harmony. Usually that's my line and it's definitely what I am good at!

Newport Community Chanting, Emmanuel Church, Newport, RI
World Sound Healing Day- February 14, 2015

There was a time when I was fearful of offering my work for free and there are several sides to that. One is that I knew it was important for me to begin to make a living at what I do and know that I was accomplished enough at it to feel comfortable charging a reasonable wage- and then the other side of it, which is learning to let go and trust- and being able to discern which is the way to go in any given moment and set of circumstances.  I have definitely learned that the more I give fearlessly, the more comes back to me in ways I cannot anticipate or predict. The universe is so much better at that stuff than I am!  This was definitely one of those instances where I offered something for free (more accurately, gave what I would have made to the church) and now it is coming back to me with new clients as a result.

I'm also working with several oncology patients through the Integrative Care Program at Women & Infants Hospital and starting to get more and more new patients each week. It's definitely another case of giving without concern for the return. The patients- oncology, caregivers, and senior citizens- get massage, sound healing, acupuncture, lymphatic drainage, and various other alternative therapies at a highly discounted rate. The therapists get a portion of that and in terms of monetary remuneration it isn't much, but it is such great work. When I am there I do massage, craniosacral therapy and sound healing with tuning forks. The clients are so much in need of the work and so appreciative that it is always such a pleasure working with them. All of these people, most of them women, are very proactive about their health and doing everything they can to stay balanced, which is a beautiful thing. In the beginning I thought, "I must be crazy to travel as far as I do for this work to barely make enough money to cover my gas!" but I love working with these people so much. And it is so thoroughly appreciated and that in itself is a huge reward. I only go out there one or two days a week so there are plenty of hours left in the week to make up the difference.

Oh, and tomorrow night I get to take my youngest son Nic, who just turned 34, out to dinner for his birthday to a fabulous restaurant in Bristol, RI. He is a foodie and has been aware of the restaurant, Persimmon, for quite some time but never been there. I, on the other hand, have- and I know he will love it! We have been trying to go for two weeks now but again... obstacles! Yep, the energy is finally starting to move!

My son Nicolas Hardisty and I

Yoga, Chant and Vibration

Major piece of work done today! Met with my friend Morgan and we hashed out the details for our upcoming class on Yoga and Chanting. The name is actually much jazzier- Mindful Yoga & Sacred Chant. The format- about an hour of yoga followed by a half hour or so of chanting- very exciting. The idea is that opening with yoga clears and balances the nadis, or energy channels in the body,  allowing for sound then to flow forth with ease, and taking the work that has alre ady been done to another level.

The discussion led me to looking for a picture for our flyer. I found two gems in my files. The above is where the different seeds sound in the Gayatri Mantra emanate from the subtle body. If you don't know the Gayatri then this may not make a lot of sense. They are just a bunch of different syllables floating around. However, if you know the chant then you can look at the picture and follow the path of sound.

Aum

Bhuh bhuvah svah

Tat savitur varenyam

Bhargo devasya dhimahi

Dhiyoyonah prachodayat

Aum

Then I found this gorgeous drawing by my Sanskrit teacher's teacher and guru, Dr. Ramamurti Mishra, known to many as Sri Brahmananda Sarasvati, which I believe is inspired by a drawing from an ancient text. It is a drawing of the subtle body with the major chakras and nadis. In the drawing, the nadis seem to flow outside of and around the body but they are actually all contained within the body.  The different nadis and chakras respond and correspond to different frequencies which are designated by the Sanskrit writing on the chart. The writing in larger Sanskrit letters on the top right says "Pranayama" and underneath the drawing (not shown) it says, "The cosmic state of meditation of I-AM." Thus, we can infer from this that control of the breath, pranayama, will lead us to the perfected state- or to the awareness of our own perfection. Even in a simple black and white drawing we can see how the subtle body is illuminated and vibrating at a very high frequency. 

Every Sanskrit syllable (seed sound) has a very specific vibrational quality and by chanting we experience the effect of those sounds. The vibrations charge the brain and travel through the nervous system and the subtle energy system. In the Vedic tradition, all of the different deities in the Hindu pantheon carry the vibrational qualities of the seed sounds contained within their names.For example, the vibrational quality of the sound "Ga" or "Gam" (the "a" is pronounced like a short "u" in English, ie "gum") is that it removes obstacles. Hence, Ganesha, the Hindi deity with the head of an elephant, is the Remover of Obstacles. If we want to remove obstacles in our life we can chant, "Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha". "Gam" is the seed sound for Ganesha- so we chant that sound first which is packed with potency and potential. "Ganapataye" is another form of Ganesha's name- the vocative. We are calling on Ganesha... and "Namaha", we bow down to him.

Jeff Bridges- The Sleeping Tapes

Okay, so apparently if you watched the Superbowl you would have seen this- but I am not a sports fan (nor am I politically correct) so I didn't see it until last night. I happen to enjoy food much more than sports so I was watching "Chopped" last night when, during a commercial break, Jeff Bridges comes across the screen playing a Himalayan singing bowl and "Omming" some very lucky couple to sleep! And the words came across the screen www.dreamingwithjeff.com. What??? I RUN to my computer and jump on the website!

Seriously... Jeff Bridges has made a pretty amazing album called "The Sleeping Tapes"- just what they are. This is my huge excitement right now. A mainstream superhip DUDE lulling people to sleep with his bowl and his deep OMMM.... Go Jeff! If I had watched the Superbowl I guarantee you that seeing that commercial would have been the most exciting 51 seconds of the whole thing! (In my world Himalayan singing bowls are the Superbowls!)

Here is a video of him talking about making the album and the very cool web building site Squarespace. (I've used it before- it's great.) It is a seriously cool video- you should definitely take the two minutes to watch it.

I downloaded the album last night and didn't hear the whole thing. You know what that means!

I love Jeff Bridges, I love sound healing, I love sounds, and I really love sleeping and dreaming- it's probably my most favorite thing of all! In fact I just signed up for a workshop on sound and dreaming with John Beaulieu and Silvia Nakkach, so this could not have been more synchronistic in my book.

What I am super excited about though is that this little 51 second video reached millions of people! Sound is so powerful and important and non-invasive and can be such an enjoyable healing modality. Right now I reach about 80 people a day on my blog. I'm thinking that's a lot! This year 114.4 million people watched the Superbowl. Jeff Bridges, you are definitely The Dude!

Oh by the way- all sales of the album go to No Kid Hungry. Here's to The Dude!

From Where I Sit

watching snow gently falling 
               on the thick whiteness of what came before

snapping and crackling of kindling in the wood stove 
                             clicking 
                  clacking 
                             keys on a keyboard
movement of the soft sleeve of my grey woolen sweater as I type 

metallic        staccato     sounds              as the stove begins to heat up 
          
wood creaks as I move in the old chair with the pale blue velvet seat 
                        knowing a peculiar white cherub 
                                        stares
                                 silently smiling 
                                     at my back

fire gets hotter
           crackling subsides 
now the steady quiet roar of the chimney 

the falling snow looks like silence in motion

Inspirations

Beautiful Shyamji, my nada yoga teacher

This morning I updated my profile on my blog and spent so much time looking at pictures as I was considering updating that I came across all kinds of wonderful inspirations in the process! I decided I would share some of the things that have inspired me today- people, places, instruments- rather than getting too wordy.

The first is a suikinkutsu, also known as a Japanese water harp- an instrument I discovered while researching outdoor instruments for my healing sound gardens. The next one is a music piece by one of my teachers, music therapist, preserver of indigenous and sacred music Silvia Nakkach who has a voice of gold and a heart to match- Sarasvati incarnate!

Deity of Sound- sculpture by my dear friend
Ceramic artist and musician, Brian Ransom

The side of a music school in Minneapolis

Singing, Ringing Tree- Crown Point, Lancashire, England

John Beaulieu's sound studio in Stone Ridge, NY

Sarasvati, She Who Flows

My beautiful teacher, shaman/maestro Don Tito La Rosa

Jim Pepper's saxophone! Smithsonian Institute

"The Gift" by Patricia Bowers

Playing music for visionary artist Alex Grey

Dear friend, colleague, amazing sound healer, Baba Frejon/Fred Johnson- vocalist extraordinaire and dancer Katurah Robinson who dances from her heart

Athena VibroAcoustic Table
built by Somatron Corporation

My dear teacher, bhakti yogi,
amazing musician and "kirtanmeister "Jai Uttal

Beautiful friend, brilliant artist, hostess of my healing sound journeys Suzanne Benton-
blissed out after a Sound Journey

Another brilliant teacher teacher and revealer of the magic of tuning forks as well as craniosacral therapist/polarity therapist/naturopath/psychologist John Beaulieu

My Sanskrit teacher, the late Swami Sarasvati Sivananda
I miss you, Swami Bob!

Shipping News

Almost a month ago I accepted Winnie Kao's challenge to ship every day for a week- she was referring to blogging. I didn't actually know what it meant but got the inference as I read about it. I haven't read Seth Godin's book Linchpin, where apparently he introduces this term. (I just ordered it!) It seems to mean something like putting your idea, project, product, inspiration out there- sharing whatever it is that is important to you and hopefully benefiting others in the process. Doing what it takes every day to make a difference. So it's not necessarily just writing a blog, although that was really what the challenge referred to.

I was afraid to accept the challenge and didn't actually commit until about two days before it was scheduled to begin. Consistency is not my strong suit and I was afraid I would fail- which meant letting myself down. What actually happened was quite different- and exciting! A group of people accepted the challenge and every day thousands of blog posts were going up on Tumblr- so many that on the third day they actually crashed the site temporarily!

As I began writing every day and randomly reading other people's blog posts I began feeling surprisingly connected to this group. Somehow I thought I would be out there failing on my own! Haha- surprise! We had all made a commitment and we were going to all do it together in the same timeframe. We were joined in our intention. On one level it didn't matter what people were writing about- they were doing it. On another level, they were writing about what was important to them and so of course it mattered.

So there was this very powerful energy of being part of a group and suddenly I felt like I would be letting others down if I missed a day- not because I thought anyone was necessarily even reading what I wrote, but that simply we were all in this together! I felt like the group carried me, like I was riding a wave. It was fun to write every day. It was the first thing I thought of in the morning and I couldn't wait to see what was happening of everyone else. I wrote 7 entries in 7 days. And on the 8th day I wrote again! I have been writing every day since except three days ago when my computer was down and by the time I finished messing with it, trying to figure out what was wrong I had to leave the house. It didn't come back online until after midnight so I missed that one day- however I sent out a link from my iPhone to a global event that I was participating in so I still shipped.

After the 7-day challenge ended a group of people who had participated started a Facebook page and we all continue to ship every day. I feel like I have a group of new wonderful supportive friends and am part of a community that is amazingly powerful! I feel connected. I feel grateful. I feel like I am still riding the wave and I have had a huge shift in energy. I had been in transition in pretty much all areas of my life for the past 3 years and due to a number of circumstances had not really been putting my own sound healing work out there. This week I have led a community chanting group, I have almost completed my new flyer and I have shipped every day.

To my Your Turn Challenge group and to all my other friends, family and clients who believe in me and support me in my process, thank you!

In the words of Dr. Masaru Emoto, "I love you, I thank you, I respect you."

Water Crystal "Thank you"
From Dr. Masaru Emoto's Hidden Messages From Water

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.