Shin Ae, Sound Evangelist

I have been trying to write this blog post dedicated to my beautiful and brilliant friend Shin Ae for almost two weeks now. This is as far as it's gotten so I am letting go of all the other things I wanted to express and publishing it.  What I really want to share here is my love for the beautiful strong radiant and joyful being that she was and gratitude for our deep connection.

Shin Ae, August 2015- Oncology Retreat, Exeter, RI

Shin Ae, August 2015- Oncology Retreat, Exeter, RI

Last night [May 8 at the time of this writing] my friend Lynn and I celebrated the life and memory of our very dear friend Shin Ae who passed away on April 22, after a 2 1/2 year struggle with metastatic breast cancer. We both met her as a patient and quickly came to know her as a dear friend. She did not take her diagnosis lying down. She was a ninja warrior and activist to the very end. This picture was taken almost a year after her diagnosis, at which time she had been given 9 months which she enthusiastically refused to accept- which I'm sure has a great deal to do with why she was able to stay with us for as long as she did.

In February I came to her house to have a visit with her and give her a sound healing treatment. She was a metal worker, a welder, and she loved instruments made of metal- Himalayan singing bowls, gongs and tuning forks- so I brought them all. I set up the gong in her living room, laid bowls on her spine and played them which always gave her great relief and played the tuning forks for her to help re-balance her nervous system.

She was getting ready to head out to California for the Wisdom Conference and told me that she was hoping to get me out there to do a Sound Journey. She had just come back from walking the fashion runway in New York for NY Fashion Week and although she was not feeling well and was fairly weak she powered through it with her indomitable spirit. She told me that day that she was a "sound healing evangelist" because the sound healing had helped her so much in her process for relieving pain and restoring peace when it was most needed. Although I do what I do because I know it is effective it is always another miracle to me when I actually witness the relief that people get from this modality.

I always felt honored and grateful both to work with Shin Ae as a patient and also to connect with her on such a deep level. And I know that's not about me- it was a gift that Shin Ae had, to be able to enter into the space where another human being was coming from, no matter their background, their source point or their operating procedure. She could step in and connect in a way that superceded the mundane and went straight to the heart of things. That was Shin Ae, no bullshit, all heart and a brilliant mind and a gift to all who knew her.

Sisters and Sounds

Just a quick update here as I am getting ready to go to Newburyport for this evening's Healing Sound Journey. The picture above is the sweet little harbour in Rockport, Massachusetts where I have spent the last three days with my sisters Jenny and Miranda. Unfortunately the only picture I have of the fabulous threesome is of us lying on the grass with our heads at our mother's gravestone trying not to laugh and it just doesn't feel quite like the perfect portrait to post on my blog- although maybe it is!


Looking down from the entrance to Green Acre, the Baha'i school and retreat where I did a sound journey a few nights ago.

It was a beautiful ride on a perfect day and the sound journey went well and was very well received. I recorded it with my iPhone as I always do. I've listened to the sound journey several times since and have been enjoying it which somehow surprises me- not that I enjoy it, because of course I love what I do! That's why I do it- but I must admit to being surprised that I want to listen to it over and over.

The weather in Rockport has gone from perfect and sunny to perfect and foggy and remains consistently beautiful with the sounds of surf, birds and insects and very little else other than the chatter of three sisters- a different sort of sound journey! We had a good rain this morning which has let up. I'm hoping there won't be any more until after I'm all done with tonight's sound journey so I won't have to unload instruments in the pouring rain!

I have had the great good fortune of receiving several new shipments of Himalayan singing bowls recently which I think have really added to the powerful dynamic of the sound journey. I brought some bowls with me to Green Acre that I had never used before and they were quite amazing. I continue lately to be happily surprised at the effect of the sound journey, finding it so calming and restorative.


Carolyn Cruikshank, her daughter Anne and I at Green Acre after the Sound Journey at Green Acre.




A Perfect Embrace

This Sunday I am leaving for Green Acre Baha'i School and Conference Center in Eliot, Maine. I have been invited to give a talk in the afternoon and do a Healing Sound Journey for the Oneness of Humanity in the evening. Expected audience: 225 people from all over the world!

I can't say much about this. Only that I have loved Abdul-Baha since I was first introduced to him- I don't even know what that means. When I lived in Florida I used to sometimes play during the devotionals at the Baha'i Center in St. Pete and always loved the community and the energy there.

Most of all I loved the huge picture of Abdul-Baha. I would often walk over to it while I was playing my flute and just stand in front it and play while he looked at me with those loving eyes. I always felt that he was playing through me, inspiring and loving me while I held the flute up to my lips.

All I can say is that I am honored and excited. My tendency is to say/think that I am a bit nervous but as I sit with myself, I don't think that's true. The truth is that I feel that all the events and connections in my life have led me to this and it feels absolutely perfect. I know that I will be in an environment where I will be totally loved and embraced and I do not need to fear not being good enough, making a mistake or whatever things I could dream up about being less than perfect. It is all already perfect and therefore so am I.

And my kindergarten teacher and dear friend Carolyn Cruikshank, who is a Baha'i will be there and whom I am so excited to see again! 

I am feeling embraced.

Left: Summer camp at High Rise (then called North Hollow) in Rochester, VT (visiting Fort Ticonderoga on this particular day) with my former kindergarten teacher Carolyn Cruikshank. Circa 1963?

And... 50 years later, together again at High Rise, summer 2013.
Oh, yes. I forgot to mention how I have been completely immersed in the sound of Himalayan singing bowls for days! At the suggestion of my son Nicolas I got out all my bowls- my personal collection and all the ones I have for sale and put them all together in my living room. It has been incredible. Over 100 bowls and every time I went near them I would pick out a few and play them, sampling them (sort of like a box of chocolates!) and trying different combinations. It has done something wonderful to my mind and my emotional body. I had been in some turmoil due to a bad experience I had with a friend recently and the bowls completely relaxed my psyche. It was quite extraordinary and beautiful.

Streaming Sound

Last night's Sound Journey in Framingham for the World Citizens' Cafe at the Amazing Things Art Center was a great success- such a lovely group of warm, receptive, responsive and communicative souls. Really a wonderful experience.

Tomorrow night The Cedars, a nursing home in Cranston, RI, with the nicest vibe of any nursing home I have ever been in, is hosting a sound journey at their facility for residents, caregivers and the public. Not only that, they will be live streaming it via Twitter! Here is the link: http://www.periscope.tv/thecedarsri.



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.

Grabbing The Muse By the Balls

I just read this statement by Seth Godin.


SUSDAT


Abbey Ryan has painted a new painting every day for 8 years.
Isaac Asimov published 400 books, by typing every day.
This is post #6000 on this blog.
Writer's block is a myth, a recent invention, a cultural malady.
More important than the output, though, is the act itself. The act of doing it every day. When you commit to a practice, you will certainly have days when you don't feel like it, when you believe it's not your best work, when the muse deserts you. But, when you keep your commitment, the muse returns. When you keep your commitment, the work happens.
It doesn't matter if anyone reads it, buys it, sponsors it or shares it. It matters that you show up.
Show up, sit down and type. (Or paint). 

I loved it when I did Your Turn Challenge and was blogging every day. The muse hasn't left but it certainly feels like time has been slipping away. So I am grabbing it back in this moment.

I have in fact updated my website in the last few days which you can see if you go to the Upcoming Events and Workshops. Also the "Sound Therapy Program" at Women & Infants Hospital (which, quite simply, is me) is going to be featured next week in the Providence Journal. They are coming to the hospital on Monday to take pictures of me doing a Healing Sound Journey and interview me and one or two of the patients. I am quite excited about this!

I'm also going to be doing a wonderful solstice event on Monday evening with a pretty amazing woman I met recently- Erica Nunnally. I am really looking forward to it. I loved her relaxed groundedness and openness when I met her- someone who seems to be very comfortable in her own skin as well as being a person with intention, integrity and focus- a great combination!
Check it out here: Lumina: A Celebration of Winter Solstice

I have been staying up too late every night for the past few weeks but somehow not getting done many of the things I would like. In this moment I am taking the time to show up and do something that is important to me- getting back on top of my blog.
My mother at her writing desk, probably in the early fifties. I wonder what she was writing.














Installment 4- The Road to Tallahassee

Aidan discovers a new way of playing the singing bowls!
St. Pete... visiting my closest friends, walking in Selby Gardens, walks on the beach, a great motorcycle ride with my friend Brian, sound journeys, healing sessions... an invitation to Tallahassee- which of course I accepted! Really? You guys can pull off a sound journey with less than a weeks notice? Okay! I'll be there!

What a great 5 days that was! Arrived in Tallahassee on Monday, August 10. The Sound Journey was scheduled for that evening. My alternator went just as I got off the highway and pulled up to Ryan's house where I was to stay with his wife, Arielle and their awesome six year-old son, Aidan. I had met Ryan about ten years earlier when I taught a class at Bhakti Academe of Intuitive Massage and Healing, where I had gone myself. Apparently it had a huge impact on Ryan and he dove into the field of sound healing after that. When he heard I was coming to Florida he immediately signed up for the workshop and let several other people from Tallahassee know and they all made the trip to St. Pete.

We transferred my instruments to Ryan's vehicle, dropped my car off at his father's auto repair shop (just another tiny miracle) and went over to the Abundance Wellness Center to set up for the Sound Journey. Ryan let me use his room to do sessions which was absolutely beautiful and full of wonderful instruments from around the world!

That little group of four from Tallahassee was a powerhouse! I had never been to Tallahassee and my life and didn't know a soul there other than those who had come to my workshop. When I arrived a week later they had a full house for the sound journey and sessions booked with me for the next three days.

Here are some pictures from that leg of the trip.
Session with Himalayan singing bowls

After the session...

Healing Sound Journey at Abundance Wellness Center

Notice new element added to Sound Journey instruments

Flower arrangement made for the event- so beautiful!

Aidan chilling...




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


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

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

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

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




Expectant journeyers!



Selby Gardens with my old friend Linda Romero

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

Expanding the Vision


Beautiful flower arrangement made as a gift for Healing Sound Journey in Tallahassee
I have been on an amazing journey since I left RI on August 29th to drive down to Florida. The plan was one weekend workshop and a Healing Sound Journey. So far I have done 3 sound journeys which have all been incredibly well attended and am going to The Farm in Summertown, TN next week to do one and possibly two sound journeys there. I have given many sessions as well and have been so incredibly welcomed and well-received. It has been a trip beyond my imagination- seeing so many dear old friends and making many new friends on the way. Feeling so full of joy and gratitude today.

Right now I am in Tallahassee where I have found a whole new community of new friends, all due to one person, Ryan Sullivan, who I met years ago when I taught at Bhakti Academe of Intuitive Massage and Healing. He loved his experience and immediately signed up for the workshop when he saw I was going to be in St. Pete. Along with him, he brought his wife and invited another friend of his who then invited one of her closest friends who I connected with pretty much instantaneously. They all loved the workshop so much that they invited me to Tallahassee, made a gorgeous flyer, started telling their friends and clients and pulled together a packed house for a sound journey in less than a week's time!

I am pretty knocked out by the success of this trip on all levels. It has raised the bar in terms of what to ask for and to expect in terms of both attendance and income for my work and that has been very affirming for me as well.

Today I am happy and grateful that have I have held to my vision of what I want and what is possible. If things had gone according to my plan I would now be on my way home. Instead I am still riding the wave. Tomorrow North Carolina, next week Tennessee. Loving life!

Healing Sound Journey, Temple of the Living God, St. Petersburg, FL
Healing session with Himalayan bowls
Healing Sound Journey, Abundance Wellness Center, Tallahassee, FL
Healing Sound Journey, Yoga4All, Seminole FL
Ryan, after his session




A Sonic Wonder

Well, I fell behind on my daily blogging with so much going on in my life. One was a problem with the internet for a couple of days and then a big glitch getting the Event Registration page working properly which took a lot of time. However it IS working now and you can click here to check it out! It needs a bit more tweaking just to get it really looking right but at least it is all working well and people can now sign up with relative ease.

So, I am committed to Being Back! Tonight is more of a brief check-in as I have to get on Facebook and create an Event for the Florida workshop, as well as making some final touches on the Registration Page for it. As of about an hour ago I am also contemplating setting up a series of Healing Sound Journeys for August and turning my ride back from Florida into a bit more of a road trip.
I did discover this very awesome project which is going on in Rangely, Colorado. A huge abandoned and unused oil tank was discovered by "sound artist and sonic thinker" (I love that description!) Bruce Odland back in 1976. When he entered it, he discovered it had extraordinary sonic properties. Ever since then, a small group of musicians have been playing and recording in it. As it says on the website, "The Tank is a sonic wonder of the world, with a shifting, swirling reverberation longer and richer than the Taj Majal or the Great Pyramid." In 2013 a project began to raise money to turn the tank into a Sonic Art Center which is now coming into being.

Guess what my newest obsession is? I can't wait to go out to Colorado and visit this place! I want to do a Sound Journey there. Please be sure to click here and visit the website (http://tanksounds.org/the-tank). It is just to cool to miss- and be sure to watch one or two or more of the videos. They are all so fascinating. They are on the top menu of their website under "Media" or just click here.

Beyond Relaxation... (Would That Be Dead?)

I missed a day. I was falling asleep at the computer last night!

Great turnout and a very warm and positive response for the Sound Journey at the Yoga Center of Newburyport on Saturday night. No one signed up for Sunday's workshop so I had a day off and a chance to visit with a dear family friend who was also very close with my mother and that was lovely.
Sunday afternoon, because I was free, I was able to go to Newport and hear my brother play for a while at the Wharf Deli and then have dinner with him and his girlfriend at the Black Pearl. So everything worked out beautifully.

When I finally got home yesterday I was so beat that I didn't even unload my car. I was going to do it today but was procrastinating- all for the good as it turned out! This evening I received a call asking if I would be available tomorrow morning to do an hour long sound meditation for a group of businessmen who are in Newport for a yoga retreat. Actually they are combining work and retreat- apparently meditation and sailing in the morning followed by an afternoon of business meetings! So... the morning sound meditation will serve them very well- and I am so happy that I hadn't already unloaded the car only to have to pack it back up again!

Yesterday morning I woke up around 6 a.m. at Marnie's house in Ipswich and decided to listen to the Sound Journey that I had recorded from the night before. I have recorded many sound journeys on my iPhone and am always astounded at the quality of the sound- yesterday was no different. I turned on the recording and lay in bed and went into a deeply relaxed meditative state and eventually into dreaming. I only remember the last part of the dream- I was with another person and suddenly realized that I could not breathe. I was struggling to get a breath or to let the other person know that I couldn't breathe but I couldn't make a sound. In my mind I said, "Shit. Shit. Oh shit," and then woke myself up with a startling snoring gasp for air! I had gotten so relaxed from the sound journey that I had actually stopped breathing! I'm not sure if that goes beyond therapeutic relaxation but when I did wake up I felt fantastic. Fortunately when I do Sound Journeys for others they have me to guide them back into their bodies!

Personal Sound Journey

This afternoon I lay down on the sofa in the living room at Paul and Jane's house in Hoogland and played one of the sound journeys I had recorded during the weekend workshop- actually the last sound journey from the end of the day on Sunday.
I had recorded it on my iPhone, so I lay down, turned it on and placed my iPhone on my chest. And then I went OUT! I didn't hear much of it because I was totally gone. At some point it ended and I woke up- I think it was about 39 minutes long. I couldn't move for the longest time. They are lucky when I play for them because they have me to bring them back- to remind them to come back to their breath- to breathe themselves back into their body, to begin to move and to stretch and to rub their hands briskly together warming up the palms and then rubbing them over their face, their eyes, their head, their neck and their heart. I didn't have anyone to tell me that- I knew what I needed to do but that wasn't enough... So I lay there, glued to the sofa for probably another 20 minutes before I began to revive.

Well, now I know even better why they like it so much! 
View from the sofa- I took it when I woke up. :-)


Zoom Zoom Zoom

Well, I thought for a minute I could upload my pictures from Dropbox but when I copy them on to this page they are gigantic and there is no way to make them smaller. So here I am again in the Land of Frustration! I have so many wonderful pictures of Holland- including a whole wall of hang pans that I so want to post. 

Oh well... I have been having many great sound experiences here, mostly of my own making. Shipping this weekend by teaching a two day workshop. It looks like we will have a reasonable turnout for it and I am looking forward to it. I have had two very nice three hour workshops that began and ended with Expressive Art Therapy and had a sound journey in the middle. 

Expressive Art Therapy is a three step process- Access, Release, Transform:
Access an image that expresses the feeling sensation on the body as it responds to a significant event or situation- possibly painful, but not neccessarily.
Release the image through an art form- visual, movement or sound 
Transform the image/experience with a new image that represents a calmer, less stressful response to the situation.
In the workshops I am teaching, the original trigger or challenging situation is released through the Healing Sound Journey which is followed by a visual art piece which represents the transformation of the event. I love the combination. It really feels like sort of a missing link to me. 

I gave someone a session today who had an extremely positive response to one of the workshops and wanted to follow up with a session to help anchor the experience. 

The time is flying by so fast- I can't believe I am leaving in a week and a half. Suddenly three weeks seems like no time at all.

Eating My Humble Pie

I love being able to use musical analogies whenever possible- so here's one for you.

Today I had to face the music and accept responsibility for offending some very lovely ladies.  My bad, for sure... I said something in a previous post in reference to Woonsocket, RI that came across as disparaging so I really must apologize for that. It was all said in jest but who would know that unless they knew me? The truth is I know absolutely nothing about Woonsocket other than having had a very wonderful experience there last Friday night! I went there once about 30 years ago and sat in the car while my best friend ran into her dad's office on some kind of errand and we left. Seriously, that was the extent of my experience there. We left and probably got something to eat in Providence because there was nowhere to eat.

Probably the worst part of it is that I had an awareness that my reference to Woonsocket in aforementioned post (I'm not going to quote because now I am really quite embarrassed- one blunder was enough) might have sounded a little snarky but in some pitiful way I thought I was being cute and funny. Not.

Dear ladies from the dojo- please forgive me. Seriously. I had such a wonderful time doing the sound journey and meeting you all. It was my pleasure as much as yours and then to have caused displeasure afterwards because some of you were nice enough and interested enough to check out my blog? Ugh. I am truly sorry.

That was the longest time I have spent in Woonsocket- I arrived at about 3:30, spent 2 hours setting up my instruments, an hour doing the sound journey, a good while afterward chatting with some of you and hearing of some of your experiences and another hour packing up... And every minute of it was a pleasure!!! That is the truth. I loved the space. I loved you all. Lisa Votta is awesome! Christina Rondeau is clearly awesome because she has this incredibly cool space in which she allows fabulous things to happen and I do hope you will invite me back. Because seriously? I would come back any day of the week! And if this kind of cool stuff is happening in Woonsocket- well, it must be a pretty cool place.

Okay, so that's done. But there is more for the rest of you who are reading this by way of some other avenue- maybe you are one of my Your Turn Challenge friends, a personal friend or someone who came across this because you are interested in sound healing. Well, I'm going to do a little rave here.

As soon as Lisa Votta, owner of Ananta Jyoti Yoga, contacted me I knew this was going to be a great connection and a really fun event. I love what I do but Lisa's energy, her interest, her openness, her curiosity and her enthusiasm got me even more excited than I already am when I have an event coming up. That feeling continued and expanded when we actually met on the day of the Sound Journey. I know that she worked hard to pull a good group together and make it worth my time and effort and that means a lot. I could see how devoted she is to her group of ladies there and I have no doubt that she is also a really great teacher because all of those qualities that I mentioned are what it takes to connect with a group of students and keep them coming back.

She also did a lot to make the space so beautiful!!! I couldn't get over it. All four walls are mirrored in the martial arts studio which was really cool, but then Lisa brought in a ton of flameless candles and the space just seemed infinite- it really was magical. Yes, there was still some equipment in the room but it did not matter at all or detract from the overall feeling in any way.

So- it was a beautiful night. Maybe tonight while I'm going to sleep I'll listen to the recording and see how it sounded on the receiving end.










Musical Notes

The truth is that I am sitting here at the computer at the end of the day and have no idea what I will write about. I also know that I made a commitment to blog every day and if I miss one day I know where I go- down the slippery slope. If I miss a day, one day at a time my blogging will slowly become a thing of the past. This is just how I am. So, without further ado...

Some of the musical notes I have been reviewing in my mind today:
  • The fact that sound/music strengthens the body. I have been putting this into practice the last week or so since I read that and posted on this subject. When I feel a little edgy or when I am too much in my head I either put on some music, pick up the guitar or play one of the singing bowls to restore my equanimity.
  • An invitation to do a sound journey and possibly play music at the Unity Church in (or near?) Carlisle, PA by someone who experienced my work over ten years ago in St. Petersburg, FL. I did a Healing Sound Journey and played during the devotional service at the College of Metaphysical Studies in Clearwater.
  • That has led me to looking at the possibility of setting up a series of Sound Journeys and workshops in the northeast since I may be doing a road trip with my instruments anyway.
  • Reviewing last Friday's Healing Sound Journey in Woonsocket with a group of ladies who I think were mostly new to yoga and definitely new to sound healing. Many of them had pretty extraordinary experiences. I played for about an hour and many of them said it seemed like no time at all. They were shocked when I told them how long it had been. I think this is because when you drop into the present and everything else falls away, there is no time.
  • One woman said that she had a very sexual experience. She shared with me that she as she had gotten older she was feeling less attractive and very "unsexy". She said that during the sound journey she reconnected with her femininity and it totally shifted her relationship to herself.
  • Loving playing my new guitar and exploring new sounds on it, making up chords and playing with different rhythms.
  • Chanting, chanting, chanting. Next week I am leading a kirtan at my friend Kerstin's yoga and art studio. So looking forward to it. Today on my way to yoga class I was chanting intensely and drove right by the house where I do yoga. Realized it a couple of blocks past my destination.
  • Playing with brain tuners- using them for concentration, relaxation and deep meditation. I have been sleeping really well lately so I haven't needed them for that!
  • Thinking a lot about the upcoming workshop in Holland. A little nervous and also very excited. Still contemplating the process and what it will all look like- how much I want to plan and how much I want let unfold organically. Sometimes when I get to hung up on the structure it doesn't go as well. So I am searching for the balance in that process.
  • I have Tibetan bowls all over my living room floor! Tomorrow that will change and they will go back in the sound healing room. I was contemplating what ones I want to bring to Holland so I got them all out.
  • Still thinking about the amazing concert last night with Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn. That will be something to hold on to for a while!
     

Loving Life!

I have had a very full 24 hours and am feeling somewhat exhilarated! Yesterday I spent a few precious hours with my very dear friend Sharon with whom I have shared so many wonderful musical moments and memories, as well as all the heartfelt talks, tears and laughter that make a friendship meaningful and true.

This morning I had a really great meeting with my therapist. We had a long talk about fear as I have been very much aware of the physical dynamics of it running through my body in the last week- noticing the places where it comes up and my relationship to it.

Then, earlier this evening, I had the great fortune of giving a Healing Sound Journey to a group of wonderful ladies who all do yoga together in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was in a martial arts studio which is always an interesting vibe, but it was great and the space was transformed with all of the instruments, many mirrors and a zillion little flameless candles that the yoga teacher had brought! They loved it. It was all very new to pretty much all of them and many of them had profound experiences.

There are always interesting discoveries for me in the process of a sound journey. Tonight it was the discovery of the relationship between two bowls right at the end of the sound journey- a crystal bowl and a Tibetan bowl. When I played them together there was a binaural beat that occurred- that was not unusual in itself- but the sound of it was unlike any I had ever heard before. At first I didn't recognize that it was coming from the bowl because it was so deep and so subtle- this very quiet deep pulse that actually sounded like some sort of an engine or something! After a few times though I could distinctly hear that it occurred every time I hit the Tibetan bowl after playing one particular crystal bowl. I ended the sound journey with those two tones. I recorded the whole sound journey so it will be really interesting to play it back and see if the recorder (my iPhone!) picked it up the beat frequency between the two instruments.

So, tonight I am feeling happy and grateful and am wearing a big smile on my face!

Healing Sound Journeys- How They Came To Be

Sound Journey in an old church in Cape Cod, MA

This Friday (day after tomorrow) I am doing a Healing Sound Journey at a martial arts studio in Woonsocket. (For more information click here.)  I have connected with a woman who teaches yoga there- Lisa Votta- and shares all kinds of holistic, inspiring and educational things that I am interested in on her Twitter page! AND she found ME via Google, which makes me happy, and there is a group of yoga students there who are excited about my coming up there to teach a sound journey. I am definitely looking forward to this event!

As I am thinking about the sound journey, I thought it might be fun to share a little bit about the Healing Sound Journeys and post some pictures from sound journeys past. 

Genie's Hookah Lounge, Newport, RI

In 1995 I began teaching sound healing workshops and found it to be most helpful for people to experience the effect of various instruments first, before discussing their effect. One could talk forever about how Himalayan singing bowls balance the right and left hemispheres of the brain and entrain the brain waves to a theta range, inducing a natural and effortless state of meditation (sahaj dhyan) but that will never give you the experience. I began opening my workshops with a short meditation on the various instruments that I had begun collecting- flutes, a small gong, a Tibetan bowl, a drum, rainstick, didgeridoo, an instrumental tamboura, a shaker- a very humble collection of instruments! I also used my voice, doing toning, overtone chanting and mantras.

High Rise, Rochester, VT

The meditation usually lasted about 15 minutes. The responses from participants were typically that they lost all sense of time and place, and that it was too short- an interesting dichotomy! As time went on, I began collecting more instruments and also realized that the effects of this short meditation were often profound so I began to extend the time. I offered a 6-week meditation called Sound Journeys, realizing that the participants were literally traveling on the sound frequencies and that each instrument had its own powerful effect and that they were all dramatically different.  So one week I would use a singing bowl, another week the didgeridoo, another week my voice, and so on. This was an amazing period of exploration and learning for me as well as those who attended.

Private home, Ridgefield, CT

As time went by the sound journeys began to develop a life of their own. People were having spontaneous healings- they took people much deeper than a meditation, with no effort at all on their part. All they had to do was lie down and the sound did the rest! Participants would come back with all kinds of stories of places they had been, colors they saw, loved ones who visited with them, physical healing, and sometimes an ability afterward to meditate on their own when before they'd had great difficulty.They spontaneously began to integrate the background sounds in their environment as a tool for meditation- in other words, the sound journey actually transformed the way they listened, heard and related to sound.

The sound journeys became Healing Sound Journeys. When I met my partner of 14 years, Henry Steffes, a musician who immediately saw the benefits of sound as a healing tool, we began doing Healing Sound Journeys together. We traveled around the United States and Canada, performing them in yoga studios, meditation centers and private homes. In 2005 I opened a sound healing center in St. Petersburg, FL and for the next 7 years I did a sound journey there every Monday night as well as in many other studios in the area and in other parts of the country as well.

(Tibetan bowl healing demo) Los Gatos, CA

In 2012, I moved back up to Rhode Island and have been offering Healing Sound Journeys in yoga studios and private homes up here as well as in Europe, with the occasional trip to Florida and California thrown in there as well.

For the past 3 years I have been recording all my sound journeys but unfortunately do not yet know how to upload them onto my blog- so sorry! I know that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case a sound byte would be worth a thousand pictures but we'll have to wait on that and go with the pictures for now. Or you can come to one of my Healing Sound Journeys!

Saltana Salt Cave, Ridgefield, CT

Zettmar Studio, Newport, RI

Zettmar Studio, Newport, RI

Sound Journey Concert w/ Laraaji Naradananda, Temple of the Living God, St. Pete, FL

Sound Body Wholistic Health Center, St. Petersburg, FL

Women's Well, Portsmouth, RI

Sound Journey with orbs! Villari's Martial Arts Studio, Middletown, RI

Yoga Center of Newburyport, MA

Yoga Center of Newburyport, MA

Private home, Ridgefield, CT

First Unity Church With Alex Grey, St. Petersburg, FL

First Unity Church, St. Petersburg, FL

The Longhouse, Gulfport, FL- w/ Henry Steffes, Jr

Private home, Clearwater, FL

Recording Studio, St. Pete, FL w/ Henry Steffes, Jr

Healing Touch Wellness Center, Land O' Lakes, FL

Yoga Center of Newburyport, MA

Bright light after a Healing Sound Journey in Ridgefield, CT!