Exploring the extraordinary healing power of music, sound and chanting.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
What If, Why Not?
My Beloved,
What if you didn't have to hold back.
What if you didn't care about who's judging who, who's judging you.
What if you can be who you've been dreaming about being.
What if you can be who you've always meant to be.
What if you don't have all of the answers first.
What if you take the first step? What if you are scared and you do it anyway. And follow that with a second step? What if you are still scared and you keep going anyway?
What if you are received with praise and adoration.
What if you are rejected.
What if you are criticized.
What if you are ignored.
What if you don't care either way?
What if you find joy in your purpose without needing approval?
Or disapproval.
What if you share your joy with those you are attracting because you followed your dream and your heart.
What if that exponentially multiplied the goodness and the abundance not only in your life, but in the lives of those you touch directly, and indirectly?
What if you take a risk? I love it when you do!
What if you came to realize that what you have to offer is who you are. And that you came here at this specific time and place on the planet, to do just that?
What if you realized that a lot of things we spend our time on are things that are not real ~but are thoughts. Thoughts that translate into fear. What if you realized that who you are and what you have to offer IS the real deal?~a presence that is LOVE in a very unique and beautifully wonderful expression (you).
What if encouraging others elevated everyone, especially you? I love it when you do!
I love it when you are you. When all else fails, keep doing that. Keep being you! I love it when you do. I love when you are you.
O’ Music, In your depths we deposit our hearts and souls;
You have taught us to see with our ears
And to hear with our hearts. ~Kahlil Gibran
I meet a lot of people who stopped singing because they have experienced shame, ridicule, discouragement or because they have been silenced in some way. This was true for me, in a sense. I was never shamed for singing in particular. I was shamed and threatened for speaking the truth though. And singing from your heart and soul is the pure experience of truth.
I am a singer. I have always been singing. I could not go on living without singing. Singing has elevated me from the depths of destruction of my own self and connected me to such beauty and oneness... What is this resistance then? Why do many of us feel that we cannot sing unless we sound like some polished, doctored, perfected recording that resembles nothing of the beauty and truth of our own selves and our own hearts and voices?
In my own journey I discovered that it wasn’t the fear of being rejected or even the threat of violence anymore. What I discovered was that if I dared to use my voice, the voice that channels and connects to my heart...then I must ask myself, “what kind of power is that? And the answer came to me: ”That, my dear one, is the power to transform, to move and shift and elevate all that is seen and unseen." And naturally I was lead to the realization that I must allow myself to be in it, to step into the unknown and step into the power of speaking and singing from the heart. It was terribly frightening! And exciting...and empowering. And far-reaching, and awe inspiring and beautiful, and CREATIVE! I found music to be the fastest and most efficient way to connect to Source, or what yogis call the Naad, or Brahma Nada, or the Sound Current. And I knew when I'd tapped into it because it felt like pure bliss and freedom. Or, it sometimes felt uncomfortable... because it was showing me how I was misaligned and allowing me to heal.
Recently, I started leading a group of singers/chanters every Friday morning by the Kaw River where I live. Like many of our waters the Kaw is terribly polluted. I started wondering if we can affect the water with our voices, our intentions and feelings. Well, it's a stretch in some people's minds. But in our hearts it isn't at all.
From Dr. Masaru Emoto’s book “Hidden Messages In Water”
"Existence is vibration. When we separate something into its smallest parts, we always enter a strange world where all that exists is particles and waves. The fact that everything is in a state of vibration also means that everything is creating sound. And as sound is created, there is a master listener to receive the sound: water.
Why would crystal formation be affected by music, and why completely different results would be reached depending on the spoken and written words water was exposed to.
Water, so sensitive to the unique frequencies emitted by the world, essentially and efficiently mirrors the outside world. Music and spoken words are vibration; they are easily understood and interpreted by just about anyone.
Sounds like the chant created by a human voice at a Buddhist funeral create a healing frequency."~Dr. Masaru Emoto
Are our bodies not made up mostly of water? We are 70-80% water.
Opinion, fact? What is the real truth? You can feel truth, but naming it is harder. Try the simple chant “Sat Nam” which in Sanskrit means “the truth of who I am” or “my true identity” Chant this mantra for a few minutes. Then sit and feel truth. What do you notice about how you feel and how you perceive things? The same or different?
We are now in a new Heart-Centered Age. And I am amazed, challenged, finding my way, and so happy to know music lives in me and my heart and to be able to express that.
So, start singing now! Keep singing. In the car, the shower, to your kids and grandkids, to the moon, the sun, the stars, to the Goddess and God, to our planet Gaia, to her waters, to your own precious heart.
This is my first post on my new blog, I have been hesitant to write it. Like starting any new project, relationship or endeavor, it's the first step that can be the hardest. The title of my new blog, is: drumroll... "The Sounds of My Heart"! I am a musician and a healer and my intention is to bring my heart into the world through music and sound. I have been a Songwriter and Singer for as long as I can remember, but "officially" for the past 16 years! When my daughter Miranda was born I was so profoundly changed and moved by the presence of her shining soul, that it became almost instantly clear what my path would be. She is my angel and my teacher. So many are teachers. When I first heard Snatam Kaur's music http://snatamkaur.com/ I was enchanted with her music, I was enchanted with chant! I could not listen to enough kirtan. I had it playing in my house, I sang it, I went to kirtans. I felt the way it elevated me, almost instantly! Music is powerful. Devotional singing is the ultimate power because it calls forth Love straight from the heart. The heart that lives in you and in me that is divinely connected to All That Is. The Love that has the power to change visibly and invisibly all things around and inside of us. Here are the lyrics to a new song I just wrote called "Riotous Singing" Singing is healing, joyful and upliftingly riotous!
riotous~
1. proceeding from or of the nature of riots or rioting
2. inciting to riot
3. characterized by boisterous or unrestrained merriment
*riotously adv.
*riotousness n.
singing~
1. Music
a. To produce the musical sound of
b. To utter with musical inflections
c. To bring a specified state by singing
2. To intone or chant
3. To proclaim or extol, especially in verse
* Music n
*A gathering of people for group singing
*To call out: To sing loudly
Riotous Singing Close your eyes, breath in the night, close your eyes See the colors, twirl and twirling, orbs of light
And this riotous singing, brings me closer to You And this riotous singing, brings me closer to You.
Hear this music, feel this Love, How can we stay in this impossible dreaming?
And this riotous singing, brings me closer to You, And this riotous singing, brings me closer to You.
Close your eyes, breath in the light, breath in the light
All these angels, all around us,
How can we stay in this impossible dreaming?
And this riotous singing, brings me closer to You
And this riotous singing, brings me closer to You.
Ong Soung Wahe Guru...(a chant used in Kundalini Yoga)
Ong So-hung~
Ong -The Creative Consciousness of the Universe
So-hung -I am that!
Chanting this mantra stimulates ond opens the heart chakra. It is a beautiful recognition that each of us is a part of the Creative Consciousness of the Universe.
Wahe Guru~
Wahe -is a statement of awe and ecstasy.
Guru- is the one who brings us from darkness to light.
This is a mantra of the Infinity of ecstasy and dwelling in God. It expresses the indescribable experience of going from darkness to light (from ignorance to true understanding). It is the Infinite teachers of the soul.
Here is a chant that will open your heart and clear that space. Try it!
*Notice how you feel in your body, tense, happy, sad, any places that are hurting either physically or emotionally or both. Now chant or sing "Ong So-Hung" for 11 minutes. You could be sitting quietly or you could be doing the dishes or working in the garden, walking or driving(keep your eyes open while driving please!)...You can chant it out loud or quietly in your mind. I suggest chanting out loud if you can! Notice how you feel afterwards. The same? Different? Enjoy!
