Banjo Kirtan

Woke up singing. Had a song in my head I wanted to learn- a kirtan actually- so as soon as I got up I went downstairs and listened to a recording I had of it from one of my friends at kirtan camp last summer. She had also recently sent me the chords so I sat down at the harmonium and began learning it. I played straight through until 9:30 a.m. when a friend stopped by to look at some singing bowls. We did the bowl thing, then sat on the porch together and had coffee and a beautiful conversation and connection. When she left I went back to singing until my son Nic and my grandson arrived a little after 11. I learned it on the harmonium, the guitar and the banjo! My first kirtan on the banjo- very exciting!

I had a really nice visit with Nic and Jonah- delicious lunch and badminton and then after they left I went back to playing it for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually I fell asleep on the chaise longue, then got up and went in to Newport to see the new movie "Love and Mercy" about Brian Wilson and was immersed in Beach Boys music for a couple of hours. It is really a pretty incredible movie, very well done, and quite difficult to watch at times, but it is as brilliant as he is and is a really beautiful and powerful tribute to his sensitivity and genius.

And guess what I did when I got back. Yes, I sat right back down with the guitar and started practicing the kirtan again!

Sound Spiral


Very excited that I was able to easily upload videos from my iPhone to YouTube. Why can't I do that with my MacBookPro? Whatever...
I got some new Himalayan singing bowls yesterday and spent hours this afternoon and evening setting them up to create a visual and auditory spiral of sound.
In the second video I refined it a bit more by eliminating a couple of bowls.

Sound Around

Very busy last few days. After doing sound journey for a group of bankers the day before yesterday I had someone call and ask if I could give her son a treatment who has been going through a personal crisis. The session went so well and I hope he will continue for a while. The beauty of sound is that it can cut through the story...

Next Wednesday I am going to be offering demo sessions for the Rhode Island Cancer Summit in Warwick. I will be using tuning forks and singing bowls. The opportunity came through the Integrative Care Program at Women & Infants Hospital where I give treatments to oncology patients 1-2 days a week. The money is not great but the blessings are many and the fact that a hospital is paying anything for alternative treatments is pretty remarkable. I absolutely love the work and the amazing people I get to meet through the program- women who are grateful to be alive and
so proactive about their health, caregivers who need some nurturing for themselves- people who are empowered because they have made the choice to care for themselves in a challenging situation. It is pretty phenomenal.

Today I got a beautiful shipment of Himalayan singing bowls in and I know I will be getting more in about 3 weeks. I am very excited about that!

Sounds Affects

We are sound and we are profoundly affected by sound. Why? Because sound is energy and sound has the power to transform energy. (Think homeopathy- "Like cures like.") It works on all levels- physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. If you look a little more deeply into this video beyond the very cool effects, it actually demonstrates how and why sound can be such a powerful healing tool. We are composed mostly of water and free space, thus our bodies are excellent conductors of sound. Sound waves can penetrate all matter, but it flows easily through our bodies. Find the right frequencies and you can re-harmonize the body, the mind, the emotions- no different than tuning a musical instrument and in fact sometimes more quickly and easily than tuning a temperamental instrument! It's not complicated.

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!

From Kilns to Cars


Tonight I'm writing on my phone so I can tell you right now- it's going to be short and sweet!

Today I had an experience of gratitude. It came about when I was packing my car with my instruments for a Sound Journey I was doing tonight in Newburyport, MA. I used to be a potter and one of the skills I acquired from that is being a great packer- from kilns to cars! I had all the instruments above plus a couple more tubs with instruments for tomorrow's workshop packed into the back of my car with room to spare.

I am falling asleep holding the phone!

Mum, John McDowell and Couch to 5K

Two years ago, about this time of year I started Couch to 5K. I only had six workouts to go when my beautiful mama got so sick that I just wanted to spend every minute I could with her and I stopped running. She passed away at the end of that summer. Winter came and then I severely injured my left foot, so last summer I never got back to my jogging routine.

Today I went out for my first Couch to 5K workout- Week 1, Day 1! I am so happy to get back to it. I wake up thinking about it almost every morning but today was the first day I actually rallied and got my butt out the door. I listened to the marvelous and inspirational John McDowell (appropriately titled "Speaking the Mamma Tongue") while doing my walk/jog/walk routine. It was a joy and I feel like I started my day off on the right note!

Riding the Wave

Breaking Wave- photo by Andrew Schmidt
A little while ago I was feeling tired and spacey so I decided to take a break and go on the vibroacoustic table in my living room for a while. What a ride! I listened to the entire CD Winds of Devotion by Carlos Nakai and Nawang Khechog, a beautiful meditative blend of Native American and Tibetan flute music and chanting. There are some other great musicians on there too including David Darling, Peter Kater and the late Geoffrey Gordon.

I was in a pretty dreamy state- literally, experiencing snippets of dreams but not sleeping- for quite a while. Then I began feeling some low level anxiety, seemingly unconnected with any actual events or projections- just an awareness of the feeling. My heart rate picked up a bit and I hung out with it, still relaxing into the waves of musical vibration moving through my body, while being curious about what was happening.

Eventually a memory came forth of a frightening experience I had when I was very sick a few years ago. I had a terrible respiratory infection and woke up one night with a high fever and horrible coughing fit. I got up to use the bathroom and was hallucinating- I couldn't find the light and thought there was an animal in the bathtub. I began screaming for my boyfriend, Henry, who was sleeping on the other side of the house because I was so sick. I was in a state of terror, screaming, crying and coughing, unable to make sense of any of it.

The memory faded and my anxiety dissipated. I slipped back into the calm rhythmic entrainment of the music.  When it was over I got up feeling clear, calm, balanced, energized and happy.

I don't know exactly what that was about- perhaps a thread of the trauma that was still in my body which the music released. I do know that the illness was very traumatic and I was the sickest I have ever been in my adult life. Ever since, whenever I thought about it or talked about it, I would get triggered emotionally- except that now I don't feel triggered by it at all. I feel a very calm detachment from it for perhaps the first time.
 
MUSIC
Music is silence,
music is mountain,
music is freedom,
music is universal,
music is heart,
music is bridge,
music is temple,
music is teacher,
music is path,
path to compassion, love, forgiveness, wisdom,
spirituality, freedom,
joy, happiness, divinity,
and inner-peace.

~Nawang Khechog~

Staying in the Game


I am completely exhausted tonight and making a real effort to get to bed at a reasonable time. So, I am shipping tonight by updating my Airbnb website, plus creating an event for my Saturday evening Healing Sound Journey and Sunday workshop in Newburyport, MA. So far only one person signed up for workshop but that's what we thought in Holland too and ended up with enough people to cover my plane fare and I made some money beyond that- so I'm not throwing in the towel just yet!

Inner Tuning

"Slowly the musician is tuned, ever so slowly; doing nothing but playing." ~Patrick Smith~

Earlier this evening I had decided that I was going to write about how I have observed music healing my brother, who decided when he turned fifty that he wanted to play the guitar. Tonight I went to listen to him play at an open mic. I am constantly astonished at how much better he has gotten over time. He is persistent and dedicated to his practice- and I have observed the guitar tuning him, both physiologically, his voice due to the resonance of the body of the guitar against his own body as well as his emotional body. It has been a beautiful journey to witness.
When I got home and opened my computer to write, the first thing I saw was a blog entry by Patrick Smith which ended with the above quote. It could not have been more apropos. To read the rest of his blog entry click here.

Song With No Words

This morning I got up- for about 5 minutes. I took out my 12-string guitar which I have hardly played at all in about four years- not because I don't love it but because the body is too big and it is just a little awkward for me. Sat back down on my bed with it and didn't stop playing for close to two hours.

I had forgotten just how much I love the sound of that guitar. I heard things I had never heard before, beautiful overtones. I also found myself playing in ways that I had never played before and developed some kind of a cool riff in a minor key that I couldn't stop playing. I loved the sound of it.

I sat playing it and wondered how I could be playing better than I had ever played and how I could be making up new riffs when I hadn't practiced in forever and had also put it down for a good 20 years before I started playing again just a few years ago. My technique is lacking but my ear is better- more creative and more open.

I think it is partly due to all the sound healing work that I do. My sense of hearing is much more sensitive and refined- being able to hear more subtle sounds also allows me to produce more subtle sounds. The other thing that crossed my mind was that I seem to be thinking of the creative process differently since I took the Expressive Art Therapy training. In relation to creating art, one of the freeing things for me about the EA process is that when I see something now that inspires me to draw, I don't have to draw or paint the object or person that inspires me. Before that, I had always felt that I had to be able to paint the landscape or the flower or the person perfectly and I didn't have the technique so I always felt frustrated and incompetent. What I learned from Expressive Art Therapy was that I could express the feeling I get from it and get a great deal more satisfaction and joy from the process.

~Not my 12-string guitar!~
I think the same thing is happening for me when I play the guitar. I am experiencing a deeper ability to listen to what wants to be played, as well developing a new kind of openness to what is emerging from the instrument. There are times that I have felt constricted by the belief that I had to either learn, or write, a song. After all, that was why I learned to play the guitar in the first place- because I loved to sing. I have always enjoyed just sitting and playing the guitar, but even when I did that I was mostly playing chords to songs even if I wasn't singing along with them, rather than allowing the song to find itself, so to speak.

Sound Observance

This afternoon when I was out in my yard, I walked over to a honeysuckle bush to smell the blossoms. Nearby I noticed a bumblebee gathering pollen from it. As I stood there and got quiet, a humming began to emerge and as I got quieter still, it grew into a gentle buzzing. It was a large widespread bush with arching branches, only the lower ones drooping down enough for me to smell them and as I stood there I began seeing more and more bumblebees flying lazily from flower to flower. I felt like I was in a sacred space and I crouched down slightly and stepped under the curved branches so that the bush was all around me. I stayed there listening to the electric sound of the bees feeling like I was in a small cathedral enveloped in sound, fragrance and the energy of the bees.  It felt very warm and meditative- in fact I think I shall put a small chair under there so I can spend more time observing the sound and energy. It was such an incredibly pleasant feeling, embraced in that buzzing vibration of life.

The Healing Power of Sound

There is a new film coming out called The Healing Power of Sound. I am wildly excited about this. Apparently was shown at Cannes this past weekend. It is so wonderful that there are more and more films coming out sharing the power of this beautiful, noninvasive, highly effective healing modality. This is good news!
Himalayan singing bowls balance the right and left hemispheres of the brain and create deep alpha and theta waves which induce states of deep relaxation, spontaneous meditation and healing.
Also my teacher Silvia Nakkach has a new CD coming out. She has started a Kickstarter campaign to cover production costs. Given that she is one of the most brilliant, beautiful, beautiful, wise and talented women and teachers that I know, with a voice like silk and honey, of course I am supporting her campaign to spread her sweet sounds. I hope you will click here and go to the link and check out the video. Really- it is just so sweet and you will get a lovely sample of her voice!

Turn Up the Volume

This is Lord Dhanwantari, an avatar of Vishnu and the embodiment of perfect health. I could use a little of his magic right now.
Here is a video of the Dhanvantari mantra that I taped in a workshop a few years ago.

I am very tired but feeling slightly better than yesterday although feverish earlier. When I was in Holland my friend Paul turned me on to a lot more Peter Gabriel that I was not familiar with. I really hadn't listened to him much in close to 20 years, other than one track with the Blind Boys of Alabama on The Long Walk Home, the soundtrack to Rabbit-Proof Fence.

Today I have had a song going through my head that I listened to several times when I was in the Netherlands. I recommend connecting to some good speakers and turning up the volume.

Back to the Boggy Blog!

Okay- I haven't blogged in three days. This is an acknowledgement! I just got home from Holland yesterday and have a pretty bad sore throat so I must scramble off to bed. I had to write a tiny bit though so I get back in my blogging groove. Holland was wonderful and I am back to my computer so now I can post pictures with ease!











Here are a few highlights- maybe for the quality of the photo, the colour, the light or the event...

Tensegrity, Home and Healing Sounds

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Sound-Healing-Journey---workshop-with-Rosie-Warburton.html?soid=1101953514758&aid=d8x8hPiz9nQ

Looking forward to going home on Tuesday. Holland has been wonderful, beautiful, busy and at times quite intense. Today I have participated in a powerful Course in Miracles process group and tonight will give one of the participants a sound healing session. Tomorrow I give a session to someone else who has been giving some Tensegrity classes (https://www.cleargreen.com) here and is giving me a little extra help with it tomorrow so that hoepfully I can do some more practice when I get home. I have really been loving it and can easily see how powerful and effective it can be for training and toning the body and mind.

In Brugge

Paul and I went to Brugge today. The soundtrack was 80's music most of the way. On the way back an hour and a half of Ludovico Einaudi followed by an amazing CD by Peter Gabriel called Scratch My Back- all compositions by other people arranged by him. Phenomenal.