A New Years Eve Sound Healing Experience
The best start of a new year I've ever had
New Years Greetings, dear readers and fellow healers.
We have an opportunity in 2025 to create something new we've never made before.
So I’m starting a new outline for multiple sections to Health Positive!
I. Opening/greeting
II. Herb of the day
III. Main story / interview
IV. Declarations of truth
First, the herb of the day
Cinnamon -- a very good internal warmer with a warming-to-hot, but smooth and sweet energy.
The bark of the Cassia (Chinese) Cinnamon tree [Cinnamomum cassia] is a hot herb that can produce considerable internal warming effects and improve circulation, kidney and digestive function. It is used in Chinese medicine (TCM) much like Cayenne (Capsicum) is used in western herbalism: as an assistant herb in formulas as an activator.
Ceylon Cinnamon is a milder form, warming but not hot. Both have analgesic properties to help alleviates aches due to poor circulation — especially among those with a tendency for cold extremities.
Here is how Cassia Cinnamon is used in Chinese medicine (TCM):
A teaspoon or so of Cinnamon powder can chase away internal cold and help get rid of accumulated fluid. It is milder and more well rounded than Capsicum (which is better for relieving cold shock). It thins out congealed blood and activates the circulation, alleviating aches.
Cinnamon can warm the body before going out into the cold similarly to Ginger root. Cinnamon works more on the kidneys and can help regulate blood sugar levels. It is definitely a stimulant, so there is a limit to how much you want to take at a time, and how close to bedtime you want to take it.
If the milder Ceylon Cinnamon doesn’t work well enough, try the Cassia Cinnamon.
The new year’s eve sound healing experience
My wife Heather and I attended a multi-instrument sound healing concert on new year’s eve as led by Nicole Alcyon.
I went with the intention of just enjoying the experience and finding out what it felt like. I did not take any pictures or record anything so I could just be present.
Some thoughts from Nicole about sound healing
I asked her to comment about the possible benefits of sound healing for those that are new to it.
I would say it helps to relax one deeper than they can generally achieve on their own. It brings a greater sense of peacefulness and people report feeling "lighter" - not carrying around all the stress, and other lower vibrational energies. In short, sound healing can bring immediate relief to the everyday stresses and allow one to more fully relax. And the [more] open and receptive they are to it, the more it can heal the Body-Mind-Spirit on a deeper level.
The scene
We arrived at an old Lutheran church turned community center. The sanctuary with its steeply vaulted ceiling made for a nicely resonating space for the instruments.
Nicole kept the lighting very soft and focused around the stage area. Most of the instruments were there. Gongs, drums, crystal bowls, brass bowls, bells, and more.
We all brought blankets to keep us warm. Most people were lying on the floor, but Heather and I sat at the back on a pew.
I was advised by Biofield Tuning practitioner, Lori Brown, to make sure to be fully hydrated so the experience would be a pleasant one. The sound vibrates through the water in our bodies.
What we experienced
Nicole started off with a guided meditation to center us in the space and to seal it off from any distracting energies outside the space. Then she began to play her instruments.
I found the gongs especially helpful in breaking from life outside the space. Their sounds were different from those I’d heard on TV or in movies.
From the beginning I found myself taking deep breaths and sinking into the experience.
I could not tell you what order the instruments sounded out, and I don’t think it matters. Eventually, the resonances took over and after around and hour I was so relaxed and deeply meditative that I had to lie down on my side. I stayed there quite a while and went to my own place inside.
I did think some of the typical go-and-do thoughts as I lay there, but they were fewer and clearer. It became clear that this pattern has been an anxiety-driven attempt to do enough to settle an unease with myself rooted in a fear that can never be satisfied with external action.
Nicole and her collaborator moved among us to get the sounds of all the instruments close to everyone. I just stayed present for all of them with no preferences about their sounds.
The experience lasted about 2 hours, and Nicole gently brought us back.
As we got up and left, my movements were slower as the relaxation continued well after. This felt both like a clearing out of what I want to leave behind and like a reset for starting the new year.
I didn’t really talk to anyone as we left. I wanted to savor what it felt like and just gently make our way home.
My wife Heather:
I found the sound healing to be relaxing. I felt rejuvenated afterwards and in a better mood than I was when I entered.
I haven’t sought out a scientific explanation for why it works. I prefer one that makes more sense to the life I have lived and to the feelings of life that science never seems to understand.
We are all light and sound. If a particular aspect (frequency) of our being is neglected or fades, we can enhance it, bringing back the music that is the real self.
We are music. Consider how the voice of someone you can be music to your ears. The voice of a long-lost friend. The voice of mother or a caretaker.
Even the tonal languages of humans (Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, Yoruba, Bantu, Igbo, Zulu, Hmong, etc) can be quite musical in how they are expressed, regardless of the speaker.
Extending the metaphor of sound to life
Its not what happens or what we do — but how we respond to it.
Each response is a decision that can be graceful or dissonant.
That is what sets up resonance and pattern.
Anything we could call a ‘mistake’ is just a learning opportunity. If no one is harmed, is it really a ‘mistake’ anyway?
I have certainly lived too much of my life judging what I did or did not do, or how it turned out. The music stops when we stop listening and start judging.
Sound healing facilitates liberating insights
In the last week or so I discovered the moment I set the stage for developing arthritis in 2014. A situation — in which I had actually succeeded with a client — developed in such a way as to frustrate my expectations for how it should go and how a client should respond. I judged myself for not having the ‘force of personality’ to make it meet my expectations.
Later that year that subconscious self-punishment hit my body in the form of severe arthritis pain. I made no connection whatsoever to the prior self-judgment. It felt random and confusing.
In the space of just a couple weeks I went from a vigorous walker to being virtually incapacitated by pain.
It is really hard to judge anything so long as we are moving with the music
That is now my working metaphor for life.
Sound healing has facilitated these gifts of insight into myself and the cause-and-effect of my life. I feel more empowered than I have in a long time — maybe more than at any time in my life so far.
I wish this kind of liberation and healing for all of you.
I will certainly continue, taking this as far as it will go.
Declarations of Truth
You are a totally unique and necessary piece of All That Is.
The Universe cannot be what it is without you.
No one and nothing can replace you — ever.
Any thought that leaves you feeling unworthy is a lie.
You are worthy of the best you can imagine for yourself.
We are all loved far more than we can ever know with our limited human minds.
The entire Universe is set up to support you and your happiness.
We are all in this together.
Please share this post and spread the healing
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