SPACE

Gifting yourself the opportunity to practice intentional deep listening can be a beautiful way to give your entire being a sense of deeper rest, rejuvenation, and recalibration.

As an Artist I approach sound as a medium, and take great comfort in thinking about soundscapes behaving as if learning a language; there is such a beautiful complexity to the art of noise itself, each artifact (instrument), as well as the nuance of the practitioner and the receiver, that it takes time, immersion, and an attitude of curiosity to really dig into the wonder of it. One doesn’t need to get heady about it, though (if that’s you, skip this part), for it can be exceptionally accessible and perfectly alright to just partake and enjoy the ride as a “tourist” without more than knowing a few words (“hello”, “thank you”, “yes”, and “no”). If you are however a “traveller” (adventurer, quest-seeker, journey-taker…) I’ve included this page for you!

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The full body receives sound waves; in yoga there are many systems the help describe these bodies and states of being, and here I’ll use the “kosas” (or “koshas”) to help illustrate. The kosas (“sheaths”) layer our experience of “body” as not only physical, but as an enmeshed multidimensional body with connections between the dosas made as “union” (yoga) that are physical (Anamaya), energetic (Pranamaya), mental/emotional/sensory (Manomaya), intuitive/knowing (Vijnanamaya), and of bliss (Anandamaya). By discerning through these kosas, as an example, we can start to perceive how we experience stimuli of the body in different ways, while they are all still a part of our experience as a body. Sound waves can create a symphony of the body through evoking entrainment in some bodies (kosas) and resonance in others, and harmony of some as well.

Entrainment is when two or more elements (as broken down into oscillating waves) adjust their frequencies to match each other; becoming same/belonging/together in sync/coordination of multiple elements. Resonance is the tendency for one element to vibrate it’s natural frequency with more intensity when introduced to another stimuli that excites it to do so (there is a spectrum of response available) – usually at or near to it’s natural frequency. Harmony can describe a state of agreement between multiple elements resulting from a compatibility/complimentary frequency with each other.

Some sounds we like, others we do not, and so is like life. While we are absorbing sound waves most of the time, when we sit with the intention to direct our awareness to the stimulus of sounds at a Sound-happening, we have opportunity to amplify/expand our intelligence to include a broader spectrum of response. At times there is, for example, resonance in the manomaya kosa to the stimulus of a crystal singing bowl that allows your natural manomaya (let’s say an emotion, such as joy) frequency to intensify and unionize (yoga) in harmony with your anamaya kosa (let’s say as a small smile relaxing your facial muscles) and provide you with a simple, easy stimuli-response experience of aliveness. Or, at other times our complexity can be entrained to just one frequency.

…all while you can relax the body at rest.

If you ask me, the real results of any Sound-offering are from just lying down for a while and giving the body (all the bodies) stillness for a little while… the elements of sound are just a beautiful tool that can help us achieve this.

The most significant impact on my own nervous system (CPTSD, ASD) apart from regulating with other safe people/animals/environments has been in my practice of Savasana (laying-down yoga posture). Allowing myself to un-do as much as possible so that I may receive as easily as possible my aliveness (“Savastha” can translate as “returning to the seat of one’s essence”) has been what gives me space to discover & explore my own healing & health.

I could speak more in platitudes of effects & miracles, woo-woo, and more yoga or science-y stuff like theta waves, binaural beats, Schumann resonance… but unless you inquire I’m most interested in allowing you to have your own experience outside of any expectations or preconceptions (aside these FAQs intended to guide you toward the type of experience you want to have; gentle/intense). Placebo is a real thing, so instead I choose to invest my energy in trusting my knowledge, experience, and extensive practice to hold these spaces safe for you to just be and do as I have done… listen and discover; to just lay tf down for a little while and try to feel instead of think.

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about wtf is it:

I’ve learned through public practice that my entire skillsets as a nature-lover, Yogi, Teacher of Yoga & Meditation, my journey as a lifelong Musician (classical to experimental), and as a professional multi-media Artist (intervention/installation), including my keen pattern-recognition/intuition and sensitivity are all brought to the table when I arrive; that these are qualities of my knowing that bend my path of finding my soundscapes.

The other ingredients for my soundscapes are the artifacts (instruments) themselves… that they have voices of their own and that they change as I do (“a man can not step into the same river twice” -proverb) AND that they are influenced by whomever is around them (that’s you!). Rather than speculating or professing more on this (because you know it that I could…!), it is easier to simply accept and embrace. In this spirit we & the artifacts become the medium, i.e the paint that makes the painting.

The largest impact of artifacts is the 42″ Wind Gong, which when played forte (loud) can be a complete game-changer for exploring awareness (meditation), so she is not used in the “gentle” sound baths that usually accompany some restful somatic practices like restorative yoga or guided breathing. When she is in her forte state, this is done skillfully and for temporary duration as I’ve been educated to play her.

My orchestra waxes and wanes, expands and contracts, inhales and exhales but can consist of a variety of crystal or metal singing bowls, Koshi chimes (wind chimes), shruthi box (droning wind accordion), stringed instruments (monochord, violin, mandolin), bells, gongs, the room, wooden frogs or shells, hide drums and seed shakers, ocarina and wood flutes, rain sticks or ocean drums. The most human component I enjoy is to connect through my voice in bija sounds (i.e. OM) or Sanskrit mantra/chanting, and in breathing together.

Even when a “gentle” offering, I am approaching these sessions at an internal intensity to reach deep places in the psyche with the light of these frequencies in the way in which they are known to invoke altered states. Sh*t can get weird. My approach to the Art of Sound at this level are to me as Ceremony and with great reverence; my profession an Artist of interference and as yoga practitioner with academic background in psychotherapy (and as neurodivergent) I’m aware of and have experienced a wide spectrum of these effects and I offer them to you in the most gentle and beautiful way; this includes offering the light & the darkness together and within the container of a safe space.

If you have any aversion to the experience you are having in the space, you are more than welcome to approach the “rescue” methods I deliver to you before we begin (breathing, movements that include swaying or rocking, and holding the ears), or to simply leave the room. At moonSHALA there is a cozy place near the washroom, or even in the garden for you to calm yourself away from the intensity you are experiencing while the session completes. I encourage you to then re-enter the space and let me know if you are ok, at which point we can assess together whatever resources you need to reclaim state of calm before leaving.

SPACE

SPAC