“Music was my refuge.  I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
– Maya Angelou

The Power of Music

The power of music and its ability to heal has been felt throughout generations of every culture. Through instruments and voices from around the globe, the spiritual essence of music has been infused inside of every one of us. Music can truly be a vehicle for healing the body mind and spirit. Music can heal the listener, the creator and the player. It can affect passersby with a single note and can break down walls of loneliness and despair.

Music does heal. We all know that in some way, we feel it! We know it’s there by dramatic changes in our body. Our heart rate, our blood pressure, respiration and brain activity can all be affected by music. We know it’s there when we feel a stirring in our heart or a lump in our throat. Music moves energy, emotional, physical, mental and spiritual energy.

Music can remind us of feelings we’ve put aside and chosen not to look at and can inspire us to look and feel things in a different way. Music can bring deep comfort and ignite passion. Music in its finest essence can teach us and become a spiritual doorway for grace to enter into our lives; to awaken us and inspire us to open and transform.

Across our world, prayers are sung everyday using new and ancient words, melody and music. Some prayers have been sung hundreds of millions of times over again by thousands of people over the ages. Sung together in unison or alone in solitude, the power of music is available to us at any time to listen to, to sing or to play.

Music is powerful medicine that we can bring into our lives to support us in our journey to become whole. When we are feeling alone or in a place of suffering, let’s not forget to turn on the music.

Let’s practice

Here is a sample of music for healing. Listen here:for inspiration, direction, or to help with lifting a specific area of negativity in your life.

• Close your eyes and breathe.
• Call up a problem to be healed, see it with your mind’s eye or simply ask for inspiration and direction.
• Ask for whatever you may need in the next 5 minutes to calm you, heal you and restore you. Use your intention and breathe.

If you do not see a music player here, please update your audio plugins (flash player).

A Controversial Word

We are all acquainted with the controversial word psychic. Although the word translated comes from a French word simply meaning clear sight or clear seeing, many of us associate anything psychic with gypsies, crystal balls, or reality TV shows. The term psychic has certainly gotten a bad rap over the centuries with public displays of charlatan sideshows, fraudulent practices and scientific skepticism but is now slowly coming back into public awareness with a very specific understanding in relation to societal evolution and human awakening. The word psychic is actually a term that encompasses a number of traits and abilities that have been labeled “extra sensory” or in addition to the 5 basic senses of the body. The 5 basic senses as we have been taught are known as eye sight, olfactory (smell), auditory hearing from the ear, taste from taste buds on the tongue, and touch with the skin. Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth and Skin. Anything perceived outside of these basic receptors have been considered “extra sensory” and fall under the term extra sensory perception (E.S.P.) or psychic within the guidelines of post-modern culture.

There aren’t too many of us that would consider ourselves, psychic or having E.S.P because the worlds of altered states and supernatural awareness do not seem to have a place in our common daily life experience. Our understanding of “clear seeing” is often thought of as being otherworldly, strange or gifts that only special people have but that is not the case.

Born as Multi-sensory Human

We have all been born as multi-sensory humans, which include various aspects of clear seeing. In addition to the 5 basic senses we also sense through clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience, all which derive from basic human experiences of intuition. There are certainly varying degrees of how we all perceive, with some of us better than others but we all have the ability. In fact, most of us can remember more times than one where we knew something was going to happen before it did or had a gut feeling about something that came true. It’s in our wiring, in our nervous system and it is the way our soul communicates with us to give us higher information. Whether we listen to what our soul speaks to us or not is entirely another issue. Regardless of our awareness, our ability to experience life as a multi-sensory being is still there. So why not pause to listen?

Author and teacher Gary Zukav describes multisensory perception as living with the awareness of your soul:

“It is (also) resonating with the idea that you are more than a mind and a body, that you are a soul, and that there is a difference between your personality and your soul. Your personality is your mind, your body and your intuitional structure. Your soul is that part of you that existed before you were born and that will exist after you die. It is that part of you that longs for harmony, cooperation, sharing and reverence for life. As you create your life with those intentions, you align yourself with your soul. Your experience becomes one of continual gratitude and joy, even when things are difficult. Multisensory perception is awareness from a soul level.” Gary Zukav – Source

Into a Resilient Life

As we move into a resilient life it is so important to see ourselves as multi-sensory beings and learn to trust what we hear, and see and feel on a subtle level. A good way to start is to spend more time in quiet and stillness and in nature with the intention of listening to your soul. Simply by being present with the sounds and energies around you with the intension of experiencing your highest knowing open the door to a multi-sensory experience. When we give permission to ourselves to experience life in an expanded state and in partnership with all of the subtle cues and nuances that are ever present, we can begin creating a beautiful and authentic foundation of resiliency.

-Lauren Monroe Allen

Self-compassion is a challenging and beautiful path towards resiliency. It may be easy for some of us to be compassionate towards others but to ourselves? Not so easy. Most of us are very hard on ourselves and very seldom take the time to stop judging and treat our selves with kindness. The following excerpts from the Huffington Post article called “Forget Self-Esteem” by Heidi Grant Halverson PhD highlights how self-compassion leads to higher levels of personal well-being, optimism and happiness, and to less anxiety and depression.

Forget Self-Esteem

A growing body of research, including new studies by Berkeley’s Juliana Breines and Serena Chen, suggest that self-compassion, rather than self-esteem, may be the key to unlocking your true potential for greatness.

Now, I know that some of you are already skeptical about a term like “self-compassion.” But this is a scientific, data-driven argument—not feel-good pop psychology. So hang in there and keep an open mind.

Self-compassion is a willingness to look at your own mistakes and shortcomings with kindness and understanding—it’s embracing the fact that to err is indeed human. When you are self-compassionate in the face of difficulty, you neither judge yourself harshly, nor feel the need to defensively focus on all your awesome qualities to protect your ego. It’s not surprising that self-compassion leads, as many studies show, to higher levels of personal well-being, optimism and happiness, and to less anxiety and depression.

But what about performance? Self-compassion may feel good, but aren’t the people who are harder on themselves, who are driven to always be the best, the ones who are ultimately more likely to succeed?

To answer that, it’s important to understand what self-compassion is not. While the spirit of self-compassion is to some degree captured in expressions like “give yourself a break” and “cut yourself some slack,” it is decidedly not the same thing as taking yourself off the hook or lowering the bar. You can be self-compassionate while still accepting responsibility for your performance. And you can be self-compassionate while striving for the most challenging goals—the difference lies not in where you want to end up, but in how you think about the ups and downs of your journey. As a matter of fact, if you are self-compassionate, new research suggests you are more likely to actually arrive at your destination.

The Research

In their studies, Brienes and Chen asked participants to take either a self-compassionate or self-esteem enhancing view of a setback or failure. For example, when asked to reflect on a personal weakness, some were asked to ‘imagine that you are talking to yourself about this weakness from a compassionate and understanding perspective. What would you say?’

Others were asked to instead focus on boosting their self-esteem: “Imagine that you are talking to yourself about this weakness from a perspective of validating your positive qualities. What would you say?”

People who experienced self-compassion were more likely to see their weaknesses as changeable. Self-compassion—far from taking them off the hook—actually increased their motivation to improve and avoid the same mistake again in the future.

This increased motivation lead to demonstrably superior performance. For instance, in one study, participants who failed an initial test were given a second chance to improve their scores. Those who took a self-compassionate view of their earlier failure studied 25 percent longer, and scored higher on a second test, than participants who focused on bolstering their self-esteem.

Why is self-compassion so powerful? In large part, because it is non-evaluative—in other words, your ego is effectively out of the picture – you can confront your flaws and foibles head on. You can get a realistic sense of your abilities and your actions, and figure out what needs to be done differently next time.

When your focus is instead on protecting your self-esteem, you can’t afford to really look at yourself honestly. You can’t acknowledge the need for improvement, because it means acknowledging weaknesses and shortcomings—threats to self-esteem that create feelings of anxiety and depression. How can you learn how to do things right when it’s killing you to admit—even to yourself—that you’ve done them wrong?

Here’s an unavoidable truth: You are going to screw up.

Everyone —including very successful people— makes boatloads of mistakes. The key to success is, as everyone knows, to learn from those mistakes and keep moving forward. But not everyone knows how. Self-compassion is the how you’ve been looking for. So please, give yourself a break.

Excerpts from “Forget Self-Esteem” by Heidi Grant Halverson PhD

We all know the word. We all understand the concept. But acceptance is one of the hardest inner tasks to accomplish. It’s an inside job that requires absolute and complete honestly and compassion. When it comes to resiliency, self-acceptance is a major piece of the puzzle that we will have to visit again and again throughout our living days.

Why is it so difficult to accept ourselves just as we are?

For many of us, it’s because we have never felt accepted from childhood. We’ve felt not smart enough, not popular enough, maybe not good looking enough. We may have experienced opinions and attitudes within our families and communities that have pushed us into thinking we should be more of what we are not, leaving a feeling of “not good enough” inside of us.

Many of us have gravitated to careers and partners that have made us feel accepted. We’ve secured certain positions in life that have made us feel more accepted but if they are taken away what we are left with in the end is the same old self, the same old fears and self-judgments. To truly accept who we are we must be brave enough to look at what we don’t like about ourselves first.

It’s easy to accept things like, “I’m a good cook”, “I’m a good parent”, “I’m a good soldier or teacher” or “I’m good at fixing things around the house” but it’s much more difficult to accept things about ourselves like “I’m terrified of being abandoned”, “I’m a controlling person” or “I feel worthless”. Often times we are in denial of the things we want to hide from ourselves and the world and in doing so we lose our power and disconnect from ourselves.

When we embrace our shadow selves we begin to shift the energy within us and how we direct it when we are looking out.

When we accept our shadow selves, our frightened selves, our jealous selves, our negativity, we begin a healing journey that will spread outwardly so we can love deeper and with less judgment. To really love yourself truly means to accept yourself, both light and shadow sides.

Remember, it is not possible to push those negative feelings and belief systems to the background to be free from them because they hold energy and energy cannot be destroyed only redirected and transformed. When we love and embrace our perceived shadow sides we redirect the energy and power they hold over us, we can transform them into powerful teachers. How?

SELF-ACCEPTANCE: Tracing Wounds To Their Roots

There are many techniques to support self-acceptance and healing. Here is one basic energy tracing technique that with practice can have a very profound impact. Take at least 5 minutes or trace as far back as you can for as long as you can.

When a reoccurring shadow thought makes itself known make a point to address it. Hold it up in your mind and experience how it feels in your body. Take moments to slowly inhale and exhale deeply, feel your feet on the ground and bring into your mind the earliest recollection you can remember of feeling that way. For instance, if you feel insecure or de-valued you may trace with your memory to a time and place yesterday when you felt the same and then when continuing to trace, remember a time last year and then to when you were 10yrs old where remember being the last person to be chosen to play on a team in the schoolyard. When you find something tangible and it maybe something from yesterday, last year or 20 years ago, stay with it and experience it with compassion breathing in the shadow emotions and transforming them into self-love with every out breath and exhalation. Keep tracing through the years until you find the root, your earliest recollection of the wound. Most importantly, ask your highest self, your divine self for guidance and help. Your higher self knows how to heal your wounded self, always ask for help. It is there, waiting to serve you.

This can be very difficult and emotionally challenging work.

You may practice accepting the same emotion over and over again and it may take month and years to truly embrace it. You may have a break through after 1 day and see yourself with love and compassion for the first time in your life. It is different every day with every person. Participate without any expectations just experience it as a practice of resiliency with the intention of seeing and accepting yourself the way you would love and accept a small child.

Becoming a resilient and happy person is a warrior’s path.

It requires courage and absolute focus but instead of the focus being outward, the focus is inward. The enemy is not out there… it is in here, in the mind. When we change our perspective, how we look at ourselves and how we think we can change our world and how we feel in it.

Lauren Monroe Allen

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. Marine Corps, known for turning out some of the military’s toughest warriors, is studying how to make its troops even tougher through meditative practices, yoga-type stretching and exercises based on mindfulness.

Marine Corps officials say they will build a curriculum that would integrate mindfulness-based techniques into their training if they see positive results from a pilot project. Mindfulness is a Buddhist-inspired concept that emphasizes active attention on the moment to keep the mind in the present.

Facing a record suicide rate and thousands of veterans seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress, the military has been searching for ways to reduce strains on service members burdened with more than a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marine Corps officials are testing a series of brain calming exercises called “Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training” that they believe could enhance the performance of troops, who are under mounting pressures from long deployments and looming budget cuts expected to slim down forces.

“Some people might say these are Eastern-based religious practices but this goes way beyond that,” said Jeffery Bearor, the executive deputy of the Marine Corps training and education command at its headquarters in Quantico, Va.. “This is not tied to any religious practice. This is about mental preparation to better handle stress.”

(Marines Studying Mindfulness-Based Training By JULIE WATSON Associated Press Jan.19,2013)

What is Mindfulness? And how can we achieve more of it in our daily lives?

Mindfulness is a practice of watching your thoughts and observing the actions and reactions of your mind. Being mindful is using your awareness to observe yourself.  Most of our time is spent thinking about things that have occurred in the past or projecting things that may or may not occur in the future. Being mindful brings us into an awareness of what is happening in the present. It allows us to engage and participate in what and how we think instead of being a helpless bystander of our thoughts. When we are mindful we can alter situations and make choices that can strengthen our ability to be resilient and keep us clear.

Being mindful can serve us very well in protecting ourselves from ourselves, from our negative and deconstructive thoughts, and habitual patterns of perceiving our circumstance. We all have learned patterns of thinking which we have developed over time and life experience. Some are positive and some are negative. It’s the negative chatter that can keep us in a downward spiral. Being aware of these negative thoughts can give us the opportunity to acknowledge them with compassion.

We can practice mindfulness as we move through our day or we can sit and practice mindfulness in stillness with our eyes closed. Doing simple chores and tasks throughout the day like driving, sitting at the computer, washing dishes, riding the elevator, washing the car can be redefined into valuable practice time transforming seemingly mundane activities into moments of mind body connection.

How?

Focus on your breathing; be aware of where your body is in space. Where are your feet? Feel them on the floor. Where are your arms?  Open your hands. Is your jaw tight? Is your back tense? Breathe and focus on relaxing areas of tension. Breath away mental tension by focusing on particular conflicts in your mind and visualize then dissipating, fading or being lifted. Breathing serves as an anchor point for your mind, a point of focus and a quick path to bringing your body oxygen and energy. So many times throughout the day we are so unaware of our breathing that we are actually holding are breath.

Mindfulness is a method and gateway to learning about yourself and the world around you. With practice it can dramatically change your focus and bring you a deeper connection to life.

Lauren Monroe Allen

Rick Allen became the drummer for Def Leppard at age 15. At the height of worldwide fame in 1984, he had a car accident that changed his life. Rick lost an arm, but turned personal tragedy into spiritual transformation and continued his musical career. While he was already a hero to millions of young people, he soon added millions of new admirers. Since then Rick has been reaching out and giving support to others all over the globe by sharing his personal experiences and his love of drumming. Over the past 10 years Rick has reached out to teenage cancer patients, children with special needs, at risk youth in crisis, families of domestic violence and veterans who have served in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. He was awarded the Humanitarian Award by Maria Shriver’s Best Buddies of CA in 2002 and continues his work through the Veteran Resiliency Project created by his nonprofit the Raven Drum Foundation.
Visit Rick @
www.twitter.com/RickAllenLive
www.stikrick.com

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Lauren Monroe has been a practitioner and teacher of energy healing since 1992. With an MA in Dance Choreography, a BA in Education, and Advanced Certification in Massage Therapy, her healing arts background includes specialized work with incarcerated teens, hospice care, and crisis healing. She has studied and apprenticed with Christian Benedictine Monks, Tribal Healers of Brazil, Mexico, North America and New Zealand and is an initiated minister of Deeksha Healing. She is the creator of the Advanced Energy Medicine Certification Program at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy 1999-2002, the co-founder of the Raven Drum Foundation and creator of the Veteran Resiliency Project where she teaches and facilitates self-care workshops and empowerment drum circles. A vocalists, songwriter, and musician, Lauren Monroe creates a direct and personal experience of spiritual oneness and healing for audiences and students alike. Her work is an authentic expression of art and medicine that is created for healing and personal growth.

Visit Lauren @
www.twitter.com/LMBLAZE
www.laurenmonroe.com

The Raven Drum Foundation began in 2001 to educate and empower individuals and communities in crisis through healing arts programs, drumming events and collaborative partnerships. Through their personal and professional experiences, founders Rick Allen and Lauren Monroe, have chosen to dedicate their lives to helping people overcome the emotional and physical pain resulting from traumatic events, with a special focus on veterans of war.

Activities

Throughout the years our community and healing drum circles have been at the core of our work and outreach. We have brought the Raven Drum Circle to safe houses for women and children suffering from domestic violence, cancer care centers, hospitals, veteran centers, juvenile detention centers and probation facilities, addiction and recovery facilities, child special needs centers, child physical rehabilitation organizations, HIV teen support groups and torture survivor support groups across the United States.

Places

We have brought circles and workshops to the U.K., Haiti, and Mexico and continue their outreach to people in crisis including wounded warriors and their families.