Chakra Dancer

Check Out My New Blog!

2011-11-20T11:17:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

I finally started my new blog, Vocalize and Sing! ( http://vocalizeandsing.blogspot.com) Click on link to the left of this blog. That blog will contain ONLY vocal and singing info and any events related to exploring the Voice, learning songs, info about singers, links to other vocal events and teachers.
Please check it out and I would love to hear any comments, feedback, or receive any vocal info that you might know of.

Thanks and Happy Singing!

Barbara

Speech Level Singing and the Chakras

2011-10-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

My many previous years of working, playing, healing, dancing and in many other ways, developing my connection with the Chakras, have provided a wonderful background for my current passion of developing my connection with Voice. My own Vocal Development has been primarily through the method that I have written copious amounts about in previous blogs -- and that is Speech Level Singing.

Speech Level Singing (SLS for short) is a brilliant, and very sensible down to earth vocal technique that was developed by Seth Riggs (who lives and continues to teach in LA, California). I have been a passionate student of this vocal technique for over two and a half years now -- check back to some of my previous blogs to hear more about that incredible journey.

Prior to my "Awakening Vocal Passion", my focus was the Chakras -- the energy centres of the body -- hence the original title of this blog "Chakra Dancer". That title may soon have to change since I seem to be writing more about the voice now than anything else. But the exciting discovery that I have been making, as I come to understand more about Speech Level Singing, is that, for me, there is a profound and exciting connection between SLS and Chakras. Although you wouldn't likely hear an SLS teacher speaking about Chakras, you would hear, in an SLS lesson, a lot about Chest Voice, Head Voice and the Middle or Mix Voice (which is the bridge between the Head Voice and the Chest Voice). In "Chakra" language, and in my way of experiencing the Voice and the Chakras, the Chest Voice, with its beautiful deep resonant quality connects us more deeply with the lower three Chakras -- the Root, the Sacral and the Solar Plexus. These are the Chakras that help us stay grounded, connected and functioning in this physical Earthly reality we currently live in. The Head Voice, with its lighter, more ethereal quality and higher vibration, connects us more with the upper three Chakras -- the Throat Chakra, the Third Eye Chakra and the Crown Chakra. These Chakras relate to our Spiritual, Intuitive, Creative, Divine, Wise Nature. The Middle or Mix Voice is the transition from Chest Voice to Head Voice. It is the bridge between that powerful deep low earthy vocal vibration and that higher headier more spiritual type of vibration. In the Chakra system, it is the Heart Chakra that is the bridge between our lower, earth bound physical nature and our higher spiritual nature. In SLS, the Bridge, or Mix Voice is a combination of Chest Voice and Head Voice that becomes gradually lighter as we sing up into the higher notes, or gradually deepens as we move down more fully into the lower range.

One really wonderful thing I have learned through my Speech Level Singing training is that we ALL have a Chest Voice and we ALL have a Head Voice. And it is very possible to train the Voice to connect between those two parts of our Voices. In other words, we probably all have a much greater vocal range than most of us ever thought possible. From my understanding (and brief experience) of older methods of singing instruction, Voices were generally classified as Soprano, or Baritone, or Tenor etc.This labelling of Voices meant that Voices were severely limited in range and possibility. And since the Voice is connected with the nervous system, that means that a part of the nervous system was being overworked while the rest of it would lie dormant. That also meant one portion of the voice was being overused while the rest of it was lying dormant. In Speech Level Singing, we get to develop the Whole Voice.

A similar thing happens in the Chakra system. Some people may go through life with an overabundance of energy and focus in the lower three Chakras which means they become overly focused on material gain and overly dependent on external status symbols and power. This can lead to greed and conflict and a feeling of disconnection from one's true values. Other people may feel more energy in their upper three Chakras and more drawn to things that are spiritual and psychic in nature. Being overly focused in this upper realm can leave one feeling disconnected from the body and the physical world and it can make coping with everyday realities more difficult. This also means that the nervous system becomes overdeveloped and overused in one area and underdeveloped in another area of our lives and physical bodies. Most of us do have a tendency to operate more from either the Upper Chakras or from the Lower Chakras, just as most of us tend to speak or vocalize or sing more from our Head Voice or more from our Chest Voice.

The ideal Vocal situation is to learn to vocalize and sing through our Entire Vocal Range.

In the case of the Chakras, the ideal is to develop an equal flow of energy through our Entire Chakra System. We open the door to this flow of energy through the Heart which is the bridge between our Lower Earthy Nature and our Higher, Divine Nature. Both aspects of ourselves are equally important to our functioning as a Whole Human Being.

Developing Head Voice and Chest Voice and connecting them through the Mix Voice or Bridge are equally important to freeing the Entire Range of Our Voices.

In Sanskrit (an ancient East Indian language), the Throat Chakra (the energy centre which is the most directly connected with Voice) is called Vishudda. That word literally means Purification. Freeing the Voice and allowing it to move and dance between Head and Chest, or through the Upper and Lower Chakras, can create a powerful catharsis and cleansing of our energy system. It can also awaken those previously dormant aspects of our nervous system. Not only that, but it is really fun and energizing to allow the Voice to play and dance through its entire range.

Lots more could be said about this fascinating Vocal/Chakra connection (and probably will be in future blogs). In the meantime, check out my events column to the left of this blog. I am offering a twice a month vocal event where we learn to care for the voice and we get to allow our voices to play and dance freely. AND -- we explore and sing some really fun and interesting songs.

I'll leave you with that old saying "Sing your own special song in your own special way" hopefully through the entire range of your voice!

Barbara

Re-Visioning Our Health Care System

2011-09-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Another World is not only possible, She is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing."
--Arundhati Roy--

This was a quote offered to us from Stephen Lewis at the end of his eulogy for Jack Layton at Jack's State Funeral on Aug. 27 2011. So much about that service and so many of the words spoken by various people touched me in the depths of my Heart and Soul but I have to say that this quote touched me in the very core of my being. It keeps going through my mind like a mantra. On that day of honoring and celebrating Jack Layton's life and hopes and dreams, I could "hear her breathing". In the tremendous and beautiful community that came together that day to grieve, to cry, to love, to hope, to dream, to connect, I could "hear her breathing". It has made me think about other events, other gatherings, other connections of like minded people, other times when I have heard "her breathing". It has made me think about the story I am writing and the Shamanic journey groups I attend which connect me more deeply with my loving "Alien Friends" (see my 2010 blogs) and I know the sounds I hear in those moments are "her breathing". In those moments, I can feel the tangible feeling of that New World emerging.

I know "She" is on her way. In those moments when love and compassion and connection happens between people, as it certainly did at Jack Layton's service, I can feel that She is living and breathing among us.

As we allow that New World to emerge more fully through our love and compassion and our willingness to dream and create, I believe She can come in even more strongly if we define and share our dreams in a tangible and concrete way.

Jack did inspire us to dream big! Bigger than one lifetime.

My Dream for a New Health Care System

Imagine a Health Care System that really and truly cares about the good health and emotional well being of every individual.

Imagine a Health Care System where everyone has easy access to good, clean, organic food (no more pesticide and preservative laden foods full of cancer causing chemicals).

Imagine a Health Care System where everyone has easy access to clean, fresh drinking water.

Imagine a Health Care System where everyone has easy access to high quality supplements and vitamins that support and strengthen the body's immune system and all of its organs and systems.

Imagine a Health Care System where everyone has easy access to body/mind/emotion therapies to deal with and clear out the stresses and traumas that wreck havoc on the human body.

Imagine a Health Care System that ensures all stores can sell only natural, environmentally friendly cleaning products, skin care products etc.and only at reasonable prices.

Imagine a Health Care System that educates Doctors and Nurses in the art of creating and maintaining good health. Imagine a Health Care System where Preventative Medicine is the primary area of Specialization.

Imagine a Health Care System that offers choices and works in harmony with nature and with the human body.

Etc.!!

If the Health Care System could begin to re-create itself by being devoted to the basics, of life -- clean food, clean water, clean environment, emotional support -- whatever money would be needed to subsidize these kinds of programs would be significantly less that what is needed now to "attack" all the cancerous and other disease forms that are resulting from this currently unhealthy lifestyle that has happened to us.

And let's face it, the current medical "Cut, Burn Poison" (see www.vitalitymagazine.com Sept. 2011 Our Blog) method of "treating" cancer really isn't working very well. We all had some glimpse into the final struggle of Jack Layton, a man who so loved and respected life and people, whose life ended way too soon and in such a tragic way. I watched my own father, also a very loving, kind, generous man, die at age 58 after suffering through the devastating effects of surgeries/radiation/chemotherapy. And I'm sure most of us could tell similar stories of friends, family, colleagues, who have been through the system in similar ways.I think the question we need to ask is "Why would a man, like Jack Layton, who was at the very pinnacle of his career, a man whose leadership is so needed in this country, be cut down so abruptly and so tragically?" I believe that our Health Care System needs to get right back to basics and focus on helping us access those things, like clean food and water, which will create better health in all of us. Then maybe we won't be losing so many good people so soon.

That is my "Health Care Dream". I feel pretty certain that Jack would support this Dream wholeheartedly.

I really do feel that this is an ideal time to be especially proactive in Dreaming Our Dreams and Speaking What is in Our Hearts.

I've been writing so much recently about "Freeing the Voice " in various ways. This blog might seem like a bit of a departure from all of my recent Vocal Focus, but it is really not. Yes, Freeing the Voice is about Vocal Cord Development and Sounding and Singing and it is about Freeing the Voice to speak the Truth of Our Hearts.

So let's Dream Our Dreams, Speak Our Truth and Sing Our Songs!!

See you -- maybe at our Sing a Long Fri. Sept. 9??

Barbara

Freeing the Natural Voice

2011-08-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

A song is "an emotion put into words and music." That definition is from "Singing with Your Own Voice" by Orlanda Cook.

I am becoming increasingly fascinated and intrigued by the idea of the Human Primal Voice (as named and described by Oren L. Brown in his book, "Discover Your Voice"). Orlanda Cook refers to that Natural Human Voice as "Primitive Vocal Energy".

According to these people, both of whom have been brilliant voice teachers in their own way, we cannot really truly learn to sing until our Natural Voice is first freed. In "Discover Your Voice", Mr. Brown makes a comment that what we here in the Western World consider "good" singing is not really natural to the Human Voice. Obviously the voice can be trained to sing with proper pitch and timing and vibrato and all of the things that make for a beautiful, powerful voice and beautiful song. And with the right kind of training -- as you probably know by now, I'm convinced that Speech Level Singing is the absolute best kind of vocal training -- the vocal cords will be properly developed in a way that supports and strengthens the whole vocal apparatus. Clearly any kind of vocal training or vocal technique calls primarily on the upper brain or the thinking part of our brain in order for us to get it "right" -- in terms of learning or perfecting pitch, timing, proper bridging, vibrato, understanding the mechanics of the song etc.

But what about the fact that, according to the definition above, a song is an emotion. Aside from all of the technical aspects of learning a song (upper brain function), where does the emotion come from? Well, according to "Discover Your Voice" it is the lower brain (also known as the Reptilian Brain) that releases emotion. It is also that lower brain that releases automatic vocal responses. When we are startled or frightened, we don't stop to think about what sound to make. It comes out automatically without our conscious help. When something really tickles our funny bone, we don't think about laughing, we just laugh. If we win the Lotto, we don't think about screaming for joy or how we can make that scream "sound right" -- we just do it. That's our natural sound, our natural voice, our authentic vocal response that just happens simultaneously with the experience of the emotion

Babies are Masters of Natural Emotional/Vocal Expression. They feel an emotion, a desire, a need and simultaneously with feeling the emotion, they vocalize it. And even though there are no words in a baby's vocalizing, it is usually pretty clear if that baby is happy or distressed or hungry or content or amused.

Children too will naturally and freely vocalize, sing, or in some way express in sound what they are feeling -- until the adult world or the cultural expectations, start to impose limits and beliefs about which sounds are appropriate and which are not. At that point, the natural emotional/vocal expression from the Reptilian brain begins to shut down. The thinking brain then has to take over and it begins to monitor and judge what emotions and sounds are acceptable and appropriate (according to what we have been taught) and which are not. For many of us, that shutdown begins to happen at a very early age.

So.......how do we effectively sing a song, which is an expression of emotion, if we are, to whatever extent, emotionally and vocally shut down?

That is the exact question or reflection I have been focusing on as I think about preparing for the next Vocal/Singalong evening that is coming up on Sept. 9.

One of the reasons I feel that a good thorough vocal warm up is essential before we sing songs is to properly energize and prepare the vocal cords and to be certain that our breath and our voices are coming from a deep and connected place. Otherwise, if we just push the voice to sing before it is properly warmed up, we may stress and strain our vocal cords. Without a proper warm up, we may also stress ourselves emotionally if we try to push ourselves to sing before we feel emotionally ready to allow our voices to be "out there". A warm up gives us the chance to feel out and explore what the voice feels ready to do and what we feel ready for in terms of letting the voice out.

The other reason I like to offer a warm up is that it does give us an opportunity to just allow the voice to move and play and explore. Before we begin to impose certain pitches and melodies and other structures onto the voice, it is really good to allow the voice to find its own "free form dance". This is a way that we can begin to re-connect with our natural voice in a way that we each feel ready to do.

In our upcoming Sing a Long, we are going to play a little with the idea of re-connecting the voice with emotion. Hopefully this may help us free up some of the restrictions that have been imposed on the lower brain. The ideal is to find that equal balance between lower or Reptilian brain and upper or Thinking brain.

In the meantime, one very simple way to begin to re-connect with the natural voice is to take in a big breath through the mouth and allow a big Y-A-W-N to emerge. With the release of that yawn, allow a big loud sigh or AHHHHH... to flow out. Imagine that sound traveling down through your whole body as you drop your head and relax and release all the muscles in your body.On your next Inhalation, straighten up and repeat at least three times.This is also a great way to release tension after a challenging day or to relax before snuggling into bed.

Happy Yawning and Sweet Dreams!

Barbara

Move, Vocalize and Sing!!

2011-05-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Human Voice is an incredible gift, capable of calming, soothing, comforting, healing, energizing, encouraging, motivating etc. Through our Voice, we touch others in so many ways -- probably in many ways that we are not even aware of.

The Throat Chakra is called "Vishuddha" in Sanskrit which means Purification. Vocal catharsis or vocal release can cleanse, heal and purify.

The Voice is also an amazing instrument capable of creating beautiful, powerful sounds and songs.

**********************************************************************************

In light of my upcoming Sing a Long on Fri. June 3, at 7:15 pm (for more info, e-mail me @ barbarassong@gmail.com ) I am inspired to share a little more of my vocal adventure and to explore the focus of this upcoming Sing a Long.  My hope is to create a Sing a Long that is easy and comfortable and enjoyable for all and that also helps us care for and appreciate our voices. I'm happy to hear if you have any comments or suggestions or insights for future Sing a Longs.

Also see the previous blog for My Journey into Speech Level Singing.
*******************************************************************************
If you have read my previous blog then you already know some of my reasons for loving this technique called Speech Level Singing. Now I'll share some more! And just know that I share my experiences and current knowledge as an avid student of Speech Level Singing. For more "expert information", check with one of the many very qualified teachers of this method. See link to the left of this blog.

Developing My Chest Voice

I really love that SLS (Speech Level Singing) focuses on developing and expanding the entire range of the Voice. When I first started singing lessons, before I found SLS, the teacher immediately classified my voice as Soprano because I could only sing in my head voice. I couldn't dip down into any low notes or into my Chest Voice at all. The teacher's suggestion was that I should sing soprano in a Church Choir. However I wanted to sing Pop and Country Songs -- many of which are, at least partially, in Chest Voice. In most Pop and Country songs, and in Rhythm and Blues (my current passion!) one has to be able to move smoothly between Chest Voice and Head Voice. That was a problem since, at that point, I had no Chest Voice or at least no connection to that Voice.

The exciting news is that since I have been working with a Speech Level Singing Teacher, I now have a very developed low range, or Chest Voice. Now I can sing an entire song in this deep low range and this (Chest Voice) is a Voice I didn't even have before I started Speech Level Singing! Personally I think that is pretty remarkable. And now that I am connected with my Chest Voice, or the Root of my Voice, my over all Voice is much stronger. My Voice doesn't crack in the way that it used to. I used to frequently get that "frog in my throat" feeling and often had to constantly clear my throat just to carry on a conversation. That is at least 90% better now that my Voice is coming from a deeper place inside of me. And I feel generally more grounded. Oh yes-- and I can now do lectures and facilitate workshops that involve a lot of speaking, usually without the aid of a microphone, without any vocal strain at all. Couldn't do that prior to SLS training!
My challenge now is in learning how to transition smoothly between my Chest Voice and Head Voice and that is one of the main focuses of my current SLS training.

So with all that in mind, it feels really important to me to offer a Sing a Long which begins with a warm up to connect us more deeply to our Chest Voice. And I like the idea of "exploring" our lower range with various sounds and sounding exercises, as opposed to trying to push the voice into something it may not be ready for. So the warm up is really just an opportunity for the Voice to play and explore. And it is a chance for us to  learn how to pay more attention to our Voices and to explore what might feel good and supportive to them.

To continue with that theme of connecting more deeply with the Root of the Voice, many of the Songs that I choose for this Sing a Long are centered a lot in the Chest Voice.

Movement and Singing

Chakra Dancer Meets Speech Level Singer!

I love Free form or Improve Dance, Yoga, Pilates, Feldenkrais -- or any physical movement that takes me into a deeper place in my body. I've been practicing Yoga most of my life; I spent many years developing and teaching The Dance of the Chakras. To me, sounding or vocalizing are also very internal, physical experiences. I love to explore how sound can lead to movement and how movement can lead to sound and how they can blend together. I love that feeling of sound travelling through the body. It is very exciting and powerful to me when I can actually feel the vibration of my voice in my Root Chakra or in my Sacral Chakra or in my Solar Plexus. I can feel the vocal vibration pretty readily in the higher Chakras -- it is fairly easy to feel in the Heart, Throat, and Head (Third Eye and Crown). To feel that vocal vibration consistently in those lower Earthy Chakras is definitely something I aspire to!!

I love to watch singers who seem to be as fluid and at ease in their bodies as they are in their voices. I am still pretty awed by Michael Jackson's videos -- how he combined very complex songs with very complex dance moves and how the movement and the voice just flowed together as one, or moved one into the other.

At the very least, I believe that it is easier and healthier for the Voice to move through a fluid, energized body.  For this reason my Sing a Long warm up does start with some gentle flowing movement to free and energize the body first.

Do feel free to leave any thoughts, comments or vocal insights or stories that you may want to share. I love hearing other people's vocal stories!

In the meantime -- Sing, Dance, Love Your Voice, Love Your Body!!

Barbara

My Journey into Speech Level Singing

2011-04-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

This blog is dedicated to the Absolute Joy of Singing!

And it is dedicated to the hope that we can all, in some way, touch that joy of singing, of vocalizing, of experiencing a voice that is free to play and express.

For me, that hope is becoming a reality. It is this beautiful, rich technique called Speech Level Singing that is taking me, one gentle but powerful step at a time, towards my hope and dream of allowing my voice to play and express through song.

My Vocal Story
I want to share a little more of my own personal vocal story. A number of my blog entries have been "vocally inspired" -- that is to say many have references to Vocal Healings, Vocal Power, Sounding, Singing, etc. And I really feel the need right now to "sing the praises" of Speech Level Singing. I have been working with this technique and with a very skilled teacher of this technique (http://www.3rdvoice.com/) for the past two years and every now and then I seem to drop into a deeper level of experiencing and understanding the real essence and power of this method. My previous vocal repression was extreme and I've explored many ways and methods of overcoming that repression. Speech Level Singing is the one thing that has worked for me in a way that is lasting and solid. For me, it has been, and continues to be, a very safe step by step process that is building a powerful foundation for my voice. And I know that vocal foundation that I (with a lot of help from my teacher) am building is offering me much greater vocal confidence and ability for vocalizing in various ways and for singing the songs that mean so much to me.

Up until I was well into my 57th year on this planet, I never sang. Well, maybe I sang a little bit -- when I was alone and certain that no one would hear me! And I have a feeling that there may be others who have been, or maybe still are, travelling in this "non singing" boat. I firmly believe now that it is not right and it is not natural to live without singing.

A few years prior to age 57, I did attend various vocal workshops -- mainly based on Sounding (allowing the voice to flow freely from one's depths) and in rare moments, my voice would burst out in big loud sounds -- only to close down even more afterwards. Often, my throat would literally constrict, for no apparent reason, leaving me with a choking sensation at its worst or with a continual feeling of frogginess and need to constantly clear my throat (by the way, constant throat clearing is not good for the vocal cords).

Finally, one evening I found myself in a small group of people -- it was a cricle that generally used writing as the Creative and Transformative tool that it can be. I was really comfortable with writing and so I was generally pretty comfortable in this group. Imagine my dismay and distress when, instead of our usual writing exercises, a decision was made to share songs. Not only could I not open my mouth to share a song, I could not even open my mouth to join in the songs that were being shared. There were some excellent singers in the group -- which only served to make me feel totally inadequate and miserable.

That was the vocal turning point for me.

Within a week and a half after that group I found myself standing in front of a microphone in the small studio space of a teacher who taught Karaoke type singing. Remarkably, he did get me singing by the third lesson. My very first song was Love Me Tender. That was a hugely exciting moment for me. I still have the recording of myself singing my very first song and it still brings tears to my eyes to listen to it! A whole new world began to burst open for me. I was very excited to start really listening to some of my favorite songs and I started trying to sing those songs with my favorite singers (Anne Murray songs were high on my list in those days).
But frustration began to quickly set in. The harder I tried to sing those songs, the more my voice would "crack". My throat would start to close down and I would get that "froggy" need to continually clear my throat as I approached the Karaoke teacher's studio. En route to my lesson, I would pray to the Angels of Singing to help me open my throat enough to get through my lesson. That didn't always work.

Hooked On Singing

The good news was that by then, I was hooked on wanting to sing! By then I understood the need for a really good vocal technique and a teacher who could work with the kinds of vocal challenges I was facing. I went searching. This time the Angels of Singing were guiding me and I found Speech Level Singing. And I found 3rd voice studio. And I found Brandon Brophy-- a very skilled SLS teacher. I have to add here that not only is Brandon very skilled at teaching the method itself, he is (in my viewpoint) remarkably skilled at gently easing through the "vocal baggage" that I suspect we all carry in one way or another. For me, part of that bagagge was that old fashioned notion that women's singing voices should sound "pretty". Speech Level Singing really emphasizes Chest Voice Developement and connection. It is the Chest Voice that creates the foundation for the voice and without a connection to the Chest Voice, the voice will never sound full or rich and from what I understand, singing without that important Chest Voice connection is damaging to the vocal cords. To me, connecting with the depths of the Chest Voice is like connecting to the Roots of the Voice. When I first started SLS, I was not even speaking from my Chest voice. I was speaking, and trying to sing, from a disconnected head voice. With my voice having no connection to its roots, just rying to sing, or even trying to speak up, were literally straining my voice. Initially I kind of rebelled against some of the deep chest sounds that Brandon encouraged me to sing because they didn't sound "pretty". But I came to realize that they (deep chest sounds) sounded pretty powerful and felt absolutely wonderful. And with every lesson, I started to feel more and more "grounded" or connected deep inside my body. It is a truly wonderful feeling when the voice can flow right from the depths of our being.

I could carry on about the Joys of Singing and in particular, the Joys of Speech Level Singing for a long time. It is a very special vocal journey I am taking with this technique and I am so grateful to all of the teachers who are bringing this method to us.

"May we all sing our own special songs in our own special ways."

Got to go practice my scales now!

Barbara

Dance, Beauty and Joy will Heal the World

2011-02-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

An Important Message from my Shadow Self

On Thurs. Feb. 24, several of us gathered for our monthly Shamanic Journey Circle facilitated by Jeannette McCullough (see past blogs for previous Shamanic Journey adventures).

On our first of two journeys that evening, Jeannette introduced the idea of working with our Shadow Self and we began with a lovely poem from Rumi suggesting that we allow all aspects of ourselves, all emotions etc. to be welcomed "home" as an honoured guest. The question that Jeannette offered to us to use in our journey (if we wished) was "What, that could be helpful to me, am I denying access to my house?"

Prior tot this particular journey, my impression of the Shadow part of myself was that it was the place where anger, grief, pain, guilt, depression etc. were stored. I thought of the Shadow as a place where I would hide away all of those "so called" negative emotions.

Imagine my surprise when my Shadow revealed itself as the place where I was hiding away the sensual, sexual, beautiful, joyful aspects of myself!!

And it is true! I am actually very good at accepting and welcoming in the pain, the guilt, the depression etc. I willingly work with these aspects of myself through therapy, writing, dialoguing and different forms of cathartic release. But to welcome in beauty and joy and sensuality and sexuality as being at least an equally important part of me? That was a big shift in thinking for me. And here is how it played itself out in my Journey:

JOURNEY NUMBER ONE

Sweet Wisdom

As the drumbeat began, signalling the beginning of our journey, I saw myself climbing to the top of a huge willow tree -- a very special and sacred tree from my childhood . There I awaited the arrival of my Purple Dragon friend who would transport me to the Upper World (or the Space Station, as I know it) where my friends, particularly my beautiful Spirit Guide, Sweet Wisdom, would be waiting for me. I arrived and walked into the front door to be greeted not only by Sweet Wisdom, but also by a huge troupe of exquisitely beautiful belly dancers. The sheer joy and pleasure and sensuality that exuded from these dancers was awesome to behold. They quickly drew me in, dressed me in the same kind of sexy flowing outfit that they were wearing and put me right in the middle of the dance. I joined in easily, the dance and the sensuality and the joy flowing right through me. As I experienced the sheer pleasure of the movement and felt myself smiling happily, I realized that this is the part of me that I haven't been allowing to come "home", that I haven't welcomed in to my house. Here was my shadow expressing itself in this gorgeous dance, filling and surrounding me in beauty and sensuality like I have never experienced before. I experienced a feeling of contented happiness that I have never known before.

In the midst of this extreme pleasure, something was "niggling" at me. I stopped and said to Sweet Wisdom, "This is so much fun and feels so good, I just want to stay in this energy. But, here we all are, having an absolutely wonderful time dancing these incredible Middle Eastern dances, while in reality, there is so much turmoil and suffering and chaos in the Middle East. Shouldn't I be doing something to help? How can I just dance and have a wonderful time while there is so much need in the world? I can't just turn my back on the people."

Sweet Wisdom offered me one of her beautiful, compassionate smiles as she said,"It is the vibration of beauty and joy and sensuality that will bring healing to the people and to the World."

As proof, she transported all of us to the Middle East where we continued our dance of beauty and joy and pleasure. As we danced, I saw the people being showered with the vibration of love and joy. The energy being stirred up by our dance looked like little rose quartz crystals and they were filling the whole area with love.

We arrived back at the Space Station just as Jeannette's drumbeat changed to signal that it was time to return to Earth. My purple dragon friend was waiting and I climbed on his back knowing he would take me back to the treetop where my journey began. Well -another surprise. I didn't land on the treetop. I found myself "dropped" with a bit of a jolt, right in the middle of the Arabesque Belly Dance School here in Toronto. This is a school that I have gone to on and off (more off than on, I'm afraid!!). As I sat there in the middle of the floor where I had landed, I realized that it truly is time to allow the beauty and the sensuality that belly dance represents to me, to come "home", to express itself through me in whatever form it wants.

I have come to the conclusion that every time any one of us dances or sings or expresses joy in any form, whether we are alone or with others, we are showering blessings on the Whole World.

Love and Blessings to all,

Barbara

Becoming "Wildly Wise"

2011-01-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

Greetings to All You Creative Souls Out There!

    As some of you know, I am an avid fan of Rob Brezsny's form of astrology http://www.freewillastrology.com/

   I've been following Rob's weekly astrology column for probably some twenty years by now. Every week, those few lines of astrological wisdom that he offers me as a Capricorn impact my life and consciousness in some way. From my perspective, I think Rob is pretty much at the top of my list of "Wildly Wise" people that I know (although I don't know him personally).

   This concept of being "Wildly Wise" was not even my horoscope this week! It was the horoscope of a Gemini friend of mine but I was so taken by this idea of being Wildly Wise that it has got me redefining what "Wise" really means to me. Previously I think my "Wise Side" and my "Wild Side" felt somewhat at odds. Unfortunately, in my pursuit of wisdom, it was my Wild Side that got squashed.

The final line in Gemini's horoscope for this week was "Study the wisest wildest people you know so that you too can be wildly wise." That line really got me thinking about some of the wisest wildest people I know and I realized that I do personally know a few people who fit that description. Previously I might have thought of these particular people as unpredictable, maybe even unreliable -- especially since I don't do, or handle, unpredictability or even spontaneity very well!! However, thanks to Rob's magic horoscopes, I now see and understand the beautiful balance and freedom that comes from being "Wildly Wise". In thinking about the "Wildly Wise" people in my life, I do know that they are the most Creatively Adventurous Beings that I know. And their form of wisdom is incredibly unique and exciting. So I am convinced. Wise and Wild belong together. Absolutely.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your reflections on this one.

In ending, I will allow my Devil Woman Friend to come out and inspire us.

By the way, if you are into Tarot cards, the Voyager Deck has a beautiful Devil card -- it appears to be all about letting loose and celebrating. So maybe it is good to let the devil in us come out and play!

Barbara

PS If you have been hearing the rumours that our astrological signs are "all wrong", check out Rob's website for the truth about that misinformation.

Celebrating Our Uniqueness

2010-12-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010, I offered a lecture at Britten Memorial Church on "Awakening the Creative Spirit".

What really came to me during that lecture and on reflection afterwards was how incredibly beautiful and unique every single human being is. Every one of us (regardless of race, gender, etc.) looks different, speaks differently, moves differently, thinks and sees the world differently, dreams differently, experiences differently. Many of us are frequently wondering, questioning, exploring, trying to figure out what our true life purpose is. Maybe all we really have to do is to fully embrace and express and celebrate our own uniqueness.

Just as every snowflake that ever falls to Earth is different from every other snowflake that falls to Earth, so it is with human beings. All the individual snowflake does, on its journey to earth, is to express its incredible, unique beauty and then it unites with all of the other millions and billions of equally unique and beautiful snowflakes to cover the earth in their (united) glistening white magnificence. A fresh snowfall can create a picture of beauty and harmony and peacefulness over the land that it covers. There is nothing quite like seeing the barren December trees covered by a coating of fresh white snow. All of those individual snowflakes originate from the same source. They come to Earth floating, sometimes gently, sometimes with an almost "vengeance" depending on the winds, as separate unique beings or creations. Then they re-unite, as One, to cover the Earth.

Imagine if all of humanity could come to Earth expressing the full potential of each individual human being's unique beauty and qualities, and then we (the individual human beings) could unite and cover the Earth in beauty and harmony and peace.

   Many of us who are on a Spiritual Journey or who are questing after Spiritual Awakenings, work very hard through meditation or other Spiritual Practices to feel and express our "Oneness" with Source, our "Oneness with all of life. And that is extremely important work -- to realize our connectedness with all that is. In order to fully develop compassion and love for all, we need to understand and feel that we are all from One Source (whatever our individual expression of the Source may be) and that what happens to one, affects all. In order to move past all of the ego trappings of fear and separation and greed and conflict, it is important that we each know and experience our interconnectedness, our Oneness. Once we know ourselves to be one part of the "Greater Whole", then I believe it is important to step back and look at and honor our individual gifts and beauty and uniqueness.

   Our time on Earth is a time to know and experience ourselves as individuals who have come to express our individuality. If we could all see the special beauty that is in every face; if we could appreciate the unique and special sound of every human voice; if we could embrace, with wonder, the uniqueness of every human body, then each one of us could not only feel much more comfortable with who and what we are, each one of us could then proudly step forward to express our own magnificence and our own creativity -- in whatever way it wants to show itself. That will be different for every single human being, just as every snowflake shows itself differently. I believe if each one of us could be more fully who and what we really and truly are, then there would be peace and harmony and love on Earth. If each one of us is totally embracing all parts and aspects of ourselves, we would automatically accept and embrace all aspects of "the other".

   I hope this is not sounding "too preachy" but allowing ourselves full expression of who we really are deep inside is something I feel very passionate about. Our culture and our institutions have  put way too many restrictions and expectations on how we "should" think and be and experience and even what our bodies should look like. Many of us grew up, or are still growing up, struggling to fit into society's norms. That struggle to fit into an image or way of living that isn't authentic to our individual nature is Soul Destroying. It completely blocks the Creative Spirit and turns life into a struggle for survival. There is no joy or purpose in that kind of living.

   This is a "very hot" topic for me right now because I recently had a healing session that brought me back to myself as a young teenage girl when I struggled so hard to fit into the image of what a pretty, popular teenage girl was "supposed" to look like. Of course I failed miserably to "measure up". Those kinds of unfair, unrealistic, unhealthy expectations end up destroying one's confidence -- often for a lifetime (and maybe longer!). And that meant, as a young teenager, when life should be full of new discoveries and explorations of one's talents and dreams, I had no opportunity to discover and develop the gifts that I did have. All I could discover, in that kind of atmosphere of unrealistic expectations, was what I was lacking.

   The good news here is that it is never too late to reconnect with any part of ourselves from any past age and we always have the opportunity to explore and develop our gifts and talents. They (the gifts and talents) don't go away. They wait patiently until we are ready to go back and embrace them.

   When we can each find the courage to move out of "the box" that society or various institutions have tried to lock us into, then we can take that next step to celebrating all that we are. When we can know our "imperfections" to be perfection; when we can embrace our emotional "woundedness" as our creative inspiration; when we know for certain that nothing is "wrong" with us because we think or react differently than someone else; when we can know and see our own special uniqueness as the gift that we can here to free and express, then we know our purpose on this planet. That's what I think!

Done July 17, 2007 as I was just beginning
to recover my eyesight

I'll just add one more thing -- I really believe that those longings, those cravings, those desires that we feel deep in our Hearts and Souls are simply the Creative Spirit's way of trying to get our attention so that we will express and create in the way that we, each, individually, came here to do. The Creative Spirit wants to flow and create throughout this World. The Creative Spirit is (to me) like the umbilical cord that connects us with our Source, our Creator. As we allow this Creative Spirit to flow through us, it will connect us to the Source of all Creation, and then just think how much more Creative Energy we can tap into!! In other words, cravings and desires are good. Let's pay attention to them.

I could carry on about this for some time, but for now, I'll say Adios. To be continued...

May we all liberate the Creative Force that is trying so hard to wake up through each of us.

Barbara

PS The very "unique beings" you see here throughout this blog are images that came to me during various stages of the healing process of my eyesight.

Shamanic Images and Creating a Container of Safety and Love

2010-12-04T18:35:00.000-08:00

I said I would begin to share some of my Shamanic drawings. Last blog you met my very powerful Medicine Woman Friend. This one is my Shaman/Magician/Clown friend. He brings with him a lot of magic.
I was thinking about how I differentiate between my "Alien Friends" who have appeared in previous blogs and my "Shamanic Friends" who suddenly are demanding my attention. There is no rational answer. It is just a gut feeling. When I draw these images, I seldom begin a drawing with any intention of what I want to draw. I simply tune in to what colours, what lines and shapes, what combinations may want to happen and out come these wonderful beings. Once the drawing is done, then I just know if it is Alien, Shamanic, Spirit Guide or sometimes it is simply a reflection of part of me. Each has a distinctly different feeling to me.

This drawing to the immediate right is a beloved Shaman and Spirit Guide who has been with me since 1999. His name is Yaconi. He came to me while I was living in Mexico although this drawing or depiction of him didn't come out until May 21, 2007. I remember that date very specifically because it came to me the day before I received some shattering news. He knew I needed his presence. This was the first drawing I did that came from lines and angles. The symmetry I see in it amazes me even now because this one emerged during the time that I was legally blind. I could hardly see the lines I was drawing or the colours I was using and yet, somehow, through it all, he emerged! After this drawing, I actually began craving geometric shapes and forms.  At that point I sent someone out to buy me a geometry set and as you can see from previous drawings, geometric shapes seem to be my Art Form now. Prior to that all of my drawings were much more flowing and round and free form. Now I love to see what comes out when I start playing with angles and lines. Drawing this way has a more solid and grounded feel to it. It feels to me like the energy is being contained in a very powerful way, as opposed to just hanging out there in an undefined way, somewhere in space.

There is a strikingly similar feel in the vocal work I am doing now. I used to do more free form vocalizing and sounding -- just allowing the sound to flow. That can be wonderful and freeing, just like drawing freely without boundaries. But there is something about creating a "container" that, for me, brings the energies (be they vocal or artistic) together in a much more powerful and grounded way. In my Artwork, the container is the geometric form itself. Everything is contained within a framework of lines and angles. In my vocal work, the technique, Speech Level Singing, is the container or the framework for the voice. The constant repetition of scales and vowels creates a solid and safe pathway for the voice to travel through. One constant focus in this vocal technique is on strengthening the vocal chords and using them in ways that are healthy and safe.  Simply sounding and vocalizing freely, while it could feel wonderful and exciting in the moment, and could at times, take me into expanded levels of consciousness, it could also, at times, leave my throat feeling scratchy the next day. And sometimes my jaw would feel even tighter and more clenched the day after I had been "way out there" with my voice. I think  my psyche just wasn't ready to move so quickly into that level of feeling "way out there". So I could end up feeling quite ungrounded and sometimes I would react by feeling more closed down afterwards and by feeling my voice retreat somewhere deep inside of me.

I find it really important, in my own personal journey, to move step by step. Whenever I just "leap in" to something (as I have tended to do in the past), especially something that is consciousness expanding, I tend to just as rapidly "leap" back out, often in a more closed down state.

Just as any houseplant needs a good, solid container filled with nourishing soil in order to thrive and bloom, I believe it is equally important for us to create a solid container for our own journey and spiritual awakening (and "vocal awakening" in my case!).

Many of us come from a culture that values instant gratification. I've never seen the way of instant gratification work on the spiritual journey. We can't just "move into the light" and expect to stay there without first embracing our "so called" darkness or woundedness and creating a container of safety and love for our physical and emotional selves. We can't just "push" our voices out there to sing and sound if the surrounding nerves and muscles are not ready to handle that. The voice needs a solid container to move through. Even my Artwork now does not want to be just "hanging in space", dispersing its energy. It wants the container of lines and angles to support and contain it.

This blog was going to be more about my Shamanic experiences, but this idea of "creating a safe and loving container" for whatever we are learning or experiencing seemed to be more urgent at this point. I'd love to hear any responses or thoughts about this idea.

I wish you all many blessings for your current journey and challenges. May your container be filled with love and acceptance and lots of joy!

Barbara

May ALL Voices Be Free to Sing and Express

2010-10-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

*** Because Shamanic Journeying may not be familiar to all who read this, I will explain more about my experience with it in my next blog or you can read more about it on Jeannette McCullough's website (see below).

***In previous blogs I have posted some of my drawings of my Alien Friends. This drawing is one of my very special Shaman Friends. I'll introduce you to more of my Shaman Friends in my next blog.

A Remarkable Vocal Healing

Last night, Thurs. Oct. 28, I attended our monthly Shamanic Journey Group led by Jeannette McCullough (http://www.shamansong.ca/). My journey experiences were a continuation of the work I had started on Sun. Oct. 24 at the "About Face" workshop. (See previous blog). It seems as though that 8 year old child in me still needed to be healed and listened to. I decided to allow the 8 year girl that I was to be in charge of my journey last night.

Just before we entered into the journey I asked for a healing for that 8 year old part of myself. I asked for healing of the trauma that had shut down her voice and I requested direct healing of her voice.

As the drumming started, signalling the beginning of the journey, I saw my 8 year old self climbing to the top of her very favorite tree. It was a huge gorgeous willow tree that I used to climb as a child. From the top of the tree, my Hawk friend picked me up and, with me on her back, she flew me to the edge of Earth's atmosphere. From there, my Purple Dragon Friend picked me up and flew me to my beloved Space Station where I go most of the time when I take these Shamanic journeys. Transporting me to this Space Station requires real teamwork!! However I can also just close my eyes in meditation and be there. Or I sometimes do travel there in my nighttime dreams. But the journey with Hawk and Dragon is half the fun of going there too. I love to fly on the backs of these powerful allies of mine.

When I reached the Space Station, I was greeted by my Beloved Guide, Sweet Wisdom (my drawing of her appears in a few of my past blogs.As she took me inside, I was surprised to see both of my parents there, along with my grade 3 music teacher. There was also a grand piano and my current vocal teacher, along with his voice teacher, were also there. I started doing my vocal exercises with my current teacher and as I did that, I felt the support of my parents and my grade 3 teacher in a really nice way, but somehow it just didn't feel like enough.

Then Sweet Wisdom made a cushy little bed for me right on the piano bench. As I lay down on it, (remember I'm only 8 years old in this journey, so I fit quite nicely on that bench) my parents and grade 3 teacher started grooving to the drumbeat and dancing around me. Then my Dad (who had always been a very quiet man in real life-- the youngest of 13 children and son of a pretty dominant mother, so he likely had no voice in his growing up years) started making some beautiful low, growly, guttural sounds with his voice. As he began to explore these sounds, I saw his face light up. He really started to come alive and enjoy himself.

My mother also began to make a variety of sounds with her voice. (In "real" life my mother never sang. In fact she often said to me, "You're just like me. You can't hold a tune." My mother was orphaned at 11 years old and had no say, no voice, in her upbringing.) Then she just stopped at the foot of my bench and began to sing, full out, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Her whole face and body came alive as she did that. She was totally transformed into a beautiful, confident, vibrant woman in that moment.

To see both of my parents looking happy and joyful and to hear the beauty of those voices really did something to my heart and soul. In listening to them I felt my own voice finding its freedom. I didn't have to do a thing or make a sound. All I had to do, and all I wanted to do, was listen to the voices of my parents as they sang and sounded. For the first time ever, I was truly hearing the sounds of my parents voices. And I was being filled with the joy and the fun and the happiness that was pouring out of both of them.

What I really came to understand in that moment was that my parents and my teacher didn't deliberately set out to shut down my voice. They weren't against me expressing myself, even if that is what it felt like to me at that time. But in "real life" they had no voice. They weren't allowed to express. So how could they give me what they didn't have? Simple. They couldn't. None of us can give what we don't have.

Allowing them to find their voices and express themselves so fully (as they did in my Shamanic journey) allows my voice to be free.

I really believe that in healing and freeing ourselves, as we can do in these kinds of journeys, we also heal and free those who came before us. Perhaps by healing ourselves, we can actually influence past generations. If our parents had no voice or means of expression, it is probably because their parents were cut off from expression and so on .. back through generations. I believe that we can be influential in healing those in spirit (as my parents, grandparents etc. are).

Last night felt like a huge vocal healing not only for me, but also for my parents and I did feel that healing energy travelling back through many previous generations.

I am very grateful to this group and to all groups like this that allow people to explore their inner worlds in a way that is safe, comfortable, supportive and accepting.

Thank you Jeannette, for offering this to us and thank you to all who are openly and courageously embarking on this journey of healing and conscious awareness.

May we all be free to express the beauty and love that is in our Hearts.

Barbara

Let ALL the Children Sing!!!

2010-10-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

This past Sun. Oct. 24, I attended an absolutely wonderful and inspiring workshop "About Face". It was a day of exploring (through creative writing, sharing stories, mask making etc.) the "face" that we show to the world and the "deeper face" that we may show only to ourselves. The facilitators were two very creative women: writer Teri Degler (http://www.teridegler.com/) and visual artist Shelley Yampolsky.

This is one of Teri's books "The Divine Feminine Fire"

In one of the writing exercises, a very important story emerged for me and I did share it with the group. Although it was my own personal story, many of the other people did identify, in their own way, with it. And I think there is a larger message in this story. So I'm calling it

                                    Let ALL The Children Sing!

In the workshop, Teri guided us into a visualization where we were instructed to remember a time and experience in our younger lives that forever changed us in some way.

Immediately I was back in Grade 3 with Mrs. Self (yes that really was her name!). She was our music teacher. As I remember her from a child's perspective, she was quite tall, grey hair, somewhat of an imposing and intimidating figure to a little child. I still remember her white dress with black flower designs on it. She came into the classroom this one particular day and one by one, she made each child stand up and sing Do Rey Me.....I remember being terrified as my turn came closer. I had not even been allowed to speak up at home, never mind sing!! Vocal expression just wasn't part of my growing up experience. And any minute now, this teacher was going to make me stand up and humiliate myself by trying to sing, when I couldn't.

When my turn came, I stood up and, scared as I was, I tried my best.

It wasn't good enough.

All the children who could sing the scale well were allowed to go with Mrs. Self and sing in the school choir. The few of us who could not sing had to sit back down at our desks in total humiliation. Those of us who were left behind were given some math assignments to do while the other kids got to go to the auditorium and sing. Eventually they (the singers) were given the opportunity to perform in the school concert, watched by their proud parents. The rest of us were simply left out to suffer the pain our voices being silenced: the pain of "knowing" that the sound of our voices was unaccepatable.

At that moment, I became "The Child Forever Silenced"!!

Until..........Many years later -- actually at age 58 -- I could no longer stand to have my voice trapped so deeply inside of me. Although I had been facilitating workshops and giving the occasional lecture, just the idea of standing up in front of people and allowing my voice to be heard had been difficult and traumatic. And I never attempted to sing, unless I was certain that I was alone and no one would hear me.

Finally, a series of events pushed me to find a vocal coach/singing teacher. Just about a year and a half ago, I started searching for a technique and a teacher that could help me. Man was I lucky!!! I found an excellent technique called Speech Level Singing (which you may have read about in my previous blogs) and I found a highly qualified teacher (Brandon Brophy, 3rd Voice Studio) of this technique here in Toronto.

About a month or so into my lessons with Brandon, he had me make some "bratty" "nasty" sounds, some of which were done with sticking my tongue out. These were done to help me connect with, and develop my Chest Voice. Prior to this work, my voice had been weak and disconnected so in my vocal practice I have focused a lot on developing a strong connection with my chest voice and getting really rooted in the depths of my voice. Those "nasty" sounds helped me to do that. And...they also had an added benefit! One day, during my lesson with Brandon, I was making "Na Na" sounds, as bratty as I could manage. With some of the bratty sounds I even got to stick my tongue out. As I was doing all that, Mrs. Self appeared right in front of me! The image of her felt and looked so real that I almost felt as though I could reach out and touch her. Imagine my satisfaction at being able to stick out my tongue and say "Na Na Na" to her in my brattiest voice!! In that beautiful "Na Na" scale that I was practicing, I could feel the child in me coming forward and saying to her "You will never silence me again. I'm letting this voice be heard and I don't care if you don't like it." It was a beautiful cathartic moment.

This whole idea of not allowing children to sing is nasty and cruel. I hope and pray that this is not happening at schools any longer.

I am very grateful to have found a voice teacher who, from the very beginning (when I really didn't have any singing voice, to speak of!) taught me with such enthusiasm, as though he never doubted for a minute that I could learn to sing. And now it is starting to be so much fun to let my voice out and to allow it to make all of these wonderful sounds, and yes -- I am even beginning to sing -- a little bit!!

And one day, I will get to perform in that Concert.

                                         *********************************

Thank you Teri and Shelley for an incredible workshop and for allowing me to share my stories (with my strong, connected voice!)

Thank you Brandon for being such a skilled and patient vocal coach and for helping me feel safe and comfortable in letting my voice be heard!

Thank you to the therapist who has been so willing to listen so patiently and attentively to many, many of my stories over the past three years. Thank you for introducing me to the joy of making music and sound and thank you very much for helping me to find the courage to look for a vocal coach.

Thanks especially to that 8 year old, grade three student that I was (and still am somewhere deep inside!). Thank you for waiting so patiently all these years to finally be able to free your voice and tell your story.


I'll be back soon. "About Face" has stirred up a few stories that I want to share!

May we all sing our own special songs in our own special way.

Barbara

A Message from My Artwork!

2010-10-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

I was going to title this "A Message from My Alien Friends" but I know that some people get a little nervous at the idea of "Aliens Among Us". However I highly recommend the book of the same title. I believe that there are Beings among us from many other dimensions and I totally believe that they are here to love, help and support us. Ruth Montgomery, the author of "Aliens Among Us" came to that same conclusion a long time ago.

On Sat. Oct. 2, I was at a gathering of very open minded people -- Spirituality in Health Care Network. http://www.spiritualityinhealthcare.net/ I had a chance to chat with a few people who were interested in my Artwork (which has started appearing in my last 2 or 3 previous blogs and the images you see here are also mine). I was talking about the fact a number of the images that are coming through in my Artwork seem to me to be "Alien Friends" or friends from another dimension. Many of these same Beings have also appeared in my night time dreams and journeys and some of them are the central characters in a story that I have been writing (or perhaps it is more accurate to say this story is being written through me!) for the past two and a half years. Whenever I attend our monthly Shamanic Journeying group, my journeys always take me to the Space Station where I meet with my Alien Friends.

At this gathering on Oct. 2, one woman asked me the question, "What is their (the Aliens) message to us?" Because I have had innumerable in depth conversations with these Beings and every conversation is loaded with insight and inspiration, I was hard pressed to think of one message that I could impart from them. Plus up until now, my connection with them has been largely personal. But now I do feel like I am being asked to start bringing their wisdom and insight into this reality.

When this same woman then asked, "Have they come to warn us?" I immediately and emphatically said "NO! They have come here only to love and support us. They have come to nurture and inspire us. They are Beings of pure unconditional love and compassion. That is what they are offering us."

Once I got home, I reflected again on her question and my emphatic "NO!" to her suggestion that they might be coming to warn us. I looked around at the images of these Beings (many of which are hanging on my walls) through new eyes. What I saw and felt was Pure Unconditional Love and Support. And great inspiration. They have not come with any complex message and, despite my many hours of dialoguing with each one of them, they have not come to pass on more words and definitely not more dire warnings. Few of us (seekers) need more of that anymore. But I don't know anyone who doesn't need to be loved and cared about on the very deepest levels. And that's what they bring to us.

I have already introduced you to Sweet Wisdom in past blogs, but I feel compelled to bring her love and wisdom and great inspiration in once again to share with the World.

I know there are many of us who have made great heroic efforts to stay on a Spiritual Path, to be the best possible Human Beings we can be, to serve the greater good of all......... And I believe we should be commended for all of our efforts and every one of us should really appreciate ourselves for all of the good we have brought to this Earth (I suspect you wouldn't even be drawn to these kinds of blogs if you were not a spiritual seeker or healer of some kind). Yet our world is still full of conflict. And, if each of us were to be really honest, I suspect that many of us, no matter how dedicated we are to our Spiritual Path or practice, still at times, experience our own inner conflict and "so called" negative emotions. And I also suspect that repeated warnings, being hard on ourselves, feeling guilty or inadequate, being judged or judging ourselves are not going to help our situation or the Greater World situation. So ...no....my Alien Friends do none of that. And they actually have nothing to tell us. Their only desire is to love and support us.

And perhaps, once we accept this love and support into the very depths of our cells, into the depths of our heart and Soul, into the very depths of our Being, then we will be able to love unconditionally. It is through unconditional love that Peace will reign on this Earth.

Few (if any) of us, were raised in an atmosphere of pure unconditional love and acceptance. Just as it can be challenging for us to love and accept without judgement, it was probably even harder for our parents to do that. So we enter into adulthood with that child part of ourselves still crying out for love and compassion and acceptance. And yet that love is there, all around us, if we can only open the door to allow it in. If my Alien Friends can help offer that love, then I happily share that energy with all of you. If my experience with my Alien Friends inspires you to connect more deeply with your own source of unconditional love, be it Angels, God, Buddha, Jesus, Nature or other "Friends" that are just waiting for you to let them in, then that would be wonderful.

However we experience or access that unconditional love, let's just all find a way to allow it to sink into the deepest recesses of our body, Soul and psyche. Let's imagine the Infant that we were being filled and surrounded with unconditional love and compassion. Let's offer that same love and compassion to the Child that we were, and to the Teen-age part of ourselves, and the Young Adult that we were, up until this present day moment. Let's offer absolute unconditional love and compassion to the person that we are right now in this very moment. And let's even offer that love to the person that we will be in ten years, twenty years....... We have the power to actually pave the road to our future with unconditional love and compassion. Imagine walking down that road.

I'm imagining now, a planet where everyone is radiating unconditional love and compassion. I know planets like that exist. That is the atmosphere that surrounds the planet that my Alien Friends come from. Imagine our Earth being one of those planets.

Until we meet again -- Love Yourselves, Love the Earth and all of her Beings.

Barbara

The Healing Power of the Human Voice

2010-08-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings.

In my previous blog, I shared a lecture that I had given at Britten Memorial Church recently on Creating Our Own Reality. It occurred to me that I had never shared this lecture from Nov. 2009, also offered at Britten Memorial Church, on The Healing Power of the Human Voice. I am going to take this opportunity to share it with you now.

My own journey of healing through the voice continues as I continue my "Speech Level Singing" (see link to the Left) adventure. As my vocal range increases, I am seeing a real parallel in my ability to not only embrace, but to also continue developing my own inner male and female energies. In the past, there have been aspects of my feminine (or YIN) energy that I wasn't always too comfortable with, just as there were aspects of that more assertive, masculine (YANG) energy that I also held back from. I tended to stay somewhere in the middle -- neither too expressively feminine and for sure not too assertively masculine!! But my blossoming creative spirit just won't allow me to "hang out" in the middle any more.

In some recent vocal exercises, I have been exploring the very depths of my deep chest (YANG) voice and drawing out those long hidden sounds and energies. That feeling of deep vibration and the "reaching in and drawing out" of my masculine, or YANG voice and energy is wonderful and freeing. Being able to explore this "male" side of myself vocally is very exciting and liberating. At the same time, as my upper, head voice (YIN) range expands to reach ever higher, there is an equally exciting feeling of lightness and joy and power in that high "feminine" voice and energy that I have also been exploring and developing.

Pretty incredible how this practice of vocal exercises is also freeing both my male and female energies and freeing me to become more of who I am as a whole integrated human being.

Since I had promised to start showing more of my drawings of my Alien Friends, this one of the CELESTIAL COUPLE feels like a nice balance of male/female energies.

Here's to VOCAL POWER!

The Healing Power of the Human Voice

(Lecture given at Britten Memorial Church Service, Nov. 8, 2009)

By Barbara Sauvé

The topic I want to explore tonight is the Healing Power of Our Own Voices. The voice is one of our greatest gifts and its power to heal is quite amazing. And yet that power of the voice to heal most often goes unrecognized and unacknowledged and a great healing resource is lost. If we have pain or we feel anxious or depressed, how often do we think of using the vibration of the voice to relieve and heal whatever is happening inside of us? And yet that vibration has great potential to heal and transform.

The Throat Chakra, the energy centre that connects with the Voice is known as Vishuddha (Sanskrit) and the translation for Vishuddha is, literally, PURIFICATION. This energy centre purifies and harmonizes our energy.

Just think about what happens right here at Britten Memorial Church at a typical evening service. First we sing. And doesn’t that simple act of raising our voices together in song change our energy. I’m sure on an individual level each one of us feels better after singing one of these beautiful songs. Singing these “wonderful words of life” (as the song says) can help to clear out our anxieties and transform our negative thoughts. Just the simple act of singing these songs really can purify our energy.

And when we sing together, as we do here, we unite our individual energies and that brings us into harmony as a community. All of our voices merge together to become ONE VOICE. Imagine the power in that unified voice. Our singing also raises the vibration. The singing voice has a higher vibration than the speaking voice. A prayer that is spoken does have a certain power, but a prayer that is sung has even more power because of that increased vibration. So if you want to make sure your prayers are heard, try singing them!! And when we raise the vibration, we open the door for spirit to enter more fully. And the more fully we allow spirit in to touch us and to give us messages, the more potential there is for healing.

After we sing we have our meditation. We sit back and relax as words of healing and inspiration are channeled through the human voice. Then we all get up and connect with each other by saying hello. It is through our voices that we can meet and connect with each other.
Then we have a variety of lecturers who offer new ideas and new perspectives. They offer us words of comfort, encouragement and enlightenment and all of that comes through the human voice.

And then our wonderful mediums come forward and offer us comfort and healing and wisdom from spirit – and all of this is channeled through the human voice.

So we are actually tapping into the healing power of the voice every time we speak from our hearts, every time we sing beautiful words and every time we take in words of love and comfort from others.

**Note; The keyword here is Heart. When we speak or sing or chant from our Hearts, we energize our vital energy centers. When we use the voice for idle gossip or negativity, we deplete this vital energy.

The Throat Chakra is also the Creative Centre. It is through this centre that the Soul can express itself through our Creative endeavors. As we energize this centre through the right use of our voice, we awaken the Creative Spirit within us.

And think about all of the other natural sounds that our voices make – the sounds of emotions – laughing, crying, groaning, moaning, wailing, screaming, yawning, coughing, humming, and even sneezing. All of these sounds are intended, by nature, to be purifiers, to release feelings.
The word EMOTION means to move out from, to emote. All of these sounds are our birthright. We aren’t meant to hold emotion inside where it can accumulate and turn into tension or disease. Remember, this is the centre of Purification.

Children who haven’t been repressed will naturally and freely express their emotions. Unfortunately in this culture most children learn at an early age to hold back expressions of emotion. They learn to hold back their natural vocal exuberance. Certainly in “my day” as a child there was that old awful saying that “Children should be seen and not heard.” I know in my early training both at home and at school I learned to be very quiet so as not to make the adults angry. And a really awful school memory I have (that I suspect has happened to many us) was being told that I wan not allowed to sing in the choir because I didn’t have a good singing voice. To cut anybody off from singing, at any age, is a horrible thing to do. Singing is a totally natural form of expression. Most other cultures sing and chant and use their voices in many healing ways. Those cultures have no judgment about what a voice “should or shouldn’t” sound like. They just raise their voices in celebration, in grief, in joy, in pain, in pleasure.

When I was a young, and of course -- “quiet”, nursing student, (from a tiny, quiet, sleepy town) I remember my days in the maternity ward. The hospital I trained in was in downtown Toronto so there were women from diverse cultures. I remember well how “quietly” most of the Canadian women gave birth, despite their pain and discomfort. And I remember feeling quite concerned and uneasy when I would hear women from other ethnic backgrounds screaming and groaning and making other sounds that were very appropriate in that situation. Now that I think back, and I don’t know if this has been studied or not, but I’ll bet that the women who screamed and groaned and sounded their pain had easier births and less lingering trauma to their bodies. Just imagine what happens if your body goes into a contraction, for whatever reason, and you hold back the natural urge to scream or moan. The added tension of holding the voice and therefore the emotion, , back will create a stronger contraction and more pain.

If you have ever watched a powerlifter lifting extremely heavy weights – they almost always scream as they push the weight up. It is the power of the voice that gives these athletes the strength to lift impossibly heavier weights. If the powerlifter just remained silent during the lift, he/she would not be able to lift nearly as much weight. And there is a good chance that, if that powerlifter tried to hoist the same weight while holding the voice in, he/she would likely rupture something! It is the power and the vibration of the voice moving through the body that gives us added strength while simultaneously freeing the body of trauma. Allowing the voice to move freely through the body is actually a protective measure for the body.

The photo is Bev Francis, an amazing Australian powerlifter, turned bodybuilder. Her story is an inspiring one -- pure courage and power and determination. I had the incredible good fortune to train with her back in 1988. She is a remarkable and lovely woman. For sure she wouldn't be lifting those kinds of weights without the help of her voice.

As far as our cultural judgments as to what makes a “pretty” singing voice, I can tell you that we miss out on a lot of joyful energy and creative expression if we are shy to sing or make sound. And we miss out on the richness and beauty and power that comes through every human voice. I have a part time job doing activities in a retirement home and one of the things I do there is a sing a long. At first the folks there were really shy to sing and I’m sure most of them hadn’t sung for years, if ever. Gradually they came to trust me and began to sing. One of the most beautiful sounds for me was to begin hearing these 80 and 90 and in one case, 103, year old voices raised in song. It almost moved me to tears to hear these voices, finally finding some joy and freedom.

I would like to bring this to a close by sharing just a little of my own “healing through the voice” story. As you have probably gathered, I have had many issues and struggles around allowing my voice to be free and expressive. I could feel that a great deal of energy was trapped in my throat Chakra area. One day, just under a year ago, I reached a point in my life where I couldn’t stand to live with my voice trapped inside anymore. It is a miserable feeling. So I went searching for a Vocal Coach. I was really lucky to find a wonderful, patient voice teacher who teaches a particular step by step method of training and strengthening the vocal cords which ultimately does free the voice for speaking, singing, sounding, chanting, expressing.
As many of you know, I have had a lot of problems and challenges with my eyes over the past several years– because much of my energy was trapped in my Throat Chakra. The energy just couldn’t get beyond my trapped voice to support my eyes. When I began these vocal lessons, there was immediate improvement and clarity in my eyesight. I remember vividly, after the second or third lesson, I walked out of the vocal studio and initially felt a little disoriented because suddenly my eyesight was sharper and clearer than it had been for a very long time! I have no doubt that freeing my voice is healing my eyes (along with many other things!). Used properly, the Voice can create miracles!

I have given lectures here before about dance and movement. There is a saying “Dance as though nobody is watching.”
I would like to add,
“Sing and make sound as though nobody is listening!!”

Barbara

Creating Our Own Reality

2010-07-27T18:14:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to share this talk that I gave at the Britten Memorial Church Serivce this past Sunday. It is about Personal Responsibility and some of my Alien Friends joined in as well! Enjoy. I'd be happy to hear any comments or responses it may stir in you.

Britten Memorial Church
July 25, 2010

Personal Responsibility

Greetings to all.

Tonight I would like to explore the topic of Personal Responsibility and Creating Our Own Reality. Spiritualist Principle #5 states: That we are Personally Responsible for the Creation of our Own Reality through thought, work and deed.

The term “Personal Responsibility” can sometimes trigger an emotional response in some of us (or many of us). I don’t think I’m alone in my previous experience of learning to be overly responsible for others and for situations that may have nothing to do with me! For many of us, our upbringing, some of our religious institutions and other influences may have taught us to take on more than our share of responsibility for the world around us while neglecting our own needs. Certainly in my nurse’s training many years ago (I hope it has changed these days!) we were taught that patients' needs came first, followed closely by the needs of the institution or hospital. Our own personal needs for rest and rejuvenation, for private time, etc. were not addressed at all. That old way of thinking led to severe burnout for many of us in the nursing field. So I sometimes rebel now when I hear that I am personally responsible for all that happens to me . That can feel like a heavy load to bear.

I want to explore this partly through the sharing of my own story. My hope is that through sharing some of my story and my challenges, you’ll be inspired to reflect on your own story and maybe begin to see your own challenges in a different and possibly more creative way.

This is a really good principle for each of us to explore on a deeper level. It will likely mean different things to each one of us, depending what our particular gifts are and what purpose we came to planet Earth to fulfill.

Interestingly enough, one of the things that really drew me to Spiritualism was (despite my rebelliousness!) this belief that we each do have the power to create our own reality. I do believe that each one of us does have incredible healing power and potential for manifestation inside ourselves.

If that is the truth, why then do things sometimes happen to us that seem to be so far removed from what we want or what we think we need? Why then do our lives, or circumstances around us sometimes feel so out of control? Why is it that sometimes, no matter how many positive healing affirmations we say or how many positive healing thoughts we think, illness or other seeming catastrophes may still strike us or a loved one?

These are all questions I have grappled with on and off for a long time now and some things have happened recently that have really brought this to the surface for me. We have had some wonderful “positive thinking” gurus like Louise Hay who is still going strong as a teacher and inspirer at 8o+ years old. The movie The Secret caused a big stir with its focus on positive thinking. There has been some great work and inspiring teachers in this positive thinking movement. And it makes total sense that positive thoughts will draw in positive outcomes.

Like many others I’m sure, I have, in the past, really “worked” with affirmations and trying to always think positively, in order to re-create, those parts of my life and health that didn’t seem to be doing so well. But, you know what, it didn’t seem to work! At least not in the way I thought it would. So, also like many others I’m sure, I began to question – Was I doing something “wrong”? All of my very sincere efforts were leaving me feeling inadequate, wondering what was wrong with me that I couldn’t seem to create the kind of healthy, abundant, prosperous life that the books, movies and teachers were talking about.

What finally pushed me to really explore this on a deeper level were some recent problems with my eyesight. Over the past eight years I have had a number of surgeries on my eyes. At one point I lost my sight for several months. I was fortunate to recover a good amount of sight only to lose much of it again. Currently I have recovered a fair amount of sight. This has been a recurring pattern and believe me, I have done everything in my power, that I know how to do – diet, supplements, therapy, endless appointments with healers, affirmation after affirmation. My theme song is “I Can See Clearly Now”. And the truth is, sometimes I can see clearly and sometimes I can’t! The only thing I can be certain of about my eyesight is that it is constantly changing.

This is my present journey and reality. So now I am really examining this concept of Personal Responsibility and Creating My Own Reality and I still believe in it but in a slightly different way.

I realized that it is important to think about and define what my responsibility really is here. Maybe my responsibility here is not about “making it better” or “fixing it” (whether “it” is my life or my eyesight or my finances or...) in the way that I think it should be. Maybe my responsibility here is to surrender to the Journey, to surrender to the Mystery, to surrender to the new possibilities that frequently present themselves in times of crisis. Maybe my responsibility is to listen deeply and to pay attention to the messages and creative inspiration that are coming to me through my constantly changing eyesight and other life challenges.

And when I think of it this way, it is an exciting, delightful, and mysterious journey. When I look back at my “Visual Journey’ thus far and I see the true richness that it has brought into my life, would I really want to change or re-create a moment of it? Not a chance! The only thing I might change a little is the trying too hard to heal my eyes in the way that I thought they should heal.

The Journey itself has been tremendous. In those moments when I can and do let go into the mystery of it all, immense creative energy and potential start to pour through me. At one point, a few years ago, when I was legally blind, some of the richest and most Incredible Artwork began to emerge through me. I had never previously done any Artwork but during that period I started to crave colour and shapes. So, although I could see very little of what I was doing I started just playing with colours and shapes. Amazing Beings began to emerge onto my paper. Incredible angles and shapes and unexplainable symmetry began to appear on the paper. From those beginnings, a whole community of what I now call “My Alien Friends” has emerged as drawings, many done during those Visually darkest times. When I was unable to be engaged visually with the outside world, my inner world just opened up and blossomed. Artwork came through. Stories and dreams emerged. Insights and inner visions took root. What could be richer? Maybe this is the prosperity I have been affirming! Every day I am surrounded by these remarkable beings (they cover my walls) who, because I was willing, on some level, to lose my external eyesight for a while, have been able to come into this physical reality through my Artwork and stories.

So I am sharing here some of the images which emerged through me. These are all beings that I visit regularly at a place I refer to as the Space Station. To me, it is a place of peace and renewal and wisdom. If you read Ruth Montgomery's Book, Aliens Among Us, you may be interested to discover what else these Space Stations may be doing for us. I'm not trying to convince you of their existence, only inviting you to keep an open mind to the possibility of Beings from other dimensions that are coming in to help us as we transition through this remarkable time on Earth.

The first Being you are meeting here (and in my last blog) is Sweet Wisdom, the Wise Queen of the Space Station.

Here we have Hank (L), Dolores (R) and son Joseph (middle). They are the keepers of the Space. Hank and Dolores came through during those "visually dark" days. The other two, Sweet Wisdom and Joseph, arrived after I had regained some sight.

One last tidbit about Space Beings or Aliens, as much as they want to help us, they are no longer coming in the old way of Space Ships or "UFO's" because of our human tendency to shoot or otherwise try to destroy things that we are afraid of or we don't understand. So they are sometimes coming through humans who are open and sensitive to them, according to Ruth Montgomery.

Back to this exploration of Personal Responsibility and Creating My Own Reality, would I have really created blindness for myself? And yet it has been that journey into blindness that has opened amazing and magical doors for me. That journey has taken me into a reality that I could never have opened up to otherwise.

And it has helped me open my consciousness to the Bigger Picture, to the Great Scheme of All Existence. And yes, I love being able to see the physical world. I am very grateful that I can see all of the beautiful faces of those around me. And yes, I will continue to do everything in my power to heal and support my physical eyesight. At the same time, I realize now that something much bigger is knocking at my door. There are lessons, there are gifts, there is magic that I can barley imagine right now. The song we sang atthe beginning of the service, “Open My Eyes” refers to those “Glimpses of Truth”. It is true that the Big Picture can sometimes be too big for us to take in, so we are given little bits as we can manage it.

Someone once told me that there is no such thing as 20/20 vision. We can have 20/20 eyesight. But Vision is that deeper, mysterious quality that comes through as we are ready for it. Opening to that sense of Vision is what is really important here. I believe that is our personal responsibility now. It is from that place of deep inner Vision that we can create an awesome world for ourselves and for all beings.

Another way that I find helpful in understanding this 5th principle is in thinking of myself not so much as a Creator of my Own Reality, but as a Co-Creator. Perhaps our biggest responsibility is to tune in to the Divine Intelligence that created us and to Co-Create with that Intelligence. Perhaps our responsibility is to tune in to the Higher Intelligence of the Earth and all humanity and to co-create in harmony with the greater good of all. Perhaps our responsibility lies in allowing the deepest desires and passions of our Heart and Soul to reveal themselves in a way that we can act upon them.

When we create from our Heart and Soul, in harmony with the Divine Intelligence that has created us, our creations will always be for the Greater Good of ourselves and all Beings. In the recent past, some of the books and teachers did encourage us to focus on manifesting our material dreams – a big, luxurious home, big bank account, fancy car etc. At this point, in our Earth’s crisis, we really have to change our dreams from the material to spiritual and emotional fulfillment. We have been using up Earth’s resources at an alarming rate and we cannot continue to do that. I believe that our responsibility has shifted to an urgent need to co-create in harmony with the Earth and all of her Beings.

The one thing that I do know for sure now is that none of us is Creating in isolation. Each one of us is a spark from the Divine Flame. As we tune in and align ourselves more fully with the Divine Flame, our individual lives will become the Creation they are meant to be.

So I’d like to end by encouraging you to look at your challenges in a slightly different way. While it is essential for each of us to take care of ourselves in the best way that we know how, especially when we are experiencing challenges, let’s also be aware of the gifts that may be waiting for us, the doors that may be opening for us, the new possibilities that may be knocking at our door on the other side of that crisis or challenge.

And let’s always be open and welcoming to those “other beings” – our spirit guides, our loved ones from the other side, our Alien Friends. They want to help us but it is our responsibility to open the door.

I wish you all a wonderful and magical journey in your own adventure as you co-create your reality here on this beautiful planet we currently call “home”.

Back soon with more of my Alien Friends!!

Barbara

A Deep Healing

2010-06-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

Shamanic Group June 24, 2010

The Wounded Heart

I attended this particular Shamanic Journeying Group (we meet the last Thurs. of each month)thinking I would ask for a healing. For the past couple of weeks I had been feeling some intense pain in my Heart. It felt like an open bleeding wound. This pain had been triggered by a relationship that was changing in ways that I didn’t want it to change. My Heart was hurting and I felt very unbalanced by the changes.

First Shamanic Journey of the Evening

Our leader, Jeannette, http://www.shamansong.ca/ , offered the possibility of going into our first Shamanic Journey of the evening with the question “What am I being called to explore right now”.

I journeyed to the “Upper World” as I usually do, on the back of my Purple Dragon friend. He took me to the Space Station (a sacred place where I frequently journey to both in my 'conscious' journeying as we were doing in this circle, and also in my sleeping dreamtime) where I met up with my beloved guide and companion, Sweet Wisdom. When I asked Sweet Wisdom the question, “What am I being called to explore right now?” the answer came instantaneously. Human Relationships.

I am being called to explore Human Relationships.

So my question to Sweet Wisdom was “But how can I explore Human Relationships when I am feeling so vulnerable right now and my Heart is feeling so wounded?”
Sweet Wisdom informed me that the feeling of pain and deep woundedness that I feel right now is the result of a deep cleansing and clearing that is happening to me personally as well as to all of humanity and in Mother Earth herself.
In the same way that my Heart feels like it is bleeding right now, the Earth’s Heart is also bleeding. She has been deeply wounded.
We have hurt Mother Earth very badly. But just as she is not giving up and turning her back on us, I cannot turn my back on those whom I feel have hurt me.
Just as Mother Earth still surrounds us with love, still nurtures and nourishes us, in the same way I need to surround those who have hurt me with love and understanding.

Second Shamanic Journey of the Evening

One of the suggestions that Jeannette offered as we prepared for our second journey of the evening was to ask “What healing can you offer me to make my life, and the lives of those around me, better?” (Paraphrased by me!)

In my journey, I returned to the Space Station. I found a “bed” on the floor that had been prepared for me and I stretched out, opening my arms wide as I exposed my aching Heart to the healing energy. Some of my really special Alien Friends (see my previous blog) were there including of course, Sweet Wisdom and some other Alien friends that I call Hank and Dolores and Joseph. All of these beings are very important to me and they form the core of a story, True Friendship, that I have been writing since Jan. 2008.
All of these beings surrounded me with Love. I felt Love pouring into my open Heart – so much Love that I knew I could return to Earth and there would be plenty to share with others. I saw a steady stream of Love pouring into me from a pink ray of energy. Now I know that all I have to do is to be still and quiet and that pink ray of Divine Love will pour into my Heart as long as my Heart is open. As I saw that, I imagined that all the people who have hurt me were surrounded by this Love. I imagined that all the people that I have hurt were also being surrounded by this Love. I imagined all the people that I feel in conflict with surrounded by this pink ray of Divine Love.

As the drumbeat changed to signal that it was time to return to our present reality, I prepared, reluctantly, to leave. As I got on the back of the purple dragon who always transports me to and from this sacred Space Station, I was amazed to see Sweet Wisdom get on the back of the Dragon with me. She said that she was coming back with me partly to support me through this challenging time that I am going through and partly to make sure that I start getting their (the Aliens) messages out to the World. This is a project I have been thinking about for some time now but up until now, I have allowed my resistance to get the better of me. Sweet Wisdom mentioned that she is going to “stick like glue” with me to make sure I begin that process with her complete support.

The action I am taking is first to post this message on my blog and then to introduce some of my Alien friends, including some pictures I have drawn of them, at an upcoming talk I will be giving in July. As these beings have been telling me, they can only have life in this reality through me. They want to be seen and heard through me. They have given me so many remarkable gifts and I am ready to embrace them and to introduce them to the World.

This is my depiction of Sweet Wisdom which I drew March 7, 2009. She has been guiding my journey ever since.

I'll be back soon with more of my Alien Friends. If any of this resonates with you or stirs you in any way, I would love to receive a comment from you.

Blessings,

Barbara

Do We Really "Create Our Own Reality"?

2010-06-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hi! It has been awhile!

My own journey has been quite consuming for the past while. One of the things that I am really exploring and questioning recently is this topic of "Personal Responsibility" and "Creating Our Own Reality".

Like many others I'm sure, I have, in the past, really "worked" with affirmations, trying to think positively, trying to re-create, through affirmations, those parts of my life that didn't seem to be working well, trying to improve certain health related situations. I was doing everything I knew how to do in order to "create a better reality" for myself. And it didn't work!! At least not in the way that I thought it would! In some ways, things seemed to keep getting worse. So, was I doing something "wrong"? Was I not believing or trusting enough? All of my very sincere efforts left me feeling inadequate, blaming myself for not being able to create the kind of prosperous abundant life that many books and teachers are talking about.

Two things really brought this to the surface for me.

One is that I am presently involved in a Church that has "personal responsibility" as one of its principles and recently one guest speaker stood in front of us and said, point blank, "You can create your life in any way that you want it to be." That statement really got my "back up"!

The second thing that has been happening is that I have been going through ongoing challenges with my eyes and my sight. In 2002 I lost the sight in my Right Eye. By 2007 I had lost the sight in my Left Eye. After a series of surgeries (5 in total) and various complications, I recovered, and relost my sight a number of times. Presently, since a recent surgery in April this year, I have, once again, recovered a good amount of sight. During ALL of that time, including the present time, I have done (and am still doing) everything in my power to heal my eyes. I have done everything I know how to do (diet, supplements, therapy, endless appointments with healers, self healing, workshops, affirmation after affirmation.....) and even with all of this, sometimes I can see and sometimes I can't. Sometimes I can see well and sometimes my sight is distorted and foggy. It is constantly changing.

This is my present journey. So now I am really examining this idea of personal responsibility and creating my own reality. What does that really mean?

And I have no answers for anybody! I am only exploring. But maybe my only responsibility, at this point, is to surrender to the journey. Surrender to the mystery. Because it is a mystery. And when I think of it this way, it is a delightful, exciting journey and mystery. When I look back at my "Visual Journey" thus far, and I see the true richness that it has brought into my life, would I now want to change or re-create a moment of it? Not a chance! The only thing I might change a little, is the trying too hard to heal my eyes in the way that I thought they should heal!

The Journey itself has been tremendous. In those moments when I can, and do, let go into the mystery of it all, immense creative energy and potential starts to pour through me. At one point, a few years ago, my physical eyesight was 20/460. That is not much sight. And during that period of time, some of the richest and most incredible Artwork started to emerge. I have never really done any Art, certainly have never taken any lessons. But in that period of not seeing much physically, I craved colour and shapes. I started to play with this even though I could barely see what I was doing. Amazing beings began to emerge on my paper. Incredible angles and shapes and unexplainable symmetry (remember, I could hardly see what I was doing!) began to appear. From those beginnings, a whole community of what I now call my "Alien Friends" has emerged as drawings, mostly done during those visually darkest times. When I was unable to be engaged visually with the outside world, my inner world just opened up and blossomed. Artwork came through. Stories and dreams emerged. Insights and inner visions took root. What could be richer? Maybe this is the prosperity I have been praying for. Every day I am surrounded by these remarkable beings (they cover my walls) who, because I was willing, on some level, to lose my external sight for a period of time, have been able to come into this physical reality.

These "Alien Friends" of mine do want to start being part of this blog so stay tuned. You will meet some very delightful, wonderful, enlightened beings.

Back to this exploration of personal responsibility and creating my own reality. Would I have really created blindness for myself? And yet, it has been that journey into blindness that has opened amazing and magical doors for me. That journey took me into a reality I likely could never have opened up to otherwise.

Maybe a better word would be "CO-CREATE". Perhaps our responsibility is to tune in to the Divine Intelligence that created us and to co-create with that Intelligence. Perhaps our responsibility is to tune in with Mother Earth and co-create in harmony with Her Intelligence. Perhaps our responsibility is to tune in to the Higher Intelligence of all Humanity and co-create in harmony with the greater good of all. Perhaps our responsibility to allow the deepest desires and passions of our Soul to reveal themselves in a way that we can act upon them.

The one thing that I do know for sure now is that I am not acting in isolation. I am but one spark of the Divine Flame. As I tune in and align myself more fully with the Divine Flame, my life will become the Creation that it is meant to be. That might be the life that my ego craves. And it might not be. Either way, my life is perfect and beautiful.

On that lovely note, I'll end for now. But I will soon be back, accompanied by some special friends!

Wishing you all many beautiful and magical creations!

Barbara

CROWN CHAKRA Opening to the MYSTERY

2010-04-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

On Wed. March 17, in our Journey Through the Chakras class, we journeyed to the Top of the Mountain -- to the Crown Chakra. It has taken me a bit of time to settle down to write up this one! The upper Chakras, especially Third Eye and Crown relate more to the Being part of ourselves (as opposed to the "doing" part of ourselves -- the part that most of us are way too familiar with!! We do tend to live in a culture more focused on doing and accomplishing and we sometimes forget or neglect that part of us that needs to kick back and view the world and life from the mountaintop.) I was really getting into that "Being" part of myself but now it is time to find the balance between Being and Doing.

This, for me, is one of the major challenges of the Spiritual Journey. I love that mountaintop and yet, as a human being living and working on the Earth, how do I balance my craving to be on that mountaintop with my all too human needs for family, relationship, connection, satisfying work and play, and of course also bringing in my physical needs for good organic food, movement and exercise and of course hugs and intimacy. I know, from personal experience, that it is sometimes tempting to pursue the Spiritual Path exclusively to the extent of disconnecting from and denying our human needs. It is like trying to "build a castle in the sky". With no foundation, that Castle will crash and that crash may come in the form of a physical or emotional crisis. I think this is akin to what has been called a Spiritual Emergency.

The Higher we journey through our Chakra System, the more important it is to have rituals of grounding and connection. I am just imagining how awesome it is to be fully grounded in the Higher Aspects or Dimensions of Existence as we simultaneously walk on and connect deeply with the Earth. Imagine the Bridge (the Heart) being fully open so that we can travel easily and safely between the Physical and Spiritual Realms, so that eventually no travel is necessary. We are just "there" existing, expanding into both realms simultaneously. Does there really have to be a "break" or a disconnect between either world? I don't think so. I believe it just means taking care of ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually in the best way that we each know how, finding that balance between Being and Doing and most importantly Opening the Heart so we can cross that Bridge easily.

Opening the Heart -- perhaps easy enough to write about, easy enough to imagine or even do in the "right" circumstances (where we feel safe and loved) but how about in those challenging relationships and situations? How about in our memories and perhaps traumas of the past? If our bridge is blocked then we may either feels trapped in the lower chakras with no spiritual guidance or direction, or we may end up trying to build that castle in the sky which will come crashing down. I am currently reading a book "Perfect Love Imperfect Relationships" by John Welwood which explores the fear (or terror in some cases) that many of us have of Opening the Heart fully and at the same time, looks at the necessity of doing so if we are ever to create a harmonious and fulfilling life and World. Our planet desperately needs our Love now.

Interestingly enough, I see a real parallel happening in my singing lessons (based on Speech Level Singing -- see link at the left of my blog) and my current challenge of "crossing the bridge" from chest voice to head voice. I can sing in a very low chesty voice and I can sing in a high soprano type voice. But crossing over from lower frequencies to higher frequencies with no disconnection -- now there is the challenge!! So even my singing lessons are pointing to the need to Open My Heart, to find ease in crossing The Bridge. So I can happily go hang out in the Crown Chakra (my high soprano voice) or I can enjoy the sensual Earthy pleasures of physicality (my deep chest voice -- which does create a powerful and sensual vibration in my body!)), but ultimately it seems to me that the Middle Way of the Heart is the Ultimate Bridge to Connection, to becoming Whole (and to singing my favorite songs easily and smoothly with no break in my voice as it crosses that all important vocal bridge).

Perhaps the most important aspect of connecting with the Crown Chakra, or Communing with the Divine, or Opening Fully to the Mystery, can only really happen through forgiveness, letting go, acceptance, compassion, understanding and of course through the LOVE that we are willing to share, right here and now, on this planet with our fellow human beings.

My Crown Chakra Dream is that we can all find it in our Hearts to Love, Honor, Respect and Accept Ourselves, All Living Beings and Mother Earth. And since the focus is on the CROWN CHAKRA I would like to expand that Dream to extend that same LOVE to ALL BEINGS, ALL PLANETS, ALL GALAXIES, ALL REALMS OF EXISTENCE...............

And here is another book that may help you feel more connected to the grander picture of ALL THAT IS: A Walk Through Time by Brian Swimme and others.

Blessings and Love to All,

Barbara

Third Eye Chakra and Creating Balance

2010-03-13T17:38:00.000-08:00

Right now we are moving into that beautiful time of year called Spring, when new life begins to burst out everywhere. It is the time we all anticipate the blooming of flowers, the blossoming of trees, the green grass emerging from the ground. We observe the grace of nature as it simply allows the rhythms of life to move through it. There is a time of resting and retreating as the trees let go of their leaves and flowers and fruit and dig their roots in more deeply to prepare for the cold and darkness of Winter. And then comes Spring and a time to allow one's beauty and fruitfulness to burst out into the world. The full abundance of Summer arrives and that life and fruitfulness comes into its full maturity. Then we move into the Fall or Harvest time when the leaves begin to drop to the ground and preparations are made for that inner retreat once again. Such a beautiful natural flowing and miraculous process that just happens -- when we allow it.

Such is the beauty and power of the Third Eye Energy. It is about simply being and allowing. Sometimes we humans get so busy with "doing" and "shoulds" that we block the natural flow and rhythms of our lives. It is funny how we always trust the trees and flowers to come back to life after their winter retreat, but we tend not to trust that same process in ourselves. Somehow we often expect and demand "constant" fruitfulness from ourselves. Like the trees, we sometimes need to back away and retreat and other times we need to allow the bursting forth of our own beauty and glory and fruitfulness. It is the natural ebb and flow of life. Connecting with the Third Eye, which is the centre of Intuition, Inspiration and Higher Wisdom, we become more able to step back and allow life and the Creative Spirit to flow through us.

On Wed. Mar. 10, in our ongoing Journey Through the Chakras, we explored the Third Eye Energy and Qualities through Artwork, movement, visualization and journal writing. We explored how it would be to allow images to just come into our physical eyes (as opposed to always feeling like we have to send the energy from our eyes out there to search for the images. Our physical eyes are being stressed and overused in our present daily life and constant busyness. I saw (and experienced) shocking evidence of that during a time when I had some serious eye problems which required extensive surgeries and many many hours of waiting in the Eye Clinic. That Eye Clinic was always packed with people who also had serious eye problems. That, to me, says we are trying too hard to make things happen instead of simply trusting and allowing the natural flow of life and nature. Allowing life to flow through us, allowing images to come to us, taking the quiet time to allow our Inner Wisdom to guide us -- that is what takes the pressure off of the physical eyes and allows the Third Eye to open.

A lovely thing to think about and reflect upon is "What do you love to feast your eyes upon?" Or "What sights feel pleaurable to your eyes?"

(Pleasure is not just a Sacral Chakra quality. Every part of us, even our eyes, needs pleasure in order to be healthy and vibrant.)

Can you imagine allowing the beauty and pleasure of those sights you love to look at to just "fall into" your eyes? It is so important to feast our eyes on beauty and to allow that beauty to sink in through our eyes to fill every cell in our bodies. Just taking in. Allowing.

One of the participants in the class drew a lovely picture at the end of the class of people lying down in the grass with trees around them and the sun shining down on them. His comment on the picture he had drawn was "I don't need to always be busy and trying to do things. All I need to do is to allow the nice day to come to me." Such a simple, yet profound thought. Maybe all any of us really need to do is to "allow the nice day" to come to us.

Intuition, psychic abilities, Higher Wisdom -- all the qualities of the Third Eye Chakra are available to all of us -- if we can just let go of our busyness and allow space and time for those qualities to flow through us.

It is time for letting go and allowing.

I know we all have things that have to be done and places we have to go, but let's all take some time in this lovely spring season to just be. To sit in the park. To smell the flowers. To connect with the trees. And to just be. Nothing to do but take in the beauty and new life blossoming all around us.

Happy Spring!

Barbara

Throat Chakra and the Creative Spirit

2010-03-04T16:50:00.000-08:00

On Wed. evening the "Blue Bird of Happiness" flew into my energy field and I would love to share this beautiful and happy energy with all of you!

I have added a new element to my "Journey Through the Chakras" classes. We begin the class by doing some Artwork, or more accurately, allowing colours and shapes to fill our paper and we end the class the same way. By comparing the two pictures, we get a very accurate and always fascinating measure of where we are before fully experiencing the energy of the Chakra we are working with and where we're at after having done some movement, visualization, reflection and exploration of the qualities of the Chakra. It was in my second picture that the bluebird of happiness flew in! Interesting too because the colour of the Throat Chakra is blue.

On Wed. Mar, 3, I was preparing for the Throat Chakra class and a really wonderful insight came to me. I have always experienced the Throat Chakra as the energy centre through which the Soul can communicate and create and I was thinking about the Reflections on Soul that I was going to offer the participants of the class. But then I felt my own Soul nudging me and calling me inward to listen to its needs and desires. I tuned in and had a little dialogue with my Soul. I was exploring the questions of "How can I create a deeper connection with my Soul?" "How can I nurture my Soul more fully?" My Soul was very happy that I was tuning in and paying attention. It asked me to remember that it (my Soul) was part of the larger Divine Soul.

Every day I start my morning with a "grounding" exercise in order to ensure that my physical being is well rooted in Earth's energies. It had never before occurred to me that I needed to do a similar kind of grounding for my Soul My Soul has been crying out for reconnection to its Roots in Divine Soul. That is how it is nurtured and sustained. And from that larger connection, the Creative energy can flow into my individual Soul and express through me. In this way, my Throat Chakra or Creative Centre simply becomes the vehicle through which Divine Soul is expressed, This came as a big relief to me. No longer is it just me and my individual Soul trying to get through this life and having the full responsibility to create whatever it is I am supposed to be creating on this material plane. My Soul told me that all I need to do now is to stay tuned in and to allow my Soul to be fully rooted in Divine Soul. All else will flow from that connection.

This is making so much sense to me. Of course it is important, as long as we are here on the Earth in physical Earth bound bodies, to be grounded in this current reality. At the same time, it seems to me to be essential to understand and remember that, while our Individual Soul is presently dwelling here in a physical body, this is not the home of the Soul. The Soul is part of a larger, more expanded, more ethereal reality. When life can be seen and experienced from this Higher Perspective of Divine Soul, life's lessons and challenges begin to make much more sense in terms of our Individual Soul's evolutionary process. I already have a strong sense that this awareness and this tapping into Divine Soul Energy is going to make my life's challenges feel much easier. And I have a sense that all of the wonderfully creative ideas and insights I have are going to flow into manifestation much more easily. Prior to having these new awarenesses and feelings of connection to a greater Source, my Creative Juices were flowing, but felt almost overwhelming. I wasn't sure I had the energy or ability to allow that Creative Energy full expression. Now I know that I can do all that I am being urged to do. As long as I continue to allow my Soul to be rooted in and nurtured by its Divine Source, I know that I do have the capacity to allow that Creative Force to express itself through me. And truthfully, it is wonderful to be coming to a deeper understanding that it is not about me. I am simply the vehicle.

I think this is beginning to answer a question that I have puzzled over for sometime. We have had (and still have) some extremely talented and creative people on this planet. These people bring so much to us in the way of music and dance and songs and stories and art etc.. It sometimes seems as though their creative energy is non ending. And yet many of them struggle with unhappy lives or addictions or emotional distress. We all know many very talented and creative individuals whose lives have ended way too soon and often in not very happy circumstances. Could it be that, although they had very Creative Souls, they might not have known how to tap into that Greater Source for nurturing and support? Were they trying to do it all alone as Individual Souls? Were they trying to take responsibility for this massive energy? Were they trying to own and control a force that cannot be owned and cannot be controlled? For some really fascinating info on this topic of Creativity and letting go of responsibility, check out www.ted.com/speakers and click onto Elizabeth Gilbert (under G's. page 2).

To me, this incredible Creative Force is the Kundalini awakening and moving through us. The Kundalini is a dynamic and powerful energy that we need to be prepared for. This means keeping the body strong and healthy (Organic food and dance are a great way to start getting stronger and healthier). It is also very helpful to prepare our nervous systems through stress reduction and by determining what is really essential to our well being. In this culture, we tend to feel an obligation to keep doing more, accomplishing more. The more we "do" and the more pressure we put on ourselves, the less connected with Soul we are. Throat Chakra is about being very discriminating as to what nurtures the Soul and what does not. In other words, what things are really exciting and make you feel really alive? What things drag you down and drain your energy? In working with this energy centre it is crucial to begin to embrace those things, situations and people that give us energy and vitality and a sense of moving forward. It is important to begin the process of withdrawing from those things that tire us or that feel out of synch or harmony with us.

Imagine a world where we could all live in absolute harmony with our Soul's deepest desires. That is my Throat Chakra Dream!

Keep those Creative Juices flowing!

Barbara

Heart Chakra Ecstasy!

2010-02-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

What makes your Heart sing? Actually, one of the things that really makes my heart sing is walking by a tree full of singing birds. I always have to stop and enjoy the symphony!

On Wed. Feb. 24, we explored many aspects of the Heart Chakra in our ongoing Journey Through the Chakras. One description or image of the Heart Chakra that I find very intriguing is The Rainbow Bridge. The Heart is the Bridge between our Physical Nature and our Spiritual Nature. It is through the Heart that we develop the ability to give and receive Unconditional Love. I really like this quote from Judith Anodea's book "Eastern Body Western Mind" which says' "We may be a culture obsessed with power, but we are driven by the need for love."

Maybe that Pot of Gold at the end of The Rainbow Bridge is actually Unconditional Love. If that is so, I wonder why that Love seems so elusive to so many of us?

Earlier in the day, when I was reflecting on my preparations for this Heart Chakra class, I pulled one of my Voyager Tarot cards (see my Jan. blog on The Tarot Reading That Keeps on Giving.) The card that I pulled was The Ace of Cups, which, in the Voyager is ECSTASY. The image is incredibly beautiful flowers in full bloom. It (the card) has a feeling of life bursting out everywhere in glorious beauty and abundance. After absorbing the energy of that card, I looked up and my gaze happened to fall upon an incredible houseplant that I have nurtured. About 4 or 5 years ago, I was given a tiny (about one and a half inches) little stick of what looked like bamboo. I rooted it, nurtured it -- now that glorious plant is taller than I am and continues to reach up towards the heavens. What came to me in that moment was "This amazing and beautiful plant truly is an ecstatic expression of life!" I looked at my other plants and had the same kind of feeling. I thought about the trees and the flowers -- all ecstatic expressions of life -- fully grounded and supported by the Earth and reaching up into the skies. I thought about the animals. I thought about us -- human beings. All ecstatic expressions of life. How different my experience of life and relationships could be if I could completely embody that knowing that we are all ecstatic expressions of life. In that moment, I did feel that knowing, that sense of Ecstatic expression, deep in every cell of my being. The blossoming flowers in the card reminded me that, just as the blossoms of those flowers do not last forever, that peak experience of Ecstasy may also be a fleeting one. However, that peak experience definitely opened my Heart to possibilities of connecting more deeply and loving more deeply.

As I went on to review various qualities of the Heart Chakra -- unconditional love and compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, acceptance of self and others, ability to give and receive.....-- my attention focused on receiving. As a former nurse and care giver, and as someone with a seriously overdeveloped sense of responsibility and need to feel completely independent, receiving has not been easy for me. Almost impossible actually! Recent life circumstances have changed all of that! I have been put in a position of having to ask for help and assistance in various ways. Although I am, out of necessity, getting better at doing that, it is still challenging and I still wouldn't if I didn't really have to! People are helpful and generous in ways i wouldn't have imagined before. And yet there has been a nagging feeling in me that somehow I "should" be able to be more self sufficient and not take advantage of people's generosity. I suspect this underlying feeling of being "not deserving" is a big issue for many of us. And yet, if we are all Ecstatic expressions of Divine Love, just as the Trees and Flowers are, then I think we are all deserving of the support, assistance and Love that we require for our sustenance in the same way that the trees, flowers etc. are deserving of the nourishment they receive from the Sun, the Rain and the Earth.

So my Heart Chakra Dream is that we all know ourselves as Ecstatic Expressions of Life and that we are all able to receive all that we need to support our physical, emotional and spiritual well being.

May all of your deepest Heart felt dreams come true. And may we all find our own pot of gold in the depths of our Hearts.

Barbara

More Solar Plexus Fun!!

2010-02-21T12:02:00.000-08:00

I have a few more images and inspirations I want to add to my previous blog on the Solar Plexus. This is a dynamic and intriguing energy centre to be exploring. Because it does connect directly to our digestive system on a physical level, that includes the liver -- which tends to be a place where many of us hold our unexpressed anger. So, the unleashing of that Inner Volcano that is the Solar Plexus will free up the passion that drives us. At the same time it can also free up the anger that many of us have buried deep within our liver. If we can welcome that pent up energy and express it creatively, perhaps in Artwork or Dance or in Song or Sounding, we may find not only a wonderful catharsis and release from that previously stuck energy, we may also find we have created an explosively dynamic Dance or Art or....

And to balance that explosive energy, I recently read, in Judith Anodea's book, "Eastern Body Western Mind" that the Solar Plexus is also the centre for our sense of humour. I never knew that before, but it balances nicely with all of that dynamic Warrior energy. After all we want to be in our Power, but I think sometimes our greatest power may be in not taking ourselves so seriously. And there is nothing like a good belly laugh to energize those digestive organs. A little Laughter Yoga anyone? There are Laughter Yoga classes available. Here in Toronto, google Lynn Himmelman to find out about her wonderful Laughter Yoga classes.

If you are still looking to free that Inner Warrior, Martial Arts are great. Personally I love the movements, music and power of Capoeira -- a Brazilian Martial Art. You may want to take a few lessons before you attempt these moves!! (Check out the Bavia Arts Studio link at the left side of the blog). Just creating your own Martial Art Dance to Capoeira music can be fun and energizing. Even just watching a Capoeira performance can stir that Solar Plexus energy.

And lastly (for now) the vibration of the Solar Plexus is in harmony with the vibration of horns. Some wonderful horn music can be had in Mexican Mariachi Music. The Mexican Hat Dance (Jarabe Tapatio) is a great piece to do some Solar Plexus Dancing.

May the Sun shine warm upon you and may it fill your Solar Plexus with fire and light!

Barbara

Solar Plexus Passion!

2010-02-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

What are you really passionate about? What "lights your fire"?

These are good questions to ask yourself as we explore the Solar Plexus energy centre. Often we associate passion with the Sacral Chakra because it is also the sexual centre. Certainly because it is the centre of intimacy, passion can begin to awaken here -- the passion of a new love; the passion for beauty; passion for fulfilling physical desire.

Deep in the Solar Plexus, our Personal Power centre, that energy centre just above the navel, lies our "Inner Fire" just waiting to be fanned to life. When that energy centre gets "fired up", there is no stopping us from moving forward into the full passionate expression of who we are. When we are really energized in the Solar Plexus, we can totally step "out of the box" and become the unique, dynamic beings that we are all meant to be; that we are all capable of being. Solar Plexus energy is about expressing ourselves as the totally unique beings that we each are. If we can think of ourselves as each being an individual spark from the same creative fire, then we can honor our connectedness even as we explore our uniqueness. Just as every single snowflake is unique and different, so too is every human spark from the Divine Flame completely unique and individual.

This puts me in mind of a quote from Rob Breszny's (http://www.freewillastrology.com/) book, PRONOIA which says, "Philosopher Robert Anton Wilson has proposed that the single greatest contribution to World Peace would come from there being six billion different religions -- a unique spiritual path for each person on the planet." Imagine a world where we could all explore and discover our own deep inner truth and live our lives from that place. That is definitely my Solar Plexus Dream.

Movement and dance can be a wonderful way to begin to take that step out of the box. In our Solar Plexus class on Wed. Feb. 17, we began by thoroughly warming up the body with gentle flowing movement and stretches. Then we danced to a piece called "Chaos" with the suggestion that we explore ways of moving that we haven't done before and if we find ourselves moving into a predictable, rhythmic pattern of moving, to step back, shake it out and begin a new unfamiliar way of moving. I suspect that most of us have been pretty intensely conditioned to "maintain the status quo" and to keep that inner volcano dampened down. But is that really any way to live? I would like to propose that we each take the time for some deep Solar Plexus reflection and really start to explore those things that "Light the Inner Fire". Whatever small step or movement each of us can begin to take towards our dreams and our desires and our freedom will not only free up our own energy, but will benefit and inspire those around us.

I shall leave with with this little image of personal power being well expressed!!

Or in case you prefer to think of a little softer or slightly more laid back image of potential power, how about this one?

Til next time,

Keep dreaming your beautiful dreams,

Barbara

Sacral Chakra and Intimacy

2010-02-11T11:45:00.000-08:00

Perhaps intimacy has to begin "at home" with ourselves. How "intimate" are we with all parts of ourselves. Although the Sacral Chakra does definitely relate to the intimacy of sexuality, it also embodies a much greater intimacy. That is not to downplay the beauty and power and sacredness of physical loving -- it is to say that there is that and there is more -- much more. Certainly as we continue this fascinating Journey Through the Chakras, we'll discover and experience more. But for now, let's get to know those parts of us that are desperately wanting our attention. Within most (if not all) of us, whatever our age, there are parts of us that are hidden inside feeling ignored, unsatisfied, unfulfilled. If those parts of us continue to be ignored or oppressed, we can be certain that they will find an outlet -- be it in unhealthy relationships, inability to develop intimacy, perhaps in ways that may be hurtful to ourselves or others. What if, as adults, we could develop intimate relationships with those younger (and still very much alive and active) parts of ourselves that are still craving the attention or fulfillment of needs and desires that didn't happen then.

A number of years ago, the big rage was "Inner Child" work. What about the "Inner Adolescent", the "Inner Teenager", the "Inner Young Adult". Sacral Chakra qualities include being able to develop healthy relationships, healthy expression of sexuality, emotional health and stability, feelings of passion and zest for life and the ability to create new life (since it does relate to organs of reproduction). The Sacral Chakra is also the place where attraction to others originates. And of course it relates our ability to attract others to us. That may bring up all kinds of issues about how attractive (or not) that we feel, how deserving of love and attention we feel. In other words it may bring up many of the same insecurities, desires, dreams and hopes that we may have had as adolescents, as teenagers, as young adults. Those long term insecurities and those unfulfilled dreams and desires could be wrecking havoc on our ability to develop healthy intimate relationships.

Since the Sacral Chakra is also the beginning of the awakening Creative Energy, can we find a creative way to re-connect -- intimately -- with those long denied parts of ourselves and allow them to express themselves creatively? Can we tune in to those memories of ourselves as a young teenager and offer that part of ourselves unconditional love and acceptance? Can we allow that part of ourselves to sing his or her song, to dance his/her dance, to tell his/her story, to draw or paint his/her pain and joy and frustration and desire?

We are so hung up, in our society, with what is "age appropriate" behaviour that much of our Creative Spirit has been held back, repressed, and denied expression. The "Inner Child" in us has to be free to express without judgement and without the need to be "perfect". The "Inner Teenager" has to be free to explore new feelings and sensations and desires and moods. It is back here that so much of our Creative Juiciness has been locked in. Let's allow that child in us to scribble and play freely with colours and shapes and sounds and explore with fascination all of the incredible ways that the body can move. Let's allow that teenager in us to explore sensation and love and desire and attraction. Let's just unlock those Creative Juices. Let the Sacral Chakra energy flow.

Ultimately I truly believe that it is the freeing of the Creative Spirit that is going to free humanity from pain and conflict. So I would like to propose that we rid ourselves of all judgement around what is "age appropriate".

Believe it or not, all of this was stirred up in me by a song that I want to sing on my 60th birthday, which is Jan. 11, 2011. I began singing lessons about one year ago -- never having sung before in all of my then 58 years. My inner 16 year old really wants to sing "Dream Lover" for my 60th birthday celebration. She wants, and deserves, equal time at that celebration. I've really had to grapple with, "What are people gonna think -- a 60 year old woman up there singing "I want..... A boy......to call my Own." But you know what, it is not me as a 6o year old, who will be singing that song. It is the 16 year old part of me that will be there singing her heart out. And you know what, the 60 year old will find, or create, her own special love song. One thing I am discovering about love is that as one gets older, the potential for loving becomes stronger and deeper. And that needs its own special song. But first, the teenager has to sing her song of desire. The young adult woman in me has to express her desire through her special song and dance. And, when the time is right, I will find or create the song and the dance that express the profound depths of the desire and love that continue to grow and deepen inside of me.

This Journey into Intimacy is truly a sacred and profound Journey -- especially when we offer that intimacy first to ourselves -- to all parts of ourselves.

The Journey Through the Chakras continues next Wed. Feb. 17 with the Solar Plexus. Stay tuned!!

Treat Yourself Well!

Barbara

PS I may not have mentioned that the Element of the Sacral Chakra is WATER and that Belly Dance is one beautiful way to begin to awaken that energy center.

The Root Chakra and Organic Food

2010-02-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

Greetings to all Lovers of Clean Healthy Organic Food!

There definitely is a direct link between the Health of Our Planet Earth, Organic Farming and the Health and Strength of our Root Chakra.

Last night, Wed. Feb. 3, 2010 I began another Journey Through the Chakras, an eight week (every Wed. pm) exploration of these fascinating energy centres. As many times as I have presented this Journey, I am always amazed at the new information that comes forward, both through my own reflections and through the reflections and insights of the participants, each and every time I offer this series. Last night's class was focused on the Root Chakra which is the energy centre located at the base of the spine and is our direct connection with Mother Earth. I would highly recommend the book "Eastern Body Western Mind" by Judith Anodea (available at the Library) if you want a really thorough understanding of this energy system. Basically the Root Chakra is connected with our survival issues -- and we know there are plenty of those in our world today. A strong and balanced Root Chakra helps us to feel safe, secure, stable (including financial stability), and comfortable in family and community connections. It is strongly conneccted to our physical health and well being and that, of course, is deeply related to what we put into our bodies. If we put in clean healthy balanced Organic food then our bodies are well supported and nourished. If we eat conventional food with all of its chemicals and pesticides, the body has to struggle to detoxify the food and even then, the amount of nutrients in that food is greatly diminished because it has been so severely tampered with.

A fascinating tidbit -- according to some experiments done by Jane Goodall -- she discovered that if she held an organic piece of fruit in one hand and a conventional, full of pesticides piece of fruit in the other hand, her animal friends consistently chose the Organic fruit. They instinctively knew which one to choose. She has a wonderful book out called "Harvest for Hope -- a guide to mindful eating". This is also available at the Library along with many books on her adventures in Africa and her insights into animal nature. The Root Chakra is also connected with our Animal and instinctual nature which we do all have but our intellectual nature has overpowered that instinct. The more we can re-connect with the animals and pure healthy food, the more sensitive we will become in regards to our connection with the Earth.

In last night's class, after we released our stress and got centered through our Dance Flow through all of the Chakras we refocused on the Root Chakra and its qualities. Then, in our journals, we did the following exercise which you may find interesting to try on your own.

We reflected on and completed the statement, "Out of those Root Chakra qualities, the thing that is most important to me right now is........................................" Then we paused and imagined that thing or quality being in our lives right now.

Then taking that thing that is so important to us right now on a personal level, into a broader global dream, we completed the statement "My dream for the Earth and all of her beings is........................................ We imagined that dream happening and being real right now.

The next statement was "One small step or action or change of thought I can make towards this dream is................................." In our imagination we saw ourselves doing this.

People dreamed about vibrant physical health for themselves and for all people: feelings of connectedness came up. Also desires to feel grounded and stable.

In my own personal reflection on this I dreamed of the availablity and accessabilty of Organic Food for all. The steps that I saw myself taking towards this dream were: 1. Every time I step into the Organic store or go to the Organic Market, I will offer my gratitude for being able to shop and eat organically (as opposed my usual apprehension and anxiety of what this is going to cost as I step up to the cash register with my Organic treasures!) and to send out a prayer that all beings have abundant access to this wonderful food. 2. To support the Organic farmers in whatever way I can.

After imagining myself doing this last night, I was really excited today to discover, through Vitality magazine, that there is an Organic conference coming up next week Feb. 20 here in Toronto. If you like you can check that out at http://www.cogtoronto.org/

Just a final thought -- as I was preparing for this class I also stumbled upon some wonderful information about the Earth and the Universe by Brian Swimme -- if you google his name and then click on video, you'll see and hear some amazing stuff. In one of his videos he says that humanity is "in between" stories right now. The old story that we have been living is over now and our new story has not yet manifested (I am putting this in my own words in the way that I understood it). To me that means we have a tremendous power now to participate in the creation of that new story. And I believe that it is our dreams and our intentions that are creating that new story.

So l am dreaming of the Earth being loved and nurtured by the Organic farmers that we (and our governments) support and that every living being has access to an abundance of Organic food.

I'd love to hear what your dream is. chakradancer@hotmail.com or leave a post here.

I'll be in touch next week after our Sacral Chakra adventure!

Keep Dreaming!

Barbara

The Tarot Reading That Keeps On Giving!

2010-01-17T18:01:00.000-08:00

Last January, 2009, my birthday(Jan. 11) gift to myself was a Tarot reading from James Wells (see link for Evolutionary Tarot to left of this blog).

This year on Jan. 11, 2010, I began my 59th birthday by re-listening to the tape recording James had made of last year's reading. In fact I even re-created the layout that we had used. When I initially went for my reading, James had laid out many decks of Tarot cards (it is quite amazing to see how many really creative and beautiful decks are available these days) and he allowed me to choose the one I wanted for my reading. It was fascinating to browse through this huge variety of images and wisdom. The Voyager Deck drew me in. It was my first time to see it and to my delight, discovered that it was made by collage. I have a real passion for making collages so I was excited to see these collage images in Tarot. Needless to say, I now have my own Voyager Deck!

In going back and listening to this tape a year later I was amazed at how current it still is and how much of the guidance I received is still extremely relevant and important now, a year later. One thing I really loved about James' reading was the "conversation" aspect of it. In readings I have had in previous years from other tarot readers, it was pretty much the reader telling me about my life and telling me what I should and shouldn't be doing or thinking about. That's probably why I haven't had a reading in a long time. It wasn't like that at all with James. With each card, we would first explore what the images meant to me and how they related to my current situation. It gave me a chance to explore my story from a new perspective. Then James would offer his very wise and intuitive insights, thoughts and observations. In that way, a larger and more complete picture was created.

The question I brought to that 2009 reading was "How can I create work that is both satisfying to my Soul and financially supportive?" We did an eight card spread, but after reviewing the entire spread, I decided, for this year, I would really focus on the first two cards. Just those first two cards alone could give me all the guidance I need right now for my work and for my life in general. In fact I would highly recommend this as an exercise that anyone could do with or without cards.

The first card was in the position of "What is unacceptable in terms of conditions, energies, etc. around my work? What feelings or situations should I back away from? What are the red flags?" I drew the Seven of Wands which struck me as a very dark card with many fearsome looking masks and sharp knife like objects. One large mask looked very disapproving and judgemental to me. There was a depressive and oppressive feeling in that face. I could certainly identify those feelings and the people in my work life who represented those kinds of feelings. James also pointed out the significance of perhaps feeling like I had to wear many masks or take on too many roles. I could definitely relate to that in a then current work situation. So generally here, the lesson for me was, when things feel like this, I need to back away. These are the things that don't nurture my Soul. James commented that it was important to also be aware of when my own inner thoughts and feelings may resemble what I saw in that card. It has taken me some time to really "get that"! Now I fully understand that there isn't really any point in trying to change my outer circumstances until I look deeply inside and see where I am harboring my own feelings of disapproval and judgement that I may be projecting towards myself and/or others. What masks am I wearing and where in my life am I trying to play too many roles? Where am I trying to be everything to everybody? Where and when do I hide behind a mask? Is this just more of that old people pleasing trap that I so easily fall into?

After allowing that card to settle into my psyche for a whole year, I am really understanding that my outer circumstances are doing nothing more than reflecting what is buried deep inside of me. Wow -- maybe I really am getting older and wiser!! I like the "wise" idea!!

The second card was in the position of "What are the acceptable conditions for my work? What are the "go for it" signs?" The card I drew in this position was Man of Crystals, also called INVENTOR. Initially this card struck me as somewhat chaotic with tons of stuff going on. James explained that crystals related to the mind and had to do with expressing feelings in a creative way. I could relate to that. All of the chaos in the card felt like the ideas and inspirations that were floating around inside of me. At James' suggestion I focused in on the image that stood out the most and it was a beautiful light purple crystal that appeared well connected to the Earth and at the same time was pointing upwards towards a solid looking structure. James offered the suggestion that "what is acceptable (in my work) needs to be solidly connected to the Earth and it needs to be pointing to something bigger than itself". He explained the INVENTOR as being visionary, forward moving and creative. At that point I noticed a bird with a large, bright clear eye looking out at the world. I grabbed onto that image because I have been experiencing a number of visual "challenges" in the past few years. Because my eyesight is very fluid and wavy and changeable, and I see the physical world in quite a unique way now, we determined that acceptable conditions for my work would be whatever feels fluid and visionary and unique. James also made the comment that "through my physical eyesight, I am carrying the energy for all beings who invite different ways of seeing things". This is a truly exciting thought for me. It totally transforms my experience of my "new" way of seeing the world. Instead of focusing on the struggles and challenges that my new sight presents; instead of thinking of it as something"wrong", I now see it as very right, very in tune with the uniqueness that I am here to express. The INVENTOR is about cultivating a unique perspective. It is about surrendering to surprises. No more trying to "see" in the old way which doesn't, and can't work for me anymore. It is a big relief to let go of that struggle.

I could go on for hours about just these two cards, and yet the reading had six more!! Maybe next year on my 60th birthday I'll explore cards 3 and 4!

Thank you James for this incredible gift. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and your knowledge. Thank you for inspiring me with your constant quest and willingness to dive deeper and deeper into the great mysteries of Tarot, and of life! Thank you for the inspiration and clarity I have received through my reading and through all of the wonderful Tarot gatherings that you have created.

I would like to end this by offering an intention or prayer that we all move closer to finding those conditions that are acceptable and that nourish and support us on every level of our being.

I wish you all many blessings for the year 2010 -- and always.

Barbara

The Work That Re-Connects

2009-12-31T14:23:00.000-08:00

Everything is connected. If I ever doubted that, the few experiences I have had with Joanna Macy's "Work That Re-Connects", has left no doubt in my mind. You can check out Joanna's work at http://www.joannamacy.net/. She is an amazing teacher, now in her 80th year, who continues to travel and teach intensive workshops.

On Sat. Dec. 19, 2009, I attended a full day workshop based on The Work That Re-Connects, facilitated by Jeannette McCullough (http://www.shamansong.ca/). I was deeply touched and amazed by some of the unexpected gifts and the sense of "knowing" that I received throughout the day. For me, the most remarkable and the most profound exercise that we did involved Jeannette first offering us a prayer of gratitude towards various beings and then we, in partners, each had a chance to speak our own memories, feelings and offer gratitude towards the various beings that were mentioned. First was a prayer and then our offerings of gratitude towards Mother Earth. Then we offered prayers and gratitude towards the trees, and then the animals and the birds and the flowers and the fish. With each sharing with my partner, I found memories of my growing up days just flooding back to me, but I found those memories coming back in a very different way than they ever had before. Instead of seeing the "difficulties" or the challenges of my growing up years, I suddenly began to recognize all of the incredible gifts that I had been given throughout my childhood and teenage years. I was very fortunate to grow up in a little village (Port McNicoll) near the shores of Georgian Bay. I was surrounded by the abundance and beauty of nature. I grew up with clean, fresh air to breathe, water that was ideal for swimming, birds of all kinds. I grew up surrounded by "tree friends" who welcomed me into their arms. How I loved climbing trees. When I wasn't "up a tree" I was swimming. Or riding my bicycle through quiet, safe streets. Or riding horses at my friend's farm. Or I was rescuing stray animals. Or I was feeding the birds. At times our backyard would be a mass of big white fluttering wings as I threw bread (day old from my father's grocery store) out to the seagulls. And of course we had many beautiful birds of every colour enjoying the birdbath and bird feeder that my mother kept well filled for our feathered friends. There were so many gifts in my growing up years, I can't even begin to name them all here. Through that exercise of sharing my memories, I totally re-connected with my past in beautiful, positive, happy way. I felt the beauty and the power and the strength of my foundation, my upbringing, in a way I never had before.

It is amazing how connected everything is. Just a couple of days before that workshop, I had "re-connected"with all of my photographs, from my infancy up to 1994. When I left to live in Mexico in 1994, I had stored my photos in my cousins dark, dusty basement in my hometown. For almost 16 years I had not seen any of these treasures. In "rescuing" these treasured photos from the basement of my cousins house, I felt like I had rescued a part of myself from the dark and dusty basement! After the workshop, I knew that the only thing that I really wanted to do on Christmas Day was to go through all of these photos and to remember and to receive fully, all of the gifts that I was given through each stage of my life. With my Beloved Spirit Guide (Sweet Wisdom) at my side, I explored those photos one by one, remembering the gifts and showering my young self and all of those around me in those precious pictures, with Love.

Just one final thought on the work of re-connecting -- I see now how, even though I haven't experienced very much of Joanna's work (this was only my second exposure to it), re-connecting has been a theme in many of my recent endeavors. In my ongoing work with the Chakras, the whole focus is on re-connecting the various aspects of ourselves as we re-connect with SOURCE. In my current vocal training, the entire focus right now is re-connecting my deep rich chest voice with my head voice and learning to transition smoothly through my full vocal range.

It is very exciting to see and experience many aspects of myself and my life and my voice coming together, re-connecting at the deepest levels.

Thank you Jeannette for this enlightening work that you are offering us. It is a gift.

And thank you to all of the Beings -- Human, Animal, Plant, Rock .... and of course to all of the Beloved Spirits who guide our way.

I wish you all a Wondrous New Year. Thank You for allowing me to share my story.

Barbara

The Power of the Human Voice to Transform

2009-12-26T12:26:00.000-08:00

This post is inspired by an amazing event I attended on Dec. 13, 2009 called "Sounding for Wisdom at Copenhagen" facilitated by Wende Bartley, Composer and Sound Healer here in Toronto.

First a little background note: Those of you who know me are likely aware of my growing excitment and passion for anything to do with vocalizing, singing or sounding. After about 57 years of feeling like my voice was trapped deep inside of me, my voice now refuses to remain silent any longer! And with that vocal energy guiding me, I am now finding incredible opportunities to work with and use my voice in ways that are fun, energizing, healing and transformative.

My own vocal journey and wxploration began a little over a year ago when I found myself in a group where people began to spontaneously offer and share songs. I could feel my voice retreat deep inside of me in terror that someone might expect me to sing. I couldn't do it. And that was also the turning point when I knew that i also couldn't live with my voice trapped inside any longer. My search for "vocal help" led me to a remarkable teacher and a remarkable method (see speech level singing link at the left of my blog) of training the voice. While this method is aimed largely at training the voice to sing (which I now really want to do!!) its effects on me have been much more far reaching (but that's another story to come!!). But thanks to my weekly lessons and my dedication to my daily vocal practice, I now have the courage and the vocal strength to begin using my voice in many transformative ways.

I was really excited to receive Wende's invitation to her vocal event "Sounding for Wisdom at Copenhagen". This was based on a Worldwide event called Sounds of 350 (www.350.org) It sounded like a wonderful way to explore my own newly developing vocal power in a way that could also help to support the planet in these crucial times. i can only say -- that sounding event was awesome. We met in the Sanctuary of Trinity St. Paul's Church on Bloor St. so we had a great, huge space with wonderful acoustics. Wende led us through a lovely series of vocal exercises to warm up our voices and spoke to us about connecting with the Earth's song. Because of all the damage that is being done to Mother Earth, Wende explained that her (Mother Earth's) song is being silenced. By connecting with Mother Earth and allowing her song to be sung and sounded through us, we can help to revive the song. Through our voices we can connect with the vibration of the Earth and strengthen it. Wende also referred to this as "subtle activism" (www.gaiafield.net)-- a concept that really resonates with me. Led by Wende and the vocal group HATHORA, we were led into a prolonged time of sounding our own sounds as they wanted to come through us. It was a very large group of people, everybody sounding the songs and the sounds that wanted to come through them. With everyone sounding differently, the result was incredible harmony and connectedness.

As I continued to connect more deeply with the Earth, I found sounds coming through me that I had never sounded before. At one point, I could feel deep, wild animal sounds coming through me and then I realized, from somewhere across the room, another animal had emerged and was sounding back to me. In this midst of all the sounding that everyone was doing, I found myself carrying on a back and forth "animal conversation" with someone -- I have no idea who -- across that huge room. It was an amazing feeling, not only to be channeling that sound from who knows where, but to find someone who was speaking exactly that same language. This was definitely one of the most fascinating and powerful "conversations" I have ever had.

I need to end by saying thank you Wende for offering me this opportunity to experience the newfound power of my own voice and for giving me this opportunity to be of service to the Earth through my Voice.

This was a profound event and I am really excited about the discovery that I can use my voice in this Transformative way.

Thank you to all of those (and there have been a few!) wonderful people who have helped me to unleash the Power in My Voice.

And may we all continue to sing and to sound Ourselves and the Earth back to Vibrant Health!

Peace and Love to all of you.

Barbara

The Crown Chakra

2009-11-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

On Wed. Nov. 25, we donned our Crowns and journeyed to the top of the mountain!

The Crown Chakra, also known as Sahasrara, is the seventh and highest Chakra that is still directly connected with the physical body. It rules the brain and the nervous system. Energetically if offers us a more direct connection with our SOURCE, our CREATOR, THE DIVINE POWER THAT GUIDES US, or whatever image or word resonates for you.

The question we opened with was: When you think of Our Source, what word, name or image comes to you?

Another name that resonates with me is Rob Brezsny's (http://www.freewillastrology.com/) "The Divine Wow! I would also highly recommend his book PRONOIA -- How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings. According to this book, there is a unique spiritual path for every person on this planet. That idea certainly opens up possibilities for exploration and creative inspiration.

Through music, dance and sounding, we then journeyed from the ROOT CHAKRA which connects us with all of life (humanity, animal, plant, mineral kingdoms), to the CROWN CHAKRA which connects us with the SOURCE of All Life.

Then we entered into deep meditation on the Crown Chakra and allowed that energy of the Thousand Petaled Lotus to connect us more deeply with our Source. After some time of enjoying our Divine Connection, during which time the peacefulness in the room was profound, we began to channel Divine Light from our source through ourselves. By this time our Chakras were open and receptive. Light flowed from Source through each of our Seven Chakras, cleansing and energizing, until it moved down through our feet and into the Earth. We ended our meditation by visualizing that every step we take on Earth will be guided by Divine Light and Wisdom. We stretched and moved our bodies to the sound of gentle drumming to bring us fully back and to ground ourselves in this new place.

We didn't have time for journal writing this week but I would highly recommend writing a Conversation or Dialogue with the "Divine Wow!"

We ended our Seven Week Journey Through the Chakras by singing together,

Go in beauty

Peace be with You

Til we meet again in the Light.

Barbara

PS For some unknown (to me) reason, there is a big gap of empty space between the Third Eye and the Throat Chakra entry. Keep scrolling down through the emptiness after the Third Eye and you will find the remaining November entries.

Namaste

Thrid Eye Chakra

2009-11-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Third Eye Centre -- Ajna Chakra

This is the centre for Intuition, Inspiration, Development of Psychic Abilities and Higer Wisdom. Through this "Eye" we can see the true purpose or meaning of events in our lives. We can develop a greater degree of discrimination and, centered in the high vibration of this energy centre, we will come to live a truly inspired life.

On Wed. Nov. 18, we explored our Third Eye Centre in our ongoing Journey Through the Chakras at Britten Memorial Church. We began the class by creating an intention to attune more deeply with the messages of our inner world. To begin that process of listening more deeply, we tuned into our bodies and reflected on the question:Where, in my body or being, do I experience intuition or inner knowing? We discovered that inner knowing doesn't always present itself only in the area of the Third Eye. For some people, the sensations of inner knowing were experienced in the belly, in the Solar Plexus, in the Heart, in the Throat.

To review and energize the previous Chakras, we moved and danced to various rhythms -- Earthy Drumming for the Root; sexy, sensual, flowing Belly Dance rhythms for the Sacral Chakra; Dynamic horms of Mexican Mariachi rhythms for the Solar Plexus and for the Heart, we chanted "Listen Listen Listen to My Heart Song. The chanting helped us to transition up to the Thraot Chakra which we activated through sounding and a vocal siren exercise. (Note: I highly recommend the Book and CD by Wayne Perry -- Sound Medicine)

Then we moved into the Third Eye Centre and we began by massaging that place between the eyebrows, the forehead and the temples. Because it is necessay to relax and soften the physical eyes in order for the Third Eye to see more clearly, we did some relaxation exercies for the physical eyes. Then we entered into a guided meditation to meet that Wise Being part of ourselves.

Aside -- A few years back, I did lose my physical eyesight for a period of several months and during that time, my Third Eye opened to the extent that I was able to "see" and draw on paper (despite not being able to physically see what I was drawing) many amazing images and beings. This is one that came out of that inner seeing and it is called An Infusion of Wisdom.

We ended our Third Eye meditation by journaling our insights and/or dialoguing with tha Wise Being part of ourselves.

After a brief sharing, we closed by drawing all that newly awakened energy back into ourselves. We reconnected with the Earth energy and from that Earthy place, we chanted the healing sound of Om to more fully ground ourselves and our experience.

Stay tuned as we journey up to the Crown Chakra this coming Wednesday.

In the meantime, may the messages of your inner world shine through to inspire and excite you!

Barbara

Exploring The Throat Chakra

2009-11-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

On Wed. Nov. 11, we continued our weekly Journey Through the Chakras by focusing on the Throat Chakra. This energy centre relates to Communication and Creativity. It is through the Throat Chakra that the Soul can express and manifest its deepest desires and longings.

I found it fascinating to discover that the Sanskrit word for Throat Chakra is VISHUDDHA and that translates into PURIFICATION. This centre purifies and harmonizes all opposites.

To allow our creative spirit to come forward, we began by imagining or remembering ourselves as playful, creative children. We reflected on the question, "What is one thing your child self would love to be creating or making right now?" Many wonderful and happy childhood memories emerged as people re-connected with that playful child within.

We reviewed the previous Chakras through music and people were offered the option of moving and dancing to the music or to simply relax and allow tne music to move through them. Everybody opted for moving and dancing.

We energized the ROOT CHAKRA through sounds of nature and drumming.

The SACRAL CHAKRA was explored through the sensual music and movements of BellyDance.

For the SOLAR PLEXUS, we danced to the very energizing Mexican Hat Dance. The dynamic sound of horns in this wonderful Mariachi music are very stimulating to the Solar Plexus.

As we arrived at the HEART, (with our physical hearts beating more strongly after our energetic Mexican Dance), we slowed things down as we explored movement and dance that would express sending out Gratitude and receiving Divine Love. We danced to Luciano's Heart Chakra music in his Dance of the Chakras CD. As the music gradually became livelier, we imagined dancing with the beloved child part of ourselves. The dancing here became very playful and joyful.

Then we arrived at the THROAT CHAKRA. We warmed up and stimulated our vocal cords with breath and a variety of vocal exercises and sounds. Then, through meditation, we connected with the Soul and we asked the very important quesstion, "What is the deepest longing or desire of my Soul?" We then allowed the energy of that desire to emerge from the depths of the Soul and to be expressed through the voice as sounding. There was, for me, a definite feeling that I was singing with the angels during the sounding of our Souls' desires.

When the sounding was complete, we went back inside to ask of our Souls, "What is one step I can take towards fulfilling or manifesting my Soul's deepest longing?"

After some reflection on that question, we picked up our journals and we began with the sentence,"The deepest longing or desire of my Soul is......"

Then we wrote "One step I can take towards manifesting the deepest longing ore desire of my Soul is .........

By this time, the energy in the room felt extremely peaceful, centered and pure.

We ended by placing our hands on each Chakra, starting at the Crown and ending with the Root in order to draw in and contain the energy within ourselves as we began to prepare to go back out into the world. We ended by chanting the Universal Sound of OM three times, focusing primarily on our Root Chakra for grounding the energy.

The journey continues next Wed. Nov. 18 when we explore the Centre of Higher Wisdom -- the Third Eye Chakra.

Stay tuned as the adventure continues!

Barbara chakradancer@hotmail.com

The Freeing Power of Dance

2009-11-10T07:56:00.000-08:00

Freeing Ourselves Through Dance

By Barbara Sauvé

Yes I believe we can free ourselves through dance and movement. And here’s why!

A Profound Story of Dancing Towards Freedom

There is a beautiful and powerful martial art dance known as Capoeira that is gaining popularity worldwide. This dance has come to us from Brazil although its origins appear to be African. There is some vagueness and uncertainty in the history books about its exact origin and whether the dance was actually practiced in Africa or was developed in Brazil based on dance and movements that originated in Africa. For many years Capoeira had to be practiced in the strictest secrecy so some of the information about it may have been lost.
Capoeira is a martial art dance that freed many people from the most deplorable conditions of slavery in Brazil. According to When the African people were brought to Brazil as slaves starting in 1500, they gradually began to develop and practice a deadly martial art known as Capoeira. The movements were created and disguised as a dance so that no one would suspect that the slaves were actually learning a deadly martial art. The main instrument used in this dance is the berimbau, a bow like instrument with a single string, which can be played in a variety of ways to accompany the dance. This instrument could also be created to be a deadly weapon disguised as a musical instrument. Through dance and music, many of these African people in Brazil fought their way to freedom. For many years after that, Capoeira was banned, made illegal in Brazil. People who were caught learning and practicing Capoeira were incarcerated and subjected to horrible beatings. Fortunately this beautiful Dance did survive underground and by the 1930’s it was legalized as a legitimate sport and dance. In fact it is now Brazil’s official national sport. Its’ popularity is quickly spreading worldwide these days. There are many schools of Capoeira right here in Toronto. It remains today as a beautiful and graceful dance and a deadly martial art. This is a truly literal example of how dance can free people from the worst possible conditions.

Are We in Bondage?

None of us are obviously in that kind of desperate situation.
But we may feel trapped in other ways. Perhaps we feel trapped in old emotional baggage. We may be imprisoned in old dysfunctional patterns and behaviours. Perhaps we are trapped by ego concerns or by minds that love to obsess and worry and create anxiety.
Our Souls crave freedom of expression. Our Spirits crave freedom. And yet here we are in this physical realm perhaps feeling limited by the duties and obligations and stresses of our lives here on this planet. We might be feeling limited by our physical bodies that need special care and treatment.
Many of us have been repressed, or had our creative spirits suppressed or denied in some way through maybe strict upbringing, various institutions, society, schools, workplaces. These institutions have all imposed their own “rules of living or being” onto us. Very few people have true emotional, spiritual and creative freedom. There have been many restrictions placed on what we should or shouldn’t feel and experience. There are religious traditions that attempt to deny the body’s needs. Desires of the flesh are sometimes treated as sinful and the goal is complete denial and repression of the physical needs and desires.
The “problem” (as I see it) with that kind of belief is that the physical body is the temple of the Soul. As a Temple, the body needs to be cared for, to be cherished and to be honored in its divine task of housing the Soul.
One of the most wonderful ways to care for the body is to allow it to move and dance.
There is an old Sufi saying “God respects us when we work, but loves us when we dance”.

To dance is to celebrate the body that we have been blessed with.
To dance is to connect with the Soul.
To dance is to free the Spirit.
To dance is to enter fully into our physicalness, into the pleasures and joys of being alive and in the body.
To dance is to say Thank You to the Creator who made it possible for us to experience ourselves as physical beings.

Now when I speak about Dance, I am talking about the movement that comes from the depths of our Being. I’m talking about the movement that is created by our own inner pulsing rhythms and fueled by the deepest desires and longings of the Soul to be freed from its bondage. I am talking about the Dance that lives deep within each one of us, just waiting to be freed.

There are many kinds of dance – we can go to many schools of dance – we can learn Samba or Ballroom dance. We can learn the very sensual isolations and movements of belly dance. We can learn tap dance or ballet or line dance. There is no end to the type of dancing we can learn. We can study many forms of dance. And it is all fun and wonderful. All of these dances will likely help us feel better in one way or another. We become more fit; it’s fun to socialize with others through dance. We would probably feel more coordinated by learning these steps and movements. This is the type of dance where somebody else teaches us and guides us to do it correctly, when we follow external clues as to how to move, when we “train” the body in certain ways. All of these ways of dancing can certainly strengthen us and prepare us to move into a deeper kind of dance.

The Dance that I want to refer to here has no “correct” way of being done, has no prescribed steps or movements. It is the Dance that emerges from the depths of the Heart and Soul. It is the Dance that expresses the pain and joy and longings and love that emerge from the deepest, most profound place in our own individual being. Just as none of us look alike or talk alike or have the same fingerprint, so to is the Dance that occurs through our bodies and expresses who we are, different in every being.
This true concept of Dance (capital D) is the Dance that takes us right out of our heads, right out of our thoughts and worries and anxieties. This Dance brings us totally into the moment and this present moment is the only place where the physical body can exist.
When we are trapped in the regrets of the past or the anxieties of the future we are in bondage. Only by being fully present in the moment can we be free. It is in the moment, beyond the obsessing of the mind, that Body and Spirit unite as one.

When we allow our own unique rhythm to emerge, when we move to the pulse of our own Heartbeat, then we free ourselves from bondage. We create the opening and the space for the Earth and the Divine to meet in us, to merge through us, to move us, to dance us. Then we are free.

So how do we get there? How do we allow the Dance to move through us, to move us?

For me the most logical “map” to follow in the Dance towards freedom is through the Seven Major Chakras – the energy centres of the body.

The Dance begins by getting out of our heads and into our feet.

As we begin to move our feet and connect with the pulsating energy of Mother Earth, we can draw that energy up into our legs and Root Chakra (tailbone and genitals). The more in touch we are with Mother Earth the more we can experience and embrace our own physicalness. In this place of connecting deeply with our own humanness, we enter into deeper communion with all beings including the animal kingdom. Dancing and moving through the Root Chakra re-connects us with our own animal, instinctual nature. Animals know instinctively if danger (such as earthquakes or tsunamis) is approaching and they know to move onto safer ground. As we connect more with our own animal nature, we will regain our own instinctual abilities. Once our own animal nature is freed, we become literally unable to cage any animal. We become unable to tolerate any kind of cruelty to animals.

As we draw the energy up into our Sacral Chakra, the emotional centre and the centre of sexuality and sensuality, and allow the Dance to begin to flow from the pelvis, the movement will begin to clear out those old trapped emotions. The more we allow the Dance to emerge from the pelvis, we free our sexual energy which is our life force. Ultimately that is the energy that rises up through the spine, through the Crown Chakra and invites the Divine to enter and move through us.

As we allow that Dance to move up into the Solar Plexus, our personal power centre, we free our own warrior spirit. We free ourselves to take our rightful place in this world. And the real bonus is that allowing the Dance and energy to move through here, we may find that digestive disorders begin to clear up.
And we need have no fear that we may misuse all this Power because we are going to allow our dance to continue its sacred journey up into the Heart and our power will be tempered by Love.

By allowing our movement and Dance to move up into the Heart, we can open the Heart and free it of pain and grief. When the Heart is open and free, then we can open up to the Divine Love that is always there for us. That Divine Source of Love never abandons us, but we may abandon it when our Hearts are closed in pain or grief and nothing can get in. When we dance from our Heart centre, everything we do is tempered by Love and Compassion.

Sometimes our Throat and our Jaw get tight and rigid with unexpressed words or creativity that is trapped inside. We need to remember that the Throat Chakra is the energy centre where the Soul expresses itself through words, through creativity. We need to allow a gentle dance to move through the neck and throat and jaw to free all of those tight muscles. And to remember ourselves as Creative Beings.

As we allow the Dance to move gently and quietly up into the Third Eye, centre of intuition and Higher Wisdom we get to Remember and Dance with the Wise Being part of ourselves.

By the time we allow the Dance to move up into the Crown Chakra we are opening up to allow the Divine to Dance through us.

As we allow the Divine to fully enter through the Crown Chakra, it will move through us and move us in ways we hadn’t even considered. All we need to do at that point is Surrender to the Dance of the Divine.
And once we have Danced ourselves into Union with the Divine, we will have freed our bodies and our minds so that we can be open channels for the Divine.
Then we allow the Divine to move through us down through our feet and back into the Earth.

We become Channels of light, expressions of the Divine. And that is where we find our freedom.

And Dance can do all that!!

The Heart Chakra

2009-11-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

Greetings,

On Wed. Nov. 4, we explored the Heart Chakra, the centre of unconditional love, compassion and forgiveness. This centre is the Bridge between the physical or material world (represented by the lower three Chakras) and the Spiritual world (represented by the upper three Chakras). The element is AIR.

Our overall focus was How can we love all apsects of ourselves more deeply and more profoundly? Most of us tend to be very good at giving to others and extending love and compassion and forgiveness to others. Giving to ourselves, feeling love and compassion and forgiveness towards ourselves is not always as easy. And yet, if take our example from the physical heart, it has to fill itself with blood before it can pump that life giving blood to all parts of the body. Likewise, on an energetic level, we have to fill ourselves with love and compassion and forgiveness before we can offer the same to the world around us.

After we introduced ourselves to each other, we each answered the question, "What makes your heart sing?" All of the beautiful answers created a lovely, positive vibration.

As a review of the previous Chakras, we used music and dance to awaken and energize those centres. For the Root Chakra, we connected with Mother Earth and the animal kingdom as we danced and shook our rattles to a drumming piece called "Tribal Gathering". As we moved up to the Sacral Chakra we connected with our Goddess energy and allowed her sensuality to emerge through some beautiful Belly Dance music and movement. Then we moved up to the Solar Plexus and allowed the strength and power of our Warrior Spirit to come forward through some wonderful Capoeira music and dance.

We then drew the energy back up to the Heart Chakra. and entered into a loving, healing meditation. Through breath and visualization we dove deeply into the Heart centre, allowing love, compassion and forgiveness to flow from its depths. As we filled our entire beings with Love, we remembered (or imagined) ourselves as the infanys that we were. We filled our infant selves with unconditional love. Then we did the same for ourselves as children, as teen-agers, as young adults, as the adults that we are now and we sent that love forward to our future selves.

And then we danced to the beautiful Heart Chakra music performed and recorded by Luciano Porto (our Dance of the Chakras musician). First we enetered into a Dance of Gratitude and Joy, and then we imagined ourselves dancing with our Beloved.

We ended with some journal writing followed by some very dynamic and inspiring sharing and discussion. In our journals, we explored, more fully, the question, What makes your heart sing? And then we completed the following sentence What I truly and deeply love about myself is....

Next week, Wed. Nov. 11 we will be focusing on the Throat Chakra and we will be exploring the healing power of the human voice. Should be a fascinating evening ... so stay tuned!

And I encourage you -- whether you are in a group or at home in your own living room, just allow your body to move and dance whenever you can.

If you want any info on Luciano's Dance of the Chakras CD -- which is wonderful for "Dancing your Chakras", contact him at 416-658-8980 or check http://www.baviaarts.com/

Until next time,

Barbara

Exploring the Solar Plexus Chakra

2009-10-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

Our Journey Through the Chakras continued on Wed. Oct. 28 as we moved up to the Solar Plexus. The Sanskrit word for this energy centre is Manipura, which, according to the book Exploring Chakras by Susan Shumsky, means City of Jewels. Nice to think that we have a City of Jewels right inside of us!

The Solar Plexus is also known as the centre of Vital Energy. It is the centre of personal power, self esteem, confidence, intellect and it is through this centre that we express ourselves as individuals. Although we know that we are all part of the same Source, we also can appreciate our individual uniqueness, knowing that we are each an individual spark from the Divine Flame and we have come here to explore, to create and to express ourselves as only we, as an individual, can do.

Because this centre does relate to the motivation fo gain wealth, , power, status, prestige and recognition, we began the evening by first introducing ourselves and then answering the question, "If you suddenly became very wealthy, what is the first thing you would do for yourself?"

In the discussion that followed, we acknowledged that many (or most) people who are on a healing journey or a spiritual path, or who are simply trying to be good human beings, would immediately think about who they could help with that money as opposed to thinking about how they could take care of themselves first. We explored the possibility that, energetically, wealth and power are like love. You can't give love if you don't first have it for yourself. To try to give what we don't have, no matter how well intentioned we are, depletes us. Once we take care of ourselves, then we can share with the world.

Then we explored the question, "Who do you know that is wealthy, powerful, confident, materially successful and is a good, compassionate, conscious human being?" I think we would do well to be inspired by these people (there seem to be only a few of these kinds of role models at the moment). After all, wouldn't it be better if the wealth came into the hamds of people that are good and caring?

For the Dance protion of the class we explored some Martial Arts energy and movement. Specifically we were inspired by Capoeira, a Brazilian Martial Art and Dance which helped many enslaved people fight their way to freedom.

For our journal writing exercise we began by completing the following statement: "What I really appreciate about myself is:"

Then we connected with the element of FIRE by lighting a candle and allowing ouselves to connect deeply with the flame. In our journals we then did a dialogue between ourselves and the fire. We asked the fire if it had anything to tells us. Not surprisingly, a lot of powerful insights were had!!

After some wonderful sharing of experiences and thoughts, we drew our Solar Plexus Class to a close by chanting three continuous OMs from our Solar Plexus.

On Wed. Nov. 4 we will be exploring the Heart Chakra, centre of Compassion, Unconditional Love and Healing.

In the meantime, Let Your Light Shine Out Into the World.

Barbara

PS I'd be happy to hear any responses or thoughts about the questions that were posed.

Journey Through the Chakras

2009-10-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

Hello All Chakra/Dance/Sound Enthusiasts (and Welcome to Anyone Else Who May Be Tuning In)

This is a reminder (or it might be "new" news) that I am presently facilitating a Seven Week Journey Through the Chakras every Wednesday evening from 7pm--9pm up to (and including) Wed. Nov. 25, 2009. This is a drop in class. Each class will offer a full review of the preceeding Chakras that we have worked with and then there will be a focus on one particular Chakra, working from the Root up to the Crown.. This blog will cover the essence of what we did and what we experienced in preceeding classes.

On Wed. Oct. 14, we explored the Root Chakra at the Base of the Spine. We became like Trees with roots nestled deep in Mother Earth. Through our deep and sacred connection with the Earth we explored the qualities of stability and groundedness. Then we visualized a Sacred Jungle and met our current Power Animal. We allowed the Animal to dance and make sound through us. In our journals, we explored the qualities of that Animal and how those qualities might support us in our Sacred Journey on this planet. Then we dialogued, again through journal writing, with our Animal friend. The Animals had some surprising and wonderful things to share with us. It was a blessing to meet and dance with all of the Animals that came through us and it was very beautiful to re-connect with our own Animal Nature. It was a powerful reminder that we humans also have instincts that need to be listened to.

..........................................................................

On Wed. Oct. 21, we explored the Sacral Chakra. We began by exploring ways of pampering ourselves. We explored physical sensation through exotic and sensual movements and dance. We connected deeply with the element of Water. By visualizing the healing of the Earth's waters we brought healing imagery and energy into the waters and fluids of our own bodies. In our journals, we wrote about those things that give us physical pleasure and that opened up a beautiful discussion around sexuality. Calling upon the energy of the Goddess or the Divine Feminine, we asked her the question, "How Can I Experience My Own Inner Beauty More Fully?" We allowed her to answer through a dialogue in our jounals. The sharing here was powerful and dynamic. SHE brought us insight and a deeper appreciation and love for ourselves.

.......................................................................

On Wed. Oct. 28, we will explore the Solar Plexus and the element of FIRE! It could be a passionate and firey experience!! Stay tuned for the next chapter in our ongoing Journey Through the Chakras. Or better yet, come and join us at:

Britten Memorial Chuch

657 Lansdowne Ave (S of Bloor)

Wed. 7pm--9pm (doors are locked at 7:30)

Cost is $15.00 per class

If you want more info, e-mail me at chakradancer@hotmail.com

I am happy to receive any responses, comments, questions...

Whether you join us at the Church or you journey and explore on your own, remember to "Dance Like Nobody's Watching!"

Enjoy,

Barbara

Coming Attractions

2009-10-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

Oct. 14, 2009

Hello,

This is my first experience with blogging and as soon as I get it figured out, I will be posting the following Articles:

The Freeing Power of Dance

Speech Level Singing -- Taking Our Practice to a Deeper Level

Relflections on the Life, Music and Death of Michael Jackson

Romancing the Python (An Exploration of Kundalini)

So -- stay tuned.

In the meantime if you would like a copy of any of these articles please send me an e-mail request and I will be happy to forward it to you. chakradancer@hotmail.com