How Breathwork, Sound & Singing Makes Our Voices Stronger
And why we must continue to use them.
This post has been a long time brewing. By a long time, I mean two weeks - for me as a writer who just itches to get the thoughts and words put to paper, that’s practically an eternity.
But this one deserved some time to marinate, because it is a complex configuration of multiple dimensions of my universe and how they are all interacting and fluxing with each other right now. I had to give it some thought and I was curious to see how it might play out if I did that. I’m glad I did.
I’ve written here before about how I got into singing bowls this year, and how I’ve been practicing meditation, and how that evolved into singing my mantras when I play the bowls. Today I started working with an amazing coach - Ben Carroll, whom I was referred to by The Ohm Store, where I have recently purchased a few of my bowls. I now have 12, 8 crystal bowls in a set and hammered 5 brass bowls, a set of solfege tuning forks, a koshi crystal chime, a set of tabletop chimes, a red piano, a keyboard and a partridge in a pear tree. It’s Christmas every time I have a few minutes to play my instruments. My office seems smaller somehow…
Ben was the first singing bowl player I found who also sings with his bowls. He told me today that there are “more of us now” but he is still the only one I have found. Now that I get to work with him weekly on breathwork, on playing, on singing, on becoming more intentional with energy in our music, I am getting really excited because it is becoming more clear to me that all these parts of my life don’t stand alone. My work, my business, my children, my workouts, my food, my meditation, my friendships, my volunteering, my book, my writing… I used to feel like they lived in separate silos and I was exasperated by constantly changing hats. But I was wrong. They are all connected and they are meant to be.
Recently, the women’s writers group I am part of sent an email with a link to the Atlantic Article about how Substack is becoming utilized by Nazis. Freedom of speech being what it is, it was only a matter of time before that happened. But I happen to believe that freedom of speech is an important part of our protected freedoms. I’m a writer, my words are my key to freedom, for myself and for others.
But people are worried, especially since many of us post our work on substack. How would this reflect on us as writers, to accidentally appear “alongside” someone with a vile perspective of humanity that we feel we share nothing in common with and don’t want to be linked to?
Well, I have been meeting vile people my whole life in the real world. It’s not an uncommon thing to find. How do I deal with it? Boundaries, walking away, ignoring the noise, paying attention to the rise of suppression. Because suppression is evil too.
There is evil in the world and some people are born with a more clear understanding of that, with more clear values and a stronger sense of right and wrong. Our upbringings had much to do with it. I was lucky. My friends were lucky. We feel like we are on the right side of morality and justice and we despise hatred.
But what happens when all the people who feel strongly about justice and are anti-hate rush away from a platform?
It’s happened so many times now with social media in the past couple of years, that I believe it has become a knee jerk reaction to “Find a safer space.” But that is a delusion unless the world itself is becoming safer. It’s not. So what do we do?
What if we were to raise our voices louder, to become more powerful together to fight the voices of hatred, instead of letting them be the only voice left in the room after we’ve run off to more comfortable, less diverse “rooms” online?
Do we truly think that people who foster hate are irredeemable?
What if people who are struggling, who are weighed down by this hate, who are deceived by this evil narrative, could instead be positively influenced by our words, be persuaded by our actions and our voices? What if we could change their minds?
When I see “Substack has a Nazi problem”, my first thought is “well, that really sucks.” But my second thought was “It’s an opportunity.” And it is.
Today when Ben was teaching me a breathing technique called “Bees Breath”, he said something profound that struck as clear as a bell and resonated with me, and with the substack situation above.
“Humans have always sung together, it’s part of our history, but there has been a shift where many people think their voice isn’t good enough to sing with anymore. But anyone can sing. Everyone should sing. We all have a subconcious knowledge that there is power in our voice to shift energy, to make change and bring healing with our sound, with our voices. But many people are afraid of that, they run away from it.”
After I got done pumping my fist in the air and shouting amen to that, I wrote down what he said so I wouldn’t get it wrong.
If we allow our voices to be drowned out by evil, if we run away and stay silent, ignoring the ugly face of it as it rises, aren’t we as guilty as the German citizens who stayed silent when their neighbors were arrested and brutalized on Kristallnacht? Maybe not yet, but we could be if it comes to that, if we turn and run from every discomfort and fear. How on earth do we think it’s not possible for it to come to that? It’s happening right now.
Take a breath. I know this is probably uncomfortable. Take three.
I’m going to wrap this up now with a quote from my Uncle Curtis who was just here visiting us for a week. When I brought up my conflict and concern about substack, and how wonderful, empathetic, intelligent, brilliant, inspiring writers are thinking of leaving the platform, he had this to say.
“Tell them, do not run away, instead, raise your arms. Force them down ladies. We have this. Fuck evil in any form, on any platform. We shall overcome.
The first time I heard Aretha Franklin singing that song, I cried for two days, and I have never forgotten. And after Martin Luther King was killed, I marched in a parade where that song was led by Joan Baez, at the head of the parade on Telegraph avenue in San Francisco, she sang all 12 verses that a mens university choir had written. Her voice was clear as angels and every time she sang a verse, the sound was as clear as an angel and in every chorus, the trail of tears from our parade flowed down the street and down into the bay. It was phenomenal, moving music.” - Uncle Curtis ( who may be a loud houseguest but who is also a respected and an admirable hippie of the 10th degree).
I wrote an instagram post about this as my house smelled of fish he decided to cook that night in my kitchen, as he was playing “We Shall Overcome” on his phone loudly, in a rocking chair in my tiny living room, after I just put my children to bed. Was I glad he was there to share this story? Fuck yeah! Was I a little annoyed, as a mother that he was disturbing my children? Sure. Am I grateful for his stories, for his experience and his influence? Yes. Above all, yes. Because he is right, and we need these loud, booming, powerful voices to remind us sometimes that we cannot run away from fear and evil.
Let the power of our love, of courage and contextual experience prevail. Let evil cower in our loving, powerful wake. Do not run away.
Raise up your voice and make it heard. Need inspiration?
Listen to the others who raised their voices and made a difference.
We Shall Overcome - The Song
We Shall Overcome - The Speech by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.