Music Medicine: Freeing yourself through Sound
It's not what music does, it's what music undoes.
“This is really about trust.
Leaning further and further into the trust of your spontaneous expression - that it is good, that you are good.
Going right up to your current boundary of self allowance and stretching what it feels like to be free.”
What is music medicine?
Music medicine is a combination of modern music therapy with ancient indigenous practices: science and wisdom. My teacher Christine Stevens, who wrote 'Music Medicine: The Science and Spirit of Healing Yourself with Sound', has two masters in music therapy and was adopted by the Lakota for 12 years, she integrated these two experiences into Music Medicine, which is the most holistic approach to sound I have seen that speaks to all the elements of sound, human, and nature.
Here is more information on the science of Music Medicine. Research in English and Mandarin 中文 音乐疗愈 科学 治疗. TED talk on what your voice tells you and why you may not like the sound of your own voice.
Rhythm / body / earth / east
Melody / heart / fire / south
Harmony / soul / water / west
Silence / mind / air / north
Inner Music (Spirit) & Outer Music (Purpose)
My own practice integrates my foundation-setting work with Christine + deep mystical searching into sound with Laura Inserra + vocals and sound as a vehicle for time and space travel with Elijah Ray. I've further integrated my business and emotional processing training into sound, and I can detect state of consciousness through the voice and also change state of consciousness through changing the voice.
This is only the the tip of the iceberg. The journey into sound as a vehicle for awakening is deep and endless.
Invitation
My invitation to you is one of deep exploration of the mysteries within yourself and the world, to be able to listen more deeply to everything, including the silence above, below, in-between, before, and after the words, to gain sound as an ally of ever-present wisdom if we listen, as a tool for interpersonal play and connection when words are dividing us, and as a primordial instrument of forgetting the mind and becoming the vibration.
There is a great magic and secret to this world, and I hope you will join me for part of this journey.
Two Formats: 1-on-1 or Group
1:1 Work
Option 1
6 Weeks of Freeing and Trusting Yourself Through Sound
Weekly 90 minute calls
Week 1 - Rhythm, Week 2 - Melody, Week 3 - Harmony, Week 4 - Silence, Week 5 - Inner Music & Spirit, Week 6 - Outer Music & Purpose
Includes poetry and writing
Option 2
Private 2 Day Sound Activation in Nature
We bring instruments into nature and deep dive into the mysticism and wisdom of sound together
I support and empower you in discovering the magic for yourself, uncovering your unique and resonant practice
We will go through various experiences to help you receive and express sound including activation of the voice, breathe, and body
I recommend Option 2 first to deep dive followed by Option 1 to refine and integrate Music Medicine.
Group: Corporate teams, Family, Couples
Opening or closing experience at an event or conference - drop into the heart and feel connected with each other before the dialogue
Corporate retreats and workshops: 2 hours to weekend long
Families and couples: Customized 2 hour to half day experience
Media Kit: Past corporate workshop: 'Music Medicine: Managing Stress with Sound' and Past flyers (English and Mandarin).
“Mina带领我们经历了一次奇妙、私密之旅！
我和丈夫很恩爱，但是繁忙的工作和无规律的出差节奏，使我们有时候忘记了留下“有质量”的时间给对方，交流变得相对简单和平淡。
Mina的音乐和一对一沟通练习引导我们沉静下来，用触摸感受对方、用心聆听对方、将彼此的灵魂相互融入链接... 我们很享受这个课程!”
May your body dance to the Rhythm of Life
May your heart sing a Melody of Love
May your soul harmonize with the Beauty of Life
May your mind rest in the Silence of Peace
“在Mina两个小时的音乐医学工作坊中，我体验到集体声音所创造出来的能量可以形成一个有力的场域。无论是人声，还是乐器声，每一个人专注地带着觉知发出的这些声音，具有着很强的穿透力，让我们的身体和大脑越来越放松，越来越回到当下。我体验到了超越听力，去感受这些能量，在我和其他参与者中间穿梭，碰撞，交汇，融合。我最喜欢的部分是每个人自由地发出声音，其他人通过重复这个声音，去倾听和支持。在这样的活动中，评判没有立足之地。我们体验到，放下评判，自由表达，全然倾听，共生共鸣。这正是这个世界的和谐之道.”
My Music Medicine Story
The Great Spirit loved the drum so much, he gave everyone a heart beat. ~Navajo
I achieved for a long time in my life based on an external view of success - I joined one of the world’s best consulting firms, worked for one of the world’s best non-profits, started my own company, and worked for the world’s fastest-growing highest-valued tech firm at the time - you can see how “best of” was an embedded criteria - and yet I was never fully satisfied - I yearned to integrate what I thought was the corporate (warrior, doer, mind) and spiritual (healer, priestess, heart) aspects of myself into one congruent being. I realized that I had been loving myself depending on how much intellectual value I provided, and music gave me space to allow my heart, intuition, and spirit to catch up.
I had a very structured relationship with music growing up: I played piano for more than 10 years and always felt it was very rules-based: there were many “right” vs “wrong” ways and of the 88 keys, I felt like there were 87 wrong keys I could have played. You can imagine how this mindset was not just directed at music but was unconsciously running in the background for almost everything I did. “Am I doing this right? Is this correct?” was being asked at every decision, building this inner anxiety and stress; I was always asking for permission rather than going inside (which I didn’t know how to do at the time). My relationship with music completely shifted -- from one of permission to expression, from structure to freedom -- when I met Christine. She had two masters in music therapy, was the head of wellness at Remo, and spent 12 years with the Lakota Native Americans - she combined the best of music therapy, modern science, with native american practices, ancient wisdom. This modern-ancient integration suited me so well - my mind and spirit were both fed.
During my first training session, the greatest gift I received was self-trust. Through multiple improv sessions, I learned that whatever I was spontaneously creating was “ok” and that I could stop censoring and questioning myself in every moment. I learned to trust what was emerging without pre-empting, planning, or controlling it. I experienced presence and freedom from myself in a very gentle and playful way. I am grateful for that.
Music medicine engages each element of sound - silence for the mind, rhythm for the body, melody for the heart, and harmony for the soul - in a balance of inner and outer music, of being and doing. With silence I learned how to listen more deeply to myself and others - to the space between words and what wanted to be expressed - becoming better at interviewing and designing things. With rhythm I learned about pacing and when I needed to slow down or speed up. With melody, I have forgotten the “I” and become nothing but the sounds - a feeling of complete freedom and surrender. I have swam in the mysticism of time where I awake from a meditative drumming session to realize 40 minutes have passed instead of 5. I don’t feel alone on my walks in nature, as I sing the song of whichever tree or plant calls out to me.
Life has become so much more colorful, multi-dimensional, magical, mysterious, and mystical since I have embraced music in this deep way and I hope to share this with you.
I hope we can walk through life more in touch with our heart and intuition, trust in ourselves, our spontaneous creativity, and to know that we have the tool of music to experience presence, connection to self, spirit, nature, and others anytime we want.
I hope in seeing that everything can be an instrument, we can expand what we see as life’s playground, inviting more joy and playfulness into our lives.
I hope that when words are not enough and are creating pain in our relationships, we may use music as a tool to find our way back to connection again.
I hope that as people experience more deeply the mystery of sound, they can experience more deeply the mystery of themselves.
There is a secret and magical world waiting to be explored and I hope you will join me!
