Recently I had a day of too much time in front of the computer. It somehow happened, unintentionally.
One appointment after the other, another task to tick off the to-do list, and then a late zoom call, that had me get off the screen around 10pm.
I was frazzled.
Have you ever experienced it? That horrible feeling of over-radiation in your body? Where you feel like you have been spat out by some giant machine that fried all your circuits, and you feel so entirely wasted that all you can do is stare into space wondering when this horrible feeling will go away? Tension in the head and the shoulders and this horrible tiredness…that’s the opposite of the good kind of feeling exhausted: It's feeling completely drained.
I have my tools to shake off the energy I don't want, but in that instant, I was so out of capacity, I had no energy to even move. All I could do is lay down on the couch and fall asleep, hoping that sleep will do its magic trick again and I will feel human once more tomorrow.
This time however I asked my partner who has been increasingly working with his voice, sound, and vibration, to sing for me.
Or more accurate to sound for me.
So no pretty songs with lyrics, just letting his voice make deep vibrational, resonant sounds (while holding me close) and to allow them to permeate my body.
It took about 15 minutes: my system was back in resonance. In alignment.
In fact, I felt so good again, that I was able to jump up off the couch and go for an evening's walk. I did so with excitement and a spring in my steps. I felt like myself, i.e. alive, again! (What a relief!)
Think about it….within 15 min I went from zombie state to back in my body and in enjoyment!
Isn't that freakin’ awesome? To me, it was a revelation.
It's not that it was the first time that I experienced the power of sound and sound healing, but it was the first time that I experienced it in its very down-to-earth practical application. It can literally bring us back to life, even when we feel utterly drained, depleted, and like feeling good is so far away it might take years…
all in 15 minutes!
Of course, it helped that there is intimacy between me and my partner, that I feel utterly safe with him, and that he knows how to use his voice in that deep resonant way.
But the medicine is the same: sound is healing.
Why? Because sound is not just something that we hear. It's vibrational and therefore affects our whole body. And when we start looking at our bodies that way there reveals itself a big wisdom: we can move energy through sound.
Concretely, it means we can thaw frozen tissue with the right frequency.
Frozen tissue of course is trauma and what stops us from feeling more present, here and now, embodied and alive.
My partner and I have been working with psilocybin over the last two years. And with each ceremony, we have experienced exactly that: everything is vibrational and we can access different states (of consciousness) through sound.
While in ceremony, everything becomes quite magically apparent. Thought and emotional patterns create vibrations that come out through the tone of voice that gets expressed. And that becomes fully visible and tangible. Full sense activation.
High pitched, low pitched, doesn't matter, it all registers in the body somewhere. And moves the energy with the capacity to open the heart and release blockages and pain.
This is not rocket science, of course. We have all experienced this when touched to tears by a beautiful song and singer.
And even so, even though we all live this reality in which we constantly get touched by sound in various ways (think of how your body contracts when exposed to a shrill machine for example), even though we literally swim in it, most people don't consider to really USING it as a daily practice for recalibration or healing, or to more deeply come into the body.
And guess why not? Yes, exactly because it is so revealing.
It's pure energetics. When we make sound we cannot pretend. So whatever you carry inside of you, it will come through vibrationally in your sound.
For most of us, that means a lot of shame. We hear our dissonance, our off-notes and we stop. The conditioning is so strong that all sounds need to be pretty, easily digestible for everyone, that we never just experiment with it, to see what's actually there for us.
The truth however is what it is.
And that's where we need to start. To make the sound that's resonant with where we are at. So if you carry pain or shame inside of you, the sound you would make that reflects those energies, probably wouldn't sound pretty. But if you allowed yourself to make them anyway, they would be the entry point into the body and with that into allowing those energies to be transformed.
It's like by giving those places inside a voice, we give them a way to move out of our system.
So what does it mean for you right now?
There are countless courses and workshops to liberate your voice. One of them is called soulvoice, which you may want to check out if you are ready to go deeper.
Or you can do a one-on-one session/ceremony with Maurice Spees (my partner).
But even if right now that's not what you can or want to do, you can still start using the power of your voice, of sound, to feel more alive. Next time you are alone in the car, or in the woods, or wherever it feels good for you, and you have an uncomfortable sensation inside…rather than analyzing it to death, give it a sound instead!
You can start with the sigh of relief and then take it further.
Anything goes: gibberish, baby talk, dissonant sounds, overtones, …just let it all stream out of you. The only rule is: feel it in your body! Let the deep resonance of your own voice come from the very core of what you want to feel and vibrate through your whole body.
It takes practice, of course, and you might feel awkward doing it at first. But I promise you, that when you surrender to your own voice in whatever way that it wants to express itself, it's like entering a parallel universe in which everything is possible. It's like magic. And you will feel like a new person.
More alive, more embodied, more you.
If you like what you read, you can buy me a coffee! Thank you!
Kasia Patzelt is an Artist, Laughter Yogi, and Embodiment Coach. She helps people to release trauma and learn the art of self-compassion through embodiment practices and creativity.