Author Archive for Laurelle

11.11.11 – What was it all about?

11/11/11 happens every 100 years so it is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for most of us. On November 11th, 1911, the Great Blue Norther descended upon America. The day started normally but temperatures suddenly began to change. Within ten minutes it had dropped by 40 to 50 degrees. By midnight a 66°F temperature drop had been recorded.  There were dust storms, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and blizzards and over 300 deaths were reported.

That wasn’t the only time when the date proved significant. At 11am on 11th November, World War One armistice was signed in 1918.
Less than a month ago, 11/11/11 came round again. Many people talked about it and articles were published in journals across the globe and all because the Mayans had predicted that there would be some kind of an ending in 11/11.

Fortunately, we are still here. But what does all this prediction involving numbers actually mean? Numerologically, the number 11 denotes teaching and inspiration, the development of intuition and relating to the unseen. This “relating to the unseen” is interesting. For all of man’s recorded history, humans have focused on experience as an external event. Western culture and religion has done everything possible to relegate the unseen to magic, witchcraft and evil to be destroyed at all cost. But what if there is as much inside us as outside?
We have undoubtedly become human doings rather than human beings, running ever faster chasing our businesses, our families and avoiding our inner selves. Surely there has to come a time when we can no longer keep up, when will we eventually give in and admit that we can no longer cope with the speed.

At the point we will be faced with true change. Change is difficult and can be frightening but it is possible. Water shows us how as it changes state from ice to water to vapour but it needs help in the form of temperature. We need help and that help is in the form of vibration. If we can change that then we can change our state, too.

Could this help be what 11/11/11 was all about. Could there have been a portal opening up in the Belt of Orion or a door opening in our hearts?
If so, then a new energy has become available to us and out next step is to access it. One way is to stop rushing around, pause and give ourselves space, silence and stillness. Try looking at a blade of grass. Feel your heart beat slow and your vision grow broader. Feel your blood pressure normalise and your brain give a much-needed sigh of relief. Now let go of the fear that you are not good enough. You don’t need to prove yourself and be better than the next person. Each of us is as important as everyone else. We are all part of the giant jigsaw which needs every single piece to be whole.

It is such a relief to know that we don’t have to be victims anymore and that we can choose to be happy, healthy and peaceful beings. This new vibration and energy will help us to look inside and reclaim our true selves. Then we will enter the Golden Age that the Mayans predicted and live this life on Earth in the gloriousness of all it has to offer.

Have a happy and peaceful Christmas and enjoy the new and exciting journey that we are all embarking on!

Laurelle

M.E., Visualisation and Belief

It is one thing desiring to change our lives for the better but it is quite something else to believe that we can. It can be surprisingly difficult to ascertain exactly what we want.

I realised how difficult this can be when I tried a visualisation technique in which I had to imagine being alone in a theatre with the doors closed. I was to write the play of the rest of my life and I could create anything I wanted. At the time I was almost bed-ridden with M.E. I had three young children and life was very, very hard.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised that the idea of creating my own life was an astonishing concept that I didn’t believe I had much control over. We, in the Western world, have been brought up in a culture that tells us that things happen to you – you certainly don’t create your future for yourself.

Still, I was desperate so I closed my eyes and began.  The first change was obvious – I wanted to be healthy. Immediately, my sceptical mind butted in. If I hadn’t managed to rid myself of this ghastly condition for the past ten years then what made me think I would succeed now?

Within minutes, I was exhausted. I could barely concentrate long enough to clean my teeth let alone change my life. My mind went into freefall and I gave up.

It wasn’t until  I discovered the amazing properties of therapeutic sound that I gave myself another chance. Gradually, the sound tuned me back up again and I began to heal. Eventually, I realised that I could only create a new version of reality by envisioning it first. The crucial key, however, was the belief I had about myself. I had to change my beliefs that I was not good enough, valuable enough, worthy enough, lovable enough etc in order to change my experience.

As my beliefs transformed from negative to positive I, at last, began to experience the positive and become healthy again. Once I had regained my energy, I was able to continue re-fashioning my life and today my life is full of treasures and enjoyment.

I am living proof that ME is not the end of the road but the beginning. But you need to believe that you can get better.

As Henry Ford once said, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are absolutely right.

Don’t despair if life is not all you would wish it to be. Let sound waves help you to rediscover your health and happiness. If it was possible for me then it can be possible for you too.

Chanting

During a trip to India back in 2001, I was perplexed by the sight of people sitting quietly by themselves, their lips moving silently as they ran beads through their fingers. It took me a long time to discover that they were chanting in Sanskrit.

Sanskrit is the most ancient language we still know and it is intriguing. Whereas our modern languages are languages of meaning, Sanskrit is a language of energy. For instance, in English, we ascribe meanings to each word we use. Trousers means trousers; a bird means a bird. In Sanskrit, each syllable changes energy around it. When we set an intention – e.g. to create better health or more abundance or a better relationship with our spouse, the intention combines with the Sanskrit to produce a powerful change in the energy around us.

Sometimes, if our intention and focus is strong enough, results can be immediate and seemingly miraculous. I remember chanting for a new harp. Three days later, someone offered me their harp!

Chanting in Sanskrit is an enormously powerful way of changing our lives. By deciding what we want, we can begin to carve our new futures for ourselves and take back control of our lives.

Sound and the Brain

Scientists are puzzled that the area of our brains devoted to sound and music is bigger than the area for language because there is no evolutionary need for sound. Actually, this may not be true. Sound and music have an enormous impact on our bodies and emotions.

Recently, I visited a concentration camp in the CzechRepublic. Because there are no words to express such horror, the experience plagued me until I listened to Gorezki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. A Polish composer, he was only too familiar with having to live with the aftermath of Nazi atrocities. The music took me to a place in my brain which lay far beyond language and, at last, I was able to process the information and, in a strange way, begin to come to terms with experience.

In going beyond language, music can therefore help us with the extremes of emotional feeling, replacing words with sound so that we can find a way to integrate the extremes of human existence rather than being blocked by them.

October 2011 Newsletter

Meditation

Meditation? Come off it, we don’t have time. Let’s face it, we do everything we can to avoid meditation when the positive benefits are enormous. Yet numerous psychological studies have shown that regular meditators:

  •  Are happier and more contented
  • Live longer and healthier lives
  • Experience decreased anxiety, depression and irritability
  • Have improved memory, reaction time and physical stamina
  • Enjoy better and more fulfilling relationships
  • Experience less stress and hypertension
  • Have less chronic pain and cancer
  • Have fewer substance addictions
  • Have a better immune system

What is there not to love about this? And yet most of us will still find a way of not doing it. We’d far rather tumble out of bed, cram a piece of toast into our mouths and run out to the car.

And this is precisely the point. Our lifestyles are getting out of control. We are running everywhere so fast that we don’t have time for anything. Indeed, we are terrified of not being busy. If we are not doing anything then we might actually be forced to be. Yes, it’s true – we have officially stopped being human beings. We are now human doings.

(Give me a minute while I catch my breath…)

Does this mean, then, that we have found the secret of happiness? Sadly not. We are exhausted, burned out, unable to sleep, either overweight or underweight and definitely discontent.

So, just to debunk the “I don’t have time” excuse, just try this – sit straight in a chair, observe your breath and observe. Thoughts will drift in. The secret is not to judge them and to let them drift out again. And that’s all there is to it. Be gentle with yourself and never criticise. As soon as you find you’ve gone off with a thought, bring yourself gently back. And again. And again. And again.

All it takes is a minute. You can do it at the bus stop, in a shopping queue or before a meeting. You can even do it sitting in your car before you start the engine. Your journey will be calmer and a lot safer. Meditation gives you a home inside your body where you are safe, at peace and never criticised. You can retreat silently to that place whenever you need to and find what you need at that moment. As a result, your life becomes richer and more beautiful.

So try it. Practice lots of times and eventually you’ll get the hang of it. Then, you’ll never look back and, you never know, you might actually start enjoying your life again…

 

Does The Thought Of Public Speaking Turn You To Jelly?

As a singer, it has always amazed me that speaking in public is the Western world’s number 1 fear, above flying and even death. I have been singing in public since I was seven and, to me, it is a natural thing to do. However, give me an instrument to play with my hands and I am consumed by stage fright. So what is it that turns us into jelly and makes previously rehearsed brilliance turn into jibberish and mistakes? At heart, we are still Stone Age creatures and find our safety in the group. By taking ourselves out of that group we become vulnerable. In fact, every time we stand up to speak in public our bodies believe we are going to be attacked and so go into the stress response. Our blood is flooded with adrenalin, our hearts pound and our breathing becomes shallow. We are ready for action but there is nowhere to run. This is why public speaking is in the position of number one fear. That and the fact that our voice is so revealing and tells everyone so much about us. In the first five seconds, our audience has decided whether or not it likes us, whether we are healthy, what kind of person we are, whether we can be trusted and whether or not we have the authority to be believed. And yet we need some adrenalin to perform well. The secret is to manage the stress response and that is what vocal coaching can help you to do. By learning a few simple techniques and practising them speaking and singing in public can be a joy both for us and our audience.

Why Does Singing Make You Feel Better?

It is a medically proven fact that singing makes you feel better. Quantum Physics tells us that not only is everything made up of packages of vibrating energy but that every package emits its own sound. The body is no different. Each of our cells makes its own sound. Put all of our cells together and we are vibrating like an orchestra with the sound of a choral symphony! When we sing, we help to keep that orchestra in tune. If part of our orchestra goes out of tune, everything sounds awful. Imagine, for a moment, that one of the violins in an orchestra was out of tune with all the other instruments – the entire piece would sound dreadful. By tuning up that violin, the music would sound harmonic again. When you sing, you effectively tune up your entire system, body, mind, emotions and spirit so that you and your life can flow harmoniously, easily and happily. That is why singing makes you feel so much better. So go on, sing in the car, sing with your friends, join a choir and chant. It is the best and least expensive way of keeping healthy!

September 2011 Newsletter

You’re lying in bed, tired but not sleepy. Thoughts spin round your head as you stare at the invisible ceiling. You fluff up your pillow – perhaps that will help. You turn over – perhaps a new position will enable your mind to switch off. You count sheep – surely you’ll drift off now…

 

But instead, you become even more alert and the night grinds onwards and it’s only towards dawn that you eventually doze only to be woken two hours later when the alarm goes off. How are you going to make it through the day? You’re exhausted, constantly yawning and can’t concentrate. Your eyes feel red and gritty and want to close all the time, even while you’re driving. You’ve become a danger to yourself and to others.

 

Research shows that a staggering 40% of women and 30% of men in the Western world are actively seeking help because of insomnia and there are many more who suffer in silence. Partly, insomnia is to do with our modern lifestyle. It is estimated that we sleep, on average three weeks less over the year than our grandparents did at our age. And the effects of sleep deprivation are beginning to show. We are becoming more nervous, we feel out of control, we’re unable to relax or make good decisions and our blood pressure is rising. Lack of sleep is also making us get fatter.

 

So what can we do? The orthodox medical route is via drugs but if you don’t want to take pills then science is beginning to offer some fascinating alternatives. One of the keys to understanding sleep patterns lies in our brainwaves. When we are awake, they oscillate at 13-30 hz (cycles per second) and are known as Beta. Below this is Alpha, an oscillation of 8 – 12 hz. In Theta, 3 – 7 hz, we experience the first stage of sleep known as as Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and finally, in Delta, 0.5- 3hz, we finally achieve that oh, so blissful state, deep sleep, in which our minds finally rest and our bodies heal.

 

Brainwave technology is one of the latest and most interesting discoveries to help the exhausted. Research into brainwave entrainment began in the 1930s when the use of flashing lights proved that the body’s internal rhythm patterns were controlled by moon phases, day lengths and seasonal temperatures. Now composers are creating sound tracks which incorporate natural sounds with electromagnetic pulses so that, at last, we are able to control our own brainwave states at the push of a button.

 

Help offered by the world of sound doesn’t end there. If you prefer live, acoustic sound, then tuning forks can offer relief not only for sleep disorders but also dyslexia, dyspraxia and learning difficulties. Tuning forks work by using binaural beat rhythms. When a different frequency is played into each ear, the brain will not only hear them separately but will also add them up and, most critically, subtract them. In this way, a high Beta brainwave can be entrained to a lower, sleep state in a gentle, pleasurable and profoundly relaxing way.

 

So don’t despair if you can’t sleep. There is help at hand. Discover the extraordinary power of tuning forks and Acoustic Brain Entrainment. Oh, and remember to smile. As Richard Harding Davis said: “No civilised person goes to bed the same day he gets up.” With a little help you’ll be able to retrain your brain into a healthy sleep pattern. Otherwise, Eric Morecombe and Ernie Wise will have the last laugh:

ERIC: You know, I heard something this morning that really opened my eyes.

ERNIE: What was it?
ERIC: My alarm clock!

 

Sweet dreams!

July 2011 Newsletter

As we are made up of over 70% water, our health can be reflected in the water of our bodies much as a reflection can be seen in a lake. If our bodies are clear and free of disease, our cells are beautiful. If however, we are ill, then our cells tell a very different story.

In the 1990s Dr Masuro Emoto of Japan discovered a way of photographing water by freezing it. He discovered that the purest water forms beautiful crystals whereas London tap water, for example, looks like frog spawn.

In his book “The Secret Life of Water” he shows photographs of what happens to water when it is exposed to different emotions such as happiness or hate or gratitude or war. As you might imagine, water taken from the Hudson river in New York on the 11th September 2001 after the Twin Towers had been destroyed shows a nightmarish image. Incredibly, he also showed that if you take a glass of the purest spring water and write a label saying “I hate you” and stick it to the glass, the water will then photograph like frogspawn. Conversely, if you take a glass of London tap water and stick on a label saying “I love you”, it will photograph as beautiful crystals.

This extraordinary demonstration of the power of thought tells us that each time we have a negative thought about ourselves we do tremendous damage to over 70% of our bodies. Just think of the effect you could have on yourself and others if you thought positively.

So next time you go to tell yourself that you are fat or ugly or stupid, stop yourself immediately. Replace that negative thought with a positive one and wait for your cells to sing. Because they will. It has now been proven that each cell in the body sings a different note.

What a symphony we must make when we love ourselves and others and are happy.

Enjoy!

June 2011 Newsletter

June Newsletter

Welcome to Your Sound Balance’s June newsletter. Sound is energy/Chi and recently I have been looking at the energy of food. Nutrition seems to be a minefield of conflicting information. I rather like the Chinese view which gives you the ability to work out what is good for you as an individual rather than having to swallow a generalistic set of rules.

Transforming Your Chi With Food

Nourishing our bodies positively is one of the keys to maintaining strong
Chi. Keep an inventory of all the foods you eat that make you feel good and all those that don’t. These will be different for each of us.
The Chinese separate foods into cold, cool, warm, hot and neutral. In
other words, each different food will make you cold, cool, warm, hot or will have no temperature effect. These effects are not always obvious. Tea, for example, is cooling and has a cold effect on the body even when drunk hot. Coffee, on the other hand, is warming. The trick is to know what you, personally, need. If you have a cold constitution and need warming, then the warm and hot foods will serve you better than the cool, colder ones. If you have a hot constitution and need cooling, then the opposite is the case.
If you need to be warmed then try eating red peppers – it doesn’t
matter if they are served hot or cold. If you need cool food, try eating
cucumber. Viewing food in this way can help you to work with your body
rather than against it. It is not a case of following a healthy diet
designed to fit everyone but of discovering what your individual body needs and then working out an eating programme that will suit you individually.

Bon appétit!

Laurelle

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