Something very special happened at Jai-Jagdeesh's concert for me, personally, last month and I'd like to share something about my experience of it, as you were all part of it who were present and I thank you for being a part of it.

Jai-Jagdeesh was saying at one point in the concert how she loved people using words to describe food to describe music, as someone had called one of her songs last night, "tasty!" Well, this experience I had, for me, was nourishing. It was food for my soul. Thank you.

My father was diagnosed with cancer in the Spring, for which he received some radiation for, and having not seen any significant result, has started chemo therapy in the last month. Last month at Snatam's concert, I had asked Snatam if she would include my father's name in a healing meditation, as I know the power of 800 people chanting together holding the same intention would be exponential in it's effect. She did include his name, calling it out on stage, inviting everyone else to call out names of people they'd like to share healing with and I'm sure my father is feeling the effects of that intention.

But last month, Jai did something a little different that hit the spot in me so deeply, that I didn't realize how badly I had been craving it until it was delivered.

Jai took a moment on stage to fully and completely recognize me and what it is that I do to bring an artist to Calgary and she even gave me a shout out as being an awesome massage therapist, so she kind of filled my cup from all angles to begin with, so that basically set the stage for what came next.

Then she began to speak personally about my father and how he had started chemo and asked everyone present to direct some part of the healing energy to my father's healing, however that may look, as we chanted Sa Ta Na Ma Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Se So Hung. This was like the missing piece for me. It was like dialing up coordinates of a target so that it could land specifically where it needed to, and what I realized during that experience was that it was being sent to my father, but first it was being directed through me. I was receiving it as much as my father was. I could feel all of the love and support and authentic care people had for me and my family's wellness, being directed towards me and then flowing like a river out in my father's direction. My cup over flow-eth. I was so moved by everyone's voice and presence.

I felt held by everyone. I felt cared for. I felt like what I needed in this moment was important and ok to ask for it, and that it would be delivered. In short, I felt loved. Thank you.

I've been having a thought lately.....

What if, all of my time organizing chant concerts, coming into close personal contact with so many artists that the average person doesn't get to, and being in the background supporting and promoting, was to put me in a position 16 years down the road, where I could now have the influence and opportunity available to me, to be able to ask for such a blessing for my father and my family, of having over a thousand people, in a one week period, chant and intend healing for my father in his time of need?

We are constantly planting seeds for the future that eventually bloom.

May we all be conscious gardeners in our lives. May we plant the seeds of love that will bloom and flourish in our lives and grow beautiful flowers.

One of the mantras we shared at our Summer Solstice Chant Celebration are the last two lines of a sacred text called Japji, which translates to the "Song of the Soul." Singing these two lines is like the cherry on top for me. This mantra has never failed me. I feel so uplifted and carried when I sing it. The translation goes something like...."for those who have toiled in the right direction and chanted the name of God, they leave this earth with brilliant shining faces and they take many souls with them."

So how do we take many souls with us through the personal evolution we do while here on earth? In some Eastern traditions they speak of how when one person is "saved" their whole family is saved. Yup. It goes onto to say seven generations before and after will be affected. Wow! That's pretty good bang for your buck?

So that begs the question, what does being "saved" mean? Well, different traditions have different names for it. Being "saved" refers to having evolved one's consciousness to reflect the third realm of consciousness which yogis call the "Realm of Bliss" and whom Christians refer to as "Heaven." We all want to get to Heaven right?

Some traditions believe we live once and die once and depending on how it went in this lifetime we make it to Heaven or not. In the East, they believe we move through many lifetimes, each one we carry with us the seeds of our past actions and desires that then propel us into the next lifetime. The goal being that we evolve each time through. Like climbing a stairway to Heaven, the cream eventually rises to the top, as we purify and rarify our consciousness, until it resonates with the Realm of Bliss.

When our consciousness reflects this, our actions in the world reflect that. What we put into motion and what we then experience/ karma, reflects this. The seeds we plant in this moment, are what grows our future.

May we plant the seeds of love in our life. May we evolve in whatever way is possible for us in this moment, and may we rise to the top, like the cream, in consciousness.

TRACY:   I find people often have interesting stories about how they came to discover the practice of Kundalini Yoga and the subsequent practice of mantra singing in community.  Tell us about how you came to it and what drew you to this practice and what the outcome has been for you.

SARAH: The very first Kundalini class I went to was actually an “accident”. I read the schedule wrong and thought I was going to an ashtanga class in Nelson BC. Since I lived out of town, I decided to stay for the class anyway, and it literally changed my life. At the end of the class, we chanted the Guru Ram Das chant, and tears were streaming down my face. Joy, sorrow, grief, bliss…all of it in that one experience. The asanas and pranayama were great of course, but it was the chanting that really drew me in and resonated with me. Since I’m a musician, the music and chanting became a tool I could use easily, and I just feel at home when I’m chanting. 

TRACY:  Can you share any ways in which you feel tangibly changed by your mantra practice?

SARAH:  I’ve had many experiences like I had in that first class, whereby there was a bit letting go of big emotions when chanting; what I like to call, a cleansing of the mind and soul. I feel lighter after a chanting practice, and more expansive…and it’s actually tangible in my body. 

TRACY:  What are some of the comments you hear the most after one of your concerts from the participants?

 SARAH:  A lot of, “Wow! I really needed that!” along with many sentiments of gratitude, which is always so rewarding for me.

TRACY:  Do you have a core mantra that speaks to you and that you return to over and over again?  What is it’s affect on you when you chant it?

SARAH:  I really love Rakhe Rakhen Har and I always come back to it. When I first heard it and began chanting, I ended up mumbling a lot of the words because I didn’t know what they were. However, once I began studying them and paying attention to pronunciation, the soothing and calming effects became even more profound. It’s typically an evening mantra, and although it’s part of the Aquarian Sadhana done in the morning, I like to chant this one at night before I go to bed. It’s got a tranquil effect that relaxes my nervous system. 

TRACY:  In your experience, what would you say is the benefit of attending a chant concert?  Why should people do it?

SARAH:  I feel that it’s a beautiful way to come together as a community. It’s always great to chant alone, but it’s all the more powerful and profound when chanting with others. There was a study that observed that happy people belong to choirs and sing with other people, and I’ve found this to be true. When we chant certain endorphins are released, changing our emotional state and bringing us those blissful feelings. As for listening at a concert, it’s  a way to relax and rejuvenate if you take time to be still and really let the sound sink in; the vibrations of the mantra have an effect on the nervous system. 

TRACY:  What has motivated you to share mantra with others by way of concerts and workshops? What has prepared you for this moment in time to share worldwide mantra with the masses?

SARAH:  I’ve always been a teacher (camp, sailing, swimming, skiing, yoga, pilates etc.) so I’m always wanting to share my knowledge and experiences with others. As a yoga teacher who travels extensively, workshops are a great way for me to connect with those who are interested in Kundalini yoga and mantra. They are both universal languages of movement and sound, so even if I’m teaching in French or Spanish (and I’m not exactly fluent), the students get a lot out of it by watching and listening. With chanting, it’s a foreign language for all of us (except perhaps Sikhs!) so it’s a great way to bridge cultures and be on the same page. My world travels have lead me to this moment of sharing mantra with the masses. Just a few weeks ago I had a friend I met in Peru write me a message from India; she had met a man who works at a hostel on the Camino in Spain (which I walked several years ago) and he was listening to my CD. It’s really a small, beautiful world and I want to keep sharing this sacred practice all over it. 

TRACY:  What would be the best outcome you could imagine for people’s experience at your “Chanting is Medicine” workshop on May 26th and the concert to follow in the evening?

SARAH:  For the workshop, I’d love people to be able to tap into their own sacred sound, and learn how this practice can heal and transform their lives. As for the concert, I want people to feel a part of something larger than themselves; we are never alone. When we chant together, we can transform ourselves and the world around it; I believe that through music, mantra and our intention, we can create peace in ourselves, and then shine it outwardly to the rest of the world. 

TRACY:  Can you give an example of how mantra has worked in your life?

SARAH:  When my mum was sick with cancer and getting treatment, her platelets were really, really low and she kept having to go to the hospital with nosebleeds. I chanted the Guru Ram Das chant for 40 days (for healing) and miraculously the nosebleeds stopped. The doctors were confused and surprised. I wasn't. Yogi Bhajan said, "I don't believe in miracles. I rely on them." 

Sarah Calvert will be facilitating a "Chanting is Medicine" workshop and concert on Saturday, May 26th, 1-4pm & 7:30-9:15pm.

Although a chant concert, is a concert, what is different about it from a regular concert is that it is less of a watching thing, and more of a participating thing. My friend and chant artist, GuruGanesha, likes to call it a "co-formance", meaning the crowd is greatly encouraged to sing along and together we have a group experience. With this said, it's okay to listen as well. You are welcome as you come.

There may be some English verse songs sung, but for the most part the medium will be mantra.

Why mantra? And why would I want to repeat the same thing over and over again? And what would be enjoyable about that?

Chant concerts are the best kept secret as far as I am concerned. Often people come on a whim, unsure of what to expect and are bowled away from the experience, having NEVER had it on their radar before. Very simply, along with the beautiful melodies and instrumentation that you'll hear, the mantras create a cascading affect through the hormones, physical body, emotions, mind and spirit of the person that usually causes a heart opening effect and deep feelings of connection. When two, or a couple of hundred people chant together, it invokes a unified field that is very elevated and all can feel that to some extent and experience it's benefits.

Is chanting against my religion?

NO. Chanting is a technology-a practice-that helps to connect one to their inner essence or essential being. Different traditions use different mantras, but as the tongue hits the roof of the mouth, stimulating the upper palate which then stimulates the pituitary and pineal gland, stimulating a cascade effect through one's being, the result is the same no matter what tradition the chants originated from.

I don't have anyone who wants to go with me, can I come alone?

Absolutely. There will be people who came with friends and on their own. Saying you can't come to the concert because you have no one to go with you, is like saying you can't go to yoga because you don't have anyone to go with you. You wouldn't think twice about going alone to yoga. Chant concerts are a community, unity type experience.

What should I wear? Do I have to cover my head?

Wear what you are comfortable in. There will be people dressed up and there will also be people dressed for yoga! Some will wear head coverings or wear white (especially the Kundalini Yogis) and some won't. Come as you are. Some yogis cover their head because it can help to keep the energy that gets stimulated within you, and they wear white because it can have an aura expanding effect.

What if I can't sing?

Part of the experience is hearing your own voice and feeling the vibration within your own being. Everyone is at different places and stages with this. Know that you are welcome, even if you sing off key. It's not about a performance or a level of vocal perfection. It's about experiencing the effects of the practice and group experience. You are also welcome to listen if that is what is feeding you in that moment or where your comfort level is at.

My intention with this blog is to inspire you to try for yourself a chanting experience and see how it affects you.

There is an opportunity on Sat. May 26th, 7:30-9:15pm to experience a chant concert with internationally touring chant artist, Sarah Calvert.

Details here : http://www.tracysvision.com/events

Years ago, when I wrote my Kundalini Yoga Teacher Certification exam, I described the way mantra worked in the mind as the eroding effect that water has, as it runs over the same ground, for a long period of time.  The Grand Canyon is a beautiful example of this.  Over time, water flowing in the same pattern, eventually created a deep crevasse that then went onto to become this completely awe inspiring vision of beauty.  Anybody who has stood before it and gazed out would say this is true!

Mantra works much in the same way in the mind.  Over time, the constant repetition of syllables that resonate with a higher frequency, creates new pathways of being for the person, and at the same time, it’s like a mind wash or daily shower for the subconscious mind, where the old more limiting patterns eventually get washed away in the flow.  And similar to the Grand Canyon, one is eventually left with an awe-inspiring beauty that shines from the inside out.  When the mind is cleared of it’s old conditioning, it easily becomes the willing servant to the intelligence of one’s own heart.  One of the goals of yoga is for the mind to serve the heart, meaning the heart is our center of intelligence, and our mind is a tool that we can use to bring that intelligence into action in the world and simply within our being.

 When one has a monkey mind, bouncing back and forth between the negative and positive mind, and never landing in the heart, where we find the powers of the neutral mind and discernment, which is the power to compute in any given moment the effects of your actions (before you act) and also the best solution or course of action for the benefit of everyone involved, it ends up being an experience of suffering to some degree.  There is a deep peace that comes with developing the neutral mind and being motivated by the intelligence of one’s heart.

Almost twenty years later, after having studied some psychology in the form of TA therapy where we talk a lot about the development of one’s life script, or life story, and having years of yogic and meditative practice under my belt, another way to describe the effect of mantra is to talk about how it re-writes one’s life story.  Many of you may be aware of how the life script gets developed from the time a baby is in the mother’s womb until about age seven. After seven, one’s beliefs about themselves, others and the world are pretty much set, unless they are consciously changed at a later date.  What this looks like in a person’s life, is that they will see the world and every experience they have, through the lens of this life script and they will find evidence in their relationships and experiences in the world to re-enforce this script.  For many people, the script they unconsciously write for themselves, in those first seven years, is quite limiting and pain inducing.  It’s what we would call in yoga a finite story.  It has limitations.  Now for all you yogi’s reading this, you know that the practice of yoga is about linking your finite self to the Infinite or to your Inifinite self/soul, depending on how you want to look at it.

Mantra once again serves this purpose.  The mantra in it’s higher frequency has the power to re-write one’s story to that of an infinite/unlimited one, full of potential and new possibility.  The mantra is the infinite story.  It resonates with the frequency of infinity.  Take for example the mantra “Eck Ong Kar”.  It rewrites a story about feeling separate from the world, and isolated, and lacking power to create in the world, to one of being “one with the Creator with no separation”.  And we all know…the Creator, creates.  This is our natural state. This is the essential Truth we all know, before incarnating into this life, and then through the process of coming into this finite physical body, and then conditions of the life we choose for our self begin to set in (inorder to learn all the lessons that our soul desired before incarnating) then we begin the process of forgetting who we really are.  We forget our infinity.  Yoga is the process of our remembering our infinity.

Mantra becomes the new touch stone, the guide for our process of remembering, and re-writing our limited and conditioned stories, to that of an infinite, boundless one, pregnant with potential of our infinite nature.

So, with all of this said, I’m sure you can understand my absolute passion for sharing mantra with others in the form of yoga classes and chanting/kirtan events.  If you feel inspired to further your mantra practice, or even begin one for the first time, I warmly invite you to join myself, Lisa Weleschuk and Fiona McGinn on Sunday Dec. 18th, 5:30-7:30pm, by donation, for an early celebration of the Winter Solstice through mantra and sound.  When we gather in community and chant together, the effect becomes exponential, compared to chanting on your own, so I invite you to come and experience the power of community.

Although a chant concert, is a concert, what is different about it from a regular concert is that it is less of a watching thing, and more of a participating thing. My friend and chant artist, GuruGanesha, likes to call it a "co-formance", meaning the crowd is greatly encouraged to sing along and together we have a group experience. With this said, it's okay to listen as well. You are welcome as you come.

There may be some English verse songs sung, but for the most part the medium will be mantra.

Why mantra? And why would I want to repeat the same thing over and over again? And what would be enjoyable about that?

Chant concerts are the best kept secret as far as I am concerned. Often people come on a whim, unsure of what to expect and are bowled away from the experience, having NEVER had it on their radar before. Very simply, along with the beautiful melodies and instrumentation that you'll hear, the mantras create a cascading affect through the hormones, physical body, emotions, mind and spirit of the person that usually causes a heart opening effect and deep feelings of connection. When two, or a couple of hundred people chant together, it invokes a unified field that is very elevated and all can feel that to some extent and experience it's benefits.

Is chanting against my religion?

NO. Chanting is a technology-a practice-that helps to connect one to their inner essence or essential being. Different traditions use different mantras, but as the tongue hits the roof of the mouth, stimulating the upper palate which then stimulates the pituitary and pineal gland, stimulating a cascade effect through one's being, the result is the same no matter what tradition the chants originated from.

I don't have anyone who wants to go with me, can I come alone?

Absolutely. There will be people who came with friends and on their own. Saying you can't come to the concert because you have no one to go with you, is like saying you can't go to yoga because you don't have anyone to go with you. You wouldn't think twice about going alone to yoga. Chant concerts are a community, unity type experience.

What should I wear? Do I have to cover my head?

Wear what you are comfortable in. There will be people dressed up and there will also be people dressed for yoga! Some will wear head coverings or wear white (especially the Kundalini Yogis) and some won't. Come as you are. Some yogis cover their head because it can help to keep the energy that gets stimulated within you, and they wear white because it can have an aura expanding effect.

What if I can't sing?

Part of the experience is hearing your own voice and feeling the vibration within your own being. Everyone is at different places and stages with this. Know that you are welcome, even if you sing off key. It's not about a performance or a level of vocal perfection. It's about experiencing the effects of the practice and group experience. You are also welcome to listen if that is what is feeding you in that moment or where your comfort level is at.

My intention with this blog is to inspire you to try for yourself a chanting experience and see how it affects you.

I have several chant events this Fall, you can check my website for listings www.tracysvision.com on the events page.

There is also an opportunity on Tues. Oct 4th, 7pm, $30, with touring chant artist Ajeet Kaur in Concert, that I highly recommend.

Tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2595118

Check out the FB event for lots of samples of Ajeet's music and concert and workshop details.

Concert: https://www.facebook.com/events/100589497063428/

Workshop: https://www.facebook.com/events/855150277919524/

Listen to Ajeet's official music videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch…

I’ve recently begun to hear the “call of my soul” to return to teaching Kundalini Yoga (KY) to beginners once again.  I’ve taught KY for many years now, seventeen to be exact.  In the beginning, I felt a duty to share these teachings with as many people who had ears to listen, and a body to practice, so in the first 7 years I taught a lot of classes in a week and it was to beginners basically, with the exception of one class.  Back then, everyone was a beginner pretty much, as yoga wasn’t a main stream thing yet, and for sure, KY wasn’t!

Back then, to suggest to the average person that it would be healthful for them to develop a daily connection with their sacred inner self or essence through yoga, meditation or many other practices available, would be met with a deer in the head lights look, or a glazing over of the eyes, or some form of ridicule.  Nowadays, as long as there is some science behind it to back it up, (which there is quite a bit for yoga and meditation), the average person is willing to entertain the possibilities of exploring these avenues of health and wellness.

Some of you know, I had a child 8 years ago and this changed my daily practice, as well as the amount of classes I teach.  I went from a 2-3 hour morning practice down to about 40mins to one hour at times, and I had to build to 40 mins over the last 8 years.  I also downsized to one class a week for about 9 months of the year, and although I’ve had some beginners join here and there, it’s been primarily people who have been with me for many years now. 

During this summer, August to be exact, I noticed the “winds of change” blowing in, and with it has come a string of people new to KY in my class and also a revival of longer daily yoga and meditation practices in my life.  Like any good student of the Universe, I can receive feedback, and I recognized this as an invitation to re-engage with the beginner mind and body, and revisit this place now from a different state of consciousness than before.  I’ve grown and changed and shifted over the last 8 years and now I come with not only the experience and gains of this time, but also it like coming to it with “innocent eyes” and exploring it from the person I am now and through the consciousness that I now embody.

 I’ve also had a similar experience like this with the re-opening my massage therapy practice after a 9 year hiatus.  Both of these practices were things of my past, that to be honest, I had thought weren’t areas I would ever explore again in great depth.  I thought their shelf life was just about over for me, and yet here I am feeling the call back to these practices?  Most of the truly best things in my life, were things I never saw coming.  Teaching yoga was nowhere on my radar as a young adult, nor becoming a massage therapist or a counsellor or a chant artist or a mother!  All of these came as big surprises to me!  Perhaps I was born with it to some degree, to be able to follow the river as it flows, and allow it to take me in the direction of my best interest, and for sure, much of this ability was developed along the way through spiritual and self-development practices, but at any rate, I feel grateful that it is a fiber woven into my being now.

With this in mind, and with a space opening up for me in my schedule, I have decided to begin offering an introductory level Kundalini Yoga class on Tuesday evenings in Royal Oak (NW).  In this class, we’ll take our time, building slowly, and explore the basics of KY.  We’ll use a specific eye focus, several types of breath techniques, different body locks to raise the energy, held postures, moving postures, deep relaxation, meditation and chanting.  We’ll also explore and experience a deeper connection to our essence, letting go of what is not our essence, and cultivating what is.

I warmly invite you to join me for a 9 week exploration of Kundalini Yoga, Tues. Oct. 25th-Dec. 13th 6:15pm-8:00pm, $135, Royal Oak.

After a nine year hiatus, I have decided to re-open my home based massage therapy practice!

I'd like to take a moment to describe what is unique about my way of practicing massage therapy, and if that resonates with you, and you'd like to experience it, I invite you to come for a session.

I have a room in my house, that is called "The Meditation Room". It's where I sit to meditate each morning. It's where I place any sacred objects that have been gifted to me, or that I have collected and hold meaning for me. I have an altar that I place them on in this room. This is the room where I write all of my mantra music and sing and chant for hours on end. This is my sacred space. When I walk into this room I naturally begin to relate to the sacred, as this is what my experience has been in this room for many years. It becomes like my automatic response.

I now invite clients to come and receive massage in this sacred space. At first, I thought, "well, I just don't want anybody coming into my sacred space!! But then another quieter voice said, "trust that those who come will resonate and benefit in this space." So with this, I decided to open my space to others.

As you enter the room, you will be wrapped in the warmth of the air, and naturally elevated by the mantra music softly playing in the background. In the same way that I do within my yoga classes or while facilitating a group chant experience, I begin by intending to invoke a sacred healing space for whatever intention the client holds for themselves on that day. The intention can be as simple or as complex as the client wishes. I trust deeply in this space and have worked within it for many years now, and understand how to hold that space. Within that space, the client can receive what they need in that moment.

As I begin to listen and feel deeply into the present moment, which includes myself, the client and the sacred music, pacing myself in alignment with the rhythm of the music and using conscious breath, I begin to feel bliss opening and unfolding within me. It's from this experience of bliss that I massage.

Nine years ago, I didn't have words to describe what it was that was happening when I massaged people when I had this experience, but the client's response was often that they hadn't experienced this in other massages before. I am now able to recognize that "bliss or love energy" as a state of being, is both magnetic and healing, on whatever level is possible for the client in that moment and that is what the "special" ingredient is while I massage.

So with this said, and understanding more deeply now, how I can be of service through massage therapy, I am very excited to begin my practice once again and would love to invite you to come for a session this month!

The details:

I massage out of my Royal Oak home in the NW.

My hours are:
Mon. 9am-3pm
Tues. 9am-3pm
Weds. 9am-6pm
Alternate Fridays 1-3pm

With some notice, I can arrange my hours to extend to 6pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

My rates:
$90.00 60mins
$120.00 90mins
$160.00 120mins

More info on my training and experience can be found here: http://www.tracysvision.com/#!/c1tfu

Book an appointment today!

Tracy:   Growing up you were surrounded by sacred music, was there one pivotal or deciding moment for you, when you knew you would follow the path of sharing sacred sound with others in the larger community?

Nirinjan:  When I was 13, I took Kundalini Teacher training in my hometown, Vancouver. I loved the experience so much, it was life changing. When the course ended, I didn’t want to stop being around it, so I started attending every teacher training weekend the following year, as a sevadaar (serving the course in any way I could)! Since I was around our local community a lot, (once people realized that I could sing , I was called upon often to lead meditations and chants at community events. There were some other beautiful musicians around at the time as well, and we would often sing together, and lead live sadhanas at our yoga center. It just felt so beautiful to be embraced by the community, and to be called upon in this way to serve. I felt like I could truly express myself and give of who I was, to the people who had given me so much love and inspiration. If there was a moment, or series of moments, I’d say it was during that time.

Tracy:   What is the most heard comment from participants after one of your concerts? Is there a theme?

Nirinjan:  Hmm. Probably that people enjoy how I am authentic with them. That who I am on stage isn’t really different from who I am off stage! I must confess though, I don’t have much of a filter! So for better or worse, that’s how it is… I hope you like it!

Tracy:  Do you have a core mantra that speaks to you and you return to over and over again? What is its affect for you?

Nirinjan:  If I have to narrow it down, I’d say “Ek ong kaar satigur prasaad, Satigur prasaad, ek ong kar”. I find this mantra to be so mentally balancing and calming, and also really helps to integrate experiences in my life, into myself. “Digest them” almost. This is going to sound funny, but as a metaphor, if a mantra could be like probiotics, this one would be! You know how probiotics help you to digest your food, and properly assimilate nutrition? I feel like this mantra helps me “digest life” and properly assimilate it’s lessons and gifts!

(laughs) …not the most poetic, but I hope you get my meaning!

Tracy:   In your experience, what would you say is the benefit of attending a chant concert? Why should people do it?

Nirinjan:  Chant concerts are an incredible way to experience unity. Unity with your own deepest self, unity with those around you at the concert, and unity in that which connects us all. Also the community that is gained through this sweet shared experience with others in your own hometown. These events are so special, each one is unique. A chant concert is created by each person who walks in the door, giving the gift of their own presence for the short time they are there. These concerts are created out of love, the only intention being to give each person an experience of feeling healed and supported in an environment of sacred sound, and community. The mantras create an experience that cannot be described. Only felt. So if you have never experienced mantra, and you want to know what all the fuss is about, my only advice is to come try it!

Tracy:   What has motivated you to share mantra with others by way of concerts and workshops? What has prepared you for this moment in time to share worldwide mantra with the masses?

Nirinjan:  It is what life has brought me, and asked me to give. I am grateful for it every day, and experience the joy of it every time I sing! There are so many people and forces that have supported me in this journey, too many to name them all here. But suffice to say that I carry them all with me, and I hope I can honor them by paying it forward. And that those who are touched, may give it as well.

 You are not your perception. You are not how well you can sing. You are not the contents of your yoga bag. You are not your white tights. You are a sacred and playful chanter. What happens first, is you awaken. What happens then, is there's a mantra playing. And what happens next, is you meet Tracy Gawley. Let me tell you about Tracy. Tracy has a vision.

That vision is Chant Club: in mantra we trust. We trust that chanting mantra has the power to elevate our consciousness. We trust that singing and chanting mantra with each other builds a connected community. We trust that chanting mantra takes us past our perceived limitations into a world of greater potential. We trust that mantra can open our heart and awaken our soul. Chant Club teaches things that end up transforming you. It's only after you've really embraced it that everything can change. Chant Club represents that kind of transformation.

First rule of Chant Club: You talk about Chant Club with it's awesome other members.

Second rule of Chant Club: You talk about Chant Club with friends and family because you love it!

Chant Club says marinating in mantra is wonderful. Chant Club says singing and chanting in community could be the answer?

Chant Club:  It'll elevate your life!  One mantra at a time

If you are ready to channel your sacred, playful chanter, reserve your "Chant Club" membership today!

2014 Numerology Forecast

“Now shifting to the lighter and brighter side of 2014, it is wonderful to note that the number 7 represents music and our ability to elevate ourselves through singing and chanting. This will become one of the most powerfully effective healing modalities on the planet. Getting people together and singing in church, around a campfire, or chanting in yoga class. Project the sound, the positive vibrational frequencies, and spin them out into the Earth’s electro-magnetic field. This is how we can begin to heal the planet, once enough of us begin to work together as a collective psyche.”

                                                                                             -Master Numerologist Nam Hari Khalsa

Amplifying the Seven

The above excerpt is of particular interest to me, being a chant artist and one who facilitates musical experiences for people, as well as, being someone who has a 7 in her “gift” position in numerology. Anybody whose last two digits of the year that they were born in, that add up to a 7 (keep adding the numbers together until you get a 10, 11 or a number below that), would also have a 7 in their gift position. For example, people born in 1952, 1961, 1970 etc, would fall into this category. The gift position, is one’s area of natural talent, and when one uses it wisely, people appreciate them for it. With this year’s overall number being 7, anyone with a 7 is going to feel the amplification of those qualities noted above, in this year.

Marinating in Mantra

I had an experience back in 2004, that is in alignment with the information Nam Hari shares in her forecast for this year. I was attending a 3HO Winter Solstice event in Florida, that involves 7 days of Kundalini Yoga and lots of chanting and singing etc. I had hosted Snatam Kaur in Calgary for the first time, just the month before, so I was in that space of “marinating in the mantra.” My life had been saturated over the last few months with meditative and sacred chanting experiences. And now, I was in a workshop that Snatam Kaur was facilitating, and we had done some yoga and then we moved onto a chant. It was one simple word….Sunia. It translates to deep inner listening. Snatam droned it over and over again, ever so slowly, almost like grater slowly dredging the bottom of a river. It felt like every molecule was being touched by this slow, ubiquitous mantra, planting a drop of Sunia, in each cell of my being.

The Silence of the Universe

We must have chanted like that for upwards of 30 mins? We kept going deeper and deeper into this soulful, deep inner listening space. I found myself falling into that place where at first it feels like the silence of the universe, but then something begins to emerge from that sacred silence. You might ask, “what does one hear in this place of silence?” Words EmergeSlowly, words began flowing into my consciousness, like a download from the heavens. Sweet and beautiful words about how chanting and mantra is the awakening tool for the Aquarian Age. Words about how it is a language that speaks to one’s heart, and therefore is for everyone, and has the potential to touch everyone. And finally words about how important it is to share this practice and technology with all who have a heart to participate in it.

What changed?

Well, time passes, and now in 2012, we have fully entered into the Aquarian Age. The chant and mantra culture is a world away from where it was when I began in 2002. It has exploded, and more and more, people are contemplating the incorporation of chanting into their daily life.

If you are someone who longs to “marinate in mantra” and “sing in community”, then join us on Thurs Mar. 6th for an evening of “Sacred Song”. http://www.tracysvision.com/#!events/cee5

Is it just me…or does everybody do this??

Pull up to a red light, spritz their windshield in the cold, just to see the beautiful ice crystals that form for a brief second before they melt away?

Ever since I was introduced to the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto, “Message in the Water”, I have been interested in the form and shape that music takes in it’s ice crystal form.

Yesterday I was driving and listening to Deva Premal’s newest CD release and while stopped at a red light, I spritzed my windows to clean them, and because it was cold enough outside, the left over residue formed a pattern of ice crystals on my windshield.  I took a moment to enjoy the beauty of it, as I find ice crystals so very delicate and pretty, and they only last for a moment until the heat from the windshield overwhelms.

Ice on the windshield

What I noticed about the crystals that formed, was that they were all very uniform in their shape and size.  Very pretty, and all evenly spaced, much like a production line of frost forms?  Now jump ahead to later in the day, while I was driving home from an event I had been at, and was now listening to a song off of my newest CD release called, “Wahe Guru (jio)”.  The song is 22 mins long and for anyone who has heard it, you know that there are many layers of vocals within the song and they build throughout the song.  To say it has many moving parts would be an understatement.   Vocally speaking, there are many harmonies, counter melodies and echoes, going on at any given time.  I would describe it as an embellished tapestry of sound, verging on the border of divine musical chaos at times??

Cue the wind shield wiper fluid…

What I saw next was a wondrous display of different sized and patterned ice crystals, dancing across my wind shield like wild flowers, of many sizes and colors, sprinkled across a meadow?  It was both varied and in harmony at the same time.   I took a pause, as I processed what I was seeing.

An understanding arises

It was in this moment that it firmly landed for me, the affect chanting can have on us as human beings.  Being made up of 50-75% water, we also are affected by the vibrations we come into contact with and are changed by them?  I could see clearly, how each vibration/song/mantra has it’s own visual/affect, based on seeing the two different patterns formed, when I compared Deva Premal’s song, to the Wahe Guru in ice crystal form.

Deva Premal’s song had a constant, unchanging rhythmic track as it’s backbone, very much like how the drum track plays in dance club music.  I would say this was mimicked by the uniform crystals that were formed?  On Wahe Guru, where the vocals descended and ascended and moved through a myriad of harmonies etc, the ice crystals reflected that variance as well?

What can our “take away” be from this experience?

I would say, it’s that we can change our physiology by the words and vibrations that we choose?  I would go further, knowing from my experience with mantra, that vibration also affects change in our emotional, mental and energetic state.  These levels are more subtle, but all very real as well, when we begin to open our awareness and take stock of the changes occurring when we chant?

Supportive, experiential evidence

There’s a phrase in a sacred text called Japji, that translates to, “those who have meditated/ chanted on the name of God, leave this world, with brilliant shining faces and take many souls along with them.”

As a chant practitioner and devotional artist, whose practice is based on the chanting of God’s name, in it’s many forms, I believe there is a deep truth to that through my own practice and experience.

You can also check out this experiement with sacred sound and sand taking the form of the sound.  http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/amazing-resonance-experiment-the-sacred-geometry-of-sound/

Sharing the awareness

I’d love to hear from others (newbies and seasoned practitioners) who have had a group chant experience and what value or benefit or change they have experienced from it?  Feel free to e-mail (tracy@tracysvision.com), or Facebook (Tracy’s Vision) message me with your experiences.

Back in the day, before I was a chant musician, I was a fitness instructor teaching cardiofunk, dance aerobics among other things, where I would constantly have to come up with new routines and I would have these moments of fear that would go something like this...

"What will I do when the creativity runs out?"  Meaning there must be some end or finite amount of creativity within me and if my job relies on me being creative, what will I do when it finally runs it course??  A fearful place to be?

This weekend, I was reminded of this way of thinking I used to have.  Not because I was thinking that way, but because I was in awe the Infinite flow of creativity in my life, which is the opposite of how I used to feel and think.

Creative Surrender….

The realization came to me as I decided to write a melody for a particular pauri of Japji.  Before I began I had no idea how it might sound.  I just sat down and chanted it in monotone for 11 times.  Then I meditated for 11 mins, with the intention of having a melody come through me that would support the consciousness of the pauri.  Then I picked up my guitar and the new melody came through?  No fear, no worry, just trust, surrender, receptivity and intention for the best outcome.

The Realization…

The difference for me, between now and then, in terms of what has changed that I am no longer in fear, of creativity?

I used to think it was coming from me.  Now I know it comes through me.  There is an Infinite flow of creativity and when I open and become receptive to that flow, I too can become the recipient of that.

An experience of this…

Very early on I had a clear experience of this.  I was making a transition between teaching fitness and teaching yoga and was still doing both.  I had created a stretch program, a combination of stretch and yoga type class. It was a very popular class where I taught and I was trying to find a name for it so I could begin marketing it and make a video of it.

One night I dreamt of the name “Yoga Flow” and woke knowing this was the name I would use.  Life got busy and I put it on the back burner for a while and then one day a few months later I was driving in my car, listening to the radio when I hear a commercial for a new style of class called, “Yoga Flow!”  Well I’ll be damned!

I had two thoughts cross my mind…

Damn! They Stole my Name!

The first was “hey, they stole MY name!” And then the realization dawned that we don’t actually own the creativity that comes through us.  It’s available to everyone if they can tune into that particular channel it is coming through.  We each have particular skills, flavours and qualities that will point us in a direction of a particular radio station one might download from, but that it all exists waiting to be brought forth into manifestation.

The second thought was that when a significant piece of creativity comes through me, it is meant to be responded to, not put in the closet on the back burner.

It’s with this is mind that I continue to feel compelled to share music and the experience of sacred mantra with participants as the years roll by.  It’s meant to be heard and experienced and it’s for everyone.

If you’d like to share in that experience, join us on Sunday, Jan. 26^th, 4-6pm Samadhi Wellness, 485-8^th Street SW.

Register here:  http://www.tracysvision.com/#!events/cee5

PS I renamed named my program “Stretch Flow”.

Resonation

In the beginning was the word (sound) and the word was God, meaning that the essence of the sound current is the essential creative subtle force of the universe.  All other sounds 
emerge from this one sound.  When we chant mantras, whether we are aware of it or not, our intention at some level, is to resonate with the sound of the mantra. The sound of the 
mantra embodies within it the consciousness of the mantra.  So the sound journey always begins with resonation.

Resonanace within a chant circle

 Within a chant circle, this looks and sounds like everyone beginning 
on the same basic melody and staying there until, a stability and resonation with it has occurred.  Throughout the song new levels of resonation are constantly being invoked.  Every 
time a new harmony is introduced, there is a period where resonation needs to be invoked once more, hopefully leading towards a higher resonation each time this occurs?

What does resonantion feel like? 

For me resonation is experienced as a visceral feeling of merger and flow.  When two voices are out of resonance with each other, one might experience it as an "uncomfortable" 
feeling, almost like two surfaces are coming up against each other and then bouncing off, trying to join, but they can't quite find the connection?  When they come into resonance with 
each other, it's like two friends joining arms and dancing through the field together.  There is a feeling of connection and flow invoked.

Resonation in relationship

Similar in life, if there is a lack of resonation, two people can be talking at each other, neither feeling heard or understood by the other?  We invoke resonation by letting go of doing 
actions (trying to get my point across, trying to make someone think in a certain way etc etc) and move into "being".  It's in being that resonation occurs.  In a discussion this is the 
point where one begins reflecting back to the other what they hear being said and the other begins to refine what they are trying to say until that resonation occurs and a merger experience is invoked.

Beginning as one and then differentiating

Similar to the experience of incarnation, where our soul energy comes into this life as one and then begins to differentiate, into male or female, and then continues into elemental 
energies and continues in this way, branching off as more and more differentiation occurs.  We do something similar in the chant experience.  We all begin on one note, one melody 
and from there we begin to branch off into harmonies or counter melodies.  We each begin to introduce our own unique sound, flavour and creativity into the singing space.

Becoming an individual, at the same time as being part of the whole

In life, when we experience differentiation in a healthy way, we move from the symbiotic relationship with our mother into being our own individual in the world.  We still function 
within a family, but at the same time, have our own unique flavour that we express in the world.  As the singing space becomes stable and resonance has occurred, people will often 
break from the one, and begin introducing their own brand of unique creative sound into the space, in the form of harmonies or counter melodies.  We each find our place that is 
unique, but also functions within the larger whole.  This requires of us, harmony.

Harmony

I often think a world that sings together, and in particular, in harmony, is a healthy, functioning and thriving world.  

I made the comment the other day at one of my chant circles, that the reason we often sing in three part harmony is not just because it sounds pretty.  It's because it gives everyone, no 
matter where their vocal range lies, a place to fully express themselves in a way that works for them, within the larger whole. It allows, and gives space, for everyone to be an individual 
within the larger whole.

Harmony as a way of life

 It's through harmony that we traverse the waters of difference.  Differences can co-mingle and each be a part of the larger functioning whole, within the context of harmony.  It's for this reason that I believe a life without three part harmony is not worth living! ha ha!  Learning to physically sing in harmony with others, learning to recognize when the space is stable and resonance has occurred, and learning how to introduce a harmony that will "uplift" the song and elevate the resonance of the whole, are all skills greatly needed in a world that is cohesive, communicating and functioning in a healthy way.

May we join together in this holiday season, employing the principals of resonance, unique creative expression and harmony within our own musical moments.

Blessings,

Tracy

(Sat Sangeet)

What’s the quality of my ripple effect?

I found myself pondering this question last month after being stuck in a huge traffic jam.  In the days prior to the jam, I had been wondering to myself if the work that I do has value and effect in the world or am I just spinning my wheels?

Fast forward to driving my son to school one morning and being met with a huge swell of cars, backed up for miles, in an area where there isn’t usually much traffic?  Traffic was stopped.  It was a parking lot basically.  I was at the top of a hill, so I had the vantage of seeing for a mile or so, just how backed up it really was!

Becoming curious?

I had nothing else to do, at a dead stop, so I took the time to become curious.  In my curiosity, I began to expand out my consciousness, allowing it to travel forward, through all the traffic, to see if I could ascertain what was causing the jam up?  Well, I didn’t receive that particular information, but what did happen was that all of a sudden I became aware of the depth of effect this “hold up” was having on hundreds of lives, as my consciousness passed through each car ahead of me.

The breadth of the ripple

When we finally started to move again, I eventually saw that there had been a 4 car pile up causing the block.  One little action, a car knocking into another, set into motion a chain reaction, that then went on to severely affect hundreds of people’s lives that morning.   I began to see the “ripple effect” of this action and how far it’s reach was?  Not only were the one or two people in each car, 45 mins late for their day, but all the people with whom they we were set to interact with or have meetings with that morning were affected as well.  The spread and effect of this one little action was huge!

As I passed the accident, I found myself wondering if the people in the accident had any awareness of the expanse of their ripple effect this morning and if they were having any revelation, as well, based on that experience?

An Understanding unfolds

While still in this expanded state of awareness, of feeling and being aware of how hundreds of lives were being affected by this one action, I began to have an understanding unfold.

Yes, Virginia, every action that you take, ripples out like an ocean wave, and you may never know or be aware of the full depths of it’s journey.  When we have an experience of what we’d coin “negativity”, it’s really easy to see the ripple effect.  It’s much more obvious and can come back to us in quick order.

Putting into action a more refined ripple

When we put in motion something that is more subtle and refined, this traffic jam experience tells me that the effect still ripples out to the same degree or maybe even more, but it’s just that it’s harder to track, is the difference.  The effect doesn’t return as a slap upside the head always, like a car accident might.  The effect is of the more refined manner and shape.  It’s working it’s way into the heart and consciousness of others.  It’s slowly turning the tide.  This kind of effect may take lifetimes to see the return, but nonetheless it eventually comes, as every action has a reaction?

A call to respond

The other experience that arose within me during this experience was an upsurge of compassion.  Just sitting there feeling how hundreds of lives were being affected by this one action, I felt the blessing of a state of compassion arising within me.  Which I think tells me something of the nature of the response that is required.

When I am facing the consequences of another’s actions, that don’t appear to be helpful in any way, I need to invoke a state of compassion.  When I am contemplating how to “act” in this world, I need to  allow it to arise from a state of compassion.  Compassion becomes a state of being, where intelligent action arises from. One of Yogi Bhajan’s sutras for the Aquarian Age is, “understand through compassion or you misunderstand the times”.  It would seem this is what creates the quality of one’s ripple effect?

Are you aware of your ripple affect?  tell me about it on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/tracysvision?ref=hl

Did anyone else find this particularly powerful??

One of my favorite moments from this year’s concert, as well as past year’s concerts, is when Miten invites all of the men to "stand" for the women and sing to us.
 

He made a comment something like, “it makes the women feel safe, men.”

I would tend to agree with that based on how I felt at the time?

What is it about men “standing” for women, and singing, that invokes a feeling of safety in the women?

Is it experiencing the vulnerability of hearing a man share his voice?

Is it simply the act, and what meaning the act, of “standing” for the women, embodies for us a women?

Is it the men opening and reflecting back to the women more of the feminine essence?

For me, I think it’s a sense of seeing and feeling the men as having gentle and present hearts and a willingness to share that with me…be in relationship with me in that way?

The women clapped wildly for the men, after they sang to us.  No matter what it is, it obviously “feeds” a hungry place in us as women, based on the reaction and some of the feedback I received around that experience from others.

Did it have an effect on you?  If so, what about it was powerful for you?

I think this is an interesting conversation to have?

The above was a Facebook posting that I had made after the concert, and interestingly, although it was well read, so far only one or two have commented or shared their experience?

 I believe this tells me one of two things:

1. Perhaps development of the masculine/feminine (Yin/Yang) relationship within ourselves and within our relationships has not truly “landed” yet, in the mainstream of consciousness, and people aren’t aware of the process being a key focus of processing in this time and space (The Aqaurian Age)?  So the information is largely a subconscious experience at this point? So one, cannot comment on, what they are not aware of?

Or

1. What I am asking people to talk about and comment on, is simply just very vulnerable stuff?  Not the kind of stuff easily shared with a community of thousands on Facebook! Ha ha!  I am hazarding a guess that it's more likely this one??

Getting Vulnerable

I woke up this morning still contemplating the concert experience and upon deeper reflection what I realized, I personally felt, while the men sang was “worthy”.  Yup! That’s right, I went there!  Here I go…I am about to speak of vulnerable stuff!

I felt worthy, and of enough value, that not only one man, but a few hundred men, would choose to stand for me, not even knowing who I am, or anything of the quality of my personal character, they simply stood to honor the feminine within me and the feminine within them.  They saw value and recognized the importance of honoring both halves of humanity.

Everyone take a breath.

 Take it in.

It’s a beautiful thing?

And a really safe space to find one’s self in?  Where everyone’s wants and needs will be taken into consideration, because all parts of ourselves are being honored?

Honoring Wholeness

When we honor our wholeness (both halves) we open to a world of possibility that was not available to us before.  The energy of the Aquarian Age is that of moving into our heart centers where the consciousness of “we” resides.  We cannot make that journey on only one leg, we need both intact and healthy to successfully travel that road.

Integrating Experience

It’s for this reason that I felt bringing awareness to this concert experience was of importance?  Another reason is that it is important when we have experiences like this, to integrate them, so that it becomes part of our new way of being in moving forward.  Integration happens when we bring awareness to our experience.  We can have an experience many times, but until we consciously bring our awareness to it, the “gift” of that experience can continue to elude us.

Feedback to an Intention

I also find an important key to be aware of in this particular experience, is to recognize that this experience came to us, because at some level, somewhere along the line, we each planted a seed, that said, “I am committed to wholeness, or merger, or however you may phrase it.” And this experience, is in direct response, to that intention.  Cause and effect ,or another word for that is karma.  At some level of our being, we’ve put an intention out and the universe has responded.

Some of us, might be in very different places with this experience?  Some may have been working on this kind of issue for years and the feedback from the other night was a response to lots of momentum being built in a new direction, meanwhile for others, it may be the very beginning of their journey with it, but at any rate, we can be assured that we all received a response from the universe in that experience?  The meaning that each of us gives to it, or what processes occur now in relation to it, will be whatever that looks like for each of us as individuals.

The Development of Worth and Value

As an aside, for a girl growing up, much of her sense of “worthy-ness” gets developed through her relationship with her father.  When she experiences attention, worthiness, value and honor in her relationship with her father, she integrates that and it becomes part of her.  So when women have these kinds of experiences, later on in life, it can be a bit of a “re-parenting” experience for them and thus really powerful and feeding a hunger inside.

May we continue to grow into our awareness of wholeness, tumbling towards the light of union.

If you have something to add to the conversation, I’d love to hear from you on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/tracysvision?ref=hl

Blessings,

Tracy

Someone recently asked me if I have ever felt doubts about “staying the path” and keeping up with a particular spiritual practice.  My answer was, “no, I have a strong experience of soul direction in my life that keeps me from derailing at any given time.” My experience has been that as soon as I began to have opportunities for growth and development of consciousness present in my life, I have said, “yes!” and was grateful for it!  I’ve spent a number of years driving around in the ditch, in my life, but it was never because I knew there was an easier way.  As soon as I recognized what was being offered, I was blessed to say, “yes!” to it.

What Can Stop us from Saying, “Yes!”

 I also went on to comment that whenever one begins a spiritual practice, whether it be yoga, meditation or chanting etc, resistance to it naturally arises.  It’s part of the process.  Most people are unfamiliar with this process and assume that the practice is at fault.

Honing in on Intention

Early on in my journey, I learned to ask the Universe/One Spirit/Source etc, on a daily basis, “What do I need most to work on today?  Or what most needs attention in my life today?”  Then I would chant the mantra, “Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo” (I bow to infinite consciousness and the transparent teacher or guide within) three times, and then be still and listen until an awareness of what that was would arise.  Based on what arose, maybe it was an emotion I was struggling with, perhaps it was a belief or thought form or some sort of physical tension or some kind of interaction with another that felt like a struggle, I would then set an intention around that.

Surrendering, Opening and Responding

Through that consistent daily practice of surrendering, opening and responding, I believe I have developed a relationship with my soul, and what it is, that is “trying” to unfold and happen in my life, by being able to follow that thread through the act of surrendering, asking, opening and responding to what arises as feedback.

Opposition to Proposition

Some of the struggles people can have with this process is first recognizing that there is opposition to every proposition.  This is called resistance.  When this happens what is happening within a person is that an intention is set (the proposition) and anything within the psyche of that person that is out of alignment with the intention, begins to arise to be processed and/or matured into a more beneficial state. Having the awareness to recognize when one is in the grip of resistance becomes empowering, because sometimes if we simply just touch upon it with our awareness it naturally begins to unravel.  It’s a first step.

Strong on the Doing, a Little Light on the Being

Another struggle I’ve witnessed is being strong in the “doing phase”, but more limited in the “being phase”.  It requires the ability to “be,” to receive an awareness or intuition.  It is an opening and receptive phase of being.  When the two come into a balanced relationship, and begin to work together, a flow in one’s life begins.  My teacher has described it as “following the Hukam of your soul”, in other words, following the call of one’s soul or the thread of destiny running throughout one’s life.  Everyone’s soul has “intent”.  At some point we stop forming intentions and we begin following intent.  It’s a Divine flow.

The Development of “Being”

The ability to “be” is born early on in our development.  As new born babies, our only job is to be, and to be unconditionally loved for our being-ness.  When we don’t receive these kinds of messages and permissions during that phase (for whatever reason), our ability to “be” can become wounded.  So healing one’s ability to be, can become really important within the process of working with intention successfully.

Recognizing what is Coming at You

Yet another struggle can be a lack of awareness of what is coming back to you in response to your intention.  It’s important to have this awareness, as what comes back, is often the next clue to how your intention needs to morph or shift, in order to open to what’s trying to come into your life.  This is necessary to being able to follow the thread.

I often tell students, if you ask, there will always be a response.  And it will come to you in a way that you can recognize it.  You may be able to simply ask a question and hear an answer, or you may have to have your eyes wide open in your environment, noticing what the feedback is saying.  Sometimes it comes through things people say to you.  Especially pay attention if you’ve heard the same thing, or something similar, in a short period of time!  Notice billboards, magazine ads, e-mail subject lines etc etc.  The Universe is in constant contact with us.  Information is constantly flowing in response to the intentions we set. Our ability to see and compute it can require tweaking.

Resistance to What Comes

Another struggle can be “not accepting” what feedback comes to you, so an inability to work with it then.  One might reject the feedback if it sets off their defense mechanism?  Most unconscious material, as it arises, will set off the defense mechanism to some degree.  That tends to be the nature of what we “disown” and lives in our subconscious.  Our defense mechanisms are often immature, in that they are originally formed in childhood, before we have the full capacity of logical thinking ingrained.  What we unconsciously fear, may have very little bearing in the here and now as an adult, but the “child-like thinking” that has formed the defense response, hasn’t “heard the news yet!”  We can grow that up and mature it, through a number of therapeutic and personal growth processes.

Living a life of intention, on purpose, can be an empowering experience.  We become the conscious co-creators of our lives.  It’s one of our human capacities.  We are creative beings at the heart of it.  What wonders might we create together?? Exciting times!

A Personal Example of Intention Unfolding

I had an experience around this time last year.  I had begun recording my newest CD, “Merged” and I was feeling somewhat unskilled and unworthy, in the whole process of it.  Lots of unconscious material was arising for me to look at.  So the new recording, would be the intention or proposition phase, and the feelings that arose in response, would be the resistance or opposition phase.  I mulled over this for a few weeks, thinking for the first time in 10 years of my musical journey, perhaps Yogi Bhajan had it wrong?  Perhaps my destiny is not, “Sat Sangeet” (True Divine Music).  I was contemplating, giving up on music.  I was doubting whether 10 years was a good, “college try”, and whether there was value in my musical creativity and promoting of chant events in Calgary?

Setting the Intention

I recalled something my teacher had told us that Yogi Bhajan had said, “God can’t fail a teacher.”  So it was the day of the Deva Premal Concert last year, and I said, “God, if I am to stay this path, give me a sign.”  That evening I attended the concert on my own, as my friends were unable to attend that evening.  In a room of one thousand people, I ended up being seated beside someone that I knew who had had a strong vision of a business, and then had decided to set it aside after a lot of effort being put into it, because it didn’t seem to have “any legs,” to stand on, mirroring to me some of what I felt around my own musical business and concert promotion endeavours.

Receiving a Response

The lights went down and the singing began and I sung along, noticing a lot of people around me weren’t singing, so my voice was well heard?  I chalked it up to maybe it was their first time at a chant concert, not knowing the words, or not sure whether they are to sing or not?  When the lights went up at the intermission, the young woman on the other side of me turned and said to me, “you have a beautiful voice.  I wish I could sing like you!”  The moment she said it, I “felt/knew”, it was the response to the sign I had asked for.   Asked and received.  At this point I still have all the muck of emotion and belief to wade through, but I know to stay the path, something is trying to happen and unfold.

I’ve Been “Deva Premalled!”

I also had an encounter the next day at the workshop with Deva Premal, where upon finding out about the work I have been doing to promote chant concerts in Calgary over the last 10 years, she thanked me profusely for it, and then gave me a hug that went on forever.  I tried ending after about 20 seconds and she pulled me back in, saying, “no, it’s not done yet.”  And she hugged me and hugged me.  I joked afterwards to my friends that I had been, “Deva Premalled!”  But also interesting, how that was obviously a turning point for me, where momentum began moving in the direction of all the intention I had set over the years, for promoting chanting events in Calgary, because here I am a year later, having been asked to promote her concert, and that opportunity came to me through earlier promotional work I had done for GuruGanesha , years ago, while touring with Snatam through Calgary.

Taking the Long View

The answers always come, sometimes there is a long range plan at play and it takes years, or lifetimes, to clearly see these responses come back to one.  This is where the ability to follow the thread that presents itself is key.

May we all be blessed to follow the thread of our destiny in our lives.

Do you have questions about intention and following the thread?  Ask me your questions on facebook!

Have you ever felt like your voice was wounded?

I believe many have felt this way, if not now, perhaps in their past?  I know I have.  Many of us have had experiences of not feeling like enough or welcomed, wanted or secure at times.  When this happens especially as a child in development, there is a part of us, called our “little professor”, that calculates the situation and then makes a decision about “how to be in the world,” in response in order to survive. This is done from a child’s mind and limited logic.  It makes decisions about how to be safe and get what one needs in the world.  If the wounding is around one’s expression (voice), this is a part of ourselves that may shut down, in order to keep safe or avoid a perceived threat in the environment.   The threat may be an actual overt threat, but more likely, it would be more subtle, like maybe I’ll feel ostracized, shamed in some way or on the receiving end of another’s anger etc etc.  It could be anything.

Finding an Empowered Voice through Chanting

 Each of us holds a “power” in our voice.  The power of the words we choose to speak and share with others can be used to uplift or tear down, create or destroy.  There is a vibratory frequency to our words and our sounds.  When others come into contact with our frequency, that experience can be helpful or harmful.  That’s a lot of potential for empowerment, for both ourselves, and others? Yogi Bhajan, the Master of Kundalini Yoga, used to say something like, “There are only two reasons to speak.  The first is to uplift and the second is to do business.  Anything else is not useful.”  I would tend to agree.

Choosing a Frequency that Uplifts

One of the most profound powers of our voice is to chant words that hold within themselves the power to elevate and uplift one’s self.  As we vibrate these sounds within us, we can experience a biological, emotional and mental shift.  It’s simple to practice and beautiful to experience.

Gurmukhi, a language derived from Sanskrit, holds this power that I speak of.  Each sound/mantra begins to invoke within the chanter an elevated state of being.  Once mastered, the consciousness of the mantra is invoked whenever it is chanted.  Wow, that’s powerful stuff eh?  It’s the power to take one’s self from darkness to light.  Take a moment to let that thought marinate and take hold.

Choosing a Chant Style

Chanting can be practiced in a more monotone fashion, or it can be sung in a more devotional way.  This is called Bhakti.  When one uses their voice, pouring all of their love and devotion into the words, they can begin to experience “Anand” otherwise known as bliss.  When we chant or sing, these mantras together in community, the effect becomes exponential.  The result is not only that we uplift ourselves, but the communities in which we do it, also receive the benefit.

You can understand why these sacred practices, such as yoga and chanting, have been kept under lock and key and not distributed to the masses until this last century?  This is powerful, empowering stuff.

If you’d like to experience the joy of chanting in community with others, heal your wounded voice or help to uplift yourself and others, I invite you to attend one of the quality chant events I am hosting by following this link.  http://www.tracysvision.com/#!events/cee5

You can also check out my “Connecting with the Guru Force” post on facebook, for further chant discussion.   https://www.facebook.com/tracysvision?ref=hl

It has taken me over 10 years to give birth to my newest CD, Merged: A Morning Sadhana.  Each melody, was like a small child to be nurtured and loved into being.  Some of the melodies such as Sat Siri, Siri Akaal and Rakhe Rahkanhar are some of the very first songs that I ever wrote, as a musician. Some of the newer melodies, such as, Guru Ram Das, came to me, just a few months before the recording of the CD began, but are as equally, lovely to me, as any mother’s child would be to her.

Letting the Liquid Reduce

Similar to the process of, “calling my, literal son, into creation,” and it being a conscious and soulful act through my intent and supportive actions, so was this creative process.  Like the process of calling my son into being over a 20 year period of marriage before he manifested, similar was the process of bringing this CD into being, with it culminating in this collection of songs.  Happy with the Sat Siri, Siri Akaal and Rakhe Rahkanhar melodies, I could have just “willingly” come up with some other melodies for the rest of the chants, in order to put out a CD, in quick order.  Instead, a deeper part of me said, “wait…let it simmer and reduce its liquid, like a pot on the stove, over time, increasing exponentially in its flavourful delight.”

The first 6 years were slow, no new inspiration came, until 4 years ago when a melody for the Mul mantra arose in my consciousness.  Once this happened, I knew the train had left the station and it was no longer a matter of “if”, but “when”, it would manifest in a total compilation of sadhana melodies that were all from my heart.

Striking a Sacred Balance

With the recording of each track on, “Merged: A Morning Sadhana,”, my intention was to invoke a scared balance between the masculine and feminine energy, thus inviting one’s self into the consciousness of merger.  In my personal experiences of these energies, the masculine provides a consistency and a stage upon which the feminine energy begins to dance, and as a balance is struck, the feminine invites a sort of “Divine Chaos”, into the song, in which the structure begins to dissolve and a “field of possibility” arises in the space.  Within this space, any state of being, that one’s soul wishes to experience can be found, as a potential, to be experienced and brought into being.

My wish for all beings, is that they may have what they need, to fulfill their destiny.  Each song, that I humbly offer, in this collection, has been, “loved” into being.  May the love present in these songs, be even but a small echo, of remembrance of the love, that is our ultimate “ground of being.”

Can you relate?  Have you ever “loved” a creative project into being?  If so, tell me a bit about your project or process on my facebook page!

Through the ancient practice of chanting mantras, yogi’s discovered that the way the tongue hits the upper palette can invoke different states of being within one’s self. The tongue action can be likened to fingers typing out a message on a key board, on the roof of the mouth, that then creates an effect on the glandular system. Different mantras create different effects. Some invoke a state of calm and peace, some invoke an open and loving heart, others invoke states of balance, intuition and grace. There is a mantra for any elevated state one wishes to experience internally. Touching on, and experiencing these varied states of being, allows one a greater connection with the breadth of their essential self, in that one’s essential self, consists of all of these elevated states of being. Yogis say that singing opens one’s heart and stimulates the pranic body, which is our energy body, which is integrally involved in any healing process we undergo.

Sat Sangeet (aka Tracy Gawley) has been a songstress and chant artist for the past 11 years. Her love of sacred song began as a six year old child, who has memories of being called to the gymnasium to celebrate mass in her elementary school. All of the pupils, would walk from their classrooms, song book in hand, in a single file, through the hallways, singing songs of brotherly love, togetherness and longing for the Divine, on their way to the gymnasium. It was the early 70’s and there were many folk-sy style Christian songs being written, that were steeped in devotion and heart energy. This experience so impressed upon her, that she still owns her own original elementary school song book, 37 years later, and has revisited the songs, over the years, as part of her devotional practice.