Wintering…

🌨🐕❄️ – Music: Alexi Murdoch 🎼

The thread between Gustav Holst, Sanskrit, Star Wars and Time…

We went to the Royal Albert Hall yesterday. It was the first time I had ventured to this mythical venue.

The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Ravi Shankar… just to drop a few names amongst the many great musicians who have blessed this place by their presence.

The place worked its magic on me, as I discovered a little gem. I discovered Gustav Holst.

In between days…

Early post today, as I’m off to the Christmas Fair. I didn’t get much sleep as yesterday was very busy. So busy that i couldn’t even sleep at the end of it.

I spent the day finishing a few things for the fair, then headed off to set up my stall and then drove to Brighton to See Nigel Kennedy plays Jimi Hendrix at the Dome.

Twice

I have left everything behind. Twice.

Most people in my previous situations wouldn’t have done it…

“When do you really get to go home?”

I have a very intense relationship with music. I have spent years of my life listening to music a lot. Loud stuff. Not so loud stuff. I get immersed in it. Music can make me feel very emotional. Not all music. Just the music that strikes true, straight into my heart.

I have also learnt to appreciate silence. And the sounds of the world, the sounds of Nature (which are sadly too often interrupted by the sounds made by humans, also referred to as noise pollution…)

On Creativity…

My recent times have been busy with home-educating my son, my yoga course, gardening,  enjoying quiet family time, educating myself on the Ayurvedic system (and being amazed at how much it makes sense), and spending quality time in the woods with my canine friend Tara.

I’m feeling the need to connect with my creativity so I’ve been writing regularly, enjoying looking around me with a sense of wonder, and I even started to draw again.

I think all human beings need to find ways to express their creativity… Music and Photography used to be my ways of expressing myself back in my 20’s, and when I became a mum I started to cook a lot instead and of course I have a well-documented child, as I took quite a lot of photos of him as a baby and toddler.

Although at some point I had no camera… that was a dark era!

Portrait photography used to be my specialty, I used to enjoy taking portraits of animals a lot, and also trees, flowers, stones… I did take a lot of portraits of people too. Some of them were famous in their scene, others were famous with their Mums… it didn’t matter to me who they were. With every single being I had the honour to photograph (note I’m deliberatly not using the expression “taking” a photo…) I got to have a glimpse of their soul, and I must say that with animals that experience is often a lot more powerful than with humans, because animals just “let you in” without any attempt to shield anything.

Since being a Mum I have been constantly amazed by the sense of creativity that is innate to children. They are naturally creative as they don’t have any blockages within their creative process or great expectations for the result. Making a mess certainly doesn’t stop them getting started. Most of us adults have been conditioned when we were kids to care about how the things we make/create look like. We were compared with one another by thoughtless teachers or parents, some of us were told we were not good at arts, or that we didn’t have any talent in a particular subject whereas others may have been told they were creative geniuses and had to live up to the expectations that come with such a statement… I have met quite a few very talented artists and some of them seemed to be carrying their gift like a heavy load on their shoulders… that’s possibly why :-)

But for kids, art is just easy:

Thom and I go for long walks in the woods regularly and it amazes me to see how he comes up with Land Art projects on his own, and really enjoys immersing himself in the zone of creativity, creating a world made out of stones, earth and sticks…

He started to write on his own last year, because he was attracted by letters. So he started copying them on his own and now he writes his own name on everything and inserts random letters in his drawings as a part of the picture, because he likes the look of them.

Nothing seems to intimidate him, a few months ago we went to march to protest against the badger cull in the UK. I asked him to make his own sign and he just drew a badger, from the top of his head, just like that:

Obviously I’m aware that it doesn’t look exactly like a real badger, but I really like the fact that he didnt have anything holding him back from just doing it, even if he has never done it before!

(Re)opening the creativity channel doesnt need to be a complicated process. Even if as adults we may have forgotten the simplicity of just drawing or painting whatever comes to us. It is in fact a very liberating activity.

I find that writing a few pages first thing every morning helps. Most of the time I just start to write with no particular goal and my ideas just articulate themselves, and as I allow the pen to connect with my soul I realise in amazement that I’m releasing a few things that were stuck somewhere, in the back of my mind.

Going somewhere we have never been before can help, and also revisiting old places every once in a while to re discover them with new eyes is definitely an interesting experience too.

The practice of Yoga is a great way to release old blockages, to connect with ourselves and discover new possibilities – extending and stretching our own limitations.

Carrying a note pad and pen with you when out and about is useful as you may feel like writing something down while being in an inspiring place, such as the woods or the sea front… or in a cafe in town. One of my favourite activities back when I was travelling a lot used to be sitting down in a cafe somewhere and just writing anything that would go through my mind. Sometimes it was bits of conversations I could pick up around me, or words from a song… I have filled lots and lots of books like this. With poetry it sometimes feels that there is no thread to follow at all… but every single entry is an instant of my life. I would just spend hours writing, filling up pages and pages… and I would also sketch a lot.

Music is a great way to release blockages too. Singing makes you feel great, drumming can be very liberating and dancing is a very powerful way to release emotional build up!

The possibilities are infinite, but if you feel stuck you need to feed and nurture your creative self. That can be done through spending some time on your own in an inspiring place, to reconnect with yourself, and recharge.  That can be in nature, in the woods, in a park, in the mountains, by the sea or in a museum, a cafe…

Sometimes yoga teachers advise their students to take on a creative activity to release certain blocks, so they might advise them to start playing a musical instrument, or to start singing. Creativity is a very healing process if we are open to let go of our fears/apprehensions and just go for it!

Releasing blockages through creativity is empowering and very useful when one is learning to communicate telepathically with animals or any other beings. It stretches our minds to towards infinite possibilities, giving us a sense of strength and joyfulness that elevates us to a higher state of consciousness because we are really connecting with ourselves and the world around us…

So don’t fear judgements or criticisms and enjoy every single step of your unique creative process, and remember: The journey is more important than the destination.

Namaste!

Noemie.

Sound Healing

Thom’s floating guitar… Yesterday evening he went in the garden to play his guitar and that’s how I found it as I was coming out to bring it in… I guess Thom got side-tracked and just hung it there…

I’m a firm believer that we can release a lot of emotional stuff while listening to/playing music. Music and sounds are very powerful healing tools… singing, drumming, in fact: playing any instrument or just getting carried away listening to your favourite song and singing it at the top of your lungs are all great ways to release emotional tension.

Through singing we can release unspoken feelings that we struggle to put into words and vocalise.

I remember a yoga teacher friend of mine used to play music with her teenage daughter to open the communication channels… and through regular jamming sessions the mum and daughter ended up being able to catch up on the events of the day and discuss tough subjects… I think it’s a brilliant way to connect with kids/teenagers. I would love to have something like that going in my family now! Thom and I used to go to a drum circle every Monday evening but then one day we went and we were the only ones there. Thom didnt like having the teacher’s full attention on him during the whole session and refused to go back there ever since. I think now, one year later he is just about to agree to give it another try…

A lot of animals love music and they have their favourite bands too… my dog is a huge fan of Radiohead and she goes in a deep trance everytime they are being played in our house. She doesnt like punk rock so much (unlike my 5 year old who loves “fast music” as he calls it to run and jump around the house full speed). She prefers classical music and music with several layers and a depth of atmosphere…

Thom playing his guitar…

Thom releasing accumulated tensions on the piano… it sounds a bit like drumming…

I love chanting during my yoga practice. The resonance of the sound throughout my body feels like I’m tuning a musical instrument.

This week at my yoga class, our yoga teacher treated us with Sound Healing. She brought her Tibetan singing bowls to the class and offered us Sound Healing meditation at the end for relaxation. She connected with all of our main chakras using different bowls. Through visualisation and sound we got to experience very powerful healing of our psychic centers thoughout the entire body. It was incredible. I had to go to her class twice this week just because it felt so good!

It helped me a lot, on different levels. Now I feel I have more clarity, and I feel much lighter, ready to let go of unnecessary stuff. Today I let go of my old website. My photography website. I had it up and running since 2002 or 3. I spent a lot of time on that website. Like hours, even days of my life. But now it just feels right to move on and get rid of it. I feel totally comfortable just using this one now, to simplify things a bit more.

So I’m actually quite excited to turn this page and embrace a new chapter in my life.

My friend Annika is in labour right now and she told me last week that she was going to sing during the birth, for pain relief and concentration… It’s a lovely way to welcome a new baby into the world, it’s such a great way to be born: on the sweet notes of the singing of his mother’s voice…

I’ll leave you on such sweet thoughts,

Have a lovely night, and please join me in sending all my positive thoughts to Annika and her new baby right now…

Noémie.