Dear Folks,
J. S. Bach knew how to create a stairway to heaven: you do it through frequencies, ordered and patterned in a certain way that only musical geniuses can magically configure, (and any lucky person who listens with an open heart can perceive). Blessedly, each of us is the resident genius of our own body and soul … so move aside Bach and make room for us, too. All my life, Bach’s music has transported me to the realm of conscious oneness. It feels like I can remember being unborn in my mother’s body as she played Bach, swaying deeply to its resonant perfection. And I’ve played Bach on all my instruments, the recorder, flute, piano, violin, viola, cello, viola da gamba and harp (sequentially, not all at once, ha-ha. The more I play it, the more I love it.
How frequency, tuning and resonance fit together: Frequencies, combined together just right (i.e. in tune with each other), just naturally, produce resonance.
Frequencies are the steps in the stairway. At their most basic levels, each frequency (i.e. pitch) is a sine wave of a specific amplitude. Technically referred to as Hz (Hertz), pitch, or CPS (cycles per second) each pitch represents an individual note. Frequencies are vibrational cycles, pure and simple. Nothing new to you, you're already aware of these cycles as you notice weather patterns, play the stock market, enjoy the moon phases, or read an astrology chart (or any kind of chart). By having a personal awareness of frequencies, of cycles, it puts us in the driver’s seat. Certainly, that’s the point of having an astrology reading, and that’s why I spent years studying how to read charts of the market.
In making a person relationship with frequency it is important to understand that there is a full spectrum of cycles. For example, when I tune a piano I am dealing with a wide range of frequencies, from 27.5 Hz (the lowest A) to 4186 Hz (the highest C). Likewise, brainwaves vibrate at various frequencies, and in doing so, we are shifted into various states (alpha, delta, theta etc.), which then define various ways of being (relaxed, alert, sleeping, etc.) To vastly oversimplify: everything has its own particular spectrum or range of frequencies, some very wide and others narrower. That, most definitely, includes our own bodies (emotional, physical and energetically-speaking).
Since all matter is essentially vibration, moving at various speeds (frequencies), many technical things can be said about frequency, most of which would put you into a peaceful snooze before I can come to the end of my sentence, so I’m gonna cut to the chase. Here’s how come frequency is the first quality I invoke when talking about the self-healing qualities of sound (which are, to recap, frequency, tuning and resonance). If you remember from my blog of 3-26-11, the salient point about self-healing and frequency is our ability, our willingness, and choice to identify frequency on a personal level.
Being ready, willing and able to identify frequencies for ourselves is, as far as I know, a unique concept I’ve developed, as I progressed along my pathway of self-healing. It comes from the foundational reality that each of us have our own unique system and commensurately, a matching need and capacity to personally experience frequencies. What I mean is that, in one way or another (by feeling, hearing, and/or imagining) we can make a personal relationship with each and every frequency. Not only can we, but we need to, in order to take into our systems the frequencies required for homeostasis and synchronous brainwave rhythms -- the ones that are most appropriate for the moment.
If you think of frequencies like colors in a rainbow, there is a spectrum of different pitches (Hz or CPS), different frequencies coming to you, through you and expressing from you as you… at any given moment. Some are stable over time, and some transmute as your development unfolds. And like color, we can experience each frequency for what it is, just as the color black feels, looks and seems different from the color red (and if your mind doesn’t understand why, it doesn’t matter). Likewise, most of us have a favorite color, or are attracted to one color for awhile and that shifts.
Now, I’m going to tell you how I made a personal relationship with each frequency, but first I want to stress that this is only my way of doing so. I mean it when I say that we each have our own unique ways of identifying frequency. Thus, while you may never know the name of the note, or understand the physics of sound, you do have certain frequencies that feel, sound or seem certain ways to you (even if you’re not sure why they are). By being able to identify frequency for yourself, what I mean, in a nutshell, is that you can somehow discern which energy feels good, bad or indifferent to you (because all energy forms are, in reality, frequencies, that is, they are vibrating at certain speeds [Hz or CPS]). That said, most of us have been so out of touch with our bodies, so entombed in our minds, so kinked up in our systems that we really cannot discern which frequencies feel right in the moment… at least, not yet. My Self-Tuning practice has been a key factor in becoming conscious of my innate ability to do so.. and so can you (in your own way).
Years ago I studied improvisational music with members of the band, Oregon, while attending classes at Naropa Institute in Boulder, CO. What a gas that sexy, free time was! We all lived in a summer-empty frat house and believe it or not, we were so absorbed and fulfilled in our music-making that even though all we had to cook on was a few hotplates, it never even occurred to us to go out and eat. Music was our food, creativity was the spice of our lives. Mmmmmm. One day I had a private lesson with Paul McCandless (an amazing soprano sax player with Oregon and also the Paul Winter Consort), and I asked him how I could learn to improvise. “Scales,” he lazily intoned. “Learn every scale on your instrument equally well, and you’ll be able to improvise anything your ear can hear and your fingers can play.”
Boooringgg. So I thought. But later in life my passion to play the flute led me to doing exactly that. And boring turned into a really fun way to practice (which I happen to adore, anyway - - all that space to just work it out and leave the mind behind – I can practice for hours). One day, years later, I realized that I had, by doing so, cultivated a personal relationship with each note, the individual frequencies (and the keys they produced) had become my friends. I still can’t tell you the names of the notes; for me it’s about being able to feel and see them. So, whatever works for you.
Now why? Who the heck cares about Hz? As mentioned above, one of the major components of a stress habit (the constellation of actions, beliefs and energy patterns that constitute the underpinning for a chronically-contracted muscle or muscle group) is our distorted ability (or just plain inability) to allow the appropriate frequencies to move freely through our systems. Meaning, out of habit, we act in ways (due to our beliefs and holding past patterns) that are distorted, or that distort our minds and bodies. We don’t allow the appropriate frequencies to move through our systems, as they naturally would do, if we weren’t limiting them in doing so.
Highly sensitive people have this issue in spades. We amp up our systems way too much (i.e. let in too many high frequencies too quickly), or let them get too suppressed too often (letting in too many low freqs), resulting in plenty of physical and/or emotional pain. If we humans weren’t enthralled by habit, our systems, just naturally would handle this matter perfectly. We’d adjust, as needed. Our brainwave patterns would normalize into synchronous rhythms that united, rather than dissected our beings. But anyone in pain is someone who is not quite able to be natural and appropriate, at the level of frequency flow.
Perhaps you are someone that pushes yourself and ends up amping up your frequencies, surging the brain into non-synchronous dysfunction. This can develop into a typical “flight or fight” pattern. Perhaps you load up on low, slow frequencies and end up feeling exhausted or depressed. Now, here’s the kicker, and it’s a big one: you can’t actually DO anything about this (go ahead and try, and if you succeed, I’ll be very interested to hear about it… Put another way, if pianos could tune themselves I would be outta a job. Anymore than you can, fundamentally, change the shape of your system (or your astrological makeup, or physical body)… we cannot manipulate ourselves or frequencies themselves, so as to connect in certain ways with them. (This is why asking to "raise your vibration" is not only impossible, but sheer folly. More on this in a later blog.)
What we CAN do is engage the energy, flow the energy and surrender to the energy so that we are grounded, centered and expanded enough to ALLOW ourselves to connect with the perfect combination of frequencies for the moment. And when we do, when we know how to tune ourselves, the result is resonance: we come into harmony with ourselves, the world and the Cosmos.
What we can do is ask to receive the frequencies that we need - - high, low or in between. Once you start thinking about this concept - - that an initiatory aspect of self-healing is to be ready, willing and able to identify frequencies in your own uniquely personalized way, you’ll start to see how you are already doing that, at some level (probably unconsciously). When this act becomes conscious it leads you straight into being able to engage, flow and surrender to the energy of life. It becomes your way of connecting directly to the energy you require in order to heal a certain issue, physical and/or emotional. Try it and let me know what you come up with…
Frequently yours,
Laurel
