Reconnecting with our instrument, and ourselves
Reconnecting with our instrument, and ourselves
I recently had a private session with a person who had owned a Celtic Harp for a long time and she felt that she really wanted to play it, to have a relationship with it now, or to let it go. As she was talking, I could not feel her voice, and even though she said that she could feel her voice in her body but it was not the multi-dimensionality that is possible.
So before we even considered touching the harp we had to reconnect her with her body. Everything is an expression you see, whether it’s playing the harp, walking, singing, talking, whatever is happening inside you, whatever your connection is with yourself, this will be expressed, and it is unmistakable whether it is comes from your heart, your essence, or not.
So it was then a matter of delicately opening up awareness to be able to feel more in her body. Now when that happens the energetic and physical armouring that most of us have is the first thing that is let go of. And that is substantial. It even changes the way our face looks. It changes our relationship with our body, and we are able to then truly start to feel.
I then showed her what it was like to delicately move her hands. Those familiar with my work will know that I love working with hands as we sing and move, it has been likened to when you move your hands through seawater at night and there’s a phosphorescent trail of starlight left in the water.
So she had never moved like this. Now remember this was all before touching the Harp, so then with a little bit more tuning in, she was ready, so I asked her to delicately place one hand on the harp. As she did this, parts of her head tightened up. Now this is not uncommon, as whatever our relationship has been to the instrument is now, with the increased sensitivity developed, revealed. In the process of letting this go there was even more deepening and of course even more tears which was very beautiful.
Now as this was happening, her voice changed so profoundly. The edge was gone. And then I asked her to put her hand back on the harp, just one hand, and to play one note. At the start the string was plucked, and there was a hardness to it, so back to surrendering letting go, etc… And then after this reconfiguration she reconnected with the harp and it felt very different, there was a settlement, a connection, and it felt like home.
Then she played a note, resting her fingers on the string after, so there was more delicacy in the playing, just as she had felt when she was moving her hands before to some music (Sahara!)
What was revealed then was an absolute revelation for her and there was so much joy as she moved to playing a few notes… And thus the doorway to her connection with her expression was opened, and along the way she rediscovered her initial love for this instrument and for herself.
