The afternoon is when things took a turn for me.
First, I should mention that I attended this experience knowing I would be writing about it for Rrampt, and wasn’t sure how involved I would really allow myself to get (emotionally I mean), versus being more of an “observer”.
As we were standing in the circle of women getting ready to prepare for the afternoon, we were holding hands and I could definitely feel the energy get stronger in the room. Unless you have experienced energy work (think Reiki), you might not know what I’m talking about, but I can tell you it was intense and overwhelming. We were listening to beautiful music and Amanda was sharing affirmations and positive statements to help set positive intentions for the afternoon.
At one point, the energy was too intense for me to handle and I could feel the emotions welling up inside me. (Now, I have to mention that I am not an emotional person. I am the type of person that never cries. The only time I ever cry is if someone dies or I go through a breakup). I think that’s important to mention, because not only did it shock the hell out of me to have this reaction, but to cry or get emotional in public is a “hell no” in my world and no way was I ever going to let that happen. As I felt the first tear roll down my cheek, I experienced a range of emotions from love to sadness to embarrassment. All I could think about was whether or not I should disconnect from the circle while everyone’s eyes were closed and run to the bathroom. I held on and the emotions came on stronger with more tears and I felt myself just letting go of my emotional wall. (Now, don’t get me wrong, I still felt embarrassed and ran to the bathroom as soon as humanly possible! I looked in the mirror in the bathroom and asked myself “what the F**K is wrong with me?!”)
By the time I came out of the bathroom it was time to go outside and journey to the studio on the property, where Amanda does all of her group classes including this sound bath we were going to experience.
What is a sound bath you ask?
I had no idea either until this day. The sound bath is the name given to the experience of relaxing while listening to the sounds of various crystal bowls, similar to singing bowls that you may have heard of in meditation practices. These bowls are large and white and each make different frequencies of sound. Our body is made up of frequency and each cell in our body can be affected by different types of frequencies that we listen to. The type of frequencies given off by these crystal bowls speak to our cells and can create lasting change. Maybe it’s going to help chronic pain, maybe some grief, maybe depression, maybe just some negative thoughts.
This is where we got to experience Liz Sheardown, who is a Reiki Master and an intuitive who works with crystal grids to help with the healing process. She provided a reiki treatment on each of us as we lay in the dark twinkle-light filled room listening to the sound bath from Amanda who sat at the front as she used the bowls.
I thought to myself ‘this just seems like a normal meditation to me, I’m not sure I feel anything‘; but that all changed in an instant. I felt the same intense emotions go through my body the same way it had earlier in the day in the circle. My eyes welled up again and tears came.
“Seriously?” I thought to myself; but I decided I wasn’t winning this fight, and I just let it flow.
Maybe the universe was trying to tell me to stop being such a hard shell of a human and chill out? I truly believe that the sound bath allowed my soul to return to a state of calm and vulnerability. I dare you pessimistic souls to try this!
Stay tuned for Part 3 of our Nature Babes Series.
Written by Ashley Baldwin
