News
SOUNDS WONDERFUL NEWSLETTER JULY 2011
Hi Everyone,
It has been wonderful observing ‘everyday’ folk waking up to the possibility, that although they have been shut down, and not feeling and expressing ALL their lives, it is never too late to address the ongoing tide of numbness spreading throughout the world and our lives. The account below of “Singing With The Seniors” is an example of this.
And then there are all the schools we have been teaching at. The kids are so responsive.
We had a lovely time with some so called ‘problem kids’ recently. We had a session with 15 kids for over an hour. They were just great , and so attentive. A quarter of the way through Jenny played tamboura and I played guitar and sang and they just started to lie down and feel, it was very beautiful.
One boy around 11 was extremely attentive. He was up the front singing and loving all of it, he even had a whole song he wanted to sing to us at the end; which he did, ( shaking a little.) . . It turns out he has been expelled from 5 local primary schools for destructive behaviour.
We can all feel our voices resonate in our bodies and this is enhanced when we begin sounding in gentleness. The great thing is, that the gentler we are, the more we feel. And then, once we start to feel the connection between gentleness, feeling, and expression, we have the opportunity to begin to really feel EVERYTHING.
with Love
Chris
SOUNDS WONDERFUL NEWSLETTER MARCH 2011
Hi Everyone,
Awareness of our expression, and the ongoing re-connection with our body, our stillness, and our gentleness, is vitally important. Here are two practical examples.
Everyone is born with a beautiful voice
A medical specialist friend referred a client to me for a private session. She has been deaf since birth, and was now 68 years old and her dyspnoea ( shortness of breath ) was enough to warrant ongoing medical attention and was compounded by significant grief and frustration. Her throat was closing literally through lack of expression, and she was choking with anger and grief. The client expressed how she had some speech therapy when she was a child but since then nothing. In fact she said deaf people were actively discouraged from using their voices. I told her that I have taught many professional singers and that they also felt, as she did, the restriction in her throat. And that I taught them also how to make very gentle sounds, called toning.
We did some toning together... It was VERY interesting, as witnessed by the interpreter, that many of the sounds or tones she did (for the first 5 tones,) matched my note perfectly. She was eventually able to feel the vibration of the sound in her hands, then in my chest (with her hands) and eventually in her own chest and body. Then it started to make sense to her what we were doing. I then said to her that even professional singers had to learn how to breath and tone gently, and we went through the process of learning about the gentle breath. She expressed (out loud and joyfully,) that she felt that she understood and felt this.
She now understands that when she becomes frustrated or stressed to return to the gentleness in her breath , and when she feels her throat tighten , to make a very gentle sound on the out breath. She feels that she will now use her voice a lot more, and she expressed how she felt very much better at the end of the session. The interpreter and client expressed that it would be good for me to hold a workshop at the Deaf Institute. When the client left she was joy-fully singing “twinkle twinkle little star.” :-)
For information about Private Sessions and bookings click here.
A Vocal Adventure in Schools
The week before I left on the last tour to Europe in February, we presented the Vocal Adventure for Schools workshop to over 1100 kids in Victoria and NSW in Australia. I have also presented them in Europe. These are SO much fun. They help children discover their natural voice and self expression joyfully. Usually the groups are around 200-300 at a time and the sessions 30-45 minutes long. At one school the teachers commented that even the more ‘challenging’ children who could never concentrate for more than 5 minutes were focused for the session. These events happen usually by parents approaching the schools. Jenny has prepared a great presentation pack for this purpose. You can contact her (admin@chrisjames.net) if you would like us to bring this course to a school in your area.
For A Vocal Adventure in Schools information pack click here.
With Love,
Chris
SOUNDS WONDERFUL NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2011
"Everyone is Born with a Beautiful Voice"
Dear Friends,
In our last newsletter we talked about the Grace-full Instruments sessions. We held a series of these sessions over Dec/Jan .... they have been just wonder-full ... they just got bigger with over 40 people coming on Sunday again. We had Oboes, Violins, Mandolins, Guitars, Lyre’s, Viola’s, keyboards, and of course.. Voices! Last Sunday the singing was the most beauty-full I have heard. ( truly!) Many commented that it sounded like 100’s of people singing. Here’s what a practitioner who attended said ...
“Yesterday I went to my first Chris James‘s Grace-full Singing and Instruments group. Once our bodies and voices were warmed up Chris supported the women singing without the men .... It was a wonder-full experience - I felt deeply in my body the women's' beauty and a fullness of wisdom and strength underneath that - a strength for all of us as a group and for society in the bigger picture . There was maybe 30 women and it felt like a 130 were singing . The men then joined us in full support and there was such a union and completeness - it filled the hall and beyond as if hundreds were singing.”
We will be incorporating Grace-Full instruments sessions in our courses whenever possible. It feels so lovely to have the opportunity to be working with people, feeling a deeper and deeper connection to our bodies and our inner hearts through expression. This IS the time to build a strong foundation of truth-full expression in our lives, and to feel the energetic quality of our spoken words. If we do not feel this our very OWN words will be sabotaging our return to truth. If we do re-connect , our words will sweep away our doubt and confusion.
For information about Private Sessions and bookings click here.
A few very basic self help observations.
When NOT centred the personality loves to talk faster and slightly higher in pitch - you will feel the ‘push’. Feel into the way you are talking. Notice if you are used to, and in fact have accepted, being hyped up and talking in this way. ( Do you allow or ‘get off’ on drama?)
As you re-connect daily to your gentle breath and stillness, your connection to your inner heart becomes stronger and you will feel the effect of your voice in expression. You will notice the effect your voice is having on yourself and others, and that it is; either healing or harming.
In general, take your time, disconnect your voice from your head (and your foot :-)) reconnect your voice to your heart, and feel the difference, understanding more and more about that extraordinary statement .... “Expression is Everything” by Serge Benhayon.
with Love,
Chris
SOUNDS WONDERFUL NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2011
Dear Friends,
What a time to be choosing to work with expression, with expressing ourselves, and to be making the conscious choice of energetic clarity in our expression, whether it be through singing, playing an instrument or simply taking full responsibility for that magnificent instrument of creation our speaking voice. Our speaking voice is truly magnificent or truly destructive. Magnificent ...? Yes .. Mag-nified. When we simply start to express truth-fully what is happening within us, our body experiences an energetic release that can re-configure our day to day life.
Example:- we are holding a months intensive of Grace-full Instrument sessions in the Innermost Sound Groups held here at home...our community finally getting to play, sing (and drum) together with everyone being as energetically accountable as possible. Local musicians are taking the opportunity to nominate long held tensions and suppressed feelings about their playing and their instruments, and many are claiming themselves AND their expression through letting their voice OUT!. We are having quite a few private sessions along these lines as well. A young student attending who plays many instruments, had a private session recently. Very talented musically. After a ‘tuning –in’ through the gentle breath he played a note on one instrument... very graceful and spherical.. As soon as a simple rhythm was set up he lost the grace-full feeling and his connection to the gentle out-breath. (Most musicians I have worked with can only play one note eventually, without going into mental constructs and old patterns). Another instrument was felt into before playing. What was immediately felt was that this instrument was played to please others. As soon as the student nominated this the feeling changed, and one note was able to be played gracefully. THEN as soon as the note finished a mental energy came in and what was it?? .. Self-judgment! Again this was nominated. Then a third instrument that was brought along was tuned into, This one didn’t even get to be played.. But again the feelings were nominated. A bit later the student said a whole Pandora's box was now opened, which was going to lead to an interesting year of music classes! So now when this student plays they will not be trying to push through a myriad of unconscious things weighing them down, but will be much more aware, and therefore able to make much more informed choices about their expression.
Make sense? Apply this to yourself and your own expression.
Are you ... Pleasing others first, being nice, forgotten how to say what you feel? The list is huge! Imagine if, by finally being able to express honestly and truthfully how you feel, you re-configure yourself energetically and create an energetic freedom to be able to move forward, to create rhythms in your daily life that will support your return to your inner heart to your own vital expression of truth. And if this is what actually happens, then consider what happens when we DON’T express in honesty and truth... The magnification is the same but is now numbing and destructive, and reinforces the old contractions and patterns. So ...
... YOU have the opportunity now to express your energetic choices about your life and its rhythm and expression. It is vitally, crucially important to KNOW energetic truth in expression, because, as Serge Benhayon says .... "Expression is Everything".
With Love,
Chris
JUNE 2010 NEWSLETTER
“Expression Is Everything”
We are ALL born with a beautiful voice. Reclaim yourself and your heartfelt sound.
Dear Friends,
I just came off skype after an hours interview with a web show in Virginia USA. A good interviewer, allowing the heart of the subject , “The Gentle Voice”, to be brought forth and even insights of her own leading to some great observations. She came to my music many years ago, and when I sent her some music for the show she wondered if it was the same Chris James. She expressed how she felt the new music expand her heart centre and then upon listening to the old, a sense of longing was invoked. This demonstrates that clearly no matter how sincere I was, the music was not clear, and emotion was coming through the music, and that this was felt. The longing she felt was leading her outside of herself rather then allowing her to feel her own beautiful essence and expand from there. This lead us to be able to talk about the importance of knowing the difference between emotions and feelings, energetic responsibility, diet, life choices etc, and especially talking about understanding the expression “listening with the ears of the heart”.
This show will officially air on Tuesday, April 20th at 11:00 a.m. (USA EST) Click on the following link to hear it.
http://www.chrisjames.net/interviews/10-May-BlogTalkRadio-Interview.html
In the next few months events will be presented in Australia, (NSW & QLD), the UK, Denmark, Holland, Canada (Nova Scotia) and the USA (Arizona).
With love,
Chris