Raise Your Vibration
This past weekend I had an amazing opportunity to go to the Great Rhythm Revival in Sherman, NY. At this event, for four glorious days over two hundred people joined hands and hearts in rhythmic bliss. We danced, we drummed, we hummed, and we opened up to the health healing that took place all around us and within us.
Led by musician Jim Donovan (Sun King Warriors, Rusted Root), we participated in workshops that were created to teach us and experience opportunities to raise our vibration. In scientific terms, this is known as increasing your vagal tone. You see, Mr. Donovan isn’t just a musician, he is also a scholar. And he has dedicated his life towards exploring an understanding of vibrational frequency in the process of promoting health, healing, and vitality.
Without going into too much detail, there is a major nerve called the vagus nerve, that diverges from two thick stems rooted in the cerebellum and brainstem that wander to the lowest parts of your abdomen touching your heart and most major organs along the way. It also passes right by the vocal cords.
In 1921, a German physiologist named Otto Loewi discovered that stimulating the vagus nerve caused a reduction in heart rate by triggering the release of a substance he coined Vagusstoff (German for “Vagus Substance”). The “vagus substance” was later identified as acetylcholine and became the first neurotransmitter ever identified by scientists.
Vagusstoff (acetylcholine) is like a tranquilizer that you can self-administer simply by taking a few deep breaths with long exhales. Consciously tapping into the power of your vagus nerve can create a state of inner-calm while taming your inflammation reflex.
Additionally, by humming and singing in correlation with this deep breathing we can further stimulate the vagal nerve and raise our feelings of well-being. As Mr. Donovan put it, “Sound is vibration, vibration is energy moving.” As we think of our body on the atomic level, we can realize that our body is made up of billions upon billions of atoms vibrating together.
Sometimes, parts of our body can get stuck, and lose their vibration. Through the creation of internal vibration, we can give those hard to reach places a beautiful vibrational massage. Sound helps us move energy in parts of the body that we can’t move. For some, these areas may have been lacking in vibrational tone for decades. Through humming, drumming, dancing and chanting, we can participate in actively cultivating our own health and well-being. In this case – you are fixing you, and we realize that you are much more capable than anyone else in healing yourself.
And so, I have returned from my sojourn, refreshed and revived, and burning with a desire to pass it on… to share what I have learned and the enthusiasm I feel in resonating with something that I have always felt.
We feel good when we move. We feel good when we sing as loud as we possibly can. We feel good when we breathe deeply and with purpose and mindfulness.
I have located a major list of drum circles that take place in surrounding areas at the website www.drumcircles.net . I highly encourage anyone and everyone to grab a friend and get to a drum circle. In an environment where depression and anxiety are seen with too much frequency, there are things besides medicine that we can do to heal ourselves. And please, research and learn more about these ideas.
The HCQU will be hosting Mr. Jim Donovan at the Butler Community College on September 6th for a session called Introduction to Drumming & Disabilities (IDD). The class is limited to 30 participants. Each self-advocate must have a staff member present. Click here https://milestonepa.org/health-care-quality-units/milestone-hcqu-west/special-speaker-series for more details, or to register now, call our office at 724-283-0990.
We would love to see you there, and if it gets booked up or you can’t make it, learn more at https://donovanhealth.com/
Heal your body and mind with the power of sound. Raise your vibration. Improve your vagal tone. Sing and dance like there’s no tomorrow!
