On Harmonizing
In Metaphors
In the studio, I’ve been learning to sing with myself. Hector @nektergun & I have been coming up with harmonies for my song “Bones, Blood, Saltwater and Song” and then I have to sing them. I’ve been thinking about this in metaphors about how we live life.
Metaphor #1. I’ve been singing this song the same way for years. It is so hard to sing new notes and a new way. Like, you can’t help but sing it the old way because it is familiar even if there might be a new way that is supportive and beautiful and makes everything fuller. In the episode of #onbeing - with @michael.pollan & @katherinemay_ , (The Future of Hope 4) they talk about neuroplasticity and making new grooves (ie. doing/seeing/experiencing life in new ways). The familiar is comforting and yet when we open up to new possibilities of ways of being it can help us live more fully and feel more deeply connected to ourselves, to each other, and to the world. It’s not easy though. We are often afraid of the unknown and singing each new note somehow feels like jumping off a cliff and hoping it all just works out.
Metaphor #2. I learned about entrainment when studying sound & conducting sound baths. Our bodies are constantly attuning to the frequencies/energies around us. Through skin and bone conduction we are sensing and then tuning into the strongest frequency nearby. When I’m harmonizing with myself - my mind wants to sing what I hear but I have to sing a complimentary sound instead. In social situations, It’s like trying to hold your own frequency when there are powerful energies that are begging you to attune to them. But it is so important in those moments to not abandon yourself but instead to stay in your own energy and sing the harmony while the melody is playing. Stay with yourself and add to the collaborative song!
Ok, last one. What about harmonizing with yourself as symbolic integration. (Think @brenebrown Brown’s beautiful “Unlocking Us” episode with America Ferrara Identity and Integrated Leadership.) In singing it one way you are only bringing a small piece or version of yourself, in singing it the new way WITH the old way you are bringing your whole self to the song. Like an integrated healthy person showing up (instead of a compartmentalized person: ie, this is me at work, this is me as a parent, this is me as an artist, this is me as a woman). And the end result does feel like my whole self, all the parts and pieces all at once, an integrated identity, a full dynamic and whole song.