Drumming Circles – Courage (Part 1/3)
I attended my first drumming circle today with my partner at Music for the Mind, as I have heard reports that it is transformative and empowering, healing and meditative, and most of all, fun.
When they say ‘no experience necessary’ to join in a drumming circle, they mean it!
I do not have a musical bone in my body. I’m really shy and introverted. So, I genuinely struggle to meet people ‘properly’ at first, I take a long time to get to know them, and I’m prone to being a hermit. Some will say I’m a loner, but I say that I enjoy being alone in solitude. It took everything I had to walk out the door, so I could try something new that not only piqued my interest to become involved with a community, but contributed to my healing journey.
So here’s my drumming circle experience, my background and why I felt called to drumming, and the outcome…
Courage and War of the Self
I’m lucky enough that my partner enjoys exploring spiritual events with me, so I had someone to hold my hand as I first walked through the door. But in all honesty, I would’ve walked in that door with or without him, because I felt called to try something new. And I’d also have attended solo, because I’m practising this concept that’s held me captive for too many years, being a shy person and all…I’m practising the courage to try new things, and to not feel like I am being judged about whether or not I can do something but rather, explore pathways that raise my confidence and self-worth and links me with an encouraging and uplifting community.
For background, my partner and I are a military couple, both with war-generation parents. We’re journeying through life together in search of healing, truth and peace, whilst maintaining what we’ve learnt about war, so we can stand up for ourselves and say ‘no’ to war mongering and ‘yes’ to peace; this military environment is where we’ve learned the most to become peacemakers and peacekeepers, after the war machine spat us both out, broken and unhealed, so now we’re at the other side of this journey. After war, there is still a war of the self, and the journey of the wounded healer begins.
Be proactive on your healing journey and search for peace by doing something positive and new.
Since having a war-memory to be neutralised and transmuted in both of our signature frequencies, my partner and I can appreciate what it’s like to have, or live with someone afflicted by PTSD, anxiety, and other negative energies, the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional scars of war. War can happen in any workplace, or any other place, not just the military. You can be at war with yourself, even if you’ve never joined the military, which is the category I fall into. My partner joined the military and has a lot of healing to do, and the way he’s doing it is by starting… just taking the first step to try. It sounds strange, but just acknowledging there’s a problem and taking steps to resolve it, is not something that every wounded person is doing. Some don’t know that they should do this. Some don’t know where to start.
The suggestion is, be proactive on your healing journey and search for peace by doing something positive and new, and stick with it for a while, even if it feels weird at first. You won’t heal overnight, but you can get there if you try.
How do you try for a better outcome for yourself?
- Acknowledgement that a wound exists.
- Effort and discipline to overcome (you’ve got to do the work, and remind yourself why you need to get up and do the healing work).
- Community outreach.
- Connecting with others .
- Journaling. Write it out! Write what you’re feeling now, and how you felt after the therapy you engaged. Write out your improvements. Read back on your journals to inspire yourself, and encourage yourself to keep going.
- Medical assistance where necessary
So, I think most of us can relate to war injury, in some way, shape or form, and are striving for peace.
In Part 2 of this series, I will describe the Drumming Circle experience, and in Part 3, the Clearing process.
