Monthly Archives: October 2024

Creative Self Exploration – Part Seven: Frequency and You

Intro:

Welcome, visitor!

You arrived at the start of Part 7, of the year-long project/ exercise/ experiment named Creative Self Exploration.

I conduct-facilitate this by almost entirely following my intuition/inspiration and letting the whole process unfold.

In Part 7, we are using our voice as the creative tool of choice.

General method is this: I will pose a theme each week, and ask you to voice a word or possibly a short phrase/sentence relating to the theme – in a way feels right to you in the moment, and be present with your reactions to the sound of your voice.

We are embarking on an internal adventure. Emphasis is on letting your truth surface, letting it arise from within the depth of you.

If you have your vocalizing ability suspended for any reason, or cannot find a place to be alone, I recommend you use alternate method such as voicing it in your head, in a form of imagining, which is just as potent. Since this is about experiencing the way you sense-feel, that should totally suffice.
This is also about…

Set your Truth free, into the Vastness of Fequencies.

…and see where the experience will take you to.
Ready? Let’s begin!

Please Be Noted: If, at any point, you feel overwhelmed or get other strong responses, please suspend the exercise and proceed with suitable self care measures. Read more in Introduction page – scroll down to “Few Important Notes”.

( in reverse chronological order )

Week 45: Your Sonic Delight

November 09, 2024

Welcome back, Visitor!!

This is the last week of “Frequency and You”, Part 7 of a year-long project/experiment “Creative Self Exploration”, where you vocalize the word of the week, and observe your reactions. I tried this for last 5 weeks and quite surprised at how it stirred me in unexpected ways each time.

If you just got here for the first time, please scroll down to the bottom of this page and read your way up. That sounds like an awful lot but they are written in short and (intended to be) pleasant manner so it wouldn’t be too painful.

So this week, we are going to conclude the Part 7 in an imaginary round table party mode. What I mean by that is the following…

Imagine, you are sitting in a gathering with others who also did this exercise, chairs placed in circle facing each other perhaps.

You decide how many people, how things are set up, etc. Everyone gets to talk about how the experience was. That includes you, too.

First, prepare in your mind what you are going to tell everyone about the first exercise “Week 40: Sound of Your Name”.
Boil your story down so your talk would fit in 5 minutes time frame.

The following is what I’d say if I were sitting there with you. Kept much shorter than a 5 minutes talk, I share this with you as an idea.

I always felt self conscious about my voice while cautious of inflating my sense of self-importance. Not knowing how to hear my name in my voice, at first I escaped into an unfeeling place. Gradually though as I repeated the exercise, a giggle then smiles, and ended the week with a healthy sense of self-importance, which was needed to closely attend to my reactions in following weeks.

Now, prepare your 5 minutes story about “Week 41: Let Beauty Linger”.

I want you to focus on your experience with the “Beauty” exercise that felt most significant to you. If you are to not hold back, what would you be telling everyone?
Time limitation would force you to crystalize your story into a substantial gem, although you may not feel that way, at least initially.

Next, what would you say about “Week 42: Love and Resonance” in 5 short minutes?

Again, if you do not hold back, if you let go and be full-on vulnerable for 5 minutes, what would you say about your experience?
It’s an imaginary gathering of those who also did the exercise. Think camp fire story time or group therapy of sorts. No one is trying to fix you, everyone is there to bring to the (round) table their story. If you go most honest, closest to your heart, what would you say?

What about “Week 43: Freedom Soundscape”? What would be your 5 minutes story?

Here, I share mine again:

I’ve had conflicted feelings about the word and concept of “freedom”. So when I said the word out loud in my room the first time (in my native Japanese btw), it was in mere whisper. I didn’t want no one to hear it, that included myself. Then a moment later, as if in response, heard a distant crashing wave. I heard it with every cell of my body.

The last but not least, “Week 44: Peace Vibes”. What would you share in five minutes?

I am aware that the title of this week, “Sonic Delight” can give an impression that ideal is to be surrounded by beauty filled with love, free as a bird and enlightened serene. What I mean is a bit different. Allow me to explain.

When you bring you at your realest to Creativity, It has a tendency to alchemize your experience even when it’s not so sunny. May still not be so sunny when It does, but it becomes meaningful. Your life, experiences. Your existence.

Substance of your Soul
It speaks through Creativity

It tells you don’t wait to sing until you feel better.
It tells you to as you are, at where and exactly how you are.

Well friend, this concludes the Part 7. Thank you for accompanying me on this experimental journey this far. If you can believe this, the next up is the last but not least Part 8. We will be using our body as an expression tool.
So be sure to be back in a week, it will be yet another quality fun.
Sincerely.

Week 44: Peace Vibes

November 02, 2024

Dear Visitor,

It is my delight to welcome you back once again.
If you just got here for the first time, Welcome!! Please look around and join me in this exploration adventure in just the way that suits you.

For this week, I was inspired to choose the word “Peace”, another word we’ve all heard too many times perhaps, with plenty ton of everyone’s ideologies wishes hopes and disappointments attached to it, hence I think would provide us with unique challenges.
When you are ready…

Gift yourself a moment and get real cozy within.
When you are quiet enough, speak the word Peace.
Feel the sound of your voice vibrates in and outside of your body.
While the sound lingers, observe gently what surface from inside you – what you remember, think, feel, imagine, dream…
Repeat this simple exercise through this week, try in different tones/volumes, etc. and further observe your responses.

Please know, that I intend to present the word Peace in absolutely unflavored way; so, for example, if reading all this gets to you as if getting smacked with a yoga mat, then possibly you’re having a reaction of a personal nature. And if so my friend, that is a gold nugget, an invaluable key to your internal landscape, your history, your psychology.

Also.
I wrote “gently observe”. By that I meant, like a kind hearted, most observant white coat assistant following you around taking notes while totally in your corner. That’s the image I often have which may or may not work for you, but you get the idea.

Even if you find yourself having a rather un-peaceful reaction upon hearing the word from your mouth, I recommend you acknowledge that with utmost kindness*.
For sometimes, focusing on a word/concept like “peace” brings out from a person what is not. Like a road block highlighted to be removed.

*Because on internet, playing safe is oft. preferable: acting upon such “un-peaceful” reactions/feelings/impulses, etc. ain’t good, as in, smacking someone with a Buddha statue would hurt everyone: smacker, smacked and Buddha. If you feel that level of reaction rising up, please take it seriously and get any help available to you soon enough.

So go ahead, take a moment and get real cozy within, and listen until you recognize…

The Frequency of your Truth
Even through the thunderstorm
Sails you Home to your Self

I’ve written many more instructions in previous 4 weeks, so if interested, please scroll down further and read them all. Won’t take too long and you may not hate what you find.

The next week we will conclude Part 7: Frequency and You.
So make sure to come by and join the quality fun.
Til then!

Week 43: Freedom Soundscape

October 26, 2024

Dear Visitor,

Hello (again), good to have you (back) here. This week we are continuing with this very simple but quite potent (I found it so) exercise, of using the sound of your own voice to tap into the depth of who you are.

The word I chose for the week is “Freedom”.
Let’s start.

Take a moment and get tranquil within.
When ready, speak the word “freedom”.
Listen, feel the vibration of your own voice.
As you do, give full attention to what arise within you – e.g. memories, thoughts, feelings, sensations, ideas…
Acknowledge them without analyzing them.
Repeat this exercise as many times as you desire throughout the week, and see if/how your responses/reactions progress/shift.

Hearing yourself speak “freedom” (in this context) can be a stirring experience. As have been last 3 weeks, I recommend that you gift yourself a generous, accepting attention – at best of your ability’s more than good enough – and notice what comes to your awareness as the word vibrates and lingers.

You probably hear with your ears as well as feel the sound internally. What do the sensations do to you, your senses, your mind, to the core of you?
How do you experience yourself while the sound lingers? As one whole consciousness or in more compartmentalized way (e.g. as heart, mind, body, etc)?

Do you like settling into yourself and listening, sensing, noticing, tending….to your self this way?
I personally hope you do, though such hope I work to set aside.
Each week, I do my best to present a theme open-endedly.
Meaning, you take it from there, to where your experience wants to go.
This is out of respect for your process, ever unfolding.

As for the word, do you hear it as an individual, or in alignment with your, example, lineage? Or, through books/films/songs you identify with?
Does it anger, sadden or gladden you? Do you mind staying with your feelings for a second and experience them like a fine cheese?

Can you accept all your reactions-responses-recollections as they are as of now?
I actually kinda beg you to because I find this to be true….

Embrace where you stand; that’s how you
Flower into your own.

That’s it for now. We got one more word to go before concluding the Part 7.
Hope you have a great week and see you next Saturday!

Week 42: Love and Resonance

October 19, 2024

Welcome/back Visitor!

This week, we experiment with the word “love”.
No doubt one of the, if not the, most (over) used word in this world. So it’s a bold choice, so bold of you to give this a try.

How we go about is the same as the two previous weeks. If interested, please scroll down further for more instructions, it’s a short read.

Find a few quiet moments.
Settle within yourself, and when ready, speak the word “love”.
As your voice resonate, notice your responses/reactions.
Repeat as many times as you wish through this week, and observe how/if your responses shift.

Pay generous attention to the way the word makes you feel. Reminds you of. What comes to you – senses, awarenesses, thoughts…
What surfaces from within you, when you hear your voice speak the word “love”.
What do you really hear, who’s voice, idea, interpretation of the word?

Does the word sound more noun or verb to you?
Do you like the word?

This is not a psychoanalytical exercise. It’s a dipping-into-the-well-of-your-consciousness-simply-for-the-sake-of-knowing-you-more exercise. “Let’s tap into the depth of you and see what you find” exercise. Let’s do all that through a simple use of creativity and make it a quality fun while at it, thing.
Because I suspect…

You are the one you’ve been longing for.

It’s about you understanding you, first and foremost, deeply, try to, even if it may feel at times, like attempting to grasp the bottomless mystery.

Lastly, this exercise can be a bit heavy on you, so as always, please go gentle with yourself, e.g. if overwhelmed, quit for now and take care.
For, as always, not now doesn’t have to mean never.

See you in a week!

Week 41: Let Beauty Linger

October 12, 2024

Hi and Welcome back, Visitor!!

How was the last week’s exercise? Hope you gave it a try. Simple as it is, I found it both meaningful and fun, rather surprisingly.
This week, we are going to do the same but with a word “beauty”, so please get ready…

Find a moment you can safely focus on yourself.
Center yourself in enough calm, and speak the word “beauty”.
Listen, let the word linger. While staying in the sound wave, gently observe how you feel.
Continue to seek moments like that through the week, and repeat this quick exercise as many times as you wish.
See if/how your responses/experiences change.

For this week, I got inspired to pick words that are used probably too often in the world, that have strong definitions-ideas attached to them already.

In a nutshell, I suggest that you:
hear your voice speak the word, listen with your whole self (your best would suffice aplenty), and tend to your responses/reactions to the sound. That’s it.

What the word means to you, how does it sound to you, what comes up within you, upon hearing the word spoken in your own voice?

I am posing the word to you from an absolutely neutral place, simply relaying the idea. You go ahead and let it unfold in your own way.
Any memories surface? Emotions, thoughts, recollections….
What are they, and their intensities, depths, impacts?
Do you like the word, the sound of it?

As always, these are not heady / intellectual questions. Rather, I ask you to ask yourself, and let your answers surface from the depth of you.
Also as always, this is not an analytical practice. It’s about intending, then intuiting. Trustingly waiting for your own answers. Ultimately, to…

Let the sound linger, let it unfold your story,
written only once in all of history.

The rest of how’s are the same as the last week, I say this to spare you from more of “as always” bit.
I’d call this exercise a “quality fun”. Hope it sounds true to you, too. Either way, more on the way, so be sure to be back here in a week.

Ciao, til then!!

Week 40: Sound of Your Name

October 05, 2024

How do you like your name? Do you fancy your own voice?
Whether you went yay or nay, this week we are using both your name and voice, as the tools to explore our creative depth.
Let’s dive in.

Secure a few moments of solitude and get quiet with yourself first.
From the place of internal calm, speak your name and listen to how the sound of your voice settles in your consciousness.
If comfortable, say it with melody, rhyme, rhythm.
Find such moments throughout the week, and notice any changes in the way you receive the sound of your voice/name.

By solitude/quiet here it means, you let the dust settle internally for a moment. Life can be chaotic but if/when you can, detach from all and retreat into your inner sanctuary. Dedicate all your attention to this experiment, just for a short while.
If you are not by yourself, you can voice it inaudibly.
Please do not multitask whether operating a blender or airplane – it only takes a minute or two.

Say your name in the way you want, and listen. Sense. Feel.
Give yourself a full attention, on the way you be moved emotionally, thoughts pop up, your physique responds. Visions, memories, ideas. Remembering, recalling, ripple effects…

Does it sound sweet or abrasive? Warms your heart or clams you up?
In any case I urge you to appreciate (as in welcome) your response.
This week’s exercise is not focused on analyzing why we respond the way we do. If something comes up, such as memories / issues, please take notes and return to flowing with your “voicing-listening-sensing” process. And as always, if you feel overwhelmed for any reason, please discontinue the exercise and proceed with suitable care for yourself.

Repeat the process as mood strikes throughout the week. If you feel like putting a melody to your name, either from existing songs or make one up as you go, please go right ahead.
Or say it like reading a story, making a statement, saying a prayer… Do so just in the way you want, you won’t be harming the environment with your creative freedom.

Swim in the Mystery of your Existence,
until the Depth of it becomes your Freedom.

Have a wonderful week, and see you next Saturday.