This article is the fourth part of a series. The series, in general, has been to introduce sound healing not only as a modality of greater well-being but, as it has been for me, a path of enlightenment and spirituality that walks with you every day like the sun upon your back. In essence, how can the sounds we hear every day bring us into greater alignment and joy? The sounds we hear are a reflection of our surroundings (obviously), but this series focuses on our inner environment and the reaction of the self in response to everyday stimuli.
When do you hear focuses on time. Not time as a cyclical structure in this matter, but rather a linear response to growing. This is a focus on trauma and its counterpart benevolence. The parts in our life we cannot not grow out of (trauma) and the seeds we grow from (benevolence). Every sound we hear and how we react is a constant reflection into a different time in our lives. For the present moment is a culmination of the entire evolution of the universe, and your thoughts are a constant evolution of the self. Akin to the universe we are still evolving, growing, and finding new parts of the self that bring us into greater alignment with ourselves and those whom we are surrounded with.
These points in our lives can bring about the greatest elements of joy in the world. We can hear the laugh of a child and it reminds ourselves of the time our own children were little, sparking memories of innocence and a time we loved. We can reflect upon that as a state of longing to return or look upon it as the lovely progression of our own lives. So then, not only is it the reflection but the feeling it brings. Those feelings alone are a window, allowing us to see our present situation. If we long to return to a time of joy, it is likely we are not fully embodied in the present moment for we are hearing our past. I must be clear; reflection is a wonderful thing that can make us feel wonderful and joyous in memories. It is about remembrance without the wanting of return.
It is a multi-layered tapestry of the self. In essence, it demonstrates the multi-dimensional aspects of the self which allows us to live in multiple moments of time. This is not some woo-woo thing, but rather a practical guide to see your life as a collection of memories that amalgamated into the person you are today in body, mind, and spirit. The behaviors, thoughts, traumas, and addictions walk with us throughout life. But do they guide you? Are you caught in them so much that your identity is not of the self but of that which you carry? In this, memories (both conscious and subconscious) of all sensory aspects can bring us to a new time where we can live and reflect on those same. This is quite powerful because one’s reflection upon the times itself can be multi-sensory bringing in memories of sounds, scent, sight, and feeling.
My thoughts and theories about these moments are as such. These are moments in our lives that formalized and concluded aspects of the self that found their endpoints. These can be powerful moments in our lives that allow us to grow from and grow into. These are elements that we come to identify with, and they become core parts of who we are as we grow. I reflect upon times in my life, like growing up in my garden. I do not wish to return to the time of being a child, for I have my own daughter running through the garden I built for her as she gathers raspberries and ground cherries. Those moments growing up made food an important part of my life that I wished to carry with me. While living in Brooklyn, my wife and I had about twenty burlap sacks on our third-floor fire escape, filled with dirt and we grew vegetables. These parts of our lives which are important to us find a way to thrive in the harshest surroundings. That part of me needed to be nourished.
Now I have a real garden at my home, and I look upon those times with my mother and father in the garden growing up…and I become flooded with wonderful emotions. For that which I received as a child, I can give to my own daughter. I do this not to commit her to a path, but to allow her to remember a different way of life…so that when she grows and explores the world, she will remember that dirty hands brought us smiles and nourished our body, mind, and spirit.
In summation, when do you hear is about what we carry in our minds and how that affects our actions in the present moment. Most of us are not present…we think we are, but the flow of stimuli is a treacherous siren that steals time from us. It holds us in the bosom of trauma for too long, comforting us with its identity. In a time when the days are long and the years are short, we do not have the energy to live in any other time than the present moment. Life is too short to not embody this moment fully.