A letter to those of you who are in pain; emotional pain, anger, discomfort whether physical or emotional it’s all the same thing and it is screaming at us to pay attention.  There is an approach to this that says ‘I must get out in front of this so I can beat it, fix it, fight it and control it, whatever it is. Think positive, get out of discomfort, control this natural coming together in us of above and below, light and dark, masculine and feminine etc.

The Gap is where our rising energy from the earth meets the sky, our mind, the thoughts and the conscious light of our awareness.  From what I have heard of from most people that I work with this is experienced in the solar plexus, our power centre.  Energy rises up from below and gets to the swamp land of our solar plexus where there are no bones about it and sits and goes…Back. To. Sleep.  

There is another force descending from above dropping down in us like light on water and this awareness generally stops at the heart or throat centers.  So there you have it, the Gap.  In-between the Solar Plexus or what I call the Fireplace, and the Heart or the Treasure Chest.  No mans land. 

Over the years of teaching singing I don’t believe I have ever run across someone who doesn’t have some version of this Gap.  I guess it’s our human condition.  Our conditioning showing up in us of doing the same thing over and over and the planet is throwing out soothers for it; food, exercise, positive thinking, meditation, drugs and alcohol.

Our parents did it, their parents did it, their parents before them and so on and the seasons they go round and round….and here we are now.  

There is an evolutionary energy in us called the Kundalini energy system.  This energy at the base of the spine which lies dormant in most albeit a slow trickle moving upwards is the most powerful energy in the world as the ancient yogi’s and sages have told us.  Kunda means snake and lini means coiled; a coiled up snake lying in the base of our spine.  

I believe them.  It’s almost killed me.  This is the stuff that the yoga world, the tantric energy system and Kundalini is after.  To awaken this nectar within us and to evolve our species beyond the fears and stuck energy that we all have in us.  To unlock the potential inside of us all.  

The Gap is where this nectar usually goes to die and a trickle gets to move up the spine to where it’s met by the light of our consciousness and then lights a little fire in our brain.  We get aha moments, insights, creativity and revelations from it.  We become aware of something we weren’t aware of before and it feels really good. 

Stay with me here.  The whole mandate of the egoic world is to keep us away from closing this Gap and to have us to not Mind the Gap.  Because let’s just say that if we all got what’s in the Gap and how to connect these two worlds of above and below, light and dark, feminine and masculine then things would change.  Things would change because we would stop buying it, literally we would stop and unplug from the material world in a very big way. 

Now conspiracy theories aside hopefully you can agree with me that this Gap is real and keeps us separate not only from each other but from our own true power that is our birth right and that now is the time to plug back in.  

Now here’s where the singing voice comes into play.  The voice requires a communication and connection between all the inner players on the field. The whole body. The legs and pelvis for grounding and stability of the voice, the belly for all the emotion in the voice, the power of the diaphragm to project you out of you, the heart to expand and anchor this loving energy, the the throat to carry, spread the voice, the face and head to further reflect the beauty and awe of your connected voice and the crown of the head to extend the meaning in the sound of the voice. 

A mouthful indeed. 

So, hopefully you see the opportunity before us.  If one of these components is missing it’s pretty easy to hear it.  A lack of power and vibration in the voice says so much about what is happening inside of you doesn’t it?  We know this and that’s why singing can terrify people.  Yup, for good reason, the voice tells us the inner weather inside of you down to the rain drops, the coming storms, the droughts and the inner floods.  Our nervous system appearing moment to moment through the sound of our voice. 

There are very few to take this opportunity that lies before.  I have a few singers in my midst who continue to step through the many doors before them in their voices and bodies all the while gaining more and more life, love and laughter in their lives. One morsal at a time, until it isn’t, one morsal at a time, but giant strides.  

When these two plugs, two hands, opposites of existence of light and dark come together inside of us this is where things start to get really interesting.  Now we have lightening strikes on a whole different level and storms we didn’t even know existed!

So what is required of us here? If we know that we have been saying ‘this is good and this is bad’ then maybe it’s time to be curious about what compassion, love and light really have to say about good and bad, and not us.  Let something else decide what’s right and getting the hell out of the way of some badass decisions that we make every day thinking we are in control of something we don’t understand. 

Whew.  Okay, let’s get down to the brass tax of this.  You have a feeling in your gut, your heart or somewhere in you that you disagree with.  Notice this and then notice the huge reflex in you to either; bolt out of or to control it, fix it and make it go away.  Notice the time frame of when you have this feeling to when you open the fridge, your wallet or your car door to get away, far away from something you don’t understand. 

This is another Gap.  The moment you become awake and aware to a feeling to the time you check out of the feeling.  A Gap. What if the first step was to notice you going back and forth between them and to let THIS BE OKAY. 

The next instalment will help you to understand some specifics as to how the kundalini energy moves within you, how you can bring compassion and love to all of weird and wacky wonders that appear within you.  All the while allowing the light of your mind to reflect and penetrate into your body of water, for your birth right to finally arrive within you.

There’s nothing to get over, there’s nothing to throw away but only to bring the light of your awareness to and to Let Go.  

F-E-A-R – Face Everything And Remember.