Editor’s Note: In the podcast preamble I mention two organizations where you can donate to right now that are doing what is needed in Minnesota and nationally. They are:
Black Visions
National Bail Out Fund
#BlackLivesMatter
#EnoughisEnough
Lisa Kawski is a sound healer, kirtan practitioner, and the owner of Sound Healing for the Soul. She joins Joey Phoenix on the podcast today to talk about mindfulness and how vibration affects us, which she demonstrates in a Sound Healing mini-session at the end of the episode.
In her sound healing sessions, Lisa uses quartz crystal bowls, gong, chimes, bells, and drums to wash her listeners in soothing vibrations and take them on a soul journey that will leave them restored and rejuvenated.
She is the co-founder of the Kirtan band Nada Brahma, along with her partner, Kāmpa Vashi Deva.
In the last few weeks, Lisa has taken her unique gift online, providing sound healings in various virtual spaces including Green Tea Yoga, Spirit Tree Wellness, Creative North Shore, Ayurveda Wellness Healing, and Wild Rose Holistic Healing. These offerings have provided thousands of the opportunity to take a breath and reconnect with their souls through sound.
Mentioned in this Podcast
SpaTech Ipswich
Susan MacFarlane
Koshi Chimes
Kirtan
About The Chaos Within
Hosted by Joey Phoenix, The Chaos Within is a podcast celebrating the weird, the wild, and the creative – featuring makers, doers, artists, and oddballs exploring the unknown and tapping into their creative energy.
The Chaos Within is produced by Creative Collective and is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
The Logo was designed by Anton Presents, the intro music is by Paul Senn (psenn@thetau.io) using the Theta-U Creative Circuit System, and the outro music by Chris Wilson Sound using one of Joey’s maternal Grandmother’s haunted music boxes.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
National Museum of African American History and Culture “Talking About Race” Web Portal
Action Bail Fund: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wp4bl
Campaign Zero: https://www.joincampaignzero.org
Black Visions Collective: https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2
The National Bail Out: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/freeblackmamas2020
Reclaim the Block: https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/home
Unicorn Riot: https://unicornriot.ninja/five-years-of-unicorn-riot/
Click here for an up to date listing of Virtual Experiences
Creative North Shore is produced, curated and managed by Creative Collective, we are trying really hard to make sure that we don’t have to put a paywall in place and could really use your support to keep afloat and make us able to keep a few of our staff employed and providing you with content and information. Please consider supporting us with any amount.
Audio Transcript
Joey Phoenix 0:04
Hi, everyone, this is Joey. I don’t really know where to begin. I recorded this podcast a couple of weeks ago. And I’m actually really excited to share it with you all today because it is a moment of bright, peaceful… ness in the midst of all of this that’s going on right now. And like I I realized that I couldn’t just put this out today without mentioning the fact that we are in the middle of something momentous and terrifying and important. And well, I think I, I’m okay with putting out this podcast today as is I wanted to mention a couple of things.Black Lives Matter and if you want to donate to recognize that fact, the organizations that I have been trying To draw attention to our black visions, and they have been specifically pointed out by the Minnesota freedom fund as people doing good work in Minnesota. Also, the National Bailout Fund is another one that’s very, very, very important because it gives people who can’t financially afford to be bailed out opportunity to have a life outside of jail. The amount of injustice and barbaric behavior that is occurring in our streets right now. by our government and governmental organizations is sickening. And I for those who are protesting, thank you. Many of us can’t say thank you. We support you. We stand with you.
Be safe. To everyone at home, be kind to yourself when you speak to yourself, do it with love. And know that like, the way we’re gonna get through this together, and there’s no way to there’s no way to get through this except for by moving through it. And I’m not going to pretend like it isn’t happening or going with around like, doing business as usual isn’t the way to do things right now. So my business as usual is to be like, Hi, I see this, I care about this. Silence does nothing. Silence is something that aids the oppressor. And that’s not what I stand for. So right now we’re experiencing a whole lot of chaos. And chaos can be good because chaos means change. And there are so many things that need To be changed right now.
And with that, enjoy the podcast. I hope it’s a breath of fresh air. A moment of peace between everything else is happening at the moment.
Joey Phoenix
The Chaos within, part of Creative Collective presents is a podcast celebrating the weird, the wild, and the creative, featuring makers, doers, artists, and oddballs, exploring the unknown and tapping into their creative energies. The Intro Music is by Paul Senn and the outro music is by Chris Wilson Sound.
In the beginning, there was chaos. I’m your host Joey Phoenix.
Lisa Kawski is a Sound Healer, Kirtan practitioner and the owner of sound healing for the soul. In her sound Healing Sessions. Lisa uses quartz and crystal bowls, gong chimes, bells and drums to wash your listeners and soothing vibrations and take them on a soul journey that will leave them restored and rejuvenated. She is the co founder of the curtain band Nada Brahma along with her partner Kapa Vashi Deva. In the last few weeks, Lisa has taken her unique gift online, providing sound healings and various in various virtual spaces including Green Tea Yoga, Spirit Tree Wellness, Creative Northshore, Ayurveda Wellness Healing, and Wild Rose Holistic Healing. These offerings provide thousands with the opportunity to take a breath and reconnect with their souls through sound. She joins me on the podcast they talk about mindfulness, how vibration affects us, and what we can do to nourish ourselves in the current environment.
Welcome, Lisa.
Lisa Kawski 4:44
Hi, Joey. Thank you for having me. Thank you for being here.
Joey Phoenix 4:48
Would you be able to tell me a bit about your journey to becoming a sound healer and how that has shaped the way you live now?
Lisa Kawski 4:54
Sure. It’s a very interesting story. At least I feel it is as I Share it with people. It found me. The beauty and the magic of sound healing found me. I wasn’t seeking it at least consciously. I had participated in several different sound Healing Sessions with different practitioners, both individuals with crystal bowls, Tibetan bowls, and gongs. And then I also attended some sessions with students of sound healing practice. So there may have been six or seven and a whole plethora of instruments. And so I knew what I was feeling when I was a participant and wasn’t really seeking too many there weren’t that many that were coming into the Boston areas, but when I heard of something, I would definitely get a ticket and go with a friend and experience it. And in the course of doing that, my background my profession for 30 plus years has been as an interior designer I have my own interior design business. For some reason I went for a massage. And the practitioner that I saw actually knew my background, knew a little bit about my spiritual practice and recommended I go check out Spa Tech in Ipswich for their rise program is an energy based practice playing off a polarity and Reiki and I read the brochure and thought, Oh, that sounds interesting.
And and when that was really my first experience, hearing the crystal bowls and using them on a CD in the program, sort of subliminally working with that. It led to me then getting a Reiki one and two. And all this time I kept sort of questioning why am I being drawn to this? What is this about all this energy healing, having sort of gaining these little insights? I was at a study session with a group of mine practice toltec traditions. And the host had asked me to be the sound girl that night and took her quartz crystal bowl down from the shelf and placed in front of me. And after we began and went into a meditation, she nodded for me to play the bowl. And it was my first time ever playing a bowl. And as soon as I struck it and started, not I didn’t hit it, I stroked it.
There was some energetic force that was beyond anything I’d ever experienced. That came, came to me came through me came in May. And it was like that moment where you look around to see if anybody else is feeling what you’re feeling. And I sort of sat there and thought, Okay, this, this is this is something I can ignore. And the next day I wound up going online and researching the cost of crystal bowls and which bowl was best for me because each of these bowls is a different note, as well as it’s aligned with a different chakra within your body at the time, my life was going through a little bit of transition. And the root was what spoke to me a foundation grounding. I started doing my sound healing work through oh dear friend, Susie McFarland, who had a business and a practice here in Beverly, who saw me post a little picture of me playing my my bowl. And at the time, I also acquired a notion drum and some other instruments called Koshi chimes. And she invited me to her studio and I played for her and she said, You have to share this. And so she was the impetus for us hosting our first donation based sound bath where she recited a meditation and I played one bowl, one little ocean drum and a couple of times and it blew me away that people laid down and trusted us to take them on this journey. It took a while for me, even though I was enjoying it and I was, you know, creating a business out of this. It really took a while for it to make sense in my head in my heart that this was a calling that found me Emma saying you need to do this. The beauty of this is I haven’t just done it alone. I’ve been able to collaborate with a variety of musicians and as well as other healers, so that has helped in my growth.
Joey Phoenix 9:34
Everything is such a vibration, right? And if you are able to still yourself and be open to moments of, I guess magic in a way, the things will come to you. If you’re in alignment. I definitely hear you saying that like being in the right place at the right time and being open to what the universe had to offer gave you this opportunity and you’ve just been able to walk in that that’s really incredible.
Lisa Kawski 10:01
It feels I feel very blessed. One of the last bowls that I acquired was the throat chakra, which made a lot of sense in my personal life, but just to share how it helped in my practice was, at that point, I had also met another sound healer that I had a relationship with. And it allowed for me to not only work, the acoustics and the vibrations of the instruments, but it began for me to discover my own voice. And even though I held it very close to my heart, it wasn’t until I entered into another personal relationship with with my partner that I’m with currently Kampa and I, where he sort of pulled out of me to start chanting or singing. I never did that in my entire life. So now, through the through the practice of kirtan, which is a, it’s a bhakti yoga, it’s a form of yoga, and it’s through voice and sound and chance. Through that practice for the last several, it’s almost been two and a half years. Now, what I feel comfortable as I’ve been able to cross that over and bring that into my sound work as well. So often at the at the beginning of the session, I will be chanting some mantras and again, it’s, you know, letting go of your ego or your your concerns of what others think or feel, but really digging deep within your, or at least in my case in my soul, and sharing that without question, just allowing it to happen organically.
Joey Phoenix 11:48
I love that so much, would you? Would you be willing to talk a bit about how vibration affects the body and why it’s so important to experience sound as a healing experience.
Lisa Kawski 12:02
I know there are others similar to me that if you go to a beautiful orchestral, concert, or even pop music, any form of sound, and taking sound to the level of music can stir us emotionally. You know, there are certain classical pieces when I hear it played, tears just start streaming. I can control it, it touches it moves something. And so my understanding and how I get acquainted is that the vibrations of sound clearly work energetically within our bodies, but they also work spiritually and emotionally. So whether it’s a chime or a gong, or a drum beat of a drum, it’s going to move and shift the energies within our bodies. So our energetic bodies, our physical bodies, you Know, the composition of our bodies with so much water in it, any sound creates a wave of vibration.
So that’s gonna, it’s almost like we’re talking. So our body is talking to the sounds that we’re hearing. And in some cases for most people, they can relate to that they may not be able to speak about why they feel something, but there’s definitely a shift that happens when you allow yourself to receive and to relax into it and to really provide yourself with a meditation whether it’s myself guiding you at the onset with words, to to relax your body, relax your mind, or a poem that gives you a visual to sort of take you and begin the journey. And then I’m quiet throughout the hour session and it’s just sounds. So they’re, they’re working their magic and I’m from my energy feeding off of what others may need. As well as what myself what I need. So it’s sort of this conversation, if you will. And if you’re open to receive it just like in a verbal conversation you’re going to benefit.
Joey Phoenix 14:13
Experiencing is the best way to learn how it affects or how it can affect you. And I think one of the biggest things I’ve been noticing at the moment is how there’s a lot of burnout happening right now. And I feel like people that are healers, people that are givers, people that are essential workers are putting their own like heart on the line to like give to others. And I know that like as a healer, it’s incredibly important for you to like to cleanse and stay grounded while you’re also nurturing. Would you like to talk a bit about your personal grounding practice and what you do to stay in alignment while you’re also doing this healing work?
Lisa Kawski 14:54
To be honest, that with the shift that we’ve had in the last couple of months, but before that my my instruments would be packed up in their boxes, and I would wait for my next gig. So, you know, I, I packed them into my car and go to wherever I physically was offering a sound bath, I’d set up, I do the sound bath, I’d break down, put it back in my car, bring it back and wait for the next session. This is my work, but it also is my own healing process as well. So it was sort of, you know, it started small and slow then it got this past year was amazing. It just morphed into so many opportunities for me, that coming into 2020 my calendar was so booked, looking at this year that there was a part of me thinking, Oh, I’m balancing between my design business and my sound dealing business.
How lucky am I to have this amount of work this amount of creativity flowing on different levels. But I think I also was, you know, burning out a little bit sort of getting stressed of how much of my energy can I put out in each of these sessions without burning out. So switch to two months ago, and everything stopped. And I still have my bowls and everything in their boxes and containers. But I was given the opportunity to transition over to a virtual platform. So now I needed instead of setting up and writing down, wouldn’t it be lovely to have a space to have it all set up all of the time. So eight weeks ago, I moved the conference table in my office over and turn the rug on a diagonal and set up all of my instruments for the first time in a space and I sit at my drafting table staring at them. I’m doing that right now. And it It brought me so much joy, to be able to realize that this really is part of what I do, not only for others, but for myself. And so I can walk over and sit down and play my Gong for 15 minutes if I need that, or my bowls or sit with my drum and drum or my ocean drum and just pretend them by the ocean’s edge. For me, the grounding process has really been able to continue doing the work that I have been doing. And big sort of aha moment was, it almost felt like for the last three and a half years, I was practicing for this very moment in time.
Joey Phoenix 17:42
A couple of weeks ago, I deal with pretty severe anxiety. And I wasn’t able to catch one of your Wednesday evening sessions that I remembered the video was saved on Creative Northshore and so myself and one of my partners, we sat listened for about an hour and afterwards, I felt Like I had some control over what I was experiencing and that like the things that I was anxious about were so present my ability to process them, I was given the ability to like process them in a way that wasn’t harmful to me. And that was one of the things that I definitely recognized from that and I have been a fan of sound healing as a practice for many years, but I haven’t had a chance to be a part of that and like, having you be able to stream it live is incredible, because I am not sure if you know, but I have a chronic illness. So I can’t really get to places very easily and like having it on my screen at home is beautiful. And I feel like I’m not the only one that feels that way.
Lisa Kawski 18:47
Thank you… I just I just had full body chills. I did not know that about you, but that that helps me to see and to understand the power of this Because I I walk very lightly. I feel blessed. Like I said that this found me. So I feel I’m in stewardship to share this.
Joey Phoenix 19:12
[would] You be willing to do a short, a short meditation. Now, for our listeners.
Lisa Kawski 19:18
Sure. Again, I’m on my phone so I have no idea how it will sound on your end.
Unknown Speaker 19:26
[Sound Healing Begins]
Joey Phoenix 23:24
Thank you, thank you for sharing that in your truth with all of us. The work you’re doing matters a great deal and I hope that in my own small way I can help spread that word. Can you tell us where we can find you on the internet our listeners, tell them where they can find you and also where you’re kind of doing the weekly recording. So yes, tell us what your website is, and where people can listen and tune into sound healings you are offering weekly
Lisa Kawski 24:00
At this moment, I do not have a website for my sound healings. So I’m working on that. But I have an amazing Facebook page and you can find me at sound healing for the soul. You can also friend me as Lisa Kawski and I can direct you there. The other aspect if people are interested in the cure time, our band is called Nava Brahma Kirtan, na da, br h Ma, cure tun is Kr TAN, and other energy raising modality. And so weekly you can find me Wednesday evenings at 630 live streaming on the creative North Shore’s page.
And I’m working with Kelly over at Wild Rose holistic we’re putting together I think it’s going to be more Like a product, and it’s going to be her doing a guided Yoga nidra with my sound bath in the back so we’ve done the recording and now we’re waiting for a date to release it. Pretty much if you go to my sound healing for the soul page, you’ll know where I am. And on Instagram I’m at at or what is it LKWski.
Joey Phoenix 25:27
Wonderful. Thank you so much.
Lisa Kawski 25:30
Thank you so much for having me. This is very exciting, so nice to chat with you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
