I have the great good fortune to be doing work that I really love and feel passionate about. I am a Sound Healer and musician. I am privileged to run one of the main training courses for the College of Sound Healing in the UK – the Gong Practitioner training course. This involves teaching people to be Sound Healing practitioners specialising in the use of high quality large gongs and other related instruments. It is very special work, and we have some amazing experiences with these immensely powerful healing instruments. It’s highly rewarding work too, especially when I see the increasing confidence and empowerment of the participants as they navigate their way through the course and eventually graduate, many of them with a completely different mindset and perception of themselves from when they started. In essence my job is to empower people : I give them the information and knowledge they need, we experiment with that in various ways, and they gradually find their own unique method of working with the gongs for the highest good of their clients.
I am lucky, and I know it. A lot of people would say – “I can’t afford to do the work that I would really like to do – I have bills to pay, I have to survive”. It’s quite probable that that’s your response too, dear reader. My reply would be that I have bills too – and I manage to pay them. My work has evolved into what it is now over many years, because I allowed my heart to take the lead some time ago. I took risks, driven by what felt right in my heart, not what the survival mind was telling me. And over time the risks have paid off, giving me what I have today – a job I love, which fulfils my creative musical nature, and pays enough to keep me afloat.
You can do this too. I truly believe every one of us can live in this way at some point, when we are ready to let go of control, which is why I am sharing this. It takes trust – in our own intuitive feelings and the benevolent power of the Universe. When we trust our feelings in this way, we gradually develop a solid knowing that we are always provided for, if we follow those intuitive urges. There is a saying (I paraphrase) : ”Take one step in the right direction, and the Universe will run towards you”. I use the term Universe to indicate the ultimate creative power behind everything. However you like to put it, it is a belief in the power of a benevolent Universe which has our highest interests at heart. It wants us to succeed and be content – doing what makes us happy and fulfils us the most. This is our birthright as humans.
Everyone has a talent – everyone. Something they are especially good at. Some people just haven’t found theirs yet. It might not be music, as in my case. It could be painting, embroidery, looking after children or the elderly, writing computer programmes, cooking, solving complicated equations, dancing, making gongs, embalming, sharing your energy, etc. We are all unique, and everyone has something they are or do particularly well. We just need to find out what it is, and do or be it, regardless of the consequences, or what other people will say. The journey through life to find your unique talent can be as fulfilling as the discovery itself, but that’s another story for another day!
Just think – if everyone on the planet was living from their intuitive feelings and doing/being what they truly loved, what a wonderful world we would be living in! It would be a world full of happy, creative, empowered people, living the life they always wanted. I would like to live in a world like that, wouldn’t you? Then if you aren’t in the habit of listening to your intuition or your feelings, make a start today. Take some quiet time for yourself, preferably out in nature, and just be, without doing anything – just being, even for a few minutes. You’ve made some space. And then see what comes along into that space. You might surprise yourself.
Sheila has specialised in the use of the Gong & other related instruments for Sound Therapy. She has recorded three Gong CD's. In 2010 she published her first book : “Sound Healing with Gongs”, which is the first book of its kind on the subject. Her second book – “In the Heart of the Gong Space” – was published in October 2012. She runs a teaching and therapy practice from her home in Devon, UK.
