Among my many sound healing tools, I have a unique, up cycled bell made from an old settling tank. This bell is weighty and decorated with a setting sun. For too long she has sat on my floor, longing to be heard but too heavy to hang. This week, a stand came via a local woodworker by the name of Rick Mower. I had the honor of showing his work during the October Downtown Springfield Second Friday Art Walk and you can see his work on his Facebook site, Out of the Trees Woodwork. The frame is of up cycled metal and it is welded into a style best described as Industrial Japanese. The bell now has a home. Thank you, Rick. This is no small event in the world of Karen DeBraal and Wise Turtle Acupuncture! When rung, this special bell delivers a long and clearing tone. Blockages fall away. Expansion and joy enter as release takes place. I like to lay on the floor and put my head near the bell and tap her with a soft mallet. If I also activate a few singing bowls, the sound becomes ever more layered and shimmering. The acoustics in Wise Turtle Acupuncture are spectacular, due to the high ceiling and gentle old walls of a historic building. The sound work of bells, bowls and gongs becomes enveloping and centering, while allowing for clearing and expansion. The nervous system is calmed and the brain enters a calm yet alert alpha state. Wise Turtle Acupuncture has a number of sound healing instruments to share. From a clay and wooden slide drums, to an ocean drum, to several singing bowls, gongs, bells, tuning forks, a moyo chiming drum, rattles and shakers, flutes and a harp, they are ready to be shared with those desiring a healing Sound Bath. This sort of healing will work on several levels at the same time. Normally, it takes about 15-20 minutes for the mind to calm and for awareness to take over. The effects can leave traces in the body for up to 36 hours or longer. When viewed through the lens of Chinese Medicine, different sounds can affect different aspects of the body. Drums activate earth and water elements. The harp is an instrument of the air and the massively generated harmonics calm and open the mental field, carrying our consciousness upwards. Gongs are also of the earth element but can access all elements and open up a variety of worlds. Bowls can also reach into earth, fire and water elements. Wise Turtle Acupuncture invites you to come experience a sampling of a Sound Bath during the next Downtown Springfield Second Friday Art Walk on Friday the 13th, 2015. Aunt Hattie’s Collection of jewelry will be on on display, some of which includes mini-bells. I like to wear mine for personal sound healing throughout the day. Wise Turtle Acupuncture is planning to offer a monthly community Sound Bath event. Stay posted for upcoming details! Back to the Big Bell. This bell was a gift from my father. I am glad to now be able to do it justice. Come hear!
The Downtown Springfield Second Friday Art Walk is happening tomorrow and Wise Turtle Acupuncture is proud to feature the soothing images of Karen Ann Kesler. Karen’s restful work graces the walls of Wise Turtle’s new clinic on the top floor of the Emerald Art Center in Suites C &D1. The new location is restful in, with high ceilings providing lovely acoustics for acupuncturist Karen DeBraal’s sing bowls, bells and gongs. This healing space has taken on a very homey and comfortable shape. Please come and enjoy the art, good food and healing vibes. Karen would be happy to activate her bowls, bells, gongs, and Acutonics tuning forks for anyone interested in hearing and feeling them.
Allergies causing you to weep? Feel like you have grit in your eyes? A faucet for a nose? A head full of phlegm? No need to suffer anymore. Visit Wise Turtle Acupuncture and get relief now. Acupuncture can open sinuses and balance the immune system. And there are many herb and supplement options to help you on your way through the delights of our pollen-laden valley.
WiseTurtle Acupuncture is dancing with glee! The Second Friday Downtown Springfield Art Walk will be guided by ballet dancers on May 8, beginning at 5 pm. Wise Turtle Acupuncture will be the second stop after City Hall. The best part of this event is that we are hosting the art of Alysse Hennessey. Her colorful paintings of butterflies, birds, bears, bunnies (and much more) are certainly best heralded by dancers. I can’t think of a better start to the Springfield Art Walk.
For my Certified Clinical Musician’s course, I am required to read a number of books. One of them is “Through A Dog’s Ear,” by Joshua Leeds and Susan Wagner. This is one of my most used and appreciated dog books. I received it from Mr Leeds when I was fortunate enough to meet him through the auspices of an acupuncture friend, Ann Fielder, who practices in Ashland, Oregon. Ann is an Acutonics practitioner as well and knew I would appreciate meeting a sound pioneer. (If you are ever in Ashland and need a practitioner, I highly recommend Ann. She is one of the most talented people I have ever met).
The Springfield Second Friday Art Walk is upon us again. March 13,2015 will bring Amy Guendulay’s jazz portraiture to Wise Turtle Acupuncture, along with the live acoustic musical stylings of the band Juice. Amy hails from Louisiana and her jazz portraiture reflects this with high contrast colors and vivid hues. Wise Turtle Acupuncture is thrilled and honored to display her beautiful work. Come in for snacks, music and art and if you haven’t seen what Wise Turtle Acupuncture is all about, it is a great opportunity to check out the homey setting and to meet your neighborhood acupuncturist. If you would like to hear Acutonics planetary tuning forks, do ask. They are a marvelous modality for everything acupuncture treats and they are completely non-invasive. Come in and be awed. Reminder: awe is good for your health.
“When we wake up our awareness, we become like a mustang galloping above a canyon rather than a workhorse stumbling along with blinders, guided by the presumed expertise of the mind-master.” — Eloise Ristad, A Soprano On Her Head One of the chapters in “The Healing Musician” by Stella Benson delves into awareness. She explores the levels of awareness one must cultivate so as to work with the ailing. “It is not for the frail of mind or the faint of heart, or innocent idealists. It will challenge your mind and heart in profound ways.” Once in a while, I think I have this awareness down, but mostly I get that I am pretty much the rank beginner.
Wise Turtle Acupuncture will join the Downtown Springfield Art Walk on November 14, 2014. We will combine the Art Walk with our Grand Opening. Our deepest honor is is share the art of local flower petal artist, Subongkot Pethnui. Subongkot says she “has belonged to the flowers since childhood.” Her grandmother and mother grew many flowers for making offerings to the Buddha and Subongkot would take petals and stick them in books, only to rediscover them months or years later. She began to arrange the pressed petals on paper and this has progressed over many years into delicately layered and detailed landscapes and portraits. She is 100% self taught. Her work includes seascapes, where hydrangea blossoms form tumbling waves and drifting clouds. Fern leaves become palm fronds. Houses from Thailand and replicas of historic Springfield houses astonish with their grace and shapes. She has portraits of mothers and children, butterflies and of course, flowers.
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