[LISA LEWIS] The Am I Ok? Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Faith Fringes, the Holistic Counseling Podcast, and Beta Male Revolution, go to the website, www.practiceofthepractice.com/network. Welcome to the Am I Ok? Podcast, where you will discover that being highly sensitive is something to embrace and it’s actually a gift you bring to the world. We will learn together how to take ownership of your high sensitivity, so you can make positive changes in your life, in the lives of others, and it’s totally okay to feel this way. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. I’m so glad you’re here for the journey. Welcome to today’s episode of the Am I Ok? Podcast. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. Thank you so much for tuning in. We are in the month of June already, and let’s see, that means that 2022 is almost halfway over. Can you believe it? Summer is here, which means lots of fun; outdoors, travel, seeing friends and family, and it can be overstimulating for highly sensitive persons. Well, today’s guest is going to share with us a special healing tool that can help HSPs since they are sensitive to things like sight, sound, touch, taste, hear, emotions, feelings, over stimulation. Today’s guest is LA. LA uses she, her, hers pronouns and is a champion of solitude, a creative, a storyteller and mindfulness meditation guide. She also gifted the world with a TEDx talk and the power of solitude in healing from lost shame and trauma and she is certified in sound healing. [LISA] She practices as a clinical social worker in holistic wellness therapreneur, and is a founding owner of Reconnect With You, a private mental health practice in North Carolina. She firmly believes that one’s relationships with others are both an extension and reflection of the relationship one has with oneself. When she is not social working, you might find her hitting the stage to reform at karaoke, pouring candles, mixologizing, and learning to make new cocktails, meditating, especially with her singing bowls, writing poetry, and doing photography. Welcome to the show, LA. [LATOYA ADKINS] Thank you, Lisa. Thank you so much for having me. [LISA] You’re very welcome. [LATOYA] Glad to be here. [LISA] Yes. I love your bio. Your life sounds so much fun and so interesting. I would have so many different directions I would love to go in. [LATOYA ADKINS] My life is very fun, I like to think so and no day is the same. Every day has something new to offer me. [LISA] Aw I love that. I want to ask you, as I ask all of my guests that come on the show, do you consider yourself a highly sensitive person? If so or not, would you mind sharing a little story with us? [LATOYA] Yes, yes. So I do consider myself a highly sensitive person. What I’ll say about that is that I have not always considered myself a highly sensitive person. I think a part of that is because I think in recent years, we are just now having the, or developing the language around that. I don’t even think, I’m thinking back to when I was growing up and I don’t think that highly sensitive person was a thing necessarily, but I’ve always known about myself that I’ve always felt that I had certain gifts in terms of being able to pick up on different energies and being able to really tap into my intuition in a way that others weren’t able to. That was more so in my sharing with others, some of the experiences that I had, and I’ve always been able to, I think pick up on things that are beneath the surface, like I said, things that are not necessarily being spoken and things that might not be obvious to the naked eye. I’ve always been very observant. I think I started to really learn more about being a highly sensitive person and identify as such after George Floyd was murdered in March of 2020. I remember we were having a meeting as a staff and the meeting was taking place virtually. It was on Zoom. I just remember being overwhelmed with emotion and just feeling this heaviness. I think a lot of people around me were, but it was almost debilitating for me. It made it very difficult for me to get out of bed and to have motivation to do things. I felt like I was being impacted in a way that was hard for me to describe to other people. My former supervisor actually purchased the book for me, The Highly Sensitive Person. The name of the author is escaping me right now. You may know the name of the author, Lisa [LISA] Dr. Elaine Aaron. [LATOYA] Yes, yes. I felt at home, I was like, oh, there are other people out there who are like me and who can relate to a lot of things that I’ve experienced. It really helped me to put so many things into perspective as I look back on my life and some of the experiences that I’ve had and just the difficulties that I’ve had with them, especially in how they have impacted me. That’s the story that I want to share just in terms of how I was able or what confirmed it for me, that I was a highly sensitive person and just how I started to explore that part of my identity. [LISA] Oh, wow. Thank you for sharing that. I can relate to so much to what you said, and I wish I had the tools and the knowledge when I was growing up that would explain a lot of things to me back then, what happened; I guess, understanding myself better and I’m still under getting to know myself even more as time goes on, even into adulthood and later on in years. So thank you so much for sharing your story with us. [LATOYA] Yes, you’re welcome. [LISA] I wanted to ask you how did you get started with sound healing? [LATOYA] I actually got started with sound healing during the pandemic in 2020. If I recall correctly, there was a video on YouTube, or I’m sorry, not YouTube, it was on Facebook. One of my Facebook friends posted a video of them with their singing bowls. They were actually doing a, they were talking about how they had had a bad day and they called their friend who also had some singing bowls and they basically just did, they were on the phone and just did play their bowls together and how healing that was for both of them. That is when I became more intrigued with singing bows and just wanting to figure out, well, what are these and how do they work? Before I go further with that, I think it’s important for me to name that. I think I’ve always had a special relationship with music. When I was younger, I used to play the piano. My favorite artist of all time who I think is the greatest artist of all time is Tupac Shakur. When I was a little girl, I had a pretty tough childhood, but I would listen to his music and read his poetry. I got a lot of exposure to him as an artist in his art. It was very healing for me and it provided this refuge for me that I was not able to find anywhere else. I think the fact that I’ve always had this relationship with music that really helped me to bring things full circle in a way, when I learned about sound healing. You also mentioned in my introduction, Lisa, that I love karaoke. I consider myself to be a karaoke enthusiast. I actually tell people that I’m going to have karaoke at my wedding and if I depart before my family, I tell them I want karaoke at my funeral as well. So I think that I just really love music and I believe in our ability to use music in so many different ways as a healing agent. So when I saw this video on Facebook from one of my Facebook friends, I think I reached out and asked where she got the bowls from. From there, I started to do my own research. I went to a sound shop in Asheville here in North Carolina, the name of the shop is Skinny Beat Sound shop. I went to the shop with the intention to purchase a set of singing bowls. I went there and I was able to really be with the bowls and I was able to touch them and play them and just see what it felt like for me to just sit with them. So I went to pick my bowls out and I purchased my, I purchased a full set and I did that for my birthday during the pandemic. My birthday is in December so, I had a joke, which was a half joke, I was halfway serious that I purchased my set of singing bowls for myself. It was for my birthday, but it was really as a gift or reward for myself to myself for making it through and surviving 2020. So that is how I started with sound healing. From there, what I would do is I would play my bowls every night before I went to bed. It was a part of my bedtime routine. So I have these color changing LED lights in each of my bowls. What I would do is the last part of my bedtime routine is I would turn all the lights out, I would light my candles, I would set some intentions and then I would just start to play my bowls. I have a sound healing journal also that I use after every session or every time that I spend with my bowl, so just note what came up for me, if there were any challenges that came up for me, any thoughts, if I noticed that I was drawn to one particular bowl over the other. So I would just create that space for myself to just reflect on what came up for me. I did that every single night for a long time and I held my first virtual sound bath in 2021. A lot of people responded well to it and so I actually did a few virtual sound baths and eventually transitioned to leading sound baths in person. So I started my journey to sound healing with a full set of singing bowls, but now I have so many instruments I could maybe even start my own band. So I have a lot, I use a lot of different instruments, which I think is, I think that’s a beautiful part of the journey too, that I’m able to incorporate the sounds from all different types of instruments and see how people respond to different instruments if there are any preferences. I also use, when I am planning a sound bath, I use my intuition to guide me to select which bowl should I use for this sound bath or which instruments are best. Then obviously if I’m given some sort of directive, or if I am being brought to lead a sound bath and they have a theme that they may want me to focus on, I take that into consideration as well, but that is how I got started with sound healing. [LISA] Well, I love that story. I just love how it just manifested on its own and just, I guess through the pandemic, one of the gifts that it sounds like to me it provided you and where it’s led you. I’ll share it too a little bit of my story. I purchased one sound bowl during the pandemic and I loved to play it outside on a summer night, like on a full moon. I would sit like the middle of my yard and I just had one bowl, so I just do the same bowl. I would remember something magical about it. I haven’t picked that up again, but after listening to you, I’m like, okay, I think it’s time to pick it up again. [LATOYA] It’s a sign from the universe, it’s time to reconnect. [LISA] Just sound in therapy, like using voice, sound is so therapeutic. So I also practice energy healing so that, any sound is very healing. So what is it like for you as a highly sensitive person leading sound baths and sound therapy sessions? [LATOYA] That’s a great question, Lisa. There is so much that I could say about that. I think I will start just by saying that sometimes it can be overwhelming, but before I even plan a sound bath, I am thinking about what else is in my schedule, because I think that in doing this work energy management is very important. So I try not to plan or lead a sound bath during a time where I have a lot of other things going on, or even around a time when I feel like my energy is not the best. So I think that’s one thing that helps me to overcome that challenge. The other thing that I’ll say is that, because I do lead the sound baths alone, I do collaborate with other healers on different holistic wellness events, but when I’m currently leading these sound baths solo. So it’s important for me to be honest with myself about how much I can handle in terms of the number of people that I can lead a sound bath for and how I might prepare and take care of myself around doing that. [LISA] Okay. Is there a difference between a sound bath and sound therapy? Are they the same thing? [LATOYA] Sound therapy is the name of the modality. So sound therapy is an ancient healing, wellness and meditative practice that uses the sounds from singing bowls and other musical instruments to help bring the mind and the body into a state of deep relaxation. It also helps you attune to the mind, body connection. A sound bath is what you would call the experience that you have. So I’ve had people ask me, well, what’s a sound bath? And the reason why we call it a sound bath is that one part of that, or one reason for that is that most people experience sound baths lying down. There are some people that may choose to do so sitting up and we can talk, I think we’ll talk a little bit more about that shortly, but it is really you allowing the sounds to wash over you. So that’s why it’s called a sound bath because it’s really, and you may even hear people call them sound concerts. I think people use different terminology. I use the term sound bath when I’m referring to the experience that I create, because I think that more closely aligns to that experience, but it’s called a sound bath because it’s really, and it’s also a cleansing experience as well. It’s like you’re being, there’s a cleansing and a clearing that happens during the sound bath experience and the sounds from all of the different instruments and even the sounds from nature, working in concert with nature, if it’s a sound bath that you’re leading outside. All of those are working together to orchestrate that cleansing and that clearing. So that’s why it’s called a sound bath or that’s the difference between sound therapy and a sound bath, but some people use those interchangeably as well. [LISA] Okay, I know my local yoga studio uses, they use the term sound bath and they offer those. What are you cleansing and clearing away? [LATOYA] That’s a great question. One of the first things that I do with people that I’m sharing space with and leading a sound bath for is I will invite them to set intentions. For some people who’ve never, who are not operating in the whole holistic wellness space, they may say, well, what is an intention? What’s that? I like to, some people can, I may say, well, it’s like a goal that you set. When you set it, you use intentionality to set that goal and some leading questions that I use to help guide that experiences I’ll ask, well, why did you come here? What were you hoping to get as a result of this experience? Or what were you hoping to release? Is there something that you feel is weighing on you that you feel like you need to let go of? So those are just a couple of guiding questions that I might ask to help people to set intentions. That’s my longer answer. The short answer is that that depends on the person. One thing I will say based on my experience, actually participating in sound baths is that sometimes you don’t know until you’re in it. Sometimes you don’t know until it’s happening, because one of the things that happens during a sound bath is that there can be an emotional release. There can be different thoughts and feelings that come up for you that you may not have taken the time to sit with, or maybe you’re used to suppressing those things and pushing those things back down. Maybe there are things that are coming up for you that you’re not even aware of that were there. So I think what you’re cleansing or what you’re clearing away is going to really depend on the person. It just depends on what, I think it depends on the person and the intention that you set at the beginning of your sound bath experience, which could be different every single time, if you’ve attended multiple sound baths or sound bath experiences. So it really depends. [LISA] Wow, it sounds very therapeutic and there’s a catharsis in that. [LATOYA] Yes. There are a couple other things I want to say about, you ask what is it like for me as a highly sensitive person? I also feel a sense of empowerment because I put so much intentionality into just the entire experience from start to finish. I don’t believe in just starting the sound bath immediately when people arrive. I really want people to know what to expect, what they might need. We set our intentions together. Something else I do is I will, and this is, I think really, really helpful for highly sensitive people, is I will let, whatever instruments I bring with me, I’ll let everyone hear those before we even start, because it can be jarring. If you’ve never heard these instruments before, it can be really jarring for you and it can be disruptive for your experience. So I feel very empowered that I am in a position to create this space for other people and hold the space in a way that is healing and in a way that feels safe. It feels very calming for me too. I am a therapist full time so I do individual counseling and therapy. I had a colleague ask me recently, a colleague who had participated in one of my sound baths, he asked me if I get the benefits too, of sound healing or of the sound bath. I said, yes. I was talking with him and another one of our colleagues and I was just sharing that that’s probably one of the things on the top of my list of why I love to do this work is that it feels so calming for me. I feel like I am, while I’m leading the experience, I feel like I am in a meditative state also. I’m able to really reap the benefits of sound healing. I don’t always feel that way after completing a therapy session. Sometimes therapy can be very challenging and it can feel overwhelming and it can be emotionally and mentally tasking and draining in a way that I have yet to experience with sound healing. So I wanted to name that as well. [LISA] Oh, okay. Your voice is very calming. So I imagine just hearing your voice and then how you explain everything and people feel very safe and support in your sacred space. [LATOYA] Thank you, Lisa. I appreciate that. One of the things that I’ve learned in my training for becoming certified in sound healing is that the voice is an instrument also and it can be used for healing purposes. It can be used to really transform the space. Some people think that if you can’t sing or if you don’t have a nice singing voice, or even if you don’t have a nice speaking voice that you can’t or shouldn’t use your voice, and that’s just not true. So that’s one of the things that’s been included in my training and one of the things that I’m mindful of that my voice is also an instrument. I have these musical instruments here, but my voice is also being used as an instrument in the process. [LISA] What steps should one take after attending a sound bath or sound therapy sessions? [LATOYA] That’s a good question. I think, so I want to answer that question. I also think it’s important for me to name how someone should prepare for a sound bath. I think a part of the process for preparing for a sound bath should always include doing your research, especially if you’ve never attended a sound bath before, or you don’t know what sound healing is. I think doing your research could be very helpful. There are tons of videos that you can watch. You can just Google sound baths on YouTube. There are also, I was telling you earlier about the video that my friend posted on Facebook. I’m certain you can find videos on any social media outlet, but I would try YouTube, but watching videos and finding single articles, you can find beforehand to just know what sound healing is and what the benefits are of it. I think one thing that is important too, in terms of preparing for the experience, if you are at a sound bath every, just like therapy, every everyone leads the experience differently. So I just so happen to be one where at the beginning of every experience, I let whoever’s there hear the instruments that are going to be used. I do that because it’s important to me to use a trauma-informed approach and also because there are people who have auditory sensitivities. So I think it’s helpful to allow them to hear the instruments that will be used. The last thing I’ll say in terms of how to prepare is to try to seek out sound baths that are specific or specifically for highly sensitive people. I’m actually, I may have mentioned this to you, Lisa, when we spoke previously, but I’m actually thinking of leading one of those myself, just because I think it can be a really transformative experience and I really enjoy leading sound baths around different themes or for certain groups of people. But I think if you’re able to find a sound bath that is specific to highly sensitive people, I think that could be really helpful. To your question, Lisa, about the things that you should do after attending a sound bath or a sound therapy session, I think allowing yourself time to process and reflect is going to be really important. I’m very into journaling. So it’s something that I do more habitually. I don’t even have to think about it. I say that because I love journaling so much and have experienced a lot of benefits from it, and there’s a lot of research to support the benefits of journaling. I encourage participants in my sound baths to take some time after to process and reflect. And that doesn’t even have to be through journaling. It could be going for a walk. It could be sitting in silence, it could be doing a meditation, but really allowing yourself some time to process and reflect on the experience because the experience brings up different things for different people. I also allow time, I allow a few minutes at the end of each of the sound baths that I lead for people to share thoughts, takeaways, reactions. Sometimes people share and sometimes they don’t. What I’ll also say is that there are things that might come up even after the sound bath is over. So I allow that time, if there are things that people may have to share at that moment, but many times what you’ll find in attending a sound bath is that there might be things that come up well after the experience is already over. So allowing yourself some time to process and reflect is going to be really important. I also think making sure you’re hydrated is also important after the experience. Then I would say, just making sure you get some rest, I have found that after some sound baths that I’ve attended, I feel really tired. Maybe it’s a combination of being tired and being relaxed, but it’s this just this feeling of, oh, I could just go to sleep right now. So I think allowing yourself some time to rest I think that’s important as well for afterwards, but I think really just sitting with yourself and noticing what comes up for you and using that information to inform what you might need for your self-care. It may also inform your desire to attend another sound bath or another sound therapy session. Those are just a few things that I will offer in terms of steps that you can take after attending a sound. [LISA] I love that. The self-care piece is so important after attending a sound bath, just like if you were also doing therapy or any other healing modalities, just the aftercare is so important. I want to let listeners know that LA will be providing some of her sound healing at the end of the show, and before we do that, I just want ask you what’s the important you want listeners to know or take away from our conversation today? [LATOYA] I would say the most important thing for listeners to know is to remember to pause. That has been my mantra for a little while now, I want to say for the past few weeks. What I mean by remembering to pause is remembering that you can take a break anytime you need to. I think sometimes we feel like we have to react or respond to things right away. There have been times when I’ll be having a conversation with someone and they’ll ask me a question and I may not feel prepared to answer the question, or I may not know the answer at that moment, but I’ll still feel compelled to give them an answer right away. Or sometimes when I receive emails, I’ll be thinking to myself, oh, I have to respond to this email as soon as possible. So just remembering that anytime you need to, you can pause, you can slow down. I actually did, I have a YouTube channel as well. I recently did a video on this, just the how, when and why to pause, because it’s so therapeutic to be able to do so and you realize, oh, I didn’t have to be in a rush to get to this place, or I didn’t have to push myself to answer this question. I could have taken some more time or I could have reflected some more on that before I responded. So that’s what I offer, just to remember to pause and especially this week and just with everything that’s going on, just remember to pause and check in with yourself and take care of yourself. [LISA] Ah, I love that LA. Oh, thank you for that. Do you have a free gift you to share with the audience? [LATOYA] Yes. So I recently published and released a gratitude journal and it’s called Reconnect With You, which is the name of my wellness brand and also the name of my private practice. It is a self-exploration, gratitude journal. I think it could be really beneficial for highly sensitive people because it focuses on self-exploration and it really helps you to improve your relationship with yourself. So the prompts that I include in the journal and the ideas that I list for what you can write about, because sometimes people struggle with gratitude journaling in terms of knowing what they should include in it, all of those prompts and ideas are focused on you. So it really encourages you to look inward and to be introspective. That is what I’ll offer. Lisa I’ll make sure you have the link to that as [LISA] Well. Oh, thank you so much. That sounds wonderful. Where can listeners get in touch with you? [LATOYA] There are a few different ways, actually. My website is reconnectwithyou.org and then my private practice is also on Instagram. It’s Reconnect With You PLC and then the name of my YouTube channel is Reconnect With You. So if you can just remember, reconnect with you, it should be pretty easy to find me. [LISA] There you go, Reconnect With You. Oh, I love that name too. So stay tuned listeners. LA has a special gift for you. [LATOYA] Yes. I have here one of my crystal quart singing bowls in the musical key or note of F. F aligns with the heart chakra and some of the focuses of the heart chakra are love and self-acceptance and self-compassion and compassion as well. I just felt really pulled to use this bowl for today, just for this short sound bath. So that’s what I’m going to use. While I am positioning myself to play the bowl, I just invite you to get a position, feel free to get your meditation position if that feels safe and comfortable for you. I encourage you to honor whatever your body needs right now, so feel free to shift as you need to. In just a moment, you’re going hear the sound of the bowl. We always begin with gratitude. I thank you for being here and for doing whatever it is you needed to do to be present in this moment. Gently playing my singing bowl, I invite you to be gentle and kind to yourself, just as you are right now and know that there is no right or wrong way to experience this moment. Allow yourself to just be here. This moment is a gift, a reminder to pause. Remind yourself that you are worthy of pausing, of taking a break and of caring for yourself in all the ways you need to in this moment. Once you hear the sound of the bowl, again, I invite you to bring the same level of care and love and acceptance for yourself throughout the rest of your day. Thank you for sharing your time and energy with me. [LISA] That was beautiful, LA. It was so peaceful and calm. [LATOYA] Thank you. Thank you. [LISA] I felt the sound right in my third chakra, right in the middle of my stomach where it resonated for me. Thank you so much. [LATOYA] You’re welcome. [LISA] I wish we had more time. I’m so glad that you gave us a taste of what you provide and people can go check you out and find you and attend your sound healings and sound baths. [LATOYA] Yes, thank you. Thank you. I’m just really grateful to have been able to share more of what I do and just more about sound healing in general. I truly think that it’s just such a gift and I want as many people as possible to know and learn about it and understand it and experience it more. So I want to thank you for just inviting me to speak some more about it. I really enjoyed. This felt like we were just having a conversation. So thank you for that. [LISA] You’re welcome. Thank you for coming on this show. [LATOYA] You’re welcome. [LISA] Thank you, my listeners for tuning in today. Remember to subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcast. To find out more about highly sensitive persons. Please go to my website at, amiokpodcast.com and subscribe to my free eight-week email course to help you navigate your own sensitivities and to show you that it’s okay not to take on everyone else’s problems. This is Lisa Lewis reminding each and every one of you that you are okay. Until next time be well. Thank you for listening today at Am I Ok? Podcast. If you are loving the show, please rate, review and subscribe to it on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you’d like to learn how to manage situations as a highly sensitive person, discover your unique gift as a highly sensitive person, and learn how to be comfortable in your own skin, I offer a free eight-week email course called Highly Sensitive People. Just go to amiokpodcast.com to sign up. In addition, I love hearing from my listeners, drop me an email to let me know what is on your mind. You can reach me at lisa@amiokpodcast.com. 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