Tori on the djembe

Some of the time here on the island spontaneous occurrences present themselves. One night, my friend Terry Kingen was visiting me with his daughter, Tori, and she spotted my drums lined up along the wall. Being very curious about this, she asked to hear what they sounded like. What came from that was about 3 hours of a wild drumming jam session!

Tori had never drummed before in her life, and it was so amazing as she began to play and the rhythm touched her heart. Her hands began to move and she picked up every single rhythm we played that night perfectly!

Terry was laying down the basic beat, holding the steady foundation, as I ripped it up a bit and helped Tori focus on the rhythms. Another friend of ours from the island was playing along as well. It was so fun to feel the vibration in the walls of the house, and see the joy on the faces of not only those of us who are playing, but Terry who was watching his daughter coming to such joy.

Magic Desserts Complement The Rhythm of the Drum

Drumming jam session at Toby's Hawaii house

Another joyful experience of this evening was the  unexpected visit by my friend Danny Hashimoto. Danny had been on an outing to the beach and stopped by the house on his way home . . . once again loaded with his magic desserts and sweet delights!

I will say it was also a bit distracting watching Danny pull these amazing treats from his cooler setting them beautifully on the counter awaiting our consumption. But we drummed on, laughing, smiling, getting into the rhythm of the drum, the rhythm of community, and the rhythm of the island. The drumming continued until everyone’s hands were so sore they couldn’t feel their fingers. There was so much laughter and fun.

Kauai: The Island that Creates Community

One of the things that the island does is creates community. People come together, and even if they have never met each other, they become instant friends. In the same way that the island welcomes everybody to its magic, that magic seems to draw everyone to each other. And the spontaneous merging of energy occurs. Family occurs, community occurs.

Danny Hashimoto and Toby Christensen

One of my dear friends, Malidoma Somé, from Burkina Faso, West Africa, talks often about how people in the village will spontaneously unite, just to enjoy each other and bring the rhythm of the drum or the song of the voice or the sound of the Balaphone to the people in the village. It is wonderful to experience these kinds of spontaneous events in a world where most things are planned and organized. I want to especially thank Danny for bringing his magic to our party and making a fun, spectacular time even more dynamic and spectacular!

I hope that next summer many of you are here on the island for the workshops that I will be offering so that you, too, can experience the magic of the island, the spontaneity of community, and the true feeling of aloha!

Stay tuned for more adventures throughout my visit to Kauai!

My time on the island of Kauai has been beyond amazing. The students that have come for the workshops have been a tremendous blessing. To know that there are now many new “healers” in the world bringing the vibration of peace makes my heart sing.

One of the highlights of last month was a wonderful full moon ceremony that was hosted by my dear friend and ohana brother, Danny Hashimoto. We all gathered at one of the local beaches, drums in hand, ready to honor this beautiful night.

Group Drumming

Full Moon Fire

As the darkness fell upon us, the moon began to rise through the clouds, shedding a mystical color of light all around us. After some conversation and socializing, we had a wonderful potluck meal followed by Danny’s world famous cacao mousse and other delectable treats he had concocted. Then I, along with three of the students that remained from the sound healing workshop, began to drum. Many island people brought their drums as well and began to play along. As the rhythms echoed across the beach, people began to gather around.

Suddenly, I realized that there was a woman sitting close to the drummers who needed a bit of healing. I didn’t know what it was, I just had a strong sense that the vibration of the drum would be very helpful for her. As I kept drumming, I manipulated the towel laying flat on the sand with my feet, and whispered in her ear that if she would like to be drummed on to please lie down on the towel.

Healing Vibrations of the Drum

As the woman took her position on the towel, she settled into the warm sand beneath her. She began to relax as the vibration of the group drumming flowed through her. Then I gently stepped over her, my feet approximately at her hips, facing the direction of her feet, allowing the bell of the drum to hang over her heart. I began to drum.

The healing energy began to flow more intensely through her as her body twitched and maneuvered itself to take in the wonderful energy of the drum. I drummed for three or four minutes, feeling the expansion of energy and the completeness of that session, and gently stepped away from her allowing her to rise with a large smile on her face and a beautiful open heart.

Individual Healing Sessions & the Full Moon

Healing Drum at Full Moon Fire

Before I knew it, another person had taken her spot down on the towel. So as the group drumming kept rolling, I concentrated my drumming over this person as well. What happened was individual after individual kept taking the spot on the towel and I kept drumming over them, offering powerful healing energies.

It ended up being a wonderful night of taking in the beauty of the full moon as well as doing some individual healing sessions. This was a totally spontaneous situation that erupted through the rhythm of the drum.

You never know what’s going to happen when the magic of the drum begins to dance through community. You never know what miracles will emerge from the rhythm!

Elijah Ray, Toby Christensen, Hazar Courson, Tiffany Tatum and John Dumas

Greetings from the island of Kauai!

I’m having an awesome time here on the island. One of the treasures of Kauai is the number of healers and spiritually-connected people that live here. It seems everywhere you go, you meet open hearts, smiles, and hear “Aloha!”

The vibe of the island is old and sacred. Last week I had the pleasure of doing a concert with some of the amazing beings on the assignment. All of us are dedicated to the practice of sound healing. It was truly a night of miracles, healing, and tremendous spiritual expansion. My co-conspirators were Elijah Ray, Tiffany Tatum, Hazar Courson, and John Dumas. I have played with Elijah before but never the other three. What a pleasure!

As we began, Hazar lead the group in an exercise helping them to connect to their own ability to create sound and open their energy. As she finished her exercise, John took over with his flute and didgeridoo and brought the crowd to an all-new height. This led Tiffany into a beautiful chant, and other percussive instruments to rally the energy of Elijah, who in turn did a beautiful job of looping track after track after track, creating a choir-like angelic feeling to the room. He got a rhythm going and gave me the nod, prompting me to get the djembe started. And for the next hour the room was rock steady: each person shining their light in the world, being featured doing vocal solos, didgeridoo solos, flute solos, and Elijah rocked it out on the djembe with me. What an amazing time!

Hazar and Tiffany do some beautiful toning while the guys lay down the rhythm track!

As you can see in the picture, the drumming was strenuous. My shirt is completely soaked! What a time! We had the place rock’n and rolling: people were dancing, laying down on the floor, and receiving healings. Danny Hashimoto came in and was delivering his magic cacao! It was truly an evening of magic. I have never worked with such skilled vocalists.

It was amazing to hear the variety of sounds that came from these women. The beautiful angelic soft multi-harmony tones, combined with piercing sounds that were definitely “otherworldly.” Hazar is on the left and Tiffany on the right with the painted face. There was a girl by the name of Rose in the audience who is a masterful body painter. So Tiffany—along with many of the other participants in the audience—had beautifully painted faces and images painted on their bodies. It was quite amazing. Everybody brings their gift in a different way, and it is all very valuable.

John Dumas with Elijah Ray in the background

At one time, some of our setup crew had to remove chairs to make enough room for everyone to dance. There was one moment when John, Elijah, and I were playing so vigorously, I thought we might set off a fire alarm! Then the energy would settle down and these beautiful tones would float through the air supported by the rhythm of the drum and the drone of the didgeridoo. It was as though we all had a conductor that was leading the orchestra, yet every moment was free-flowing magic.

Sometimes John plays the flute, and sometimes the didgeridoo. He also happens to be a very accomplished percussionist. The melodies of the flute were haunting. The drone of the digital was powerful and earthy. It was a night of great beauty.

Stay tuned for more information about this concert and other events I experience here on the island. I want to thank my colleagues for joining me on the stage this beautiful night. Thank you for bringing your gifts to the world and I look forward to playing with you all again!

The Drum Sent Out The Healing

New Workshop!! Drumming for Stress Relief

Stress is one of the biggest health issues facing our society and our modern workplaces. Group drumming offers a very powerful tool for combating the effects of cumulative stress. Research has shown that group drumming can lower levels of stress hormones in the blood like cortisol. Playing music ‘in the moment’ is a fun and engaging activity that naturally lends itself to joy and release – a perfect antidote to the stressful workplace. Toby Christensen and his staff offer this program as an intervention to combat cumulative workplace stress. Toby uses drums and other percussion instruments as tools for channeling stress energies into beautiful music. The program has two main components the one involves channeling and release of stress into some pulsing rhythms. This is a fun and exciting part of the program where participants get to release their stress on the drums and instruments. Another part of the program involves synchronization of breathing and rhythm, which induces a calm meditative state that slows the mind down and promotes relaxation. This engaging program delivers both stress release and stress relief in its two phased approach.

Through basic science research soon to be published, we’ve recently taken the first step toward scientifically documenting group drumming’s benefits on the cellular level. Our project, funded by Remo Drums, Inc. and designed by our research team that includes David Felten, MD, PhD and Lee Berk DrPH of the Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Department of Neuroimmunology demonstrates statistically significant boosts in cell-mediated immune function associated with group drumming facilitated by a music therapist.

Learning Objectives:
• Identify stress, stressors, and stress reactions.
• Develop basic skills of drumming to facilitate the release of stress, increase relaxation and the creation of new emotional patters for long-term resolution of stress related conditions.
• Achieve balance through rhythm of the body, mind, and spirit by understanding how stress effects an individual and how to implement simple exercises at the onset of stress symptoms to immediately detour unhelpful activity
• Integrate the exercises and information into their professional and personal lives to create a happier and healthier workplace and life.

Learning Process:
• Identify stress, stressors, and stress reactions.
As we begin the process we take an assessment from the participants as to their symptoms of stress for example, cognitive symptoms such as memory problems, inability to concentrate, poor judgment, seeing only the negative, anxious or racing thoughts, constant worry. Emotional symptoms including Moodiness, Irritability or short temper agitation, inability to relax, feeling overwhelmed, sense of loneliness and isolation, depression or general unhappiness. We also work with the awareness of physical symptoms like aches and pains, diarrhea or constipation, nausea, dizziness, chest pain, rapid heartbeat, loss of sex drive frequent colds. We also work with behavioral symptoms like eating more or less, sleeping too much or too little, isolating yourself from others, procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities, using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax, nervous, habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)

As we become aware of the stressors and identify each participant’s own stressors we begin to create some helpful ways of addressing the stress and the stress reactions.

• Develop basic skills of drumming to facilitate the release of stress, increase relaxation and the creation of new emotional patters for long-term resolution of stress related conditions
During this part of the process, each participant will learn how to strike the drum properly, learn the three basic hand positions of hand drumming and four basic rhythms on the hand drums provided. One rhythm is designed for relaxation another to bring awareness of our body and mind connection and how these two energies can be brought into harmony. Other rhythms are to release tension and bring the mind back into focus. The techniques are simple and an instrument is not required to initiate these practices. Participants will be taught how to activate the stress relieving exercises to re-pattern emotional responses to stressors.

• Achieve balance through rhythm of the body, mind, and spirit by understanding how stress effects an individual and how to implement simple exercises at the onset of stress symptoms to immediately detour unhelpful activity
As the participants become familiar with the rhythms we take them through a series of exercises to retrain the body mind connection so that the natural response triggers are re-channeled. This transformative proactive process creates a powerful sense of accomplishment and support ingraining the tools of helpful action and response as the first line of action when stressors are present. Teaching the participant breath rhythm awareness as well as drum rhythm is one of the features in this part of the program.

At the end of the program we have Q and A time and have the participants engage in an in-depth evaluation of the course allowing time for input and feedback.

The standard format for this workshop is six hours for optimal impact but has also been utilized in a short 3 hour version and expanded to a 2 day weekend residential workshop