Reset Your Nervous System. Sync Your Brain. Find Your Rhythm.
As a tap dancer in NYC, I would stand on the street corner or wait for the subway doing heel drops, shuffles and para diddles improvising rhythms from the noises in my head. When I moved to LA and spent hours in traffic, I would pound on the steering wheel accompanying the music on the radio. When I am surfing and floating between sets, I find myself tapping the board and my thighs hoping to serenade the wave Gods to break the lull and pacify my impatience. During ecstatic dances in Bali, when my legs become noodles, I would grab the djembe drum and pound out frustrations and ecstasy. When I sit with the Plant Medicine of Cacao, I play my hide drum to call in tranquility, quiet the
noise, disappointment, sadness and monkey mind so I can re-assess from a clearer perspective. It allows me to drop into a deeper meditation and connect to my heart.
By listening to and creating drum beats, you can, double your alpha brain waves, increase your immune system and decrease stress and anxiety.
Drumming and percussion has been around for the past 8000 years. Drumming is found on every continent and in nearly every culture around the world. It has been used as a mind-body practice to heal, transform, and empower individuals and communities for centuries. Indigenous cultures drummed in circles, for happiness sadness, grief and celebration. There is no language barrier when it comes to unifying people through this visceral vibration. Drumming is a universal medicine that can profoundly benefit your health and wellbeing.
Drumming is a mind-body practice that can be utilized for healing, transformation and empowerment for individuals and communities.
How Drumming Affects Your Brain:
Drumming increases alpha brain waves to bring you to the present moment leaving the past thoughts related to depression and the future worries of anxiety in the distance. The left and right side of your brain are more in sync too. Increased nerve firing of the fibers of the corpus callosum enhances the communication of the two brain hemispheres. Your immune system is also upregulated by activating killer T-Cells which are responsible for killing cancerous, virus infected and foreign cells.
Drumming Stimulates All Areas of The Brain
Frontal Lobe: Increased creativity, memory, decision making, focused attention and brain power
Parietal Lobe: Activated from the sensations of your hands or sticks and taking in auditory cues
Temporal Lobe: Processes the sounds, rhythms, and your breath ad feelings of success and/or failure
Occipital Lobe: Allows you to see notes, a conductor, and those engaged around you
Brain Stem: Autonomic functions to be alert, active, attentive and learn new grooves.
Cerebellum: Highly active for the hand movements, timing, and muscle coordination
Fast, slow, smooth, staccato, stillness, and chaos. Shake it up and let it settle. Observe what is left. This is you. This is your innate rhythm. This is your flow.
Moving to someone else's rhythm is fun
but you know what is even more fun? Like slip and slide on your best friend’s front lawn during a hot summer day fun? Creating your own rhythms that resonate deep within your soul! This satisfaction comes about by self empowered beats straight from your Source. The dopamine high we can achieve, the pleasure and confidence that results is truly out of this world. Listen to your heart and intuitive sense and watch your inner musician take
center stage.
So How do You Get There?
Drum! Tap your chest, snap your fingers, slap your thighs. Grab some wooden spoons from the kitchen and flip over the garbage can. Put on your tap shoes and channel your inner Savion Glover. Put on some tunes for motivation and then go off on a tangent. Bang out some energy to your favorite song before you sit down to do work, have to have “the talk” or boost your mood and energy out of a rut. Even a thunderstorm can be utilized with the heavy blow of thunder from the rapid expansion of air surrounding a lightning bolt. Listen to shamanic drumming on your music stream. Percussion is all around you.
When it is all over, be still. The high you feel, the buzzing in your cells, the vibrations in your ears create a sense of peace, possibility and power. From this space, you can accomplish and discern better. Feel every cell in your body vibrating and smiling. This is it. This is the moment. This is your rhythm.
A'ho- Casey
Want to connect to your natural rhythm and not sure where to begin? Reach out and let's chat about how you can improve your outlook and health one beat at a time.
Let's Connect in the Quantum Field
Website: www.caseymauro.com
Email: casey@caseymauro.com
Instagram: @casey_mauro
Resources:
1. How Drumming Changes Your Brain/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VneXuSuHjYM
2. Drumming and your brain: Magic and science/
3. Healthy Rhythms. Benefits of Participation.
https://remo.com/experience/post/healthrhythms-benefits-of participation/#:~:text=Neurologist%20Barry%20Bittman%2C%20M.D.%20and,cells%20and%20virally%2Dinfected%20cells.