Video Transcript:

Take a breath with me. Breathe into your belly. Hold it at the top of your breath. Flow it through and release the breath.

In case you weren’t ready, one more, breathing all the way into your belly. Hold it at the top of your breath, flowing it through your whole body, and when you’re ready, release your breath.

Crazy times, right? We need to be able to be present for ourselves in the moment, so instead of writing my whole blog post for this month [but sharing this transcript for those of you who would rather read], I just wanted to connect with you, so here we are.

I offer this sage to you as well. If there are things you want to put in it to get rid of, go for it, you can put that in the sage smoke. If there is something that you would like some healing around, you can offer that [request or prayer] into what I consider our sacred circle here as well.

Breathe into your whole being and give yourself a few moments.

I’ve been doing this Medicine Song Healing Moment series and so I got the idea to do this video because I’ve been offering those every week.

There are only so many Zoom meetings, reading… our brains are FULL, exploding with information. Our mental health isn’t doing so well.

I know it’s not just me or even just people with previous trauma, although that makes things worse, harder to deal with, and in some cases it can make things easier… when we know how to tap into that resilience we have.

If you’ve been through some things, you have that, and even if you haven’t been through a lot, you’re still going to have access to some resilience within you… but we don’t always access it.

For you to access that resilience, I like to use music. It’s, for me, the easiest and fastest way to access the present moment, to access Spirit, to access my inner wisdom, and what I call your inner, outer and higher resources.

I just wanted to take time to sing for you because this is what brought me out of my deep darkness after losing my son, was healing music, and sometimes just any music, like my favourite 80’s music I used to listen to when I was 20 something.

Whatever music you listen to is perfect for you. At this time of year some people listen to holiday music and some people just don’t want to be near that.

It’s all valid. Your emotions are valid. Your mental health concerns are valid. YOU are valid. We’re all here for a reason, for a purpose. We’re all here with purpose.

It’s quite a time to be alive in, and you know that this is not small. You being here means you are meant to be here and share the gifts that you carry, even if you don’t know what they are.

I’m getting tears welling up because I’ve been fortunate enough to know my purpose ever since I was 11, but I know not everyone is.

[To add to this, I’ve always known I was to be a singer but I didn’t know that my singing had its own purpose, which has evolved over the years as I came into my healing gifts and after losing my son.]

When I do things that are filled with my purpose, this is the result. I’ll get tears, chills, goosebumps, all the love, all the feels.

That helps me to empty out. That helps me to not carry [the trauma and grief] as much, and believe me, I carry a lot of trauma after losing my son to gun violence. Before that, I lost my mom to suicide, I lost my dad to a massive heart attack and I found him, when I was just about to turn 18.

I know trauma and I know grief, and I can tell you that this time has been bringing it up for all of us, and a lot more if you are empathic or Indigenous or otherwise on the margins or othered as a person.

You’re feeling it deeper than most if you’ve been through trauma, or if you’ve had a love loss in your life.

It’s not easy getting through this but you can do this. You’ve got this, and not just you. 

You and your Higher Realms Support Team, whatever that means for you…That’s your higher resources I talk about, your Ancestors, your spirit guides, your helpers, those birds you come across every now and then, angels, archangels, Goddess, whatever that is for you.

That’s real, as real as me sitting here right now.

You also have access – when you’re here in the present moment in your physical body – to your inner wisdom, your intuition that lives in your body. When we tune into our bodies, they tell us messages.

Sometimes those messages are “Ouch, I hurt in this certain place,” but sometimes those messages are also like “Woah, don’t go near that person” or “You better sit this one out” or “Let’s go this way instead.”

When we listen, when we tune in and then when we follow that guidance, things get better and things are more manageable. That’s where your resilience lives too is within your body and you have access to that… but not always.

Sometimes we’re up in what I call Anxiety Land. Worries, negative thoughts about ourselves and anxiety live up in Anxiety Land (above your head).

You know that character in Charlie Brown, Pig-Pen? It’s like that.

We have all these racing thoughts and things going on up in our heads and meantime we’re disconnected from our heart centre, our solar plexus – our power centre – and from our soul. That’s when we have no access to those inner, higher and outer resources.

It’s also when we don’t know what to say, or how to manage feelings that are coming up really strong. It’s those times when we are triggered.

But we can breathe. Just that simple breath, breathing into your belly.

If you’re breathing in your upper chest, that’s Anxiety breathing. You’re creating more anxiety.

If you’re breathing into your heart centre, or your belly, you start to calm, come home to yourself and have access to that resilience that already lives within you.

I just wanted to share something. I didn’t know what I would share. I just trusted it would be exactly what needed to be shared.

I wish you the best possible holiday season, whatever you celebrate. Worldwide we have traditions that celebrate the return of the light… or maybe you don’t celebrate anything at this time. Remember, you are valid regardless of your practices.

I just wish you so much love and unending blessings.

I’m going to share a song so let yourself let this in [listen in the video – this will take you straight to the song] and let out anything that is leaving.

LYRICS:

Bringing the light into your heart

Bringing the light into your soul

Bringing the light into your body

Bringing the light into your mind

(vocables/chant)

Breathe that into your beautiful self. Let the feels come up if they do. Allow yourself to be with whatever shows up. Feel it all the way through.

Give yourself a big hug and so much love. And that is what I’m sending you as well… so much love, through the holidays and beyond to whatever 2022 brings us.

Remember we have agency in what is brought to us and in how we respond to it. [I’m not saying we can control things like a global health crisis but you can shift your experience of it.]

If you want some support along the way, we’ve got some resources for you below.

Love & Blessings,

Brenda MacIntyre, Medicine Song Woman

RESOURCES:

• Want to dive right in and get some support? Head over here.

FOLLOW ME ON SPOTIFY – MUSIC FOR THESE CRAZY TIMES:

• Follow My Artist Account on Spotify.
• Follow my Global Pandemic Playlist on Spotify. The studio (CD, not live) version of the songs I sang in the livestreamed concert are also in this playlist.
• Follow the RENEWAL Playlist for springtime on Spotify