One of the participants in a recent corporate team building rhythm session that I conducted in San Diego remarked that he was moved to re-read the book, Flow, because i included that concept in the session.  That inspired me to re-read parts of it again, myself! I enthusiastically recommend psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s ground-breaking book, Flow, […]

Practice is both a verb, to practice a skill (a musical instrument, for example), and a noun, a life-practice (such as Yoga, Meditation, Music, etc.) that reinforces positive Life Rhythms… beneficial patterns of Attitude and Action.  We reinforce both through repetition.  Of course, we want to make sure that we’re repeating the things we want to […]

“I almost didn’t come tonight because it was so cold out, and I was still tired from the weekend.  But, as soon as I walked in, I was so glad I showed up!” That comment was made by one of the participants of a Meditation Drumming session i recently conducted.  All in the group nodded […]

“I was excited to have the large drum (Djembe) to play, and I thought that I’d have a fun time banging away on it to blow off steam… to release stress!” “But, as soon as I started to play, I realized that, since I had such a large, powerful instrument, I had a responsibility to […]

A recent Canadian study documented in The Journal of Neuroscience reports, “Musical activities are an engaging form of cognitive brain training.” The study concluded, ” Researchers found that musicians’ brains were able to process speech better than those who were non-musicians. This, in turn, shows that learning a musical instrument could be important for ensuring […]

A recent Canadian study documented in The Journal of Neuroscience reports, “Musical activities are an engaging form of cognitive brain training.” The study concluded, ” Researchers found that musicians’ brains were able to process speech better than those who were non-musicians. This, in turn, shows that learning a musical instrument could be important for ensuring […]

“Grandfather, what has changed about the drumming from the time you were a young man?” I asked this question many years ago when, as a young man, I had the honor of drumming with an elder of the Chumash People of southern California named Semu Haute, though everyone simply called him Grandfather. After a long, […]

Our lives are an intricate series of intertwining rhythms.  We have internal rhythms such as the pulsing of our heartbeat, the cycles of our breathing, the rhythmic firing of our neurons, the muscle memories that we’ve reinforced through repeating physical actions, and even the patterns of our thoughts.  Our external rhythms include our habits, whether productive […]