Finding Joy

by John Muraco

Where do you find JOY?  How do you experience joy?  Perhaps you are savoring it right now as we shift out of the darkness and biting frost of winter and into spring and warming temperatures.  Perhaps for you, joy comes when you smell your favorite food, or think of a place where you feel cherished, invigorated and freshly alive?  Whenever it appears, it is my hope for you that joy finds a place in your heart. 

It is beautiful to see people find great joy out of trying new things in life – stretching beyond their comfort zones and into a space that lends ground to the unknown.  Seeing unfamiliar faces, trying new modes of self-expression, and existing in time and space in a new and radical way.  I recently had the joyous opportunity to launch a drum circle event at The Resiliency Center that honored all things unknown.  For me, leading a ‘formal’ drum circle was new and radical; I was definitely stepping into uncharted territory.   My main intention was and will continue to be to create a safe space where people can be themselves, claim their power, and drum to their hearts' content. 

You might imagine that putting 20-some people in a room and guiding them to make music together out of a combination of drums, loud shakers, sticks, rattles, cowbells, and tamborines, that the outcome would result in a chaotic jumble of sounds.  This could not be farther from the truth!  We continue to see the magic that happens in the undercurrent of improvisational sound and music creation between people.  Casting smiles at one another from across the circle, people who may have been uneasy in the first 10 minutes, open up and add THEIR ENERGY to the sound experience like its nobody’s business!!  The research is outstanding on how drumming and sound-making can reduce the effects of depression, PTSD, anxiety and social pressures.  Please stay tuned as we begin unfolding more information on this – I very much look forward to integrating this and other unique sound-making methods into my practice and groups.  And please, come and join us to Drum to Your Heart’s Desire [Insert link to: http://www.meetup.com/resiliencygatherings/events/221985302/]