Music + Nature = Pure Power

Music has always been part of the fabric of my life. Ever since I was a little girl music and I seemed to be one.

I remember Chaka Khan, Sade, & Anita Baker blasting on my mother's record player.

And jamming to pop from artists like Paula Abdul on my bus ride to school.?

And listening to rap artists with my friends like MC Hammer, Sir Mix a Lot, and Naughty?by Nature.

In fact there isn't a place I go where music doesn't move me.?

It doesn't matter where I am, who I'm with, or typically what the genre is, if I hear a good song, my body is bound to begin to move.

When music comes on, it simply takes me to another place.

In my car, at a restaurant, at a gas station, while I'm walking down the street. Ultimately there is no bound.?

If music shows up, so do I.?

This is because our bodies are literally synced up with the sounds. In fact, research shows that the pentatonic scale, found in traditional music worldwide, helps coordinate infant-maternal communication.

The more we ground into ourselves, and allow the natural rhythm?to emerge from ourselves that is being ignited?by the sounds, we are literally healing in real time.

Music in nature - from the sounds of the birds, to the leaves swaying from the wind, to the chipmunks?wrestling through the leaves, to the flowing of the brook - is always present.

This is why I'm so excited to share the gift of Dr. Lyla June with you all on the?9th episode of our Trauma?& Healing podcast series centered around my book,?Me Too: A Therapist's Journey to Heal, Find Liberation, & Joy. We had a deeply spiritual conversation about music's power to heal us coupled with nature - as long as love is at forefront.

Music brings us home to ourselves, connects us with others, and has hidden messages that are uniquely our own.?

This is why music has been an integral part of ceremony and indigenous practice since BC.

So go on and tune in to the episode here right now, and when you're done turn on one of your favorite jams outside and allow your body to simply move!?

I promise you, you will feel more free as a result.

In the meantime, I'll be getting my healing on at The?Congregation in Detroit to enjoy a fabulous?DJ on one of the best outside?dance floors.

Cheers to the perfect marriage of music & nature,

Demarra West