Christine Stevens – Awaken Your Rhythm

The Great Spirit loved the drum so much, he gave everyone a heartbeat.
— Navajo saying

We are incubated in rhythm, held in the concert hall of our mother’s womb. The drum is like us — a skin stretched over a shell. Through drumming, we connect with the elements of nature, invite creativity, sacredness, and meaning into our lives. This is the lineage of rhythm. And, before entertainment and performance, drumming had a primary function for healing, community, ceremony, and prayer.

In this first module, you’re invited to join the sacred lineage of the drum by shifting your paradigm from playing the drum as “music” to making music with a drum as a spiritual practice. You’ll ride the rhythm into the inner realms — the heartbeat of your inner drum.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn a drum blessing to connect with the sacred lineage of rhythm
• Discover drum holding positions and their divine intention
• Discover the four element sounds of earth, water, fire, and air
• Learn a Four Element Meditation for grounding, being in the flow, igniting passion, and breathing into expansion

Life is about rhythm. We vibrate. Our hearts are pumping blood. We are a rhythm machine, that’s what we are.
— Mickey Hart

Being in “the groove” is called being in “the pocket” by drummers. It’s the place of synchronicity and effortless flow. It happens in rhythm — and in life. The only thing that blocks it is your mind.

In a scientific study, John Hopkins researcher, Dr. Charles Limb, MD, showed how the brain changes when you improvise, turning off self-criticism and judgement, while activating self-expression and meditation. The drum is one of the simplest portals to this type of musical self- expression.

You’ll learn how to find your groove and develop your innate rhythmic capacity through an exploration of the polarities of rhythm — straight and syncopate. You’ll also practice making tempo changes for rhythm — and life.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn to release self-judgement through the science of improvisation
• Develop your rhythmic vocabulary through the exploration of syncopation and pulse
• Liberate your creative voice through call and response and drum dialogues
• Discover the science of entrainment in what drummers call “the pocket”

Rhythm is a means of organizing sound into specific energy formulas to harmonize the mind and body.
— Layne Redmond

Healing is defined as bringing back what is missing — being of “sound” mind, body, and spirit.

When Christine worked with survivors of the Columbine High School shooting, she invited students and parents to join together through drumming on one drum. In the unspoken energy of rhythm, there were tears of emotions no words could express, all while keeping the beat.

Researchers from the Mental Health Ministry of the United Kingdom found that drumming reduces anxiety, depression, and inflammation, while also improving social resilience. The vibrations of the drum create a healing “massage,” while also boosting energy and empowering creative freedom. Though healing rhythms, you can shift your energy and re-tune to the sacredness of beauty.

In this module, you’ll:

• Experience the 3 keys to drumming for healing; intention, posture (mudra), and rhythm (mantra)
• Evoke healing vibration with a drum massage — for self and others
• Learn shadow drumming for emotional release
• Create your own healing rhythm for body, mind, and spirit.

Music can change the world because it can change people.
— Bono

We all have a power song, the “music medicine” that inspires us and shifts our consciousness. Through the alchemy of song, we can literally take a sad song, and make it better. The drum and voice are everyone’s biological instruments.

When Christine worked in Iraq, there was a point when she no longer needed a translator… She was speaking with Kurds and Arabs through the language of the drum, playing back and forth in a call and response conversation.

Studies have shown that when we drum and sing together, we build kindness and compassion. The pulse of the drum carries our intentions through songs for prayer and affirmation.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn a vocal practice of toning with the drum
• Learn to vocalize beats and speak the language of rhythm
• Sing your own power song with drum accompaniment
• Share and learn sacred songs for blessing, greeting the day, healing, and gratitude

The deep rhythms of life, pulsating, stir an ambrosia, flowing and overflowing everywhere.
— Lorin Roche, The Radiance Sutras

From rocking, walking, breathing, skipping, laughing, and resting, we are all vibrantly wired for rhythm. Our bodies entrain — our feet tap and our heads bob. We are walking, talking, ticking-tocking, polyrhythms.

In traditional cultures, master drummers dance just as well as they play, and in drum classes, participants often begin with movement in order to anchor the rhythm in the body.

Neuroscience has shown that rhythm ignites motor neurons and entrains our circadian and respiratory rhythms. Dr. Oliver Sacks, MD, found rhythm and dance to be effective in the rehabilitation of Parkinson’s patients. And, a study by Dr. Barry Bittman, MD, found significant improvement in cellular biology after one hour of group drumming.

In this module, you’ll:

• Explore feminine and masculine patterns of 4/4 and 6/8 — from steps to hips
• Experience authentic and subtle body practices to find your groove
• Experience the energy of rhythm qi
• Discover how rhythm is healing to your physical body

I’ve been beating this drum of love for you to the tune of “See; my life depends upon my dying.”
— Rumi

Through rhythm, we unmind the mind. As Jill Purce says, “the purpose of sound is silence.” Drumming creates an active form of meditation and serves as a rhythm mantra, engaging the monkey mind so you can fall deeply into the heart. There are even ancient rhythms used specifically for trance through the practice of repetition. At some point, you lose yourself as you become one with the drum, the rhythm, and the space between the beats.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn a rhythm mantra practice — the repetition of patterns
• Explore the polarity of rhythm and stillness by drumming your way into silence
• Experience mindfulness through drumming
• Learn an ancient trance rhythm in a 7-beat pattern
• Experience guided imagery drumming to combine drumming and visualization

The Creator wants us to drum. He wants us to corrupt the world with drum, dance, and chants. After all, we have already corrupted the world with power and greed… which hasn’t gotten us anywhere.
— Babatunde Olatunji

In this last section of the course, you’ll travel with the global passport of rhythm from Brazilian samba to African econcon, as guest instructors Frank Lazzaro, a Middle Eastern drum master, and Dramane Kone, a West African drummer from Burkina Faso, join us.

This is how we create the shift in consciousness — by imagining the world pulsing together in rhythm, the universal language of music… You and your fellow course participants will entrain across the global online platform of The Shift Network to raise the vibration of humanity…

In this last module, you’ll:

• Learn the rhythm of samba, a parade beat from Brazil
• Play a pol-rhythm using a simple body percussion practice
• Learn a Japanese festival rhythm that honors your ancestors
• Experience guest instructors, sharing Egyptian and West African rhythms