Mindfulness and Yoga in 2022: Pacific Love Notes' plan for restorative practices and trauma-informed care

We didn’t leave the year 2021 without change; not one of us.

There was enough heart ache and joy to create hundreds of storylines for thousands of musicals…which I’m sure are being rehearsed as we speak!

But here, at Pacific Love Notes, we grew in more ways than just in the direction of music. I felt a personal call to do better- to learn and to grow. Like I always tell my students:

“If I’m lucky, I’ll learn every day until the day I die!”

In the last year, I’ve taken over 15 graduate credits in the areas of social and emotional facilitation, including yoga certification, non-violent communication certification, and trauma-informed education! Through Pacific Love Notes, I want to bring this learning to our community! It’s time to open our hearts, minds, and doors to a mindful future!

Starting in 2022:

1. Pacific Love Notes will host weekly trauma-informed yoga sessions both via Zoom and in-person.

2. We will have monthly non-violent communication workshops to help families communicate in ways which draw them closer together in love, rather than continuing down the fractured path of distance!

3. And, we will hold regular self-care workshops for ALL.

Come join our play, as we work together toward healing.

With love, Carly

Founder and Managing Director of Pacific Love Notes <3

Your Brain on Music: The power of music

Neuroscientist and musician Alan Harvey takes us on an interactive journey showing live on stage what music does to our brain waves, and explains how music is more than just an entertainment. You've never seen music like this before…

Alan is joined by fellow neuroscientist Andrew Price and musicians from Perth Symphony Orchestra led by Bourby Webster. Alan’s main experimental neuroscience interests are in trauma, transplantation, gene therapy and regeneration, his research primarily focused on understanding the growth of circuits in the visual system and spinal cord, and how best to protect and repair these circuits after injury.

He is passionate about music, and over the past half-century he has performed in choirs, as a solo artist and in various folk and rock bands. In 2017, his book "Music, Evolution, and the Harmony of Souls" was published by Oxford University Press, bringing together his musical and neuroscientific interests, exploring music throughout human evolution and emphasizing its importance for human welfare. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Alan’s research aligns completely with the goals and deep beliefs of Pacific Love Notes. Alan states: “music is a social glue that clearly enhances our sense of mental wellbeing”. From years of neuroscientific studies, Alan’s research finds that levels of oxytocin in the bloodstream “are raised when people are making making music together and particularly when people are improvising together”. He boasts that music is an effective therapy which can be used and has a powerful and long-lasting effect of the social and cognitive development of children.

African Soul; a short story of my most powerful day in Uganda

I follow Ustis out to a far side of the school grounds under the shade of a tree. As I walk, the kids grab my hands and I swing their arms up and down and teach them to skip; they sign my new name. Once we're in the shade, we all make a circle; I tell the kids that music and rhythm can be felt by every human on earth, regardless of circumstance. I teach them eight counts of a semi-'step' routine with the same claps, stomps, and leg taps that we did in the classroom. They can do it very well and almost in unison. For the next part of my lesson, my idea is for them to count or make noise on each beat in the step routine so that they can connect their voices (the vibrations of air meeting their vocal chords) with the rhythm in their bodies. The students are incredibly reserved about this idea, and I realize immediately that my lesson is about to adapt. 
The translator at this time is Ustis because the primary teacher, Jillian, is sitting on a bench (which she had the children carry out for her) in the corner by the bushes. Ustis is looking at me as if to say 'I don't know how to translate that they should be making sound'. He signs the word 'try', all-the-while with a huge smile on his face.
I ask them to sit down, and I begin to take their hands and place it on my throat. I know this seems odd, but for these kids making sound is an incredibly vulnerable thing to do.

They are afraid of what they can feel but cannot hear.

They are laughing and hanging their heads, even politely pulling away. I turn to Ustis to let him know that what I'm about to say should be signed to the kids. I tell them not to be afraid of their voices. I remind them that no one else in their class can hear them making the sounds- that it's entirely about their feelings. When Ustis trips up on the sign for 'feelings' (shockingly the Ugandan sign language doesn't have a word for this tabu thing called 'feelings') he turns to Jillian on her bench and asks her in their local language how he might sign something close to 'feelings'.

Jillian saunters over to the circle with her palms on the back of her hips and looks at me like I have three heads. I keep smiling at her and explaining that the feeling of making sounds is very beneficial to both the nervous system and the over-all well-being of the children. She shakes her head at me and tells me that the children don't make sounds. "They cannot" she states plainly.

Ha! Cannot? They did when they were excited about clapping! They did when they were skipping through the school grounds with me! I decide that I need to talk her into at least 'trying' (since I now know that sign) and cross out of the circle to stand next to her. Jillian does not look at me while I explain how wonderful it feels to make sound and that I know this is something different from their normal teachings and I realize it's new, but I ask her to please understand how great it can feel to them. I make a joke about being the 'crazy Mzungu' and lightly touch her shoulder while I laugh at myself, and when she turns to glance at me with a hesitant smile, I discover that Jillian is just as nervous about the kids making sound as the students in her class. 
It is at this point that I frankly ask for her permission to try something new….

Inclusive Practices

CHAPTER 1

A Homemade Book

WEST LINN, Oregon — Danielle Paskins braced herself each day she opened 9-year-old Nate’s black backpack after school.

The daily progress report waiting inside broke down her son's day. How many times did he go to the bathroom? What did he eat for lunch? What activities did he accomplish? How did he interact with the other kids in school?

It was only a matter of time, she worried, that she’d find a note from the teacher saying Nate’s unexpected outbursts disrupted the rest of the kids in the third-grade class. It’s why Paskins didn’t want the Oregon school district to place her non-verbal son, who has Down syndrome and autism, in a typical classroom with students who don't have disabilities.

"What if my child is taking away from the education of all the other kids?” Paskins said. "I was imagining he was at school crying and being hushed all day.”

Clink to “Learn More” below to watch how an Oregon school district includes all students with disabilities in regular classes

Memory Works: How music facilitates the memorizational art of ‘Chunking’

Chunking Information

Chunking refers to an approach for making more efficient use of short-term memory by grouping information. Chunking breaks up long strings of information into units or chunks.  The resulting chunks are easier to commit to memory than a longer uninterrupted string of information.

Good chunking facilitates comprehension and retrieval of information.

 Chunking Strategy

Chunking is a strategy used to reduce the cognitive load as the learner processes information. The learner groups content into small manageable units making the information easier to process. Essentially, chunking helps in the learning process by breaking long strings of information into bit size chunks that are easier to remember.