rhythm
I know while you may ask yourself what
what does rhythm have to do with me and
we’re gonna get to that later but first
I want to start off with a little
exercise because I hear it all the time
from so many people in so many places
I’m not musical I don’t have a rhythm I
can’t keep a beat and I don’t believe it
I don’t believe any person that says
that to me we all have rhythm and I’d
like to show that to you guys right now
if you would humor me and move along
with me and take your right hand and put
it on your chest or you could choose
your wrist or you could choose right
here just take a deep breath hear what
you hear and feel what you feel it’s
kind of fast that heartbeat that’s
rhythm the essence of what keeps us
alive and you know we were all connected
to that rhythm before we were even born
in our mommies tummies we heard our
mother’s heartbeat and we felt the
movement as she went through her day and
we heard the reverberation of our own
heartbeat and then as babies are born I
don’t know about any of you guys that
have kids but as soon as I had kids my
momma instinct kicked in and I are
rocked and patted when those babies
needed soothing and I still do that in
the grocery store line that’s rhythm and
I hope that all of you have had the
pleasure to see either in person or on
video a young child when music comes on
that has a great beat and they dance
like no one’s watching without any
reservation at all
and we were all there at one point so
what happened well I believe that we’ve
had layers placed upon us by ourselves
and by the people around us about how
we’re supposed to be what we’re supposed
to do we’re supposed to say
and we’re supposed to grow up and stop
having so much fun and nothing stifles
our inner wild like losing that
connection to our primal rhythm so
before we all unleash our inner rhythm
together to here today I just want to
take a second and talk to you guys about
the concept of flow now in positive
psychology leading researcher me hi
chick Sammy hi he has a book that’s
entitled flow he discovered this concept
and what it is it’s being fully immersed
and engaged in full involvement and
enjoyment in the process of an activity
a lot of words that really means you’re
in the zone when you’re doing something
and everything else ceases to exist and
you are right here and now rhythm rhythm
heals it brings joy it connects us to
herself disconnects us from the clutter
around us and allows us to be fully
immersed in energized focus in the
process of an activity rhythm is a tool
that we can all use in order to reach
that state of flow so what I want to do
with you guys here today is I want to
bring you a mini drum circle and when I
say I want to bring you I actually mean
I want you to be part of it
so before we start I’d like to reconnect
to that heart beat so whichever way was
best for you just just so you can
remember you have rhythm every single
one of you everything I mean I don’t
want to go and be morbid and say there’s
any way we all have rhythm we all have a
heartbeat that’s going on right now so
just reconnect for a sec so beautiful
and you know when I facilitate drum
circles we always end in a circle
everybody ends sharing a word about how
they’re feeling the words that I
consistently hear our love joy peace
connection unity all these words tell me
that everybody has experienced flow so
to bring that to you guys today I would
like to start by turning the lights up
so that I can see all of you really
clearly now there’s actually real people
and that you can see each other and just
take a second and say hello to your
neighbor if you haven’t done that
already
hey I have rhythm and so do you I’m
excited to be drumming with you soon and
now that you’ve done that you know
you’re gonna be drumming with friends
and I say drumming and a hundreds of
people in a drum circle is a beautiful
experience that I highly recommend but
we’re gonna be using the percussion that
we bring with us every day so guys we’re
all gonna be copying or tapping or
stomping you can stand or sit and
whatever you would like I’m gonna give
you a few lumps for us to all go through
together just kind of feel what this
flow really feels like so the most
simple way to learn a rhythm is to say
it as we use language every day so I am
going to say a simple rhythm and I also
two simple words and I would love for
you to say it back I’ll say it first and
you say it back ready pepperoni pizza
yes step Baroni pizza you got it
pepperoni pizza you got a pepperoni look
at that we’re all in rhythm ready and
stop yes thank you look that was so
fantastic everybody is there so what I’m
gonna do is I’m gonna split the room in
half we’re gonna go like here-ish if
you’re in the middle you can choose your
side this is you guys are in half you
guys are half over here you guys are
gonna be heartbeat go ahead and join me
our heart beat will always keep going
keep going
daddy and sup nice we’re gonna flip you
guys heartbeat ready and stop that was
so easy you guys did so amazingly I’m
adding one new rhythm now new words are
you ready I’ll say it first you guys
will say it back I love apple pie this
is I love apple pie yeah ready and stop
we’re gonna go through this exercise
again just to make sure everybody feels
comfortable this half you guys are our
ready and stop take a deep breath how do
you feel now I mean some of you are
gonna feel like I feel weird I’ve never
done this before that’s okay other than
that beneath that underneath all of that
how do you feel right now feel great I
mean I feel awesome so I that all you
guys feel awesome too now in my training
as a wellness educator I immediately saw
the link between rhythm and flow as a
tool that we can use in order to release
stress because we can think ourselves
into stress and so many things that
happen today that we’re talked about
here today by your phones dinging or by
even things that we do every day sitting
in traffic we think ourselves in
distress but we cannot effectively think
ourselves up dress
we need to turn comm on rhythm and flow
is one way we can do that just now in
three minutes we can do that and forget
about everything else that’s going on so
what I would like to do is take you guys
into full drum circle style and if we
could redeem the lights because I’ve
seen you all you’ve seen each other we
all know everybody now and we’re gonna
go one more version of a drum circle
we’re gonna use all three rhythms
including our heartbeat and I would love
it for any of you that feel inclined if
you want to you can close your eyes also
because you’ll hear what’s going on and
allow yourself to experience even just a
few moments of flow just to feel what
that feels like so we’re gonna go into
thirds roughly here ish roughly here ish
and all of you guys yeah
[Applause]
[Music]
oh wow I still think we’re gonna do it a
little bit more sometimes it gets
uncomfortable as we do it if you’re like
oh my gosh are we still gonna be in
rhythm yeah we are everybody needs to be
the heartbeat middle guys you’re gonna
be our heartbeat you guys are pepperoni
ziti and sup we’re gettin faster I’m
gonna guess that that’s my final
heartbeat are you guys ready everybody
just take it a little deep breath and
like this is the time this is our last
time today to be able to experience this
right now
you guys are are ready oh you guys
seriously all rock everybody here you
guys did that I would love for you guys
all to leave today knowing because you
were in it you did it we all have rhythm
and we can all use that as a tool to
connect to flow to connect to our inner
selves release our inner wild and from
that state connect to the people around
us in a beautiful type of community
thank you [Applause]