11/06/2022
It's been a while since my last post, so just wanted to post a little update. I then realised it wouldn't be very little as so much has happened, apologies for that:
Last year I decided I wanted to find a better work/life balance. Practice what you preach, and all that.
I have been working for Women's Health Matters in Leeds for the past 15 years and for the past few years had been leading on two projects including Rainbow Hearts, a project supporting women seeking asylum. Lockdowns had been particularly difficult for so many of those women and during that time I found the work heart-breaking. I was also still running two health-focused choirs online each week, which gave me some light relief, but took up a lot of time. The stress triggered an allopecia response and, in March last year, I braved the shave, took a couple of weeks off to rest and then returned to work sporting my new look. I spent a lot of time immersing myself in the sounds of the gorgeous 30inch orchestral gong I'd bought just before the first lockdown. It helped, but it was clear I needed to make a change. I asked if I could step away from front-line work for the charity and decrease my hours. My wishes were granted. My new role and hours would start in April. (It's such a great organisation to work for). I wanted to put my limited energy into things that would also feed it and recharge my batteries. My plan was to build up the sound work. A few more sound baths to supplement the loss in income. The studio where I used to hold the monthly sound baths in Sheffield no longer existed and I started looking for new spaces. Then a friend showed me an advert for another choir looking for a musical director to job share in Sheffield. I applied and was successful, Yay!
A few weeks after that, I was contacted by Asthma and Lung UK asking if I could lead their singing group. They only met twice a month and were willing to change the day they met to fit in with my plans. I accepted. Running choirs is another line of work that brings me joy. So I am now leading four choirs/singing groups: Giving Voice Choir in Leeds for people with neurological conditions; The Tremorloes in Sheffield for Parkinson's UK; Breathe Easy in Sheffield and The Sheffield Socialist Choir.
Unfortunately, this leaves little time for delivering sound baths at the moment and my poor bowls are not getting very much attention. I would like to get back into delivering sound baths again in future. Please get in touch if you have any ideas of quiet venues that work for sound baths or if you are interested in hosting one yourself. In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of the videos I created for the choirs during lockdown, you can find them on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/user/wasisallabout
Thank you for all your support over the years and I hope to see you sometime in the not-too-distant future.
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