What to Expect at a SHINE Drum Circle
Spoiler: You don't need a drum. You don't need rhythm. And you definitely don't need to know what you're doing.
One of the things I love most about SHINE is watching someone walk into an experience having absolutely no idea what they're about to encounter.
Our Drum Circle is one of those experiences.
Because if you've never been to one, you might picture people sitting around banging on drums.
And yes.
There are drums. š
But that's a little like describing yoga as stretching.
Technically true.
Also...not even close.
At SHINE, I think of our Drum Circle as a healing mastermind.
And once you understand why, the whole experience makes a lot more sense.
First: What Does a Healing Mastermind Even Mean?
A mastermind is a group of people who come together around a shared intention.
And something interesting happens when they do.
One person's idea sparks another person's idea. Someone sees something you couldn't see. The collective intelligence of the group becomes greater than what any one person brought into the room.
I believe healing can work the same way.
Put a group of people into a room with the intention to release, expand, heal, receive clarity, or simply become available for something different...
and the room changes.
You aren't doing your work in isolation anymore.
You're inside a field of people doing it together.
That's the mastermind.
And then we add drums.
What Happens When You Walk In
The experience actually begins before you ever sit down.
You'll enter a dimly lit room with soft rugs, comfortable meditation chairs and LED lighting. Everyone sits in a circle.
There are no rows.
There is no stage.
There isn't someone at the front performing atĀ you.
You're inside the experience.
And as soon as you enter, two SHINE healers welcome you with a drum wash.
They'll drum around your body, surrounding you with rhythm and vibration.
I think of this as the threshold.
You walked through the door carrying whatever you were carrying five minutes agoāthe drive there, your phone, your workday, the conversation you just had, the 17 tabs still open inside your brain.
And suddenly:
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
You're somewhere else.
Your body knows it before your brain does.
Then We Build the Circle
There are four SHINE healers holding the space, positioned in the four directions of the room.
That matters to me.
Because while we're intentionally creating an experience that can become powerful, immersive and sometimes incredibly emotional, we're also creating a container that feels stable.
You're not being asked to manufacture an experience.
You're not trying to makeĀ yourself heal.
You're not sitting there thinking, Okay...am I transformed yet?
Your only job is to be there.
The circle does some of the heavy lifting.
Why the Drums?
Rhythm is ancient.
Long before we had wellness apps, podcasts, therapy language or even written language, humans gathered around rhythm.
We drummed.
We danced.
We chanted.
We gathered in circles.
There is something almost primal about hearing a steady beat over and over again.
Your analytical mind has less to do.
Your attention begins to organize around the rhythm.
Your body begins responding to what's happening around it.
This is where entrainmentĀ comes in.
Entrainment is essentially the tendency of rhythmic systems to begin synchronizing with one another.
And in our circle, you're not only experiencing the rhythm of the drums.
You're experiencing the rhythm of the entire room.
This Is Where It Gets Really Interesting to Me
We talk constantly about nervous-system regulation as if it is something we're supposed to accomplish by ourselves.
Regulate yourself.
Calm yourself down.
Breathe differently.
Think differently.
Manage yourself better.
But human beings are also wired for co-regulation.
Sometimes the most powerful thing that happens isn't that you finally figure out how to change your state.
It's that you enter a room where the state is already being held.
Four healers.
A circle of humans.
Repetitive rhythm.
Shared intention.
Sound.
Vibration.
Presence.
And instead of fighting your way into a different state, you get carried there.
That is the part I think we underestimate.
What the Evening Actually Looks Like
The experience moves through four drumming rounds.
Some are rhythmic and grounding.
Some build in intensity.
There are immersive drum washes and sound therapy woven throughout the evening.
At times the room can feel powerful and almost electric.
At other times, deeply quiet.
People experience it differently.
You may feel emotional.
You may feel incredibly peaceful.
You may suddenly have clarity about something you've been wrestling with.
You may feel energy moving through your body.
You may feel nothing dramatic at allāand simply realize afterward that your mind is quieter or something feels different.
There is no "right" experience to have.
And there is absolutely nothing you need to perform.
The Healing Round + Drum Wash
And then there's the healing round.
Honestly, this alone is worth the price of admission.
If you've never had a drum wash before, I'm not sure you've fully lived yet. š
During this round, you aren't drumming. You get to completely receive.
You'll close your eyes while our healers move around the circle, bringing the drums close to your body and surrounding you with rhythm and vibration.
And when I say you feelĀ the drums, I mean you feel the drums.
Not just with your ears.
In your chest. Your belly. Your bones. Your whole body.
The sound moves around you and through you in a way that is completely different from listening to someone drum from across the room.
This is also where we weave in sound therapy, creating layers of vibration while you're simply sitting there receiving it all.
There is nothing for you to do.
Nothing to figure out.
Nothing to perform.
You just let yourself be washed in sound.
Hence...drum wash. š
It's powerful. It's primal. It's incredibly immersive.
And for many people, this is the round where something breaks open.
From Skeptic to Believer
Someone came to our Drum Circle recently because her friends had been telling her how powerful it was.
She walked in completely stressed and frazzled from her day.
And she was skeptical.
Like, really skeptical.
She sat down, looked at the drum and basically thought:
There is absolutely no way sitting here drumming on this thing for two hours is going to do anything to me.
Fair. š
I actually love when people come in like this because I don't need you to believe in what we're doing.
Just participate.
By the second round, she was sobbing.
Not because anyone asked her to dig into something.
Not because we were talking about her past.
Not because she was trying to create some big emotional release.
It just came.
Something softened. Something opened. And whatever she had been carrying when she walked through the door finally had somewhere to go.
By the end of the evening?
Skeptic to believer.
And THAT is why I love this work.
You don't have to walk into SHINE believing that rhythm can shift your state, that a group can co-regulate, that sound can move energy, or that sitting in a circle of humans can somehow change something inside of you.
You don't have to believe any of it.
Come stressed.
Come frazzled.
Come thinking there's no freaking way banging on a drum for two hours is going to do anything.
We'll save you a seat. š
Do I Have to Know How to Drum?
No.
Please don't let this be the reason you don't come.
You do not need rhythm.
You do not need experience.
You don't even need to own a drum.
This isn't a drumming class.
We're not teaching technique.
Nobody is grading your rhythm.
You are participating in a collective experience where the drum becomes a tool for rhythm, vibration, entrainment and connection.
If you can be in the room, you can do this.
The Part I Can't Put on a Product Page
There is a moment that sometimes happens in these experiences when the room stops feeling like a collection of separate people.
It's hard to explain.
The drums are moving.
Everyone is immersed in the same rhythm.
The healers are holding the four corners.
And something becomes incredibly coherent.
You stop thinking so much about me.
My problem.
My day.
My story.
My thing I'm trying to fix.
For a little while, you're simply inside something bigger.
This is why I call it a healing mastermind.
Because I don't believe transformation always has to happen alone.
Sometimes you borrow the steadiness of the room.
Sometimes someone else's willingness helps strengthen yours.
Sometimes the person across the circle is releasing something while you're realizing something.
Sometimes nobody knows what anybody else is working throughāand somehow the collective still works.
That's the magic of the circle.
And maybe that's why humans have been gathering this way for thousands of years.
We remember something when we come together.
At SHINE, we're just adding really good lighting and comfy chairs. š
One Last Thing
If you're coming for the first time, don't worry about understanding any of this before you arrive.
You don't need to believe anything.
You don't need to know the science of entrainment.
You don't need to understand energy.
You don't need to arrive in a certain state.
Come stressed.
Come curious.
Come tired.
Come skeptical.
Come excited.
Come exactly as you are.
We'll build the circle from there.
Because one of the ideas we play with at SHINE is this:
When you change your circle, you change your timeline.
Sometimes changing your circle literally means changing the people you're surrounded by.
And sometimes...
it means walking into a dimly lit room, sitting down with a group of strangers, picking up a drum and discovering what becomes possible when none of us are doing this alone.
We trust the process...
xo,
š Cortney
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