What to Expect at Chant × Sound at SHINE

Yes, we chant. And yes, you might feel a little weird about it at first. Come anyway.

I have a confession.

Of everything we offer at SHINE, Chant × Sound is my favorite.

Hands down.

And that is VERY hard for me to say because I love so many things we do at SHINE.

Spoiler alert: SHINE ultimately exists for my own pleasure. 😂

If I don't love it, we don't host it.

Sorry, not sorry.

I digress.

The point is, I love chanting.

It has been one of my favorite spiritual practices for years.

And I think part of the reason I love it so much is because of the way my brain works.

Meditation Has Never Been Easy for Me

I'm Type A.

My mind doesn't really stop.

And I don't mean that in the I'm constantly in fight-or-flight and need to regulate my nervous system kind of way.

My brain just LOVES to create.

I'm a Manifestor in Human Design, and at any given moment my mind is searching for the next idea, the next connection, the next thing I want to build, change, explore or create.

There's always something happening up there.

Can you relate?

So traditional meditation has never been particularly easy for me.

Sit down.

Be quiet.

Watch your thoughts float away.

Cool.

Except mine are apparently throwing a rave. 😂

And this is where chanting completely changed meditation for me.

Because meditation doesn't have to mean sitting in silence with an empty mind.

Meditation is single-pointed focus.

You might focus on your breath.

A candle.

A guided meditation.

A sensation in your body.

A mantra.

And in chanting, your single point of focus becomes the chant.

The words.

The rhythm.

The vibration.

Your breath.

Your voice.

Eventually, something interesting happens.

There isn't much room left for the monkey mind.

You leave the mind behind because you're completely inside the chant.

THAT is meditation.

And for a brain like mine?

It's magic.

It Only Took Me Six Years to Bring Chanting to SHINE

Here's the ridiculous part.

I had personally loved chanting for YEARS before we ever offered it at SHINE.

Six years, actually.

Why?

I think somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if it was just a little too weird.

Would people come?

Would it resonate?

Would everyone think, Okay Cortney, we've officially gone too far?

Which is laughable coming from the woman who created SHINE.

I mean...

We cocoon people while healers work around their bodies.

We talk about energy like it's Tuesday.

Apparently chanting was where I thought we needed to draw the line. 😂

But eventually I decided it was time.

And because I was still a little unsure whether people would come specifically for chanting, we hedged our bets.

We paired it with things people already knew they loved:

A drum wash.

A sound bath.

And only about 30 minutes of actual chanting.

Chanting with training wheels.

Except something happened after that first experience.

People didn't say, Can we have more sound bath?

They didn't say, Can we have more drumming?

They said:

MORE CHANT.

Loud and clear.

Keep everything else.

But MORE CHANT.

And we realized immediately:

We had stumbled onto a magical formula.

Today, we chant for closer to 55 minutes.

And yes, we kept everything else.

What It Feels Like When You Walk Into the Room

When you arrive, you're not walking into a bright yoga studio with everyone lined up on mats.

You're entering an environment we've intentionally created to shift you before we've even begun.

Dim lights.

Soft, furry rugs.

Yoga beds.

Comfortable meditation chairs.

A candle glowing at every space.

You find your spot and settle in.

Nobody is standing on a stage.

Nobody is auditioning for American Idol.

And nobody cares what your voice sounds like.

We're creating a circle of vibration.

And your voice gets to be part of it.

Okay...But What Are We Actually Chanting?

This is probably the biggest question people have when they've never done this before.

We're not making it up as we go. 😂

We use traditional chants and mantras such as Hari Om, Ong Namo and Aad Guray, among others.

We have music playing, and we chant or sing along with it together.

You can find these songs on Spotify, and we'll drop one of our SHINE chanting playlists here if you want to listen before you come.

But here's the important part:

There is no correct way for you to participate.

Maybe you sing loudly.

Maybe you chant quietly.

Maybe you hum.

Maybe there is a song where you simply sit still and feel the vibration everyone else is creating around you.

Maybe your body starts moving with the rhythm.

Sometimes I play the djembe.

We bring in shakers and other percussion.

Some chants are soft and meditative.

Others build.

And build.

And BUILD.

Until suddenly the entire room is vibrating.

Including you.

Why the Group Matters

You could absolutely pull up a mantra on Spotify at home and chant by yourself.

I do.

But chanting in a room full of people is different.

Very different.

One voice creates vibration.

Twenty voices create a field of vibration.

You hear your own voice, but eventually it starts disappearing into everyone else's.

You're no longer listening to me and you and her.

You're hearing one sound.

One rhythm.

One room.

There is something incredibly powerful about that.

Your voice is creating vibration inside your own body while simultaneously contributing to the vibration being created around everyone else.

You're receiving AND creating the experience at the same time.

And somewhere along the way, you stop worrying about what you sound like.

You stop wondering whether you're doing it right.

You stop thinking about what you're making for dinner tomorrow.

You stop thinking.

And you start being.

The Family Calendar Story 😂

One of our SHINE regulars came to Chant × Sound recently.

She's been to most of our experiences.

She knows SHINE.

She loves SHINE.

But chanting?

She had been reluctant.

Eventually she decided she needed to see what all the fuss was about.

Afterward, she told us something that made me laugh—and also perfectly explains why I think this work matters.

Her family has a calendar where she writes down what she's doing.

Normally she'll write:

Yoga at SHINE.

Drum Circle at SHINE.

Sound Bath at SHINE.

But when she registered for Chant × Sound, she couldn't bring herself to write CHANT on the family calendar.

It felt...

weird.

Like maybe someone would see it and think she'd officially joined a cult. 😂

So instead she wrote:

Meditation at SHINE.

Safe.

Respectable.

Nobody needs to ask questions. 😂

Then she came.

And she got it.

She loved it so much that she immediately registered for the next one.

Except THIS time...

She went home and proudly wrote:

CHANT

in big, bold letters on the family calendar.

And then started telling her friends about it.

THAT.

That's what I want.

We Have to Normalize This Stuff

Somewhere along the way, we've decided certain practices are "normal wellness" and others are a little out there.

Yoga?

Normal.

Meditation?

Normal.

Breathwork?

Getting there.

Chanting?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Cortney. Let's not get crazy. 😂

Except chanting isn't new.

It's ancient.

Humans have been using voice, mantra, rhythm, repetition and collective sound as spiritual practices for hundreds and, in many traditions, thousands of years.

Maybe the question isn't:

Why would we chant?

Maybe the better question is:

Why did we ever stop?

Because I dare you to find something that shifts your state of being quite like Chant × Sound at SHINE.

And It's Not Just Chanting

This is where the × Sound part comes in.

Because chanting is only the first layer.

The entire experience is intentionally built as a three-layer vibrational journey.

First:

VOICE.

We chant together, gradually building the vibration in our own bodies and throughout the room.

Then:

RHYTHM.

After chanting, you get to stop doing and completely receive.

We move into our healing drum wash round.

The drums come around your body as rhythm and vibration move through the room, while SHINE healers circulate through the space offering energetic support.

I also offer a healing transmission during this portion of the experience.

You don't need to do anything.

Just receive.

And finally:

SOUND.

You settle all the way back into your yoga bed or chair as we move into a layered sound bath with crystal singing bowls, Koshi chimes, ocean drums and other sound therapy instruments.

Voice.

Rhythm.

Sound.

A trifecta of vibration.

And by this point?

Your body is literally vibrating like its never vibrated before.

The Part the Product Page Can't Tell You

I can put "55 minutes of chanting" on a product page.

I can tell you there will be crystal bowls.

I can tell you there's a drum wash.

I can tell you that no chanting experience is required.

I can list the itinerary.

But I can't really explain what happens when you've been chanting with a room full of people for nearly an hour and then...

everything stops.

Silence.

After that much vibration, silence feels different.

You feel different.

Then the drums move through the room.

Then the sound bowls wash over you.

And instead of immediately jumping up, checking your phone and rushing back into your life, you look at me and say...

Do I have to leave, can I stay here forever

You feel who you are NOW compared to the person who walked through the door.

And that is ultimately the test and what I'm interested in.

Not whether you learned a mantra.

Not whether you sang beautifully.

Not whether you understood every word.

Did your state of being change?

Because when your state changes, what you carry back into your life changes too.

And eventually we send you back out into the world.

Back to your family.

Your work.

Your relationships.

Your responsibilities.

Your regular Tuesday night.

You're quieter.

Clearer.

More open.

More connected.

More YOU.

And from that state, you get to go back out there and be the light for someone else.

If You're Still Thinking, "I Don't Know...Chanting Sounds Weird"

Perfect.

Come anyway.

You don't need a good voice.

You don't need to know the chants.

You don't need chanting experience.

You don't need to understand mantra.

You don't need to consider yourself spiritual.

You don't even need to be convinced you're going to like it.

Remember our family-calendar friend.

Write "meditation at SHINE" on your calendar if you need to. 😂

We won't tell anyone.

But I have a feeling the next time...

you might just write:

CHANT. and tell everyone you know...

xo,

💚 Cortney

​​​​​​​Chanting ✕ Sound = Whole Body Vibrations

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