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This conversation may be music to your ears.

In February I made a "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT" on my personal Facebook page, and hundreds of people who know me and my professional background well chimed in. The comments are GOLD, and I wanted to share the perspectives in a series of blog posts so you, dear reader, could benefit. Perhaps you'll even find community in like-minded souls?

Here was the public announcement I made to my friends and followers:

I’m (finally) open to using the term “sound healing” to describe what I do. I have some conflicted feelings...

Join us to experience a nourishing sound-based practice with Anandra.

Our goal for this month's session is to invite you to totally "unplug" from the source(s) of your stress, so you can rest, relax, rejuvenate, and replenish in the yummy heart of sound vibration. Expect dreamy tanpura sounds and long slow tones that gently caress the subtle tension points in your heart/mind/body, layered with rhythmic Sanskrit mantra repetition to establish you in a steady, safe, sweet groove for whatever the rest of your day requires of you.

For over a decade, when people ask me what I do, I’ve told them something like, “I teach mantra meditation and the yoga of sound and voice.” And people say, “Oh, like sound healing and sound baths and stuff?” And my response is always, “Sort of… let me explain…” and then I distinguish my niche as a sound yoga pioneer within the global yoga community, and the depth of my training and practice in the tradition of nāda yoga and Sanskrit mantra.

But the words sound healing and sound bath are (for better or worse)...

Experiencing anxiety and depression can be overwhelming and disabling. I should know! I might seem "spiritual" or whatever, but my nervous system gets tugged in both directions too.

I've been using sound and mantra to self-regulate my nervous system and give my mind something uplifting to chew on for decades now. Whenever Life gets intense, I lean in on my sound-based yoga practices and feel SO. MUCH. BETTER. And I'm not alone...

"I had such a high anxiety week, and NOTHING I tried brought it down, until I chanted with you. The yoga of sound is indispensable...I am...

A friend of mine attended a live chant event I led last week, and gushed about how it felt like a sound bath to just listen to me singing, the bansuri flute playing, and hear the group singing along with the rāgas and mantras.

Normally, I try to get people to DO THE PRACTICE with us, because I figure it's like food... you get more out of it when you chew it and swallow it yourself vs. watching someone else eat. That's why I have (stubbornly) stuck to empowering people looking to really train in mantra and nada yoga with skills, techniques, and practices.

While I...

SO many people ask me how to learn traditional nāda yoga in India! There are a lot of confusing nada and mantra trainings out there, so I'll try to help you sort out what to look for. I went looking myself way back in 1997 and have gone down A LOT of unfruitful (even scary) roads before I found teachers I could trust, who led me on the mystical inner path of nada yoga!*

Unfortunately sexual misconduct by gurus is also all-too-common... almost every Western female who has gone to India to study nada yoga and mantra has a story (including me! several!)

So first of...

I shied away from using the term "sound healing" to describe what I do for over a decade, because I thought most people associated it with gong baths or crystal bowls. (That's not the type of sound healing I do or teach.)

However, the mantra and nada yoga courses we offer very definitely explore sound healing training in its most essential sense! It's my opinion that sound that comes from our own unique instrument - our voices - is the core of any sound healing practice for self growth.

Your voice is a one-of-a-kind, highly refined, infinitely sensitive healing...