Piece in Progress: Peace Be…
Here’s a glimpse inside the making of my newest piece:
Tip 4918
Tip 4918
You don’t have to act hard or act like you don’t care. Nothing will grow in a space that isn’t nurtured. Nothing exists that isn’t real– You have to be real with yourself and your emotions in order to foster real connections. Vulnerability is the way out, through, and up.
Sound Healing 101
I discovered sound healing and my love for sound healing during my 2020-2021 ulcerative colitis (UC) flare. UC is a chronic condition, which means that there are periods of remission and the disease can strike at any time. Though there is no known cause for UC, stress is the most common trigger.
I do not, and never have, considered myself to be a stressed person, but what I came to understand during my research is that we can have chronic low-grade stress that overtime adversely impacts our health and well-being. For me, I believe that mismanaging grief over sudden loss/death attributed to my stress load — really, without me even being aware of the toll it was taking until my health took a big hit.
With my 2020-2021 flare being severe, it was crucial I do all I could to help my body so that I could stave off more intense medical treatment — such as surgery or advancing my medical routine to add biologics.
During an appointment with my doctor to go over my colonoscopy report, he focused our over hour long appointment (that is truly a sign of a great doctor!) on biologics. He explained that because of their size, most biologics are given intravenously in the infusion unit of the hospital and usually takes quite a bit of time, maybe he said an hour? I don’t exactly recall because I was determined to not get to that point.
We were still knee deep in the covid pandemic, and without vaccines. The last thing I wanted to do was *need* to go into the hospital and sit for hours regularly in order to receive the medicine I needed. I was determined to do all I could to help my body so that when the time came to talk about maintenance medicine, surgery and biologics were not on the table.
With uc being a chronic condition, at some point in my life, I may need to go that route, and I am grateful to medicine, but I wasn’t, and still am not ready. Thankfully, I was able to help my body enough by adding healing tools to my healing toolbox — such as anti-inflammatory foods, meditation, grounding, and sound healing, which helped my body return to a state of health and remission that does not rely on any biologics.
Today, for the purpose of this blog, I’d like to focus on one of my healing tools — Sound healing.
I was drawn to sound healing because I wanted to be more in control over my healing. It was not enough to take the prescribed medicine, I needed to help my body become more healthy and stronger in order to prepare for the future and any future flares. The medicine prescribed during my flare was helping me combat the flare’s inflammation, it was medicine to reach remission, not medicine to maintain remission.
In saying I wanted to be more in control over my healing, its important to clarify that I do believe God ordains everything, and I owe my healing to Him. I am also so grateful to the medicine, my medical team, and the amazing support system I had during my flare.
I understood that I needed to be able to reach and manipulate areas of my body that I couldn’t physically touch. Knowing that our bodies are made up of around 60% water, it made sense in my mind that if I could “reach” the water, I could manipulate it. Sound has the awesome ability to travel through solids, such as the body, and with the vibrations from sound healing tools I could even precisely target areas to help my body heal.
Beyond the science of sound, I absolutely love music, so I leaned heavily on sound healing during my flare, and still do. I will say this — I am not on biologics, and I have remained very healthy since the flare. Of course there were other healing tools I leaned on, but again, I’d like to focus today on sound healing.
Click below to enter the portal which will lead you to 5 reasons you should try sound healing…
I Love The Vagus Nerve
Emotions are felt in the gut and communicated via the vagus nerve (VN), pronounced VAY-gus, kind of like Vegas. The vagus nerve reminds me of my Aunt Patsy, who earned the nickname “Vegas Patsy” for her love of Las Vegas and the soulful music that flowed throughout lounges on the Las Vegas Strip.
My Aunt Patsy, who I had the honor of calling “Mama Patsy”. She earned the title of Vegas Patsy for her love of Vegas slots, lounges, and energy.
Mama Patsy was hot stuff.
Both the vagus nerve and Vegas Patsy can be remembered for their love of melodic music, powerful gut instincts, and their ability to soothe even the most anxious of souls. This highly important gut-brain pathway is made up of nerve fibers connecting the gut to the brain. The VN is involved in numerous nervous system functions, including the motion and power of our vocal cords, as well as our breath.
The VN is responsible for kicking off the relaxation response after we experience the stress response. A healthy VN sends signals to the brain telling it to relax if it becomes hypervigilant, helping the body reach a state of calm sooner. When the VN isn’t functioning well, those signals can misfire — and researchers have linked this kind of vagal dysfunction to the inflammatory processes seen in autoimmune conditions.
Toning the VN through activities such as meditation and guided meditation, breath work, and spending time in nature all help to strengthen the VN and in turn, help regulate the nervous system and help you better manage stress levels.
I discovered the VN during my most recent flare — which was a severe flare, and I now regularly implement VN fine-tuning activities to help me maintain remission and remain healthy.
NOÈL’S NOTES: Stimulate Your VN
Hum, Sing, Chant, Gargle: The VN is connected to the vocal cords so humming, singing, chanting, and gargling engage the larynx and workout the vn
Laugh: A good laugh will cause you to contract your stomach muscles, which stimulate the vn
Other VN Stimulators:
- Time spent outdoors
- Prayer
- Meditation
June 19
Today is Father’s Day. It’s also the anniversary of my Aunt Patsy’s aka Mama Patsy’s transition (passing).
I miss their physical presence and the love that I had here with them in the physical world — the support, the bond, the adventures… I miss my partners.
I was so blessed and fortunate to have their love. To see myself how they saw me still empowers and gives me strength. That’s a part of what great Daddy’s and Mama’s do — make you believe in yourself… so much so that even when they have been called Home, you still have their lessons and confidence within you — guiding and supporting you.
I remember after my Daddy’s fatal car accident thinking, ‘I just want to make him proud’, but Daddy was always proud of me, so I realized that it’s about making myself proud.
In this lifetime, I am led by love. It sounds so simple, and for years I felt that that that motivation, in a society that demands you grind your life away, wasn’t good enough. But then I would look to God and I would feel Him guide me towards love and away from societal conditioning, and the guilt of not being motivated by ego.
In life, love is the focus, whereas ego is the distraction.
I am grateful to the Lord for guiding me here because I can’t say that I feel that I ever truly “lost” my Daddy or Aunt Patsy. Thank You, God.
Love is the highest frequency.
Love is eternal.
With my eyes fixed upon God, I continue to follow His lead towards love.
I am excited to see my Daddy and Mama Patsy again.
I know they’ll be proud,
and I can’t wait to be able to hug them again.❤️
The High Priestess Prayer
Let Us Pray: a prayer for self-awareness
The Rain Prayed (With Her)
The Rain Prayed (With Her) was one of the first paintings I painted during my period of “Spirited Solitude”. Other than a passive participation in elementary and middle school art classes, I didn’t paint for myself until late 2016, early 2017.
In 2011, I bought art supplies for the first time, ahead of the one year anniversary of my dad’s fatal car accident. Not knowing how the weight of grief would weigh on me, I decided to go to the craft store with my niece, Mikayla. We ended up with a cart full of art supplies.
September 2, 2011 came, and Mikayla and I spent the day outside painting. When we were done, we placed our pieces on the grille daddy had recently got. He was excited about it. It was a makeshift shrine, and really, my introduction into a spiritual path of sensing God’s prayers within the patterns and healing power of nature.
I didn’t return to those art supplies for close to 6 years, but once I began painting, I didn’t want to stop.
My first realized experience with flow state with painting was while creating “The Rain Prayed (With Her)”
While fooling around with a new technique, I decided to return to painting how I always paint and create how I always create, which is to go in unplanned and flow as well as I can with the art. In this space, I allow myself to be the instrument.
Flow, is like a trance-like state with the removal of self-doubt and criticism. When I stepped away from my painting, I saw something God had created in that flow state. I wrote about the experience in my notes:
The other night I stood outside and let the pouring rain wash over me. The moment felt so beautiful. As I sent prayers in the rain, I knew God was listening… and speaking right back to me. I’ve experienced some of the most beautiful moments recently, with rain pouring over me and the skies praying with me. This painting, I feel, is a visual of those deeply spiritual moments.
Noèl Clark, 2017
Get Your Praise On
Get Your Praise On
Ephesians 5:2
and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Allow Christ to be seen in you: in your actions, in your words, and in your love. Allow His love to shine in all you do. Let your praises for Him overflow to the point when others see you, praise you, love you— they see Christ’s craftsmanship and honor the work He has done in you. Allow yourself to be a vessel and look at your work as an offering. When you ask yourself, “Who am I?” “Why do I exist?” “What is my purpose?”, allow divine light to guide you.
#SpiritedSolitude: The Reflection
#SpiritedSolitude
noelclark.com shares a taped conversation with stage IV cancer survivor turned medical marijuana advocate, Kyle Kostic and artist, Lorenzo P. of lorenzopphotography.com as we discuss self-imposed isolation as a form of Spirited Solitude.
Told by doctors he had less than a year to live, Kyle Kostic began living on his own terms. He packed up his two children and explored the United States. He wanted to see as much as he could and imprint invaluable memories and lessons upon his children while he still had the chance.
Just when he thought his trip was ending, his next chapter began. It would be the last state they would visit that would change the course of his life.
California.
Kyle fell in love with the collective positive spirit of Cali and it was there where he began his journey of healing and Spirited Solitude.
Lorenzo the artist is a creative powerhouse. As someone who feels the sensations of world intimately and deeply, he often retreats to find his center. This “ghosting” can be very frustrating to those around him but he argues that he “must take time for himself. That is where peace and God are found”. He will tell you that his relationship with Spirited Solitude has not been easy and he recognizes that for all of its benefits, there are some drawbacks as well. He specifically states losing friends who don’t understand his journey as the main negative side effect . However, he is quick to show and tell you about all of the magic that has been created as a result of moments of self-imposed isolations. For Lorenzo, Spirited Solitude is well worth it and even necessary to the betterment of his growth and art!!
It was an honor to sit down with these two incredibly inspiring and fascinating individuals and discuss how self-imposed isolation or #SpiritedSolitude helped to reveal miracles in their life. You too can change your life and your circumstances! You may be surprised to find you can move mountains, all you have to do is change your mindset. (Check out: Vibe With Me)
Self-imposed isolation is a time to be alone with yourself and your thoughts. These moments of Spirited Solitude are gifts. We undress our thoughts and let our darkness come out to play in the light. We discover what makes us tick without fear of criticism and free from expectation of praise. In silent moments, unbound from a schedule or task, we let our minds wander. Often, in these moments of wandering, we are led directly to our soul work. We are led directly to our healing. We are led directly… to our rebirth.
There are many ways to sit alone with yourself, you just have to figure out what works for you and stick with it. The task, should you accept, only requires you to be vulnerable as well as present in the moment. It is through your vulnerability and presence where you discover who you truly are to yourself. Spirited Solitude begs you to be completely raw, vulnerable, and real with yourself. This is your journey to face alone. Though the journey is no easy trip, its rewards are of invaluable measure.
Godspeed, my friend🙏🏽✨
