An ancient primal sound is the beat of a drum. It is the first sound we hear in our mother's womb. The vibration of the drum can heal and create harmony within the body and throughout the Universe. When we link thought and prayer to the beat of our drums, our intentions ripple forth and because sound travels on forever and knows no limitations, our thoughts create change universally. Drumming with prayer is a powerful way to create change and many cultures and tribes use drums in sacred ways. Drumming is indeed a universal language.

Drumming is a tool for meditation. A slow beat that matches our own heartbeat can take us into a relaxed state. This allows us a time to reach inside ourselves and discover our inner voices, aspects of ourselves that make up who we are.

When we process information throughout our lives with joy and understanding our bodies respond in a healthy and glowing way. However, our bodies store emotions such as unforgiven anger. These types of emotions become stuck and cause dis-ease within our bodies. A way to heal these blockages is to go on a personal inward journey to these "hot spots" and start to process, forgive, and release them.

The most difficult and painful things that happen in our lives have gifts in them. We just need to figure out what they are. We create our own reality, for the most part, and although we may have a tendency to blame or become a victim this does not serve us. Victimhood is an illusion that keeps us from doing our real work within ourselves.

Then there is the fear that pops up here and there and challenges us. Sometimes the fear or self-doubt (often called "karma") comes up as past issues and shows up as a memory at a cellular level.

When we are doing our inner healing work it is important to use gratitude and compassion. This works when we have an understanding that all things happen for a reason and that in all things there is a gift; our job is to uncover that gift and understand its appropriateness. Using anger to heal anger will not effectively clear the blockage, while compassion and complete forgiveness for all those involved, self included, frees the trapped emotion and the pain.

It is not always necessary to revisit our emotional pain in order to heal it. Surrendering it to a higher power works, with the intention that it be healed for the good of all beings, whether that higher power is a Goddess or God, Great Spirit or Buddha, or any other ascended master.

Responsibility for our own thoughts, spoken or unspoken, is important because what we send out there will come back to us. Drum out love and compassion and you will receive love and compassion!

There are many other factors, of course, in healing our bodies but what I am suggesting here is that using the drum to meditate and release blockages with compassion is a good beginning to healing our bodies in a sacred way.

The following is a technique for healing with a drum and meditation. Sitting down with your back supported, take yourself into a calm state with your breath. Set aside any stresses, put a smile on your face, imagine white light filling your body. Add a prayer of gratitude for all that is in your life and start drumming a beat that matches your own heartbeat. Slowly you will go deeper into your own thoughts. What arises in your thoughts is what you want to look at. Don't judge yourself for anything, as everything that crosses your path is there for a reason. Start asking questions and listen for the answers. We all have a higher power, an internal voice, that will guide us. Know that while you are meditating you are perfectly safe and you can even visualize yourself hooked up to the core of the earth by a golden cord coming from the bottom of your feet. At some point the drum beat may change or you may want to stop drumming as you focus on your thought. When you feel like you have processed enough, release by blowing out with your breath and begin to drum your gratitude with whatever beat comes through. Know that there is no right or wrong way to drum. It is the intention that counts.

Once we heal ourselves it then ripples forth and affects others. Our "light" changes and others notice, which brings change in our surroundings and in those with whom we come in contact.

We are continuously shedding our cells. As we walk on the same planet that our ancestors walked on we continuously share the same breath, the same cells, through all time and space. We breathe in each other's essence and share all the energies of our land and ancestors; and all its history resonates within each of us. The energy of this place we live becomes who we are. Although each culture has its own uniqueness, I believe we are not separate but an integral part of the whole. We are indeed all one, connected to our earth and to universal breath and sound.

The earth, Mother Earth, has a heartbeat and it is scientifically recorded as beating at a resonance very similar to the vibration of the drum. So as we drum we are connecting with the vibration of our planet in a natural way.

Drumming in groups will heal the spirit. Participating in a drumming circle is a time of community, to truly share "communion," to gather and support each other in a creative way. It is a place to find personal empowerment within the group activity. This is where I learned communication skills that I now use to teach drumming and drummaking. This is where I found my singing voice and the courage to use it.

Drumming is world wide. We come together to drum in the now, beyond divisiveness, creating harmonious and healing sound that travels on forever.

Sacred drumming is an important link in achieving peace within. Once we are peaceful with ourselves, peace can manifest outside of ourselves and become an integral part of the universe.