I define solo practice as the thing that you most like to do by yourself, with the goal of gradually growing better at it. Like a hobby, only more fulfilling.

Is your solo practice dancing? Cooking? Hiking? Gardening? Writing? Acting? Painting? Exercising? Playing piano? Strumming guitar? Horseback riding? Free diving? Tarot reading? Doing yoga? Woodworking? Sewing? Running? Biking?  

My solo practice is listening. To listen might be to passively hear, but for me it is to perceive everything in the sonic environment, and then purposefully choose to pay attention to those sounds.

I’ve always listened to sound (and, of course, music) with an avidity that teeters on obsession.

There are the sonic whisps in the tidal reflection of each breath, of air nourishing lungs (inhale) then crossing larynx (exhale), to form a sigh, or speech, or something quasi-audible & fleeting. I listen to the petite roar of the water heater & the air conditioner’s white noise, to the hum of high voltage lines way overhead and rainwater in subterranean pipes deep beneath the storm grate.

Yes, always glorious bird song but also the Doppler gunk of every car whizzing by the window.  Moreover, the sound of mother earth’s soft grass under bare foot, or even concrete under shoe, even gravel under wheel. There are my own muttered thoughts that I hear like ancient voices and also the jumpy gong of my phone notification: “you have a new text”.

The ears never shut, sounds color in the emptiest of days, and I realized long ago that “peace & quiet” was an impractical illusion. Peace is to be found deep within. But finding actual quiet? Nope!

Better to recognize that listening is life itself, demanding but worthwhile & quite wonderful in how it unites us. Sound, after all, is just a form of vibration, and all life vibrates on the atomic level. Simultaneously, we resonate with each other on the interpersonal plane.

With massage & bodywork, I am wholly present in my ongoing “solo practice”… each time, that intentional listening is manifested with care: I hear the client’s unique experiences, hear the vagaries of the day, hear the essential breath.

As a session begins, I listen a little less with the ears, a little more with the hands, a lot more with the heart.

I think of massage as the widest, most progressive form of listening. Or maybe more accurately, massage is a receptive seeking. We’re finding those special techniques that allow our physical selves to soften and our thoughts to uncurl. We’re tuning into the twining confluence of body & mind.  And once we’re dialed-in, that harmony becomes exquisite.

I remain open to subtle changes in muscle tension, in fascial binding, in range of motion, in hidden light. I listen to the melting, the returning, the letting go. It’s more than healing knots or tending to sore muscles, although that matters. It’s about trust & collaboration between therapist & client. It’s about bringing the right intention to each session.

That’s a little of what I weave into each massage.  Everything I do is specific to you, your body, and where you are in your trajectory.

Each session is a collaboration; I may be doing the work, but we both have the opportunity to mindfully, totally, really… listen.