Helen Sheppard: Time to Wake Up the Trees - Finding Your Authentic Voice - S2 E18

Stacy Griffin:  As we are writers, we we talk about this a lot that all three of us enjoy writing and I just have to talk about your book.

Becky Miller:  So good.

Stacy Griffin:  Your your your audio book has literally been such a balm in my life in the last few weeks. So, I just wanted to say thank you for that first.

Helen Sheppard:  Oh, thank you.

Stacy Griffin:  But then I wanted, I wanted to ask you too about the book and you have a nom de plume. So I wanted to talk about your lovely name that you've chosen to use as an author. So you write you wrote your book It's Time to Wake Up the Trees, and um I love trees so much. So I, I loved that. I loved the title. And then you chose to name yourself Andromeda Lightfoot. What sparked the inspiration for the book? And if you're willing to share why you chose that name, we would love to hear that as well.  

Helen Sheppard:  Okay. Okay. Oh gosh, this is a deep one. Um, so it was 2018 when I realized that um, as I was reading through cover to cover the Bible, it was something I'd set myself to do, I'd got stuck prior to this three and a half years in Genesis trying to work out what the Garden of Eden really was. Because of course, I didn't believe that there was an actual garden and a gate and a snake and a this and that. And it didn't make sense to me. had to go further. And so I went really deeply into it and I kept asking the universe. I said, "Come on, you've got to show me. You've got to, I've got to understand this. I need to know."

And then I heard this voice one day say to me, "You need to study the pineal gland." Okay. Heck, so I started I started studying the pineal gland, which of course, you know, um wasn't really the done thing.  

Um following what I was, you know, religiously doing. Um but I thought, "No, no, I'm going to go for it because I need to know and if I'm I, you know, if I trust this inner voice, then it's going to be okay." So, I started to look at what it was and the symbols for it. And I thought, "Oh my goodness." So, the pine cone is the symbol for the pineal gland. And um when I was younger um in my teens, my stepmother said to me um one day you'll understand the symbol of the pine cone, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. And she gave me one. So that stuck with me and it was like, oh my goodness, this is coming into fruition.

So um I started to look at the various different shapes in the brain. Um I looked at the back of the brain and it looked like an elephant. And I thought, well, that's really interesting. looks like. So, me being me, I just typed into Google, back of the brain, looks like an elephant. And then, of course, Ganesh came up and I thought, "Oh my god."

Helen Sheppard:  And then I heard just at the same time, you know how these things synchronize, um, a Radio 4 program which talked about this, um, nerve that runs around uh, the circumference of the head in mice, right? And so I looked it up and I looked it and I thought, "Oh, that looks like the crown of thorns." And guess what it's called? It's called the Crown of Thorns. So we've got Ganesh at the back. We've got the crown of thorns here. And I started to look a little bit deeper. I thought, "Hang on a minute. Everything in the brain is externalized in the form of whether it's an elephant or a or a beetle, a scarab beetle, an owl." Um, I started to see all these things. I was, "Oh my god, that's the Garden of Eden. That's what it is. It's here." So then, so I started I mean it was five years of research, okay, that that just I got so excited.  

Helen Sheppard:  I was literally obsessed. Then I tried to put into words and it was terrible. I couldn't do it. Couldn't find the words to actually say what I wanted to say. So obviously it wasn't quite the right time to speak it out and I was so nervous, because it was like it would blow a lot of illusion um about these scripts or scriptures um, you know it would it would frighten some people I think because it's a a deep belief and a deep narrative and it's you know respectable, but it is a belief, not necessarily a truth, and so um I started to see through the narrative to see through the conditioning, see through you know what preachers were saying and all of this stuff, and it had nothing to do with what's actually really there, and um and the process of um, awakening, awakening to who we truly are. So um, I looked at the um the back of the brain again and there's a little thing called the arbor vitae which is the tree of life and that was the big the big key for me.  

It's just like okay, there's the tree of life in the garden there's this there's that ah okay and so that was the that was the first door opening. Um, and then I heard this inner voice say again you need to demystify the symbols. So I started to demystify all of these symbols and write about it. And the thing that really blew my mind was um the cranial nerves, because there are 12 cranial nerves, 12 apostles, but they're paired 24 elders. And then I looked, hang on a minute, that looks like Vishnu in the middle. How weird. So I looked up Vishnu and there's 24 avatars around Vishnu. Thought this is actually really, you know, we're really getting somewhere now. Um, and so, because I'm visual, I could see how somebody who was very clever would anthropomorphize every single part of the brain. And um, so that was that bit. And then I did this, well, I did a sound healing course. Okay, it's like a diploma course in santeen because I felt like, well, I'm doing all of this stuff, but actually it would be quite nice to have a bit of writing that says that I can do it.  

Helen Sheppard:  And it was over lockdown as well. You know how it is. You know how people like to have little letters after their name um or they like to see it in other people. So, I thought, well, I better do that. Um anyway, so one of the exercises was to go out and talk to a tree. And um, I'd had this tree in mind um for a long time that I wanted to go and talk to, um, but I because I'd been sort of um, what can I say complying I suppose um to the narrative or whatever. Um, I didn't allow myself to be who I truly am. I've always talked to trees. I've always loved birds. I've always talked to nature and it's talked back to me, you know. So anyway, I met this tree in this glade, and I sat at the foot of this tree and cried because I hadn't talked to a tree since I was 17, right? And I cried and I cried, and I wept and I apologized because I thought, "My god, I've been so disconnected from actually what really is truly meaningful to me."  

And um, I kept going back to the tree. And the tree spoke and said, "It's time to wake up the trees. And I was really shocked. It's like, whoa. Okay. Um, and I sat with it for a couple of days. I had no idea what that meant. And then it came. Ah, okay. So, the arbor vitae, the tree of life. It's the gray matter in the brain. It's time to wake that up. And not just in me, in everybody else as well. So, that's what it meant. It's time to wake up the trees. But it also corresponded because we know that trees communicate through their roots and through mycelium. And so there's the woodwide web as well. And I thought, how incredible is this that we can all communicate with each other telepathically, and it's reflected externally in these beautiful trees that we live with. So that's the story of how that happened.

Stacy Griffin:  That's beautiful. It's beautiful.  

Becky Miller:  I love it. That was that was fantastic. Very interesting spiritual insight.

Helen Sheppard:  Thank you.

Becky Miller:  And I had no idea that there were, I mean I know the basic of what the brain looks like, but it was interesting because as you were saying it, I was like I'd never heard anyone call it the tree of life, but I knew exactly what part of the brain you were talking about as you said it, you know, I was like, and same like it's very interesting.

Helen Sheppard:  Well, oh, it's a pleasure.

Becky Miller:  Thank you for sharing that.

Helen Sheppard:  Um afterwards, I'll send you a video which um explains it all as well because it goes much deeper. It goes into the um what what is the land of milk and honey which was fascinating to me, because the um pituitary gland creates oxytocin which is a milky colored liquid and the pineal gland creates a honey colored liquid called melatonin and those two things create the cereal spinal fluid along with other hormones, and so on and that that descends the spine., 33 vertebrae. Note the 33 um, and is uh ascends again um stops in the celiac plexus which translated is Bethlehem, which is the house, house of bread where the spiritual seed is born. This is a monthly process and it comes up over the vagus nerve. It crosses the vagus nerve when the moon goes it through your sun sign. Okay, just here crucifixion for two and a half days - in the tomb - in the classroom, and then returns potentized to the pineal gland on the third day - ascension. So we all are living walking breathing beings with that inside us.

Becky Miller: Wow.

Helen Sheppard:  Um, and if we're in tune with ourselves and with nature and with the moon and the sun and so on and so forth, it's a beautiful process. Not easy because it's purification every month and sometimes it's really difficult, but that's, you know, that's that's like our inner constellation. So, um, you can, you know, you don't have to be any ism or schism. That's just something that just naturally happens to us. And I think it's anthropomorphized and, and turned into like a a myth or a tale to help us understand ourselves.  I think that's what that is.

Becky Miller:  Very interesting. So, we want to go back and visit you, you talk about in some of your stuff having authentic voice. So, what does it mean to reclaim your authentic voice and how would you suggest that somebody could start doing that today?

Helen Sheppard:  Oh gosh. Okay. So, um we have to start where we are, don't we? So, if um if we can listen to ourselves clearly, objectively, um, and talk about it. That's the first port of you know, call. Um, you'd need a really a voice coach to reflect that back to you. Actually, it's very difficult to just do it on your own because of course we're all really self-critical. We don't like our voices necessarily, and we just want to run and hide under a table. So, you know, it's like it's really tricky. Um, so I would say find a really good voice coach who is open to um, shedding the pretense. Um, so for example, you know, um, I've had a lot of singers who've come to me and they've got affectations, you know, they want to be, um, who's the latest, oh god, I don't know.  

It started off with Christina Aguilera. Now, it's gone right the way through 20, 30 years of, of I want to sound like this or they come in and they're they're not themselves. So, it's it's an indication of how far you are away from yourself if you're not being yourself or singing your authentic note. So, when you're trying, it's always obvious, you know. Um, so it's a very difficult thing to to put into words. You need to find a mirror, you know, a human mirror and not AI. That can't do it for you. Hope that's okay.

Stacy Griffin:  I am big advocate for that personal connection. Um, when it comes to anything, whether it's music or any kind of art, I think that you have to have a human mirror. You have to have someone who can reflect back to you your brilliance, and where there may be a little need for a little movement and change in a different direction. But I think we are generally our worst critic. And because of that, if we don't have that human interaction, that mirror of of being able to see someone delighted by our words, hearing what we're saying, feeling with us, that experience. So much of what is truly beautiful in life comes from those connections. And so that human mirror is a necessity for joy. I think in life. So I love that you say that because I've seen that reflected in my own life so often. Even in just the last few minutes of being here with you, I have felt that. So it is, it is a very important thing that we need to do. Um, one more lovely question for you here.

What advice would you give to someone who is feeling stuck or disconnected from their voice - like me, whether physically or metaphorically?

Helen Sheppard:  Okay.

Stacy Griffin:  How how would you say what is a step they could take to maybe start to unstick the stuck?

Helen Sheppard:  So first of all um I would start with the breathing. Have a look at your breathing. So I would I always start with that. So a really great exercise I can give you now is to breathe in for the count of eight. Hold it for eight, but not with your throat, with your diaphragm. And then let it out slowly for 16. And then slow it down. Okay? So that then you're expanding your lung capacity. That's the first thing. That's the first port of call. Practice in front of the mirror so that you know that your posture is good because how many of us you know, it's like um so yeah we need to make sure that our spine is straight and that we've got our feet flat on the floor in a triangle position so it's once again it's just really coming into our bodies and coming into the present moment and breathing that's a first thing to do okay the next thing to do is I would say once again, find the mirror, find the human mirror, find a teacher, find somebody that you can interact with.  

Doesn't matter if it's online or in person. Doesn't matter as long as you know that other person, that significant other has got ears to hear, because it's about the resonance, as we said before. Um, and then, you know, oh my goodness me, speaking your truth. And if that's horrible, great. you know, firstly speaking your truth, speaking it out and not trying to couch it in, you know, cushion it or whatever, just letting it out and it in all its ugliness if it has to come out that way. And even if you can't even speak it, you're so maybe let's say stuck and frustrated that all you can do is growl or roar, then do that. And if it hurts your throat, okay, it will recover. Don't worry, you know, you're not going to kill yourself by that. But that's why my, my um, one of my businesses is called Find Your Voice and Roar, because it's for it was actually for women whose voices had been suppressed because they had been so dominated or put down or whatever it was and maybe even putting yourself down as a reflection of other people doing that as a child, etc., etc. So, it's about actually allowing yourself to just really roar, let it out, um, and not hold back, you know.  

Um, I had a client here today for a voice analysis and, um, she she couldn't actually say how she felt. She had to read a book. she couldn't speak out what she was going on inside of her because it was so yeah so painful. Um, and so you know all of these um, expressions whether it's reading a book out loud whether it's screaming, shouting, singing, grunting, it's all I think really important to let the the the energy that stuck out. Um finding the mirror and then getting some great vocal technique, going through the scales, singing through the scales, um experimenting with the resonance, taking the voice into the nose and singing through the nose to see what it's like, you know, just allowing that freedom of expression. We, for example, there are people who are really tongue tied and they can't really say what they want to say and yeah, they won't open their mouth. And then people in the south down here, you don't like this and all of that. And it's like, okay, right. How about you just open your mouth and let it go?  

You know, make that sound. If it's flat, sharp, or indifferent, it really doesn't matter. So, it's that it's letting go of those inhibitions. Um, go out into the fields and go huh!, you know, or scream. Yeah. Um, and bringing it back in nicely. Join a choir. Join a choir. Just just join a group where it's gentle chant whatever just make some sound and without judgment. So that's the first place to start.

Becky Miller:  You know, and I actually think there's some cultures that have that down so well. If you see some of the dances and things like that, the Maori do or love it, love that stuff.

Helen Sheppard:  Yeah.

Becky Miller:  But also even like when you do martial arts and they do the katas and everything, you're shouting and making noise as you do things.

Helen Sheppard:  Yes.

Becky Miller:  And I think um, and I actually remember I took a cruise a couple of years ago with my family um for my husband's birthday, and we went and we were, we were in Mexico and we went to a Mayan it was like a Mayan spa experience.

Helen Sheppard:  Oo, lovely.

Becky Miller:  It was it was really fun. But one of the interesting things is we had, they had kind of a sweat lodge that was part of it and they talked about the importance of sound because it was a resonant sweat lodge and um, they said and now we're all going to shout together and at first, I was like, wow because everything before that had been super peaceful. We've been getting massages. We've been soaking in mineral water or whatever. Um, but it was it was amazing how you felt like we literally, just everybody together just shouted one big like you said one big yelp, and we just kept at it for several minutes and you're like and I'm

Helen Sheppard:  Yeah. Yeah.

Becky Miller:  I'm not a shouter. I'm not really a shouter but I was like, "wow that was really cool." That felt amazing you know.

Helen Sheppard:  Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it's such a release, isn't it, when you just let that sound out, and it is then authentic. Um, may I talk about a client of mine. I know she won't mind me saying because we're very close. Um, so I have a Danish client and uh she had breast cancer when we first met and she didn't want to go down the usual route. She wanted to do something else, and so she called me and I went over and spent a week with her um, and we worked with frequencies, um we worked with diet.

Helen Sheppard:  So, um, it's been shown that one of the main causes of cancer is parasites. And so, we looked at that. Um, we started at 7 in the morning and went right the way through till 11 at night dealing with all of the baggage, all of the emotional trauma, all of the stuff. And we didn't stop. And apart from to do the sound healing with the bowls and tuning forks and then rife frequencies because I didn't have the voice analysis system then, um and uh so we did that and then we kept going therapeutically online. One of the things that she did, and this is why I'm saying it um, is she literally stomped her feet and made really loud angry sounds. okay to get it out of her, right? And she did that on a daily basis and she carried on doing that. Um, and it she did a sort of lion's breath as well where she kind of sticks her tongue out and roars and she got it out right. Um, and it took three months. Um, and she was being really hassled by, you know, the the usual parties who wanted to um, you know, do the usual thing.  

And, uh, three months gone, finished. No, no cancer. Done. 3 months later, had a, a check, no cancer. 3 months later, no cancer. So, um I'm not saying that that's the way for everybody because everyone's different, but um, it was just an incredible process to walk with her. She's transformed her life. She's alive for her children, all who are under five, three of them. Um, and yeah, it's it's just the most enlightening and incredible um, experience I think probably I've had with a with a client, because she just she just went for it. Her life her life was, you know, it meant that much to her. She had to survive. She had to do it. And so she has, you know, yeah, it's beautiful. And she still roars occasionally. Not so much now cuz the anger's gone.

Becky Miller:  Thank you so much for sharing that, Helen. We have been, loved having you here. This has been a great interview and we appreciate you coming. We appreciate your wisdom and sharing that with us today and your creativity. Um, we will make sure we include all the links to your book and your other offerings. But our last question for you is, where is the best place for our listeners to connect with you or find you on social media?

Helen Sheppard:  Okay. So there's soundmedicinehub.com and that's for all the sound healing uh that I do the affirmations and the voice analysis and tuning forks etc etc and the the deep inner work right and for the vocal um uh coaching uh that's schoolofsingers.com so um they do meet in the middle and uh and that's very exciting so when people want to go deeper um they go across from one side to the other. Um yeah, and so that's that's it. I just want to say thank you to you both. You you're so lovely and um thank you for you know just responding in the way that um you have to some of the things that I've been saying, and it's just that you've got you're lovely really lovely people. I wish you live around the corner.

Stacy Griffin:  Thank you.

Helen Sheppard:  I'd have a cup of tea ready.

Becky Miller:  Exactly. Next time I go to the UK, I'm totally looking you up. We're gonna hang out.

Helen Sheppard:  You're coming. You're coming for tea, please.

Stacy Griffin:  Yes, we're going to come for tea.

Helen Sheppard:  That would be lovely.

Stacy Griffin:  We will.

Helen Sheppard:  Okay.

Stacy Griffin:  Thank you so much for joining us today.

Helen Sheppard:  Thank you.

Stacy Griffin:  And to our amazing listeners, your journey is valid and your emotions are real. And you don't have to walk this path alone. We hope that today reminds you to sing and dance and listen to the beautiful music of the world around you. Let sound accompany you on your adventure.

And always remember, you are worthy of joy. Your disease does not define your life. You do.