Sheena interviewed me earlier this year for her podcast series - The Tao of Self Confidence. Have a listen to the interview below or see the FULL interview notes here

FQ: What type(s) of sound therapy do you practice?
YL: The forms of sound therapy I offer include: 
1 to 1 tailored sessions: which can include creating sound-scapes as well as use of tools for specific areas of the body, and/or facilitating the person to express sounds using their voice 

Group Sound Baths:  I create sound-scapes using selected instruments and my voice for a group of people
 
Voice Alchemy classes: Facilitating groups of people to explore the healing power of their voice.
 
FQ: What are some of the tools you use during your sound therapy sessions?
YL: The instruments I currently have in my toolset include:

• My voice*
• Crystal bowls*
• Reverie harp
• Koshi chimes
• Tibetan bowls*
• Shamanic drum*
• Native Indian style flute
• Tuning forks*
• And more (the sound family keeps growing!)

*are the ones I mainly use in the one to one sessions.
 
FQ: How does sound therapy work?
YL: There are several levels in which sound therapy can be seen to be work. Fundamentally, the aim of Sound therapy or sound healing is using vibration to help the body back to its coherent harmonic state.  
 
After a wee chat which will help shape the session, the person is sitting or laying down in a comfortable space to receive different sounds and tones. Sessions can be about 45-60 mins long. 
 
Online sessions are also available for those that are open to use that method.  The sound transmission is conveyed to the person using voice. Like a tailored live guided meditation and audio broadcast that aims to relax and uplift the person. 
 
Some of the ways in which sound healing can be viewed:

• referencing physics principles of vibration and entrainment
  
• a form of relaxation

​There are other ways in which sound therapy can be viewed e.g. sound to disintegrate matter (more in the video below)
 
Vibration
‘Everything is vibration’
All things have a vibration from the chair we sit, to our bodies and our thoughts, beliefs and emotions. All things has its own resonance – a specific frequency at which it vibrates. Many people have heard of this statement being referenced in different spheres and it refers to the fact that solid matter does not exist as such but at the atomic level everything is in constant movement, therefore vibrating. Our senses perceive high density of molecules as something solid.
 
Sound is a form of energy or vibration. 
 
Entrainment
In simple terms entrainment is the phenomenon in which two or more independent frequencies synchronise with each other. One object can actually change the vibrations of another object.
 
If you have two vibrating objects with the same natural frequency or corresponding harmonic, they will both have a forced vibration affect on each other. This process, given time, normally leads to a condition where both objects automatically synchronize. Once complete synchronization has occurred both oscillators are able to vibrate with less energy.
 
A well known example of this is the grandfather clocks experiment. 
 
The Dutch physicist Christian Huygens, a contemporary of Isaac Newton, discovered entrainment in the 17th century. Huygens was also the inventor of the pendulum “grandfather” clock. He had a room full of these types of clocks of various sizes. One day he went around the room starting the pendulums of the clocks in motion at different times. When he left the room, the pendulums were all swinging individually. When he returned the next day, he found that all the pendulums of the grandfather clocks were locked in step with the largest of these clocks.
  
Other examples of entrainment can be found in the way music influences our respiratory rate, heart beat and brainwave states, or even finding a mutual pace of walking with a friend. Women living together will often have a menstrual cycle that synchronizes together
 
 
Relaxation
The common aspect to any modality or therapy is to assist the person and their body with stress reduction. Any form of relaxation will assist with the body to achieve homeostasis. Whether that be listening to favourite music or walking in nature, finding what suits the individual person can generate effective results.
 
 
Intention
What I also would add is intention and choice as being a core component to any healing journey. This element for any therapy in my perspective is the key to any transformation to occur. The choice to ‘be well’ for example. 
 
Jonathan Goldman (who I trained with) came up with the formula: 
Frequency + intention = healing
 
It means that the intention of the person working with the sound is as important as the frequency which is being projected at a person to create resonant frequency healing. 
 
I resonate with this formula as finding the appropriate sound the person is willing to receive is just as vital as the intention of both parties of the giver and receiver of the sound. 
 
FQ: Is there any touch involved? Why or why not?
YL: In the one to one sessions there can be touch involved but not an essential part of the session. It depends on the persons sensitivity and what their body requires.  Touch maybe through the use of tuning forks lightly applied to different parts of the body and on the meridian lines, And some of the lighter sound bowls maybe place on the body e.g stomach
 
Going back to everything is energy, the vibrations will be working on many levels not only our physical body but also on as what people call the subtle bodies and many people associate with a chakra based energy system. So sound is not just an auditory experience – it is like receiving a massage with sound.
 
FQ: Can you share some of the reasons your clients come to you for sound therapy?
YL: From pure curiosity to finding ease with physical ailments, clients have varied with their reasons.  The most common reason people come for sound therapy is to reduce mental and emotional stress.
 
I have had one client who is an ex-dairy farmer who did not want to go down the hip-replacement surgery route and wanted to a different approach and heard about sound healing. Through several sound and energy sessions, together we were able to reduce the physical discomfort is body was experiencing, gain better sleep, go for longer walks and he was able to carry out everyday activities with more ease. 
 
The group sound bath is an accessible way for people to ‘try it out’ and that openness is having some profound effects for some people being able to have clearer insight to questions they have about their life.  Most common feedback is better quality of sleep and being able to calm the ‘monkey mind’. 
 
I have had one person share with me that they had been experiencing sciatica for a long while and after just one sound bath she was able to get up off the floor and walk to her car with ease. A year later she is still pain free.
 
Another person experienced intensity in their neck region during the sound bath then a sudden release in tension. They tell me that they had suffered years of neck problems from playing the violin and was able to move her head more freely after the sound bath. 
 
FQ: How do you determine where an energy block may exist in the body?
YL: I always have a dialogue with my clients before the session to see what is going on for them whether that be physical, mentally or emotionally.  ‘Your biography becomes your biology’ is a notion that is often referenced in vibrational medicine. Referring to all things we take into our body not only food, but our thoughts, actions and choices. 
 
So the physical symptoms is one way to identify where the ‘blocks’ or ‘holdings’ as I call them, are in the body. Other signposts will be in what the clients share with me in terms of the mental and emotion patterns they are experiencing. It’s a collaborative session, so we work together to achieve a different level of awareness which can assist with shifting the blocks. 
 
The draw with sound therapy is that we don’t necessarily have to talk about every issue and assess and analyse it. The sound vibrations does its thing. Whilst it may be helpful to acknowledge some holdings, not everyone wants to go there and talk about it.
 
From a more ‘woo’ perspective I am able to intuitively tune into the body and notice which area of the body on or off the body sound is required. It’s like the body is speaking to me and sometimes I sense it in my own body.  
 
 
FQ: What can a client do to make the most of a sound therapy session?

YL:

• Find a practitioner you resonate with (excuse the pun!) 
• Do you feel comfortable with them? Do you like the sound instruments they use?
• Have an intention for your session and discuss that with your practitioner 
• Be open to receive and let go of expectations of what, when and how things may show up
• Allow some time after your session some silence to integrate your session.

 
FQ: How can people practice the benefits of sound therapy on their own in everyday life?
YL: 
Passive 
There are many audios people can access that are made for relaxation purposes and there are also some audios that are specially recoded that can entrain brainwaves to different states called binaural beats. 
 
 
Active
‘Vocal toning’ which is a simple and powerful way to meditate using our voice. It can be done alone or with a group.  We all have an inbuilt instrument and it’s FREE! Vocal toning is the creation of extended vocal sounds on a single vowel. No melody, no words, no rhythm, and no harmony - just the sound of the vibrating breath. It is a simple yet powerful technique, accessible to everyone regardless of vocal ability or training.
 
Just 5 minutes of humming on a regular basis can lower blood pressure and heart rate; reduce levels of stress-related hormones, release endorphins and enhance sleep.
 
These are just a couple of simple ways to practice sound therapy. 
 
FQ: How do loud noises and sounds that cause discomfort affect our mind and body?
 
YL: It depends on the state of being of the individual and their allowance or resistance to said sounds. I used to live in London and didn’t notice the diggers/road works affecting me, yet for some this causes some huge distress.  My experience may just a short exposure to those noises, but over longer periods of time I may have a different response.  I personally don’t like metal on metal sounds, but I know for others this is okay for them.
 
I think ANY discomfort experienced by an individual will have some affect on us physiologically and psychologically. Exposing ourselves (or our cells) regularly to something one does not like is bound to create stress on our systems. So one can either look to release the resistance to the noise/sound by changing their perspective of it, or change the situation.
 
‘Acoustic trauma’ as it’s known, is where certain sounds or noises can damage the ears. For example, extremely loud sound strikes such has high powered rifles being fired or repeated and extended exposure to high noise levels such as aircrafts. There are many studies and articles on sonic safety, it has been noted that there has been an increase in auditory damage with the popularity of MP3 players with earbud style headphones.   
 
Going back to vibrations, it seems that we all have a preference of frequency to operate in and anything that is out of that range is going to be uncomfortable because there is some belief we don’t want to be entrained to. There are no right or wrong sounds or frequencies, like tastes in music, we will all have something we prefer to listen to and things we don’t and that may change over time too. So perhaps we can all be more aware of our choices of sound delivery and it’s loudness. The body never lies so go with how your body is feeling. What do we allow ourselves to be entrained to and are we okay with that?
 
FQ: What's your opinion on the thought that all disease and illness is related to stress?
YL: I would say that a large number of diseases and illnesses is related to stress.
 
My interest is looking at what’s creating the stress in the first place and in my opinion it is often a conflict in individuals where what they believe is in contrast to how they are actually living their lives.  As many say the disease is actually ‘dis-ease’ – where there is a conflict we have with a particular situation we are in but we don’t often have the tools to know what to do about it. 

Are our beliefs and values coherent with our actions? How many of us are in harmony with how we actually want to live and be in the world? 
 
My way of working is to invite light into people’s lives so that they can make inspired choices to generate a better way of living. Offering intentional sound as a way to do that makes it more accessible to many. 
 
When we are in harmony with ourselves, we can gravitate to those that we resonate with and create beautiful symphonies together we call our reality. And oh my there are many realities to play in! 
 
Yee Ley is a Sound Healer, Intuitive and Facilitator of Possibilities. Yee Ley provides transformational classes and sessions around the globe and aims to invite light into people's lives so that they make inspired steps to create greater. She also has a range of albums called Sonic Tonics which is available on all major digital platforms #yeeleylau #sonictonics
​

Who am I now?
I’ve rewritten and updated this section so many times wondering what is relevant about me to share here. Everybody has a some sort of transformational and personal growth story and mine is no different. It seems us humans like to connect and relate through story. So here it is

In short I have transformed my life from being a depressed, confused and stressed being of wrongness, to an explorer of creativity, lightness and expansive possibilities. At age 11 I tried to take my own life, but thank goodness I did a bad job at it. I contemplated suicide several times in my teens up until early 30s.  But now I have tools, options and choices to navigate my way through those moments. Being present with what was and what is without judgement is the ongoing journey of mastery for all of us and it is something I am very passionate about doing.

I managed to change my perspective in life from things being NOT possible for me to anything IS possible for me. I found that life can get better (and better and better) and that choice is certainly available. A lighter way of living IS accessible when we’re ready to choose it and receive it. ​
​

Intergenerational Trauma
​
I was a quiet, shy, obedient young girl who was not willing to own and claim my voice in the world. I was coasting on mediocre - not sticking out too much, but doing well enough in life to keep out of trouble. Blending into the background was my coping strategy in life.

'Freeze and fawn' was my modus operandi created from a collection of handed down trauma experiences as a child. My parents were born in HK and my paternal grandfather was sold out as his own family were so poor. He grew up becoming bitter, abusive and turned to the bottle. My maternal grandmother was put into a mental asylum, leaving my mother to 'mother' her siblings at tender age of 16, whilst her father was away a lot working as a chef out at sea. So from a systemic constellations point of view, both my lines had experienced interruptions in the flow of love and those living were compensating for that to try and re-balance the system.  My strategy was to become super obedient, fast and keep everything tidy to win my parents approval. It was never enough.

Was functioning from fawn working for me as a young adult? Well, it did to a certain extent. I did quite well in my so called career in the corporate world being super efficient at delivering the tasks at hand.  I had a long term relationship, owned a London apartment, and had become a Business Analyst. Fancy.

It was in 2007 when the universe delivered a couple of catalytic events for me that changed the course of my life. This came in the form of my then partner announcing that he was sexually confused and that he had contracted HIV. Wedge number one. Wedge number two came the day after. I was informed by my family that our aunt had committed suicide. These events were enough to create a flip my world upside down and prompted me to question everything in my life and I mean EVERYTHING. The cracks I had covered up from my childhood were ready to be seen, as well as uncovering the intergenerational trauma. I had to tear up my life script of beliefs I was holding and re-hash a new one. And that I have done several times over.

It also turns out that my soul/universe/god/me was giving me a big nudge to make a different choice and usher (push) me into the world of woo and all that comes with it.  

Moving from a logical material liner world of order to a world of energy, abstract realms and self-enquiry was quite a challenge at first.  But deep down I knew this holistic ballistic way of looking at life was what was missing in my world. It has been a wild and crazy adventure of deep healing, joyful expansions, speaking to things I can’t see and all other weird experiences in between to reconnect to the truth of who I be. Learning to land back down to earth and integrate all of that with the world we live in today has been my calling.

The journey never ends. Forever seeking to expand ones consciousness and to realise that I/WE already AM/ARE. Freedom comes when we realise we already are. Like many other healers, coaches, therapists, meditators and cosmic bunnies out there - I have received many life learnings, tools and expansive experiences that light my life up and a whole heap of experiences that did not light up my world. We all have some level and form of childhood trauma that impacts the way we adult in the world.

The great news is that there are many healing practices out there and it seems the collective are ready for that healing, or at least be okay to have a look and talk about it.

Healing for me is not about fixing things.

​Healing for me is being the space of no judgement so that people have more ease with the choices they have made in the past and be able to address the difficult and shadowy aspects of their life; changing the unconscious to the conscious. 

Shedding light onto the matter.  That's where the magic is for me.

Light Your Life
That brings me to the here and now.

All the tools, trainings, certifications, initiations, studies, weirdiverse experiences and reconnections to me, my ancestors and lineage to source I have tapped into so far, I can access and bring that forth to meet you in the moment that is ripe for you, me and we.

Like a spark of light igniting the spark in you

Joyous choice and exploring possibilities are at the very heart of what I do and can bring these to whatever area of your life you desire. In what ways can I work with you that invites lightness into your next inspired step?

Whether that be using sound vibrations to assist you back to your coherent resonance; or self mastery sessions releasing limiting patterns from your world or voice alchemy classes to transform how you show up in the world. What contribution can I be to the change and choice you would like to see you your world? Are you ready to ignite your light within?
Yee Ley xx

About
Kia ora and welcome to Light your Life! To this space, place and reality. This is part of my world. I am the explorer of consciousness of all there is.  

Evolving
This online portal has been through many different forms as I evolve and expand my inner world, so does my outer world and offerings.

A few of you who have been following my journey from the start may have noticed many changes, re-brands and refinements and rebirths of my offerings over the years.  Not only going back to my Chinese name Yee Ley early this year in 2017 after being called Lily my entire life, changes have been gently (edit: radically) taking place with my website, my belief systems, where I live, my partners, my circle of friends, goodness, even my wardrobe has had a major make-over!!  

Conscious beginnings
It was in 2011 that I came out of the so called 'spiritual' closet with the birth of the 'Lil-star' brand offering Reiki sessions and classes with the tag line flavour of that moment 'Helping you Find your Inner Peace'.  This was me in London; back then a sought after IT Business Analyst who was ready for the next exciting adventure. I had many clients come see me at my tiny home London clinic where I also held meditation classes whilst still holding down the 'office job' for 3-days a week.  It was fun to have the variety as I also dabbled in photography and played touch-rugby in the local area. I also hosted and collaborated with a few other people in the healing sphere too - a theme which seems to have carried through to my work today.

In the background I indulged in spiritual classes and workshops with the desire to be a clearer and better version of myself. A new healing theme emerged around freeing my inner-voice and so sound came into my life in a BIG way.

'Continual refinement of the self' is one way to look at life and is what I subscribe to. In 2013 my inner-compass guided me to an around the world adventure, what some call a soul-retrieval quest as I visited certain places and spaces to help me remember and receive and perceive more of me.  I was told I was 'planting many seeds of light' around the globe.  I thought I was learning about organic farming & sustainable living to be honest as my way of moving out of the mortgage loop. But nonetheless it was a great adventure of fun and laughter for sure, whether I was planting seeds of light or not, I received more of who I be for sure and still continue allow myself to do so today.

The move to NZ
After my year long travel it was clear that New Zealand was to be my new home. It was calling me to come over and so I made the move to the land of the long white cloud in 2014. Being welcomed with opened arms the move to New Zealand was easy. Saying goodbye to my friends was not so easy as I was saying goodbye to a my old life in many ways. But thanks to the internet, I am able to stay connected to loved ones.

The travel experience and move of homes prompted a re-brand of my offerings. I wanted to integrate all that I had explored and my inner-voice work was also getting stronger. 

What if everything and anything already exists and it's just up to us to just choose it? ​

The Lil-star brand changed with a new tag line flavour of 'Exploring the infinite ways of being and creating you'.  Bit of a mouth full! But that's what I began to realise was my theme of my life. Well it can be for everyone else. Explore life. Life is there to explore. We are everything, not any ONE thing!  I perceived the notion 'we are infinite beings' on a whole new level.  It finally dawned on me that What if everything and anything ALREADY exists and it's just up to us to choose it? 

What is it we are all choosing and is it working for us?  How about that? So there's a lot to explore my friends!!!

Letting go of Lily and Lil*star
As the traveller and explorer of all there is, you get used to packing up, setting up, packing down, letting go and saying a lot of goodbyes, shedding a lot of tears as well as welcoming many new hello's and belly laughters on all levels. Letting go included dear friends, to belief systems and self created identities one of which was Lily.

Lily is who I have been called since birth for 41 years, but ironically it's not on my birth certificate. Yee Ley Lau is my birth name and no-one has ever called me by that name until now (2017). My parents called me Lily as a way to help integrate into UK life and it was a Chinese trend to have an 'English' name.  So long story short a French gypsy traveller had a look at my palm and ran some numbers through my name, he said Yee Ley was more appropriate for my life path as it held the vibration of 'awakening'.  Yeah I'll take that!  So ta dah....in early 2017 I made the transition from Lily to Yee Ley! Then oh my, everything in my life re-shuffled to align with that vibration.

Lil*star did not make sense anymore as that was a play on the name Lily. So here we go again with another re-brand and a re-shuffle of my offerings. Yee Ley Lau with Light Your Life.  

Light Your Life
One of the learnings of the explorer is to travel light. Taking unnecessary items with you physically and metaphorically is just well, too darn difficult, inconvenient and heavy! Always seeking the lighter path, the lighter choice is what I have been learning to do and getting better at and I'd like to share those tools with you.  I'm liking making choices that are fun, light and easy. And there are so many ways to do and be that light.

Hence 'Light Your Life' - is the flavour for now.  What can you do or be that lights your life? 

Light can be interpreted in so many ways from the physical sensations to bringing in more pure divine light into your life and yourselves and your cells.

Light is a form of energy
Light is both obvious and mysterious 
Light can make things visible
Light can illuminate, and ignite
What else?
What ways can you lighten your own life? 

What to expect and not?
So with all of the above, I have to tell you now that being an explorer means that I travel here, there and anywhere in any given moment in all senses of the world. I've been told that I'm in my Aquarian phase of life after being in 30 years of practical grounding analytical Capricorn.  This new phase which apparently I've been in for 10 years already, brings a theme of being fluid and going with the flow and bringing about a new ways of living and being that contributes and uplifts universal consciousness. 

If you are looking for regular classes at the same location, and monthly top 5 life hack blogs, and multi-tiered training workshops, that's not me anymore. 

I ride on the infinite waves of consciousness exploring itself and create expressions when the moment is ripe.   I rendezvous with who is ready to meet me there. So what to expect with Light Your Life are moments created for you to explore more of who you be.  I facilitate the space of possibilities, a place for you to dare yourself to go beyond what you know and bring through your potent capacities and creative expressions without judgement.

No fancy dancy certificates to give out, no hierarchy levels of ability to achieve, no heady analytical stuff.

Just the space
To explore
And In joy
All there is

That YOU ARE.

Where can you find me?
Well, Facebook, online, this web space, on the phone, popping up in different locations around New Zealand.
Online sessions (i.e. FB, phone, zoom, Skype). In person sessions will vary depending on where I travel to.  Also the magical mystical wonders of the Universe will ensure a rendezvous will happen when the moment is ripe in response to your ASK that you have been putting out.

With joy, love and light

Yee Ley xx