I get by with a little help...
from my friends
Hello Friends!
For those of you new here…I’m a folk singer and seamstress, inspired by nature in the Garden of England (Kent). My current interest is in neurobiology and the nervous system in relation to mental health.
I’m really glad to have you here reading this. It means a lot that I have this platform to connect with friends, old and new. This email includes upcoming events (women’s retreats and sewing workshops), musings, animal encounters, an inspiring interview and a few recent photos
UPCOMING EVENTS
We had our first Women’s Mini Retreat last weekend and it was wonderful and has inspired me to book more in. Our next 3 events fall in line with the Wheel of Year. Together we will mark and celebrate Lammas, Mabon and Samhain. You can sign up for one retreat on it's own, or to make a commitment to your own personal growth you can sign up for all three. More info and booking HERE
LEARN TO SEW
On 30th June, I will be running my first in person hand sewing workshop. We will be learning how to make a smock, inspired by the traditional Sussex Smock worn in the good ol’ days. More info and booking HERE If you can’t make it in person, my new Skillshare class will be live soon “Hand Sew a Traditional English Sussex Smock Shirt or Dress” Keep your eyes peeled
My dear friend Grace McGeoch recorded her first album recently. The music moved me so much I wanted to ask her some questions about her creative process. Scroll down for the interview. I think hearing about other people’s creative process, the highs and lows, the challenges and the wins helps us. When talking with Grace this week she gave me an inspired idea that she learnt from Phil Weinrobe…She told me that when recording music he really considers the setup and preparations leading to the moment of recording. I think in any creative or business endeavour we have to work to set things up to make them as nice and as easy as possible. This made me recall advice from my friend Wozzy Brewster, who founded and grew amazing charity Midi Music. She told me that when she has to do boring or difficult tasks she sets herself up with a nice drink, treats and makes it as fun as possible. I know this is simple and obvious advice, but the best advice always is. I need to remember this as I have dreams about recording new music, and am yet to have a plan.
Nervous System Thoughts
Last week I hosted my first Women’s Mini Retreat, where amongst other things we discussed and journaled about our nervous system. Learning about the science of the nervous system has freed me from labels like “anxiety” and “depression”, which can feel like prisons. We all have a sympathetic nervous system (I remember it by thinking sym sym sym *mimes revving an engine*). The sympathetic nervous system revs the engine and kicks off our fight or flight response. Fight or flight is a panicked squirrel who flits about, so much to do, thoughts racing, limbs mobilised. Then we all also have a dorsal vagal system, which kicks in if we over do it, in fight or flight. You know when you’ve been in high alert stress mode for too long and then you crash and feel depressed and hopeless. That’s dorsal vagal shutdown and I think of it as Eeyore the donkey. Labelling myself as in “squirrel mode” or “donkey mode”, feels much kinder and much more subject to change than “anxiety” and “depression”.
I was excited when my friend Miranda told me about a relatively new book “There’s no such thing as naughty”, which is all about the development of the nervous system in children. It explains “naughty” behaviour, as simply an overloaded nervous system. I have just started reading it, as my lovely son is starting to experience very big feelings over day to day things. I want to support him in developing a resilient nervous system. I believe that the health of your nervous system is a key factor in the quality of your life. This comes from my own experience of extreme dysregulation and dysfunction, where my life was a deep hole of hell.
It’s got me thinking about recovery and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have found it! I feel very motivated to pull everything together I have learned. I think that’s the only right thing to do. More writing is on the cards this year. I feel particularly inspired to write about my recovery from eating disorder, which was one of the worst addictive/sabotage behaviours to kick.
Animal Encounters
In other news, I just have to tell you about more of my freaky nature encounters. My husband says I’m like a real life Disney Princess, because last month…Not only did I see a hedgehog, two deer and a fox cross the road. I also saw a TORTOISE! Yes I saw a tortoise crossing the road and I had to pull over and put it my car and take it to the reptile rescue centre! And then a few days later I saw an unidentifiable Mustelid crossing the road. I’ve never seen anything like it. It looked like a chocolate coloured weasel. I think it could have been a mink or a stoat. I wish I could have got a photo but it moved so fast.
Tortoise Illustration by me and Bobby, from my Heron Zine
Interview with Grace McGeoch
1. What were the 3 hardest things about making an album?
So there were many hard things, but one of the top three was just getting started and finding the courage and believing that it’s possible. I had to decide to take concrete steps to make it possible!
Another challenge was deciding on the approach and limiting the scope. I had four to five years’ worth of songs that I hadn’t recorded and definitely so many that I could’ve included. I used a sort of intuitive divining process to choose the songs and then order them and then that was it. I kind of just decided “this is it” and around that time I wrote the song Green Heart and knew that that would be the title track. I realised that I had to make some hard decisions that would stick in order for me to progress otherwise I would be going back-and-forth so I guess the second challenge was making enough decisions to allow me to progress.
The third challenge was my lack of technical knowledge around recording, mixing and mastering and even around musical skill for example performing with the guitar and bass. Also during the two weeks I was recording I had a bad cold and lost my voice for a few days. I had to accept that it would not be a perfect offering and that this was the first time I was doing something so it was about learning. The goal was not to create the perfect album the goal was learn how to make an album and I feel like I did meet that goal.
So to summarise the first challenge was getting going and the second was making a lot of decisions to allow me to progress and the third was just the steep learning curve with so many things I needed to learn.
2. What were the 3 best things?
There were so many wonderful things about this project. Firstly it was just exhilarating to be doing it because I had been thinking about it for at least a couple of years. To find myself actually making it happen felt like a dream come true.
The second thing was the process around connecting with other people: asking people for advice or encouragement and sharing progress. I really loved that part of it. You know how the creative endeavour is shaped by other people and those connections.
The third thing was the fact that I was creating something that was a representation of where I’m at and where I’ve been. A journey sort of wrapped up in a thing that can be consumed that others can listen to and take what they will from it. It’s self expression where a lot of effort went into it, a lot had to come together for it to exist. That act of expression feels really great.
3. Why did you make it?
I made the album because I wanted to do it for years and I had recognised that the only way I was documenting my music was through videos I post on Instagram. I wanted to be able to listen to and share songs off of Instagram and to think more about how you actually craft a song that you present to others. This is different to the live listening experience. Why did I make it now? I did the Home Recording School of Song course with the producer Phil Weinrobe who works with Adrianne Lenker. He is very inspiring and his approach gave me the confidence to go ahead and do it feeling like I didn’t need to go into a studio and spend lots of money in order to release an album. He set a challenge for us to record and release an album before our next birthday. My birthday was only two months away which gave me freedom to just get on with it! I had the wish to do it and the creative drive and when the barrier of cost and time was removed, I was away.
4. What is your hope for listeners
I would love for listeners to feel a feeling that makes them feel good and maybe to be inspired to create their own work and share it. Feedback I’ve had has included the word “calming” and I really love the idea that my music might be like a friend to someone in a moment when they need it. It certainly is to me for example if I need to gather myself then I’ll listen to the album and then kind of feel alright again. Each song is full of meaning for me and so it’s different for the listeners but I hope that the feeling I had singing those songs and bringing them together comes through for people and takes them somewhere. I guess one of the things that motivates me about sharing my work is communicating something that’s difficult to communicate in writing or speech but nevertheless is something that’s important for humans to exchange.
Listen to Grace’s Album : https://tr.ee/i3Cg73SDpP
That’s all for now
LOVE ALWAYS WINS
Laura
XOXOXOX
Keep the creative gift moving…Support my future projects HERE 🎁
Find out more about my work : www.LauraLamn.com
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You are a Disney princess! And I have heard good things about that book 🥰🙏
Oh the tortoise drawing 🫶🏻