In a half-moon formation, nine yoga mats lay across from a pile of carefully arranged instruments. With the aroma of essential oils in the air and the lights dimmed, the low hum of a glass singing bowl marks the beginning of the weekly Sound Spa at Awakening Wellness Center.
“Let your intuition open up and connect with your energy… you just get to be,” Gloria Rice, 36, softly tells her participants, who are now laying on their backs with eyes closed.
Sound Spa w/The Mystic Voices
Every Mon. 6:30 p.m. $15
Awakening Wellness Center, 2126 1st Ave. S, St. Petersburg
Every Monday night, Awakening Wellness Center in downtown St. Petersburg hosts a “Sound Spa,” during which The Mystic Voices, a Clearwater-based acoustic duo made up of Rice, 36, and Laura Stack, create a healing space with gentle sounds of guitar, harmonized singing, dulcimer, ukulele, singing bowls, and gentle percussion. This sound immersion, which is meant to bring peace and balance to your mind and soul, is completed with essential oils and candles. Not even honking car horns and the downtown St. Pete bustle could interrupt the peaceful bubble that The Mystic Voices created.
Awakening Wellness Center specifically places its Sound Spa on Monday nights as a way for participants to wind down after a chaotic weekend and get a tranquil, clear-minded start to the rest of their week.
“This Sound Spa is a nice way to bring your mind back into balance,” Sierra Michelle, Awakening Wellness Center’s social media manager and event coordinator tells CL. “To remind yourself to be mindful and present—and to ultimately hold a space for yourself.”
With a combination of original songs, covers, chants, and positive affirmations, The Mystic Voices' sound healing session is much different than the “Sound Baths” that Awakening Wellness Center hosted in the past. The Awakening team was particularly impressed that the self-proclaimed “conscious acoustic-folk” duo incorporates its own original music into the healing process of the Sound Spa—an aspect that is unlike all of the wellness center’s other sound-induced meditation sessions.
“This particular Sound Spa is unconventional because [The Mystic Voices] write their own music and mantras. It’s kind of the rebel version of your typical sound healing, which usually has just drums and rainmakers,” Michelle adds.
The structure of the hour-long Sound Spa is completely organic and changes from week to week. Rice and Stack let the energy flow and take them where it so chooses. The duo has led similar audio-immersive experiences before—but it took them a few weeks to get their Monday night session just right.
“We do one that is chakra-based and we’ve also incorporated movement before,” Rice, 36, says about her and Stack’s sound healings. “We’ve found the balance between having it be structured, and also lending itself to what wants to come.”
Whether it’s for deep meditation, self-reflection, or simply a place to wind down after a hard Monday, each Sound Spa attendee gets what they want out of the hour-long audio-induced meditation. It’s a different experience for everyone.
Although The Mystic Voices allocate each Monday night to leading the Sound Spa, the duo is still focused on spreading its original music throughout Tampa Bay, with more traditional types of performances. When it comes to Tampa Bay bands that create a spiritual and calm environment, The Mystic Voices should be the first act to come to mind.
The acoustic-folk duo has only been hosting these weekly Sound Spas for a little over a month, but both Stack and Rice—who’ve been a couple for three years—mark this weekly meditation session as just one of the many upswings they’ve experienced this year so far. The songwriting duo heads to the studio at the end of the month and expects to release its first group of recorded songs in May. The Monday night Sound Spas helps The Mystic Voices’ creativity and spirituality flow—just like it’s meant to help its participants. It’s just as gratifying for them as it is for the audience involved.
“I could even feel the energy tonight, it brought me to tears even looking at the people that were laying there—realizing that we’re all so connected” Stack, 38, shared with CL about last Monday’s Sound Spa. “I’m feeling it alongside the folks that are there. When it feels so surrendered, that’s when you know you’re doing what you’re meant to do.”
Some may use music as an escape, others might enjoy the liberty of a live show. We all enjoy it for different reasons. But the regular attendees at Awakening Wellness Center’s Sound Spa use music and its power to better their minds and souls—a concept that even the most avid music lovers might never think about. As an ardent music appreciator, I wanted to clap so badly after The Mystic Voices ended each song. In the beginning, I was listening to the music as a consumer, using their music as a form of entertainment instead of a spiritual service. After I consciously put that predisposed notion aside and started to focus on why I was really there—the tranquility started to filter in.
Follow @cl_music on Twitter to get the most up-to-date music news, concert announcements and local tunes. Subscribe to our newsletter, and listen to us on WMNF 88.5-FM’s “Radio Reverb” program every Saturday from 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
This article appears in Feb 13-20, 2020.