Single Parenting and Singing for Fulfilment - with Emma Baylin
“Singing is a super power, accessible to everybody - which can take you from one bad feeling to something completely different.”
Emma is mum to a teenage son and fiancee to Deb. They live in Hebden Bridge, where Emma is the director of Shared Harmonies. www.sharedharmonies.co.uk
Emma always enjoyed singing but never knew how to make a proper career of it.
We discuss her career in strategy and policy, when she already had the feeling that she wanted to do something with singing. The first links to that were when she had her son. A creativity focused family camp workshop on community singing created a profound experience. Her son became peaceful at singing workshops and she realised “this is it”
Emma had the challenge of training whilst working as a single mum, responsible for everything. She experienced the pull between her sense of purpose and her responsibilities and at one point it all became too much. She became unwell due to the mismatch and went through periods of despair.
The supportive extended family was incredibly valuable but she needed to prove her independence.
“Trust your instincts more.”
Emma talks about starting Shared Harmonies and how there are still aspects of it that are out of her skillset, even 8 years on - but even those are easy because it’s her purpose.
Emma uses singing to tune into her instincts, Kundalini yoga to shift energy - grounding and being in the right energetic place. She uses chants and mantras even when she only has a little bit of time. 5 rhythms dancing leaves her feeling refreshed. Energy Alignment Method helps to identify blockages on a physical, aura and energetic level, in order to move forward.
“we all need those moments of personal replenishment”.
Running a passion-led business, being a passionate parent, partner, daughter - all things you need to put energy into and get energy back from. Replenishment is most needed when we’re busy.
The danger is that you put everything into it and leave nothing for yourself.
We discuss experiencing loneliness at work, not making eye contact, emailing not calling, hot-desking, then to have lock-down on top of this.
We talk about singing online and how to make it work, and about co-created songwriting, including ‘Our Song’ and how this combatted the feelings of grief, loss, panic and isolation of the early pandemic. This creation process included looking at connection to others, nature, self. We talk about how beneficial online communities have been, releasing endorphins, giving individual and collective experiences of happiness.
We look at the mis-match she experienced before. Emma compared the sense of achievement she feels at Shared Harmonies, the body experience of that.
“what could be more incredible than that? Pure pleasure and gift. That’s what running a passion led business is.”
Her mission is to bring singing to everybody and anybody and see what benefits they can enjoy. You don’t need to be an amazing singer to sing. We experience all the health benefits (better sleep, interrupted perception of pain, sense of euphoria, reduced stress hormones, trust hormones and connection with others - whether we or others think we’re a good singer or not. Take up space even if you’re not ‘perfect’. Use your voice.
“We often find the ones who say ‘my voice will clear the room’ get the most benefit.”
We touch on her being a single working mum, taking her son along to singing groups, practicing harmonies in the car with her. She now loves hearing him sing, has a singing family - all blasting out eclectic tunes at family events.
Take Aways
Sing.
Sing with others.
You can sing.
Fill yourself up in the ways that feel right for you - for your body, for releasing, for being expressive, whatever is your mixture.
Trust your instincts more. Use singing to tune into them.
Try Kundalini yoga.
Try 5 Rhythms Dance.
“People are important, we are important, the things that fill us up are important.”
@sharedharmonies @sharedharmoniescic
emma@sharedharmonies.co.uk