“Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” ~Kahlil Gibran, Author, The Prophet
Peace is not only silence and stillness — it is also expression: Music, voice, and vibration are some of the oldest ways we humans have remembered our interconnectedness. They dissolve boundaries, spark belonging, and awaken compassion.
In this second part of our Ahimsa in Action series, in honour of International Peace Day, observed around the world each year on 21 September, we share reflections on how sound, song, and collective creativity can become powerful practices of peace. These offerings remind us that when we sing, chant, or create together, we are not only making art — we are building bridges of connection that ripple into the wider world.
Music My Lifeline: How it Can Heal Past and Futures
by Shervin Boloorian
“Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” ~Kahlil Gibran, Author, The Prophet
Every refugee child who survives does so like a sapling transplanted against its will—On the outside giving one appearance of “I’ve got it together”, but on the inside under the surface, struggling to find roots and grow.
For years I lived as if my spirit was unhooked from my body. Troubled and working through loss alone. My parents couldn’t live alongside me, even when they were physically there and doing their best. Silent (and not so silent storms) of grief and shock left their mark, forming for all my siblings a nervous system that still hums with fear. Some things stay unspoken.
My journey to make sense of my family’s plight led to Washington D.C., where I was a burned-out peace coalition policy advisor. It was there I knew I had to change careers. Since then, Bali allowed me to start recovering from D.C. life, while anxiously witnessing the endless wars in my birth region escalate. Millions more have now either gone or been displaced; undergoing the same fate, or worse.
Through these decades, music was always a repairing force. It was nostalgia for my parents, but for me, it rewove the scattered threads of my confused identity back together.
When I began my journey with the healing voice, I realized that heartfelt human expression could be a conduit for comfort and belonging. I started singing to others in the way I wished I had been sung to, and in doing so, I found a voice for a personal story of hope—a narrative I often silenced for fear of what too much attention can take away.
Now that I more openly share voice and story, admittedly, chaos is still an active part of my life. At my music events, a familiar wave of unexpected shellshock can hit at any moment, pulling me out of the room, lost in the echoes of a painful memory. It’s an ongoing reminder of how making music both embraces and challenges me.
Music’s Power to Create Change and Support Peace
I learned a harsh lesson opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: the peace movement failed because it ignored the human narrative. Unlike the government, which operates on strategy and power, music works on emotional connection. It is felt directly in the heart, and that feeling is the key to all change. This is music’s primary gift—the ability to make us feel beyond what words can say.
The voice is experiential; a force that brings community together and unites us for a common purpose. Indeed it powered a revolution in the Baltics.
Music that tells a human story builds bridges of change where mainstream media build barriers. It provides a platform for the unheard, a spotlight for injustice, and a soundtrack for hope. Songs of protest fueled the civil rights movement. Anthems that revealed the recklessness of the Cold War helped bring down the Berlin Wall. Benefit concerts like Live Aid raised millions for humanitarian causes. Unlike politics, the raw passion of artists cannot be contained.
It’s honesty that makes music a powerful and largely untapped evolutionary force. It tears through any block against our shared humanity in ways that other expressions cannot. This unifying power is needed now more than ever.
Look at Gaza and the larger Middle East (the area of my birth), where war and destabilization are now normalized. For decades, this ancient and sacred land has been fraught with foreign interference, military invasion, and political uprisings. Today it is in the throes of daily famine and massively heartbreaking loss of life that is humanly engineered.
Peace and Spiritual Community Action
This is a crisis that cannot be ignored by those who seek peace. Yet the spiritual community is largely silent. It is time for music artists, yogis and our holistic leaders to end their complacency and to engage in action. It’s not too late for the spiritual community to abandon the harmful complacency philosophy and actively engage in whatever way it can to stop a human disaster that can end with Western pressure. The wisdom of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela remind us that true peace is not a passive state, but an active pursuit. They were great leaders and great spiritualists.
We cannot meditate our way out of the human-made ills of the world. Fierce compassion requires taking a stand. Artists and musicians whose lives have been shaped by these endless failed military disasters should also be backed to tell their stories arm in arm. Putting a human face and voice to “the enemy” after decades of negative stereotyping of Arabs, Muslims and Iranians would make it possible to harmonize our futures and reclaim our common humanity.
Shervin Boloorian is a refugee music artist, author and activist born in Iran. He launched Yoga Barn’s sound healing program in 2012 and has released his brand new song for peace with Iran to coincide with our peace day celebration. Entitled, “My Free Heart” his new song is in Persian and English and is produced by Grammy and Emmy winner, Kipper Eldridge.
— Shervin Boloorian, Sound Healing
Presence as Power: Singing My Way Into Peace
by Katrina Blackstone
When I reflect on ahimsa, I hear it as the commitment to continue keeping our hearts open.
From what I have witnessed in my work, harm often begins with the way our voices are silenced. For many people, this silencing starts early in life. It might be being told to shut up, that they were too loud, or that they were too much. Sometimes it shows up as being told their singing voice was not good enough, or being compared to someone else and made to feel their voice was less than. However it happens, the message is the same: your voice is not enough.
These moments may seem small on the surface, but they create a deep disharmony inside. When our voices are shut down, we disconnect from our truth, and that disconnection breeds fear, shame, and anger. When those emotions cannot move, they are often projected outward, creating harm in ways both subtle and obvious.
For me, the practice of ahimsa is inseparable from sound. Sound is vibration, and vibration is a bridge back to harmony, not only within ourselves but also in resonance with others.
As a facilitator, I have witnessed how sound can move fear, stress, and the weight of being silenced. I have also seen how it brings people together and can completely shift the mood. When someone allows their voice to move from the heart, whether through a song, an affirmation, or a raw sound that expresses grief or longing, energy shifts, the nervous system recalibrates, and presence returns.
For me, this is what peace feels like: not the absence of conflict, but the active weaving of compassion for ourselves and others into the fabric of everyday life.
When the world feels overwhelming, I ground myself, slow my breath, connect with my heart, and use my voice as medicine. This allows energy to move instead of staying stuck inside.
It takes courage to witness injustice without turning away and to use our voices when silence feels easier. It takes courage to stay compassionate when anger feels easier. It takes courage to keep our hearts open and to continue using our voices when the world tells us to stay small and quiet. Learning to respond instead of react is a skill we cultivate over time, one that deepens how we meet both ourselves and the world.
Ahimsa is not just a philosophy. It is a daily practice of opening my voice and inviting others to open theirs.
My prayer is that we all awaken to the power of our voices, and to the truth that sound, vibration, and breath are forces of healing. As we learn to tune into this collectively, may we rise together in greater truth and compassion… compassion for ourselves, compassion for others… and may we use our voices to cultivate more peace in the world, transforming patterns of fear and separation into harmony and connection.
— Katrina Blackstone, Voice Activation & Sound Healing
Practice Peace (Poem)
by Seed
Ones say peace, ones hold peace talks, ones WAR in hopes of peace..
In order to activate peace, one must become peaceful.peace in mind, peace in body, peace in spirit.inner peace. outer peace. align.
be just, just be, PRACTICE PEACE.
in rising , in resting , in eating, drinking, driving, walking, talking, living…BE EXEMPLARY, it is the way.
unconditional love in all ways…each of our pieces, together
= fullness ⭕️ 360°
— Seed, PiYo Instructor, MC, Earth Pilgrim
Peace Transmission for the Planet
by Kerry Clancy
Peace starts with inner peace, and kindness starts with self-love. When we cultivate love and compassion within ourselves, we naturally spread it outward.
We are not here to tear one another down, but to stand beside each other and unite as one peaceful consciousness. When the nervous system calms, our innate intelligence awakens — the vagus nerve carries codes of compassion and restoration.
From a neuroscience perspective, when we focus on positive emotions like love, compassion, and kindness, our brains release dopamine and serotonin. This shifts our brainwaves into a more harmonious state.
By collectively aligning with the vibration of peace, we amplify this effect and create a more peaceful reality.
Even in daily challenges, peace can be as simple as taking a deep breath and saying: “I’m doing my best, and that’s enough.” When embodied, these small acts of compassion ripple outward, lifting the weight of fear and replacing it with love and light for all.
— Kerry Clancy, Intuitive Energy Healing, Meditation, Sound
Closing Note
Music, song, and vibration are bridges, connecting us to ourselves, to each other, and to the possibility of collective healing. These reflections remind us that peace is not only stillness; it is also expression, creativity, and the courage to lift our voices together.
May they inspire you to explore sound and art as living practices of peace.
🌿 This piece is Part 2 of our Ahimsa in Action series at The Yoga Barn. Learn more about our community and explore ways to give back here
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✨ Next in the series: Yoga, Justice & Activism — reflections on how yoga calls us to courage, solidarity, and compassionate action in times of crisis.
