Healing with Sound
Ask Mary Lydia Ryan and she will tell you she cannot remember a time when she wasn’t singing or playing the piano. She was just two and a half when she took part in her first public performance, held at a church gathering. It’s no surprise then to learn that music has been a large part of her life’s journey, leading her to where she is today. Mary Lydia is a sound healer, a vocalist, a pianist, a composer. Many of her offerings can be found through her creative endeavor Spa Opera®, a musical healing arts organization. Whether working with individuals one-on-one or with groups, she uses sound to heal, assisting others in finding their own true essence.
Growing up, music was at the heart of Mary Lydia’s family life. Her mother was a talented pianist who passed along her love of music to her eight children. She often composed little songs, teaching them to Mary Lydia and her sisters, who would then perform them at various community events. Her mother was not only an inspiration and musical influence in Mary Lydia’s life, she was her musical director, who saw that her daughter received formal training both in piano and singing.
While Mary Lydia’s early molding was in classical music and meant mostly for sacred purposes, often being performed in church, by the time she was a teenager, she was ready to branch out in a new direction. It wasn’t easy though. At first, she was shy about letting others know she’d been creating her own material in her own style. However, she couldn’t abandon her inner calling. She couldn’t ignore that she was being guided to honor her own authenticity. Still, it wasn’t until her mid-twenties that she revealed to others that she’d been composing her own music. She says of the process that led to her musical truth, “I kept chiseling away at all the other stuff I put around it, getting to that inner core.” Despite receiving some criticism for moving beyond what she’d been taught, Mary Lydia did not stop. She allowed for the unfolding of her unique voice and piano sounds.
She credits the process—which she says was like the opening of a lotus flower—as the impetus for her ultimate awakening. She says, “It all has been tied together: my creativity, my finding my authentic spiritual self, and my authentic voice, both physically and emotionally.” She adds, “I think music has been the vehicle for me to go through my awakening process, to find myself, to discover my true essence, my true nature.” Of the journey, Mary Lydia says it was often painful. She had to face both the light and the dark aspects of her life. However, she adds, it was all beautiful.
In finding her muse, Mary Lydia explains she just kept going deeper and deeper into self-discovery. She recognized that her music flowed through her, originating from a place that was beyond her. She explains, “Source communicates through me, through the music that I’m able to channel.” Mary Lydia shares her connection with source through her musical gifts, either signing or playing the piano or both.
Allowing her artistic gifts to move through her has led Mary Lydia to do her amazing work as a sound healer. Hearing her perform, the listener understands that her beautiful voice and music come from her soul. For doing a sound healing, she explains, “I just allow the energy and the sounds to flow through me specific to what that person needs at that moment. So, I feel like I get to then just be a facilitator of that divine energy coming through for the person I’m focusing on in that moment, unless it’s a group setting, then I can expand it to the group.” Sharing her music in this way brings her great joy.
Going forward, Mary Lydia plans to keep allowing more of her soul essence to emerge. Through her musical work, she intends to guide others to do the same. These days, she is excited about how the collective is moving into a new earth paradigm, how we are dropping old structures that no longer serve us. She says, “I really celebrate and love that we are moving out of those times and out of that paradigm and that structure.” She makes it her mission to help each client connect with their essence, letting it shine. Her work shows how healing with sound adds to this transformative process.
By Karen Helene Lizon
