Playfulness is something I’m cultivating this year. My playfulness spent too long hiding in the shadows of my own “seriousness” and devotion around my Soul’s purpose, my spiritual path, helping others, and making a difference in the world.
Yet playfulness is such an essential part of joy. The more I’ve invited it into my year, the more my visions and excitement for life have expanded exponentially.
If I were looking for the perfect spiritual medicine for this year, playfulness is it. And the path it led me along is one I would never have imagined….
It all started with a Sound Healing.
We have a local spiritual festival called the Starlight Festival, which takes place in Bangalow in the first week of every year. This was the first year I’d put my hand up to present, and I’d chosen essential oils and plant wisdom as my topic of choice.
Yet I’ve also learned to follow my nudges. I had this sudden urge to reach out to the festival organiser and offer to fill in if any of the other presenters needed to pull out at short notice. I live only 15 minutes from the venue and can speak with knowledge around a plethora of spiritual topics.
It took less than 48 hours and that exact scenario happened. A sound healer needed to pull out, and I was invited to step into that slot. I had a deep sense that this was exactly what Spirit had intended.
My sound healing was taking place on the first of January 2026. The first day of the year holds a special significance. It’s a day of intention, of envisioning the year ahead.
I set my own intention for the Sound Healing – it was Presence and Playfulness. I was choosing to show up in all of my vibrancy, open hearted, multidimensional and playful.
There were a few people in the room when I arrived to set up, and by the time all my beautiful instruments were laid out, the room was full. There were 60 people gazing up at me from their yoga mats, and my playfulness was the first course in the menu they were about to receive.
I began the event in a fun and informal way, sharing about one of the instruments I had brought with me. It’s called a Monolina, and it’s like a stringed guitar on a stand.
As I was tuning it that morning, each time a string came into tune as the note G, my cat who was sitting beside me gave a meow. He was my feline chorus. I shared this story with such joy that my intention and delight flowed into the room.
Essential oils are the secret sauce in my sound healings.
As I walked around the room with a bottle of Envision oil blend, I invited participants to place a drop on their third eye, and to create their intention for the New Year.
Then I used breathwork and drumming to carry them into a heightened state of consciousness. From there we dropped into the depths of the sound healing, with 432 Hz crystal singing bowls (the healing resonance of Mother Earth), Himalayan bowls, chimes, rain stick, tongue drum, Tingshas, and so much more.
As we drew towards the end of the sound healing, something strange happened. I had a vision. I was looking out over the participants, and I could see that they were under water.
The blue-green water was crystal clear. It reminded me of those special days when I go to the beach in Byron Bay, and the water is so clear that I can see all the way to the sand with no distortion, and I can see the fish as they swim around me.
As I gazed over the participants, submerged in a metre of water, I suddenly saw 30 or more sea turtles enter my vision. The sea turtles were close to the surface of the water, swimming above the participants as they lay on their yoga mats. It was the most beautiful and serene scene.
The sea turtles were aware of the participants under them, but unconcerned. They continued to swim, nibbling at plankton, centred and peaceful. There was a sense of interconnectedness, of oneness with all things. We were one with the turtles, they were one with us.
Once the sound healing had reached an end and the participants were gently woken, I shared my vision with them. I knew that the combination of my intention for the sound healing, plus the essential oil blend I’d chosen, plus the Sea Turtle medicine had woven together to create a strong foundation for transformation. I had so many beautiful and heart-felt thank you’s that I left on a high. I knew that a transmission of love and serenity had reached every heart in the room, including mine.
But there was more to come…
A week later I was chatting to a friend and Byron Bay local. As I shared with her about the sound healing and my vision of the sea turtles, she had this quizzical look on her face.
“What day was this?” she asked, and I confirmed it was New Year’s Day.
“I was at Watego’s Beach that day”, she said to me, “And I couldn’t believe it. There were sea turtles everywhere I looked! They kept catching my eye. I’ve never seen so many sea turtles together like that before.”
Her comment took me straight back into my vision at the Sound Healing.
Sea Turtles had indeed been dreaming in Byron Bay waters that day, and they had blessed us with a visit during my Sound Healing.
But they’d done more than that. My own experience of the sea turtles that day was so tangible and embodied, that I became excited. A seed of an idea was borne, to create my own set of Animal Wisdom cards.
This is how playfulness and freefalling allow us to find out Soul’s purpose. It’s there in front of us. We just need to remove the obstacles and the need to control our life, which together prevent us from seeing our inner guidance and the path ahead.
Sea Turtle Medicine
The Native Americans and many other indigenous cultures view animals as sentient beings who come into our life as messengers and personal totems. They teach us to pay attention to the “unusual” around us, and to recognise its significance.
When Sea Turtles appear as messengers, what medicine do they gift us with?
To understand an animal’s medicine, we simply need to look at the nature of that animal and how it lives.
Sea turtles carry their home (their shell) with them. They remind us that our real home is not a physical place in the world. It’s that inner calm and presence that we can cultivate and carry within us at all times. When we feel vulnerable, we can reconnect with this centred place inside and we are instantly “home”.
Sea turtles use the stars to navigate. Their medicine teaches us that we may be in this world, but are not of it. The more we connect with the cycles of the Earth and the Stars, the more aligned we are in our own life’s journey. Through connection with nature we find our inner connection, our inner compass.
Sea turtles are also unhurried. If you watch a sea turtle, it calmly swims in the ocean, picking at plankton, allowing the ocean's currents to guide its journey. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Here, Sea Turtle medicine teaches us to move forwards in life without the need for manic action, but rather with a very intentional, deliberate pace which enables all obstacles to dissolve under the steadfastness of our actions.
If you are reading this, then Sea Turtle Medicine is also here with you. How is this wisdom needed in your life right now?
