Gary Remal Malkin

Music is an incredibly powerful phenomenon that touches us in profound ways. For more and more people, music transcends being simply a form of entertainment to become much more: a source of connection to the things that matter most. This approach to music offers a portal to a new realm, offering a direct experience of musicin new ways, providing a glimpse into the universal language of sound. You’ll discover how the untapped power of music, when used in a particular way, can reduce stress, improve your performance in your work, deepen your relationships, and enhance your capacity for gratitude no matter what your life circumstances are. Most importantly, you’ll deepen your ability to feel connected to something larger than yourself.  You will be given direct experiences that will replenish you and strengthen your capacity to serve others more powerfully while being more present with those you relate to. This presentation creates poignant opportunities to connect with what matters most by deepening your ability to listen, open your heart, and find ways to cultivate your unique contribution to the world.

Many years ago, Bruce Cryer – former CEO and now Global HealthCare Director of the acclaimed biotech organization, HeartMath – and Gary Malkin – Emmy Award winning composer and public speaker –  were roommates at Oberlin College, an acclaimed institution where they were passionately pursuing their love of the performing arts.  After college, Bruce went straight on to playing the male lead in fabled Broadway musical, The Fantasticks. Bruce ultimately moved west to develop innovative solutions for California’s burgeoning integrative health world. Gary also migrated west to pursue a career composing music for film and television. For the next four decades, their circuitous paths led them to accomplishments that they never could have imagined, leading them to astonishingly parallel journeys. Cryer and Malkin have now joined forces to share with global audiences in many sectors how important it is to give yourself a regular dosage of that which moves, touches, and inspires you in your personal and work lives. Being in the zone of your true passion enhances your performance, awakens your humanity, engages your heart and spirit, and helps you create a more successful, engaged, and meaningful life. By using the catalyzing power of music and other immersive modalities, you can deepen your creativity, remind yourself of what truly engages you, and in so doing, enter “the zone’ of peak performance. With a moving blend of music, stunning video, guided imagery and personal stories, Gary and Bruce will share what they have found to utilize the power of inspiration to create more balance, fulfillment, success and happiness in every aspect of your life.

Story, music, dance, and ritual have accompanied man’s search for meaning for millennia. Only since ‘civilized’ cultures started to collectively believe that we could only credibly examine the world through the eyes of science, intellectualism, and linear thinking did we start losing the riches of the indigenous peoples’ holistic understanding of the human experience.  While the platforms have changed, the essential elements have not. The use of multi-sensory strategies is now represented in modern culture by television, film, video games, music, the Internet, smart phones, and more. But the content – and the subliminal messages these media delivery systems deliver – repetitively promote values and behaviors that are not only unsustainable, but in many cases destructive to those interested in living an emotionally and spiritually fulfilling life. Studies have shown that the core components of media – images, colors, music, sound, and narrative – can shift our consciousness in profound ways. To dedicate ourselves to sustainable values and practices without acknowledging the ways in which we’re being adversely affected by the mainstream media we are constantly subjected to is like standing by while second-hand smoke is filling our lungs. Join Emmy award-winning composer/producer Gary Malkin as he shares his lifetime commitment to creating socially responsible and transformational media that affirms who we are, what matters most to us, and how we can raise awareness of this issue to create and maintain a sustainable world in which we all can thrive.

From time immemorial, the world’s peoples traversed life’s challenges in cohesive communities, with the vital support of chant, story, and drum. But somehow we’ve lost our connection to this essential source of meaning. Our ability to traverse our life transitions and serve others experiencing emotional and spiritual suffering can profoundly deepen when we use multi-sensory languages—such as music, poetry, and other art forms—to fully awaken our hearts and souls, viscerally bringing us back to a remembrance of who we are and what matters most. Rather than simply using the arts as a form of entertainment, these ancient languages can provide a portal to deepen our connection to meaning, strengthen our relationship to the present moment, and help us cultivate relationships that are healing, authentic, and resilient. When we allow these immersive experiences to touch and inspire us, we become more fluid and open to creating healthy relationships. When that happens, we become more proficient in the art of collaboration, the core capacity for all successful business dealings. When we can be more humane and collaborative in our lives, we become more proficient in our work when we finally understand what it means to be fully alive, grateful for the preciousness of life. Join Gary Malkin in an experiential presentation exploring the generative impact the immersive arts can have in our lives, especially during these times of profound change.

Research has shown that of all our senses, hearing is the first to arrive – in utero at 24 weeks – and the last to go before we take our last breath. This suggests a primary relationship our listening might offer us a bridge to our essential nature, manifesting as an inherent capacity that is often called presence. Presence results when we cultivates a relationship with all aspects of ourselves, our minds, hearts, and souls. In educational institutions, using music-infused strategies (multi-linear sound resources to access whole brain activities) invites us to deepen and broaden ourselves so that we can infuse our life and work with more aliveness and more mindfulness and compassion, creating more meaningful encounters with all of our relationships. It takes courage to integrate all of our humanity, but without it, we risk missing precious opportunities to bring our lives and our careers into true balance. This presentation will enhance one’s ability to listen with the heart rather than the ears. It will involve familiarizing ourselves with our capacity to evolve our emotional intelligence, rather than only our intellectual intelligence. The Art of Human Being is psychosocial workshop beneficial to anyone interested in deepening one’s connection to the humane dimensions of our personal and work lives, leading to a deeper, more vibrant healing presence.

While many choose to ignore or deny it, there is no question that a new challenge to our well-being as a culture has surfaced that is a unique result of the digital era. Even though meditation, relaxation and stress reduction techniques are more popular than ever, our collective attention spans and awareness capacities are being threatened by the plethora of digital devices seeking our constant attention. Clearly the digital age directly challenges our capacity to be fully present with ourselves, our children, our loved ones, and our peers. However, studies have shown that when we engage in some practice that requires us to be fully attentive and present a little bit every day, our immune systems are stronger, our emotional IQ is more resilient, and our effectiveness in work increases significantly.  Now that our culture is permanently wired with smart phones, computers and media inundation, it’s essential for the tech industry to recognize that the opportunity exists for the very industry responsible for these distractions could actually use the resources of media, technology, and science (such as Heart Math, Binaural Beats, the power of music and sound and BioFeedback for example) to develop tools that can help us to strengthen these important human capacities, rather than just expect ourselves to evolve into samurai multi-taskers.  It’s time to engage in ways in which we can use technology to deepen and strengthen ourselves in all ways – so that we can focus more effectively on the things that matter most, especially during those vital moments in our lives when nothing less than our full attention will do.

Studies have shown that removal of the arts from our children’s curricula has had deleterious effects on their capacity for critical thinking, creative collaboration and multi-dimensional learning. In health care we are learning that not recognizing the mind/body connection and excluding the arts in our care of patients leaves us with the same kinds of deficits in critical thinking, collaboration and problem-solving. This leaves our patients with a diminished capacity for buoyancy, resilience and courage to face the challenges of their lives and their illnesses. The arts are one of the principle foundations of the mind-body connection.  A growing body of evidence shows that bringing art into medicine accelerates healing, increases patient satisfaction, and has financial benefits for both the patient and the healthcare system. Join music and healing advocate Gary Malkin in an experiential presentation that will convince you that integrating music and the arts into your work is an imperative for any organizations seeking the most innovative and humane of practices for 21st century Healthcare organizations and institutions.

(A Care-for-the-Caregiver Restorative Program for Professional and Lay Audiences)

Setting aside one’s own needs for physical, emotional and spiritual integration in order to better take care of others is a well-worn and outdated habit amongst those in the healthcare profession. The resulting stress, fatigue, and unexpressed grief from your own personal losses – as well as those of your patients – can undermine a balanced life and optimum effectiveness. The loss of connection with your original purpose for entering the healing arts can lead, ultimately, to” burnout.” This work hopes to inspire a shift in our healthcare culture so that the institutionalized stoicism and apparent lack of humanity in healthcare (which leads to accelerated ‘burnout’) can be directly addressed by offering an experience-rich educational program that will engender empathy, compassion and support through nourishing the caregivers in humane and meaningful ways. Care for the Journey is designed to help you recharge while learning innovative tools to use back home. Featuring a variety of contemplative speaking and listening modalities, along with a unique form of guided imagery, you will be given an opportunity to see each moment as a self-renewing, unfolding expression of your very own healing presence. When this occurs, you will be able to revitalize your capacity to bring comfort and peace to the bedside, home and workplace with increased joy and fulfillment in your life’s work.

Research has shown that of all our senses, hearing is the first to arrive – in utero at 24 weeks – and the last to go before we take our last breath. This suggests a primary relationship our listening might offer us a bridge to our essential nature, manifesting as an inherent capacity that is often called presence.  In health care encounters, using the emotional language of music and the power of authentic spoken word invites us to deepen our listening skills so that we can infuse our life and work with more empathy and self-awareness, creating more meaningful encounters with patients, colleagues, and all of our relationships. It takes courage to face the terrain of our humanity, but without it, we risk missing precious opportunities to bring our lives and our careers into greater balance. This presentation will enhance one’s ability to listen with the heart rather than the ears, leading to results that are exciting and as yet unexplored. Grace in Practice is a cross-disciplinary, psychosocial workshop beneficial to anyone interested in deepening one’s connection to the humane dimensions of healthcare, leading to a deeper, more vibrant healing presence.