Meet Stella Davies

We were lucky to catch up with Stella Davies recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stella, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I believe that each and everyone of us has a soul mission or purpose, and that no one’s is going to look the same as anyone else’s!

I feel like I have been gently (and sometimes more intensely) guided towards my soul path all my life. For me it has been what I felt attracted to, what my heart feels uplifted by, and sometimes what I just feel I absolutely have to do!

I was raised in a family where it was not a good idea to speak your mind and heart aloud, especially if it contradicted the family dictates. If you did (as my older sister did at times) punishment would ensue, so as the youngest I learned to keep my mouth firmly shut. Over time, however, this becomes a habit, a pattern, and I stopped speaking my truth altogether, to anyone, and sometimes even to myself! This was bad for relationships and caused me much heartache and a divorce eventually. But here comes the guidance. I was in a 5 rhythms dance class (a type of free movement) when I lived in London, and through that group met a woman who taught ‘natural voice’ classes and workshops. Her business was called ‘Free the Inner Voice”! Well, I was hooked. The first time I sat in one of her workshops, we sang a Sanskrit mantra together, and it got wild and free, joyful and expansive. I felt like I had come home! I worked more and more with her, individually, learning how to ‘soul sing’, then spent a year training with her natural voice teacher, Chloe Goodchild, where we went deeper still. It was all about allowing ourselves to be expressed, fully, in ways that I had never experienced in my ‘de-voiced’ upbringing!

I went on to teach this work myself (and still do after 20 years), but throughout my life, new people or experiences would light up my path, like little lanterns along the way. One of these was learning the healing modality Reiki. A workshop leader I had been sharing voice-work with at her event said to me afterwards, “Have you ever done Reiki?”. I literally had NO IDEA what it was but was intrigued enough to take her class. Reiki means ‘universally guided life force energy’, and is a hands on technique for deep healing and relaxation. For me my life was like a ‘Before Reiki” and “After Reiki’ experience. It changed my life so much that I went on to take all the other levels, right up to Master, even though I had no clue why really – in my mind I was still a singer and sound healer! But something guided me on that path, and now I teach Reiki classes in and around LA as a substantial part of my work-life. And it feels SO GOOD! Each and every modality I have come to share has come from being lit up from inside, or just getting a feeling of ‘YES’ from my heart and soul. And each has also brought me deep healing and wisdom that I would never have accrued otherwise. And a lot of joy, as it is what I love to share!

I believe in listening to the heart as a guide so profoundly these days, because I can look back at the times I ‘thought’ I should do something with my head, not my heart, and my life has gone pretty haywire at those times, BUT I have eventually been led back to my soul path., through some pretty strange circumstances.

For example, after my first marriage ended, I was depressed, lost, and felt cut adrift from my work and community (I had to move back in with my parents in another town) My self worth was at an all time low, and I decided I needed to get ‘any old job’ just to get me out the house and earning money. I told my mum I was going to get the local advertising paper, and the next day, one was posted through our letterbox, with the house number on it! I said, “Thanks mum for ordering me this”, and she said, “I didn’t!’.

That was weird in itself, but then I ended up getting a pretty low-paid job at a garden nursery through that paper, growing plants for local distribution to garden centers. It was pretty mindless stuff, and I felt completely like a fish out of water with my work-colleagues, until a couple arrived for the season from Portugal. She was a kind of ‘hippy’ who had organized Rainbow Festivals in her home country.

We were standing next to each other in a greenhouse working one day when she said, out of the blue, “Do you know anything about sacred chanting?”. Well she had no idea that with the natural voice work I taught, I had been holding Chant Circles for years, so it was kind of my job (when I wasn’t feeling lost and hopeless and working in a nursery….)!! So I told her that’s what I did for a living, and she said “Well, when are you going to start one up here?” That group started with 4 people every two weeks in her living room, and grew to to 15 or 20 in a community space every week!! Looking back, that was such a clear example of being gently led back to one’s soul path, after a weird deviation from it! If we listen to what brings us joy, and say yes to things that bring us excitement (even if we feel a bit nervous), our soul path or ‘purpose’ will unfold naturally before us.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I love what I do! I love to share healing and expressive arts modalities that support people to feel well, balanced, relaxed and centered in their lives.

I teach and share what I have learned over the years that has helped, healed and expanded my own life. I love to snuggle someone up under a blankie on a Reiki Table when they are feeling low, exhausted, emotionally wrung out or sick, and see them get off at the end of a treatment with bright, happy eyes, feeling relaxed, loved up and grounded, ready to face the world again!

After 20 something years, I still love to sing sacred chants in groups, raising the vibration of this world together, and bringing joy and peace into our hearts through healing sound. And I also love to lead shamanic journeys so that people can tap into their own deep, inner wisdom and receive healing and insight to support their lives.

And these days, one of my big happy places is to lead Retreats in places of beauty, where women (and sometimes couples) can get deep R & R, through yoga, chant, sound and Reiki. This September, my friend and co-retreat leader Renee Green and I are sharing a camping weekend at the beach for women to celebrate the Autumn Equinox – called ‘Harvesting Change’.
And our very special Retreat in May 2025 is an opportunity to swim with wild dolphins in Bimini (between practicing yoga and receiving healing sound!) It’s a beautiful experience to swim daily with dolphins and be with these magical and special creatures who love to play and connect! Go to www.greenrenee.com for Retreats or www.stelladavies.com for all other healing and creative exploits! Enjoy!!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Follow your heart
2. Know you cannot do this alone – get good support when you need it, to get through the challenging times
3. Trust that everything that happens has meaning and purpose and can teach you what you need to grow, blossom and flourish

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

I have never been great with technology and am still a bit of a beginner with social media (it was not a part of my family culture and I was never that excited by it), so I sometimes have struggled to get my stuff out there in the world. But recently, I got myself in touch with someone who is great at this stuff, and we are trading her social media support for Reiki! It’s a win-win! It took me years to realize it is ok to not know something and to ask for help if needed! Don’t make the same mistake – ASK FOR HELP! We can’t all be good at the same thing!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.stelladavies.com and www.greenrenee.com
• Facebook: Stella Davies

Image Credits

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