Meet Trailblazer Zhalisa Clarke

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zhalisa Clarke.

Zhalisa, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Washington D.C. during a time when it was coined the murder capital of America. I remember dodging bullets as a child during drive-by shootings. I remember when our mayor was caught smoking crack and still got re-elected. I was a child of immigrants, and it was my duty to achieve the ‘American Dream’ so that the sacrifices of my parents wouldn’t have been wasted. And I did just that. I studied hard, went to Harvard for college, pursued a career in business, and I made my parents proud. However, in the process, I somehow managed to latch on to this idea of success with a tight grip. I hopped on the rat race treadmill and sprinted and sprinted and sprinted away from the challenging environment from whence I came. What I can see now, and what I was too blind to see then, was that when you’re on the treadmill you never actually arrive. It took a series of shocks to my system in a variety of ways to get me to where I am today. A very dear friend of mine died at the age of 33. This was followed by a string of deaths around me for the next couple of years. I suffered grief so incredibly deep from these losses. And, for the first time in my life, I was truly aware of my own mortality. It took a series of additional events, from challenges with my own physical health to experiencing the severe impact mental health can have on our loved ones, for me to really wake up and do what I needed to do. Push Pause.

I gifted myself with what I called a ’sabbatical,’ and I worked on my own healing while learning a variety of healing modalities in the process. I submitted myself to the strict tradition of Vipassana silent meditation retreats; no talking, no eye contact, meditating 11 hours a day without moving. I got certified in Reiki. I studied in India and immersed myself in the teachings of Ayurveda and yoga. During my journey, I was particularly drawn to the healing powers of sound. I have been a violinist for most of my life, and while music has always been a part of me, it has been more as a form of art and a form of language. So, when I learned how to heal with Tibetan Singing Bowls, and the immense impact that sound healing can have on our physical, emotional, and spiritual health, the world instantly made sense to me. It has been my goal ever since to share what I’ve learned around holistic healing, through sound, through meditation, through the breath, with those that need it. And that’s how I started my sound healing and meditation practice, Luna Vibrations.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the most challenging questions in life is “Who am I?” The easiest way to answer this question is to either let the past or let others answer it for you. This is who I was. This is my resume. This is what people know me as. For me, it took a lot to ask myself this question and take the time to really answer it. Rather than who I was, I asked who am I now, and who do I want to be? Rewriting the narrative. Redefining what I’m about. Reinventing. And doing so, with intention. This takes courage and it’s scary. But, I’ve just known, deep inside that, it’s worth it. We all have so many struggles. Stress. Anxiety. Difficult things happen —death, illness, job loss, car accidents. Sometimes nothing is happening at all and we’re in a rut, dead inside, uninspired. Trauma is a real thing, often unacknowledged. And, if these ancient tools that I have been so privileged to have learned can help in any way, then, of course, it was worth it.

Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
When I was growing up, I never felt like I belonged. I always felt like an outsider. In my predominately African-American neighborhood, I was teased for “not REALLY being black” because my parents were from other countries, and because I “talked white.” At the predominately white private school where I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship, I was poor and I was dark-skinned and my classmates made sure I knew it. I was very familiar with the concept of Mean Girls early in life. My natural defense mechanisms led me to constantly put up walls of protection, and I’ve been working on tearing these down for many years. That said, these experiences gave me the strength to just BE even in environments that weren’t comfortable. They gifted me the determination to keep on going, even if sometimes I felt alone. And, they forced me to look within and find my value from this place, this place inside, above all else.

We’d love to hear more about Luna Vibrations.
With Luna Vibrations, I specialize in sound healing and meditation as a form of healing our body, mind, and spirit. I lead sound baths with Tibetan Singing Bowls and Access Your Subconscious meditation workshops. I also provide one-on-one sound healing sessions where the bowls are placed directly on the body and you experience the vibrations on a cellular level. These experiences provide a number of benefits from the physical (reduction in inflammation and pain, better sleep) to the mental and emotional (reduction in stress and anxiety, increased focus, enhanced mood) to an overall improvement in well-being and a feeling of inner peace.

For me, this practice is my offering to the universe as an expression of gratitude. I donate the proceeds to Project Worthmore, an organization that supports refugees in the Denver area through a variety of services including ESL classes, a medical clinic, a community farm, and food share.

Do you have any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general? What has worked well for you?
There is so much that we can learn from everyone around us, all of the time. The concept of a mentor seems so formal when there are pieces of knowledge both small and large just waiting for us to discover if we ask the right questions. My advice would be to talk about your passions with everyone that you meet, which is really just sharing yourself with the world, and the people that care about the same things will be drawn to you. One of the things that I’ve learned later in life is that most people want to help if they can. So, it’s not as much of a burden to others as I had once thought. In fact, I love when I can help others, give advice when I can, and I’ve found that when I’ve been on the other side, asking for advice if folks have time, they will gladly do what they can as well.

Pricing:

• Sound Bath & Meditation Workshops are typically $15-25 suggested donation.
• One-on-One Sound Healing sessions vary.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lunavibrations.com
• Phone: ‪720-306-1250
• Email: zhalisa@lunavibrations.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luna.vibrations/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lunavibrations

Image Credit:
Narkita Gold

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