Hi ,

If you’ve ever walked away from a conversation feeling tight in the throat or heavy in the chest, it wasn’t because you “misheard the words.”

Your system heard the energy.

We don’t listen with ears alone. We listen with our history, our sensitivity, and what the body has learned to brace for.

This is part of why the cosmic timing now matters.

With Neptune retrograde in Aries (since 8th July), it can become harder to maintain the subtle facades that once kept us comfortable. The roles we play. The certainty we perform. The truth we keep diluting so it doesn’t cost us our family or belonging.

And with the New Moon in Cancer arriving just after this weekend, there’s a different invitation moving in.

Not to push harder. Not to get louder. But to come home.

To notice what peace actually means in our heart. To recognise where we’ve been self-protecting in ways that look like “maturity,” but feel like self-abandonment.

To ask more honestly: What do I need in order to speak my truth? What do I need in order to listen without defence?

Because when self awareness + safety is missing, communication becomes strategy.

We soften what we mean. We over-explain and second guess. We say yes while the heart says no. We hold back the truth until it turns into resentment, fatigue, shutdown.

This is why I often remind myself the framework of the 4 Levels of Communication.

Because it shows that communication is not just expression.

1st level: expressing yourself.

2nd level: listening and responding.

3rd level: regulating attention and intention (emotional intelligence).

4th level: understanding and responding to someone within their “style” or frame of reference.

Most of us keep trying to improve level one ; “say it better, or use different words.”

But if our nervous system isn’t regulated, we can have the perfect words and still not be able to fully communicate.

Because our tone will reveal our bracing. Our timing will reveal our fear. And our reaction will reveal our need to protect ourselves.

This is also why I know from experience, that sound healing is not separate from our ability to truly communicate.

When our system softens, listening changes. Presence changes. Our capacity to respond instead of react returns. And the throat becomes less of a gatekeeper, and more of a clear bridge between what we feel and what we can actually say.

Our nervous system can heal with sound. And emotional healing is its own deeper layer.

But nervous system regulation is often the doorway that makes emotional honesty possible.

Next weekend, I will be collaborating with Moira for Your Voice Matters weekend workshop on the Gold Coast, 18–19 July (10am–4pm both days).

Over two days, we’ll explore communication patterns, nervous system responses, emotional triggers, boundaries, self-trust, vulnerability, and what it means to speak with more presence and purpose.

And yes, I will be closing the weekend with an hour of sound healing (for integration).

So if the idea of this workshop resonates with you, please reply to this email and I’ll send the registration details. We have few spots left.

Look forward to seeing you soon,

Aknes x

P.S: There is a FREE Podcast Episode now live with Moira and her daughter Laura, that you may enjoy if it supports you with "healthy communication." They speak beautifully about communication as a skill, the power of listening, creating safe space, and self-compassion. This will give you an idea if the weekend workshop could help you x