Meditating to the Beat of Your Own Drum

Group Drumming Circle at Inner Bliss Spiritual Health Center helps people deal with trauma, anxiety.

DULUTH, Minn.- A group in Duluth is trying something new with meditation: connecting with themselves through drumming.

Just follow the pounding sound down to the basement of the Inner Bliss Spiritual Health Center on East Superior Street, where you’ll find the group drumming circle.

“It’s almost primal in nature, everyone can pick up a drum,” said drumming circle leader Gini Breidenbach.

No experience is necessary to participate in this group of people seeking transformation, connection, and empowerment to a different beat.

They meet every two weeks on Sunday at Inner Bliss at 6:30. It’s totally free, but donations are welcome to keep the event sustainable.

It was all was started by one person, seeking some healing.

“To deal with a really traumatic event in my life,” Breidenbach said. “The process was so powerful of working together not just with other people but with the power of the drums.”

The group thinks about their intentions for the drums, then plays different beats to feel the energy of the world around them.

“They say that drums are a sacred instrument, a sacred tool that allows us to connect with the energy of the universe, with a higher power–whatever that may be for you,” said Breidenbach.

She knows it works, based on the impact she feels, and what’s felt by others who have drummed with her.

“I have people that drum with us that experience, that have a lot of anxiety, that experience a real sense of calmness that they don’t find, that ‘s really hard to come by.”

And if the drumming doesn’t always work, being with others always does.

“Often we feel isolated and alone in our endeavors, in our challenges, and this is a way for people to come together,” Breidenbach said.