News
Gateways to Now
Years ago, I had an epiphany while listening to Eckart Tolle’s Gateways to Now . The recording/talk, Gateways to Now, was given at the Findhorn community in northern Scotland. It was a fascinating and enlightening talk. However, there was one point he made that I found upsetting.
This is what I heard: He said that Gateways to now are right here, right now, always and it takes nothing special except awareness and attention to live in the now. Some people will spend their entire lifetimes meditating, doing yoga or some other “spiritual” activity to come to it, but it’s always right here, and then he kind of chuckled in that special Eckhart Tolle kind of way, as if to dismiss any activity or exercise related to mental awakening.
That kind ticked me off. I listened that section over and over trying to understand where he was coming from. In hindsight, I’m confident what I heard wasn’t really what he was saying, but it became a point of contemplation for me. After all, I had spent years dedicated to meditating and reading spiritual books to achieve exactly this thing he was now chuckling about, seemingly, in mockery of my dedicated practice!! Gateways to now are nothing special and they’re everywhere, all the time, I thought angrily in disbelief, harrumphing and crossing my arms in frustration.
But, he was right…
It took a handful of years, maybe ten, for me to realize he was right. I came to understand this while working through Michael Brown’s The Presence Process, a remarkably, practical book for “achieving” presence. In some ways, I would say that it’s the practical manual to achieving the things that Eckhart Tolle talks about in The Power of Now and later, in A New Earth.
All of this is to say, that gateways to now are everywhere, all the time. One of the primary gateways to now, for me, is the Ambient Soundbath. I don’t listen to the Ambient Soundbath as the composer or creator, but rather as somebody just looking to get centered, aligned with the now and aware of the present moment. I’ve found a way to remove my ego from “my” work and just immerse myself in the sound. I can use the Ambient Soundbath to wash the troubles of the day away and bathe in the pure sound of the present moment. Eckart was right: Gateways to now are always right here, right now.
Do you use the Ambient Soundbath as a gateway to now, I’d love to hear about it:
A Gateway to Inner Peace
Recently, I changed the Ambient Soundbath tagline to: ‘A Gateway to Inner Peace’. I realized that a focus of meditation, sleep and even relaxation focused on ways to work toward inner peace rather than being in a state of inner peace. This led me to consider the Ambient Soundbath as a gateway to inner peace.
Let me explain.
When I started the Ambient Soundbath in 2011, I wanted to create an outlet for my music, but I also wanted to create a place to feature artists who’s work inspired me. Programs like Music from the Hearts of Space, Star’s End from WXPN and countless long gone regional new age radio programs were also an inspiration. I didn’t have a radio station, but podcasting was new, accessible and freely available to all. In fact, I imagined something, almost like a public service, where people could recharge, take a break from a stressful day, bathe in calming sounds and access a gateway to inner peace.
These were lofty goals.
Podcasting was still new in 2011. The primary feed player was iTunes. There were no feed aggregators, Alexa or IoT devices to play your favorite podcasts. Even smart phones were pretty new. There was also no real accepted interval for putting out new episodes; an area where I’ve struggled mightily to be consistent. Nevertheless, I persevered, urged on by you, the listeners and fans of the Soundbath.
It never should have worked, but somehow it did.
The listenership of the Ambient Soundbath, like most podcasts grew slowly to where we are today: 3,000 subscribers and hundreds of thousands of streams. I’m grateful and humbled by that, but that’s not the most important part.
YOU are the most important part. And through the years, hundreds of Soundbath listeners have written me moving emails about their experiences with the Soundbath. I’ve heard that people use it for meditation, sleep, physical therapy, mental health, yoga, trauma, stress relief, etc. And in all of these applications, you’ve told me that the Ambient Soundbath is a gateway to inner peace. I hold these notes from you among my greatest honors on this human plane.
As we move into the future, it’s important for me to call the Ambient Soundbath what it is. It’s not one of a million music podcasts. It’s not a talking head espousing some perspective punctuated by advertisements, nor is it some meditation, sleep or wellness-adjacent tech tool. The Ambient Soundbath is our gateway to inner peace and I look forward to our continued journey together.
-Matt
Tell me about your journey with the Ambient Soundbath:
Listener Survey Results and Thank You!
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RSS Feed
First off, thank you to everybody who took the survey. Understanding your preferences as a listener is very important to me.
There was a tie between respondents where the frequency of new programs was concerned:
- 45% of the respondents wanted new programs bi-weekly.
- 45% of the respondents wanted new programs monthly.
- 5% of the respondents wanted them weekly.
This was an important one for me, as most podcasts are done weekly; that’s hard to keep up. However, we landed in a place that seems quite manageable. Thank you for your feedback on this.
Additionally, there seemed to be a strong preference for mobile listening over desktop or other devices; that broke down like this:
- 80% of the respondents listen on a mobile device.
- 60% of the respondents listen on a desktop device.
- 10% listen on some other kinds of devices.
The podcast is available in many apps such as Spotify, Stitcher, Spreaker, TuneIn, etc… however, I’m interested in exploring a mobile app for the Ambient Soundbath Podcast – That’s been put on the ‘to do’ list.
Finally, I received some personal responses from longtime listeners. I’ll be getting in touch with you, directly.
I’m always looking for feedback, survey or not, so please feel free to reach out with your thoughts through the contact form on the website.
Also, as we try to grow the Ambient Soundbath for featured artists and listeners, alike, your kind donations are appreciated. Please feel free to use our donation link in the top right corner of the home page or click here.
The Ambient Soundbath has a great community in you.
I’m continually touched by the emails and thoughts that people share with me. I’d love to bring everybody more closely together. I think there’s really something great there. Thank you for being there.
Matt
Ambient Soundbath Listener Survey
Hello, thanks for listening to the Ambient Soundbath Podcast… I’ve set up a very brief survey to learn how you listen to the podcast. Click here for the survey.
-Matt
RSS Feed Update – Please Consider Updating RSS Feed
Hello,
I’ve updated the RSS feed for the Ambient Soundbath Podcast.
Please consider changing it where ever or how ever youyou subscribe to the podcast: https://www.ambientsoundbath.com/feed/podcast
If you don’t want to change your feed, no problem, the Feedburner feed isn’t going anywhere, but it’s unreliable, old and doesn’t always comply with podcast services, so I’m hoping to move away from it. Additionally, if you’ve ever had problems with incomplete episodes or missing images in your podcast feed, this will fix that.
Thank you.
Matt
Matt Borghi – Ambient Soundbath on Insight Timer
For folks that use Insight Timer, I’m now posting music there. You can access my profile and the music here. The entire Insight Timer system works on donations and it’s a great tool for meditation, relaxation and stress reduction.
I’m considering doing some guided meditations there, along the lines of the group meditations that I lead. Please comment on this post if that’s something that appeals to you.
Ambient Soundbath News – 1/1/13
Happy New Year to all of you who have started listening to the Ambient Soundbath this year. We’re only about six months in, but there are many things in the works… Some of those include:
Longer Podcasts in February ’13
The Ambient Soundbath Podcast will be moving to a sixty-minute format and including other artists in mid-February, currently slated for podcast #23…We’ve gotten some questions about how the podcast will give attribution to artists for their works. We’ll be updating the site, here with more information on that, and also including links provided to us to the artists we’ve included. As we begin programming more work from other artists, we will do everything we can to champion and publicize your work. Speaking of which, we’ve been blown away by how much great music we’ve received, please keep the music coming.
Ambient Soundbath CD Release
An Ambient Soundbath release that’s comprised of all original music by Matt Borghi is in the works. Along with this being a digital download, it will be the first physical CD Matt has released in over six years. Thanks for all the comments and notes we received on this, as it really helped us make a decision as to how to move forward. We’ll announce pre-ordering when that’s ready to go.
Ambient Soundbath Apple (iOS) and Android App
This is something that’s on the very distant horizon, but is at the core of what the Ambient Soundbath is about: Making the Soundbath available to you wherever you are, to provide that space for thinking and being. If you like the Ambient Soundbath and having any app development experience, please get in touch.
Thank you and be well sound travelers!