(singing bowls vibrating) - My whole life since I can remember had to be centered around just health.

And so a lot of it is like mindset and the mindset comes from the strength of the yoga.

So when you're in the deep practice of yoga, it's actually clearing out your mind, especially with the meditation yoga.

(singing bowls vibrating) My name is Kari Hawes.

I'm a yoga teacher.

I specialize in sound healing yoga.

It's a meditation practice.

And then I also make crystal jewelry that tie into the sound healing and to the crystals.

(uplifting music) So I was always interested in gemology from the second I was a little kid.

I would make stuff for people to gift it to 'em.

And then the day I turned 18, that's when you can actually start studying it.

So I was studying through GIA, worked for different jewelers here, worked for several high-end jewelers, and then I started working at Elmquist Jewelers in Willmar as well, and was always really intrigued in the stones and what they meant, but they're so expensive at high-end jewelry stores.

Well, with yoga crystals and malas tie together as well.

And so it's kind of like the perfect place for me to be now teaching the sound healing yoga and then making the crystal bracelets.

I find it very meditative to make the bracelets.

It's definitely relaxing.

I'm putting intention to the bracelet too, especially if I know it's for someone specifically and what they're dealing with.

I try to think of my intent with it, what I want for them.

And then I'll always go around with the bowl too before I will deliver, just so it's like freshly charged and energized for the clientele.

So when I was 15 years old in high school I was a three sport athlete, so I was pitching fastpitch softball, hitting for volleyball, and playing point guard for basketball.

And I was pounding on my spine a lot and I started to develop extreme pain in my lower back.

We went into a lot of just the classic primary care doctors and they didn't seem to have an answer.

The pain progressively got worse to the point where I'd be in a ball crying after practice, crying before practice, just struggling.

And so we had a doctor from the area refer us to a surgeon and we went into the surgeon and I'm 15 years old and I had a grade one spondylolisthesis, which is the lowest grade.

A lot of people are familiar with scoliosis, which goes this way.

Spondy just slides this way with your spine.

So your two vertebrae, one is sliding forward, but there are different grades of it.

So a tiny slide is a one, a bigger slip, two, boom, boom, boom, goes all the way up to a five where it's almost not even on that vertebrae anymore.

That surgery needs to be done, like, immediately.

I only had a one.

So the fact that I even had this extreme surgery on a 15-year-old is, like, pretty controversial.

And he immediately said, "We're gonna do the spinal surgery on you.

It's gonna fix your back and you'll never have back surgery again, and you can go back and play all three of your sports."

So at that point I was so excited because I could go play sports again.

That's all I cared about at that time in high school.

So my first surgery at 15 was the spinal fusion and then six months from that they had to remove all the hardware out.

And then in my early 20s, I think I was 20 when it fractured and then that's when I had to have another spinal fusion.

So I had three fusions and, like, two hardware removal surgeries.

So this is the hardware that came out of my spinal fusions in my back, but how they do the fusion is they attach the hardware to the vertebrae and screw it straight into your spine.

Then they put one right next to it, two below it.

So it's like a little cage that they create and then they put these guys, these metal pieces up through the middle.

And then your bone is in between here.

Now with a spinal fusion, they take out part of your hip bone, your own hip, and then they take cadaver, they blend that all together.

That's the most successful way for it to hold.

And then this pulls it together and has it sit like that in the metal cage.

(soft music) I think that alternative medicine and healing is way more important than traditional medicine because I feel as though alternative medicine should be used first.

I also really struggle that healthcare is really two separate things still.

Like we're not having a lot of crossover between Western and Eastern medicine.

I think that could just help enormously because what we're doing is so much less invasive, or side effects compared to so many of the options that may be surgery or medications.

(soft music) Looking back at my journey, thinking about what I've accomplished, I do feel proud.

I just always feel like I have so much more to go, you know?

So I feel like I'm at a good place with starting these things and getting more alternative healing options out to the world and to people.

(soft music) I want people to know that life with chronic pain is a struggle all day long all the time.

And I just want people to maybe be more aware on how they judge when they find out someone lives with chronic pain because you can't see my pain, which is a blessing in a way, but also it's a curse because people don't believe you.

And I think there are so many people living in physical pain and they're hiding it and they're acting like they're not in pain and they're trying to be okay that we just need more awareness.

We need more support.

We need more empathy in life.

(soft music) I feel like sound bowls have changed my life for the better.

Helping people, bringing community, helping with depression, grief, anxiety, chronic pain, vertigo, so many different things it's helped with, so it's so rewarding.

There's just a million things that these bowls can do to help people.

(soft music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by: Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 Kram, online at 967kram.com.

(bright music)