Polyhum Dossier (English) 2023

POLYHUM Human vibrations for healthy, creative and connected communities

Sergio López Figueroa Polyhum® info@polyhum.com

Breathe Listen Connect Meditate Create

Welcome to Polyhum, an innovative enterprise project of social impact and cultural action through the transformative power of music and the generation of new models of preventive mental health in a systemic way, promoting creativity, empathy and citizen participation. Created by Sergio López Figueroa from Gran Canaria to the world, I share this presentation with those who resonate with the idea of a circular economy and the potential of new paradigms of co-creation for a better society.

I invite you to feel the whisper of life like a miracle and inner peace like that suitcase, where infinite intangible experiences fit, full of humor, humanity and humility alongside with other experiences of spiritual growth, sometimes classified as painful or traumatic. We need to continue to create from the heart new paradigms for a better world, where the common good comes from personal emotional balance. Not for tomorrow, nor enclosed in the past, but in this precise moment, here and now. Let’s hum together in harmony a song without words, as children do when they play free of egos, pollinating like bees the joy from the purity of their beings.

Let’s learn to share and remind others what we thought it was lost. In this collaborative process we will be healing and vibrating as we prepare together for a journey towards a new level of consciousness.

POLY polyphonic, polyhedral, polyvalent and pollinator HUM vocal vibration that is felt in the body and resonates in space Polyhum® is a multi-sensorial and creative mindfulness practice on development towards the improvement of social and emotional wellbeing by enhancing the mind-body connection through sound vibration. It is the result of more than fifteen years of observation, study and personal and group experiences both in the UK and Spain.

Created by Sergio López, also known as The Humming Man, it was born with the vision of helping people improve their emotional health in a responsible, playful, proactive and creative way. It uses simple protocols and tools available to everyone: the human voice, conscious breathing and active listening.

The perception of oneself and the other simultaneously and without the mediation of words is the first step to connect with emotions. The mission is to stimulate empathy on a daily basis and helps to control stress through mechanical stimulation of the vocal cords acting on the parasympathetic nervous system. It provokes an instinctive and sensitive relationship with our senses, people and the environment.

EMPATHY TO HEAL

Would you be willing to get out from your comfort zone to connect with a stranger? Are you ready to interact with someone who doesn’t belong to your local tribe who does not speak your language or doesn’t think like you?

Polyhum® users are co-creators of their emotional wellbeing, with active participation in the process

Thanks to the Polyhum creative mindfulness workshops, I learned to trust myself more and not to wonder what will happen next all the time instead of living the experience. Thank you for helping me to think less and feel more.

“Music is medicine for our body, mind and soul” Polyhum® is an inclusive practice but requires continuity. In a world where the visual prevails over the auditory senses, Polyhum integrates mindful breathing, active listening, and simultaneous multi-frequency musical perception. The person becomes an active musical instrument that resonates. It is open to all as it doesn’t require to have musical knowledge to start, because it is a natural and universal practice.

A hyybrid learning model of face-to-face and virtual learning, both individual and groups. The improvisations through certain exercises are self-regulated without the need to be guided by a conductor. Many of the users have defined the experience as a spontaneous chorus without words or who communicate among themselves like dolphins. The interactive meditations are guided by original music created for specific objectives.

Overtime and with ongoing practise it is possible to transcend fixed states of the mind and to overcome emotional blockages with the help of personalized musical repertoire.

After Covid-19 pandemic there is an urgent need to tackle mental health as the ongoing level of stress figures have reached the highest level worldwide.

Benefits of conscious collective humming: Polyhum “talking” from the heart • Reduce social isolation by providing the user with tools to feel connected • Explore creativity, improve communication and reduce anxiety and stress • In a complex changing world and with constant stimuli it restores inner peace • Emotional empowerment also improves sleep quality and psychosomatic pain control.

• Accelerator of quality human connections improves interpersonal and community ties • Conflict reduction in complex environments. Helps to social emotional intelligence • Develop a sense of common good as well as spiritual, social and emotional wellbeing • Reduce fear and resistance to the new with the imaginative participation of users.

Humming is an ancient skill known among yoga enthusiasts as "Bhramari Pranayama," which translates to "breathing like a big black bee."

Scientific evidence of the positive effects of humming for health

https://www.buteykobreathing.nz/blog/potential-immune-protective-effects-nitric-oxide-and-humming • Increased oxygen in cells, improving health and well-being.

• Decreased blood pressure and heart rate • Increased lymphatic circulation: remove toxins from the body • Increased levels of melatonin, a hormone that improves sleep • Reduced levels of stress-related hormones, improving well-being • Endorphin release: self-created opiates that function as natural pain relievers, NO a molecule

associated with vasodilation and the promotion of healing allowing a flow of blood and oxygen to the brain and lungs. 15-fold increase in nitric oxide (NO) levels • Release of oxytocin, the love hormone which creates trust between us Other studies have linked humming with better cognitive control and response inhibition and also better mental health. This is due to its action on the vagus nerve that runs through the vocal cords.

This power cord is the two-way highway of communication between the body and the brain. The vagus nerve is a bundle of fibers responsible for regulating our internal organs our reflexes and - as more and more evidence confirms - our mental health.

Links

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6521749/ https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1164/rccm.200202-138BC https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781620554845

Emotional Literacy Are you willing to donate your time and creativity to help others?

Empathic and Creative Resonance

The Empathic Resonance Empathy differs from empathic resonance in the depth of the connection. It is a total opening to capture the reality of those who are in front of us, understanding emotions, thoughts and personal situations. Likewise, when something "resonates" with us, it invites us to act, to promote behaviors of help, support and altruism.

• Ecpathy was a term introduced by the professor of psychiatry J.L. Gonzalez. Defines the

ability to empathically connect with someone but without being impregnated with the other's emotions. Thus, empathic resonance also makes use of that same characteristic, that of not being carried away by the feelings of others and being able to act in an active and practical way.

• Empathy, like empathic resonance, are two dimensions that should be more present in society.

We need people who look into the eyes and who understand emotions, who see needs and who act. Haste, superficial relationships, the digital universe of new technologies and even growing narcissism completely overshadow this competition.

Links • https://psychology-spot.com/empathic-resonance-what-is • https://academic.oup.com/mit-press-scholarship-online/book/17345

POLYHUM services POLYHUM EDUCATION creative mindfulness for preventive mental health Live Workshops and online courses Video on demand courses (2023) and app development HUM (2024) Social intervention in open spacess, nomadic, international placements Creative drawing and empathy workshop Music in hospitals and care centres POLYHUM CULTURAL alternative experiences of live music Music concert for dogs and their owners Improvisatory and interactive live concert experiences with audiences Live music meditations on Instagram and other social media platforms New music composition and participatory community intervention POLYHUM TOURISM AND PARTICIPATION unlikely connections The routes of silence: Trekking for listening and group activities in nature Space Polyhum: Participatory podcasts and debates on sustainable goals Collaboration with holistic retreats and international music festivals

Business model and sectors EDUCATION B2B and B2C (paid for services and subscriptions) Private and public enterprises interested in wellbeing at work training Non for profit educational institutions, music schools, social care centres Older people living in isolation and people with disabilities or social exclusion Professional users of holistic therapies for the body: Yoga, pilates , trekking…

User of mindfulness apps looking after their wellbeing and health WELLBEING CONCERTS AND MUSIC EXPERIENCES B2B direct sales Digital nomads, seasonal tourism, active senior individuals and groups Dog owners who care about music Classical music audiences, experimental music and cultural consumers Music Festivals and cross cultural sector content providers and curators TOURISM B2B (contract and consultancy services) Sport and glamping travellers agencies, Senior tourists Local development agencies and cultural heritage promoters Hotels and health resorts

“Life is energy, like a sound wave or like the tide that rises and falls.

Although it seems to us that we live in a visual world, our lives are shaped by a constant need to listen and to be heard.”

Sergio López Figueroa Good Deals Conference, 2017 the largest social investment conference in the UK. Sergio facilitated a mindful Polyhum intervention for 400 participants at the opening of the conference who also dealt with the topic of mental health of social entrepreneurs.

Career highlights

Sergio with his younger brother at Las Canteras beach

Education BA Piano studies high degree Spain and compositions studies in Bologna (IT) PGdip music for film (Bournemouth University and National Film School, UK) Mental health awareness facilitator (Middlesex University, UK) Civic participation expert (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University) Fundación Autor scholarship, composition at Sibelius Academy, Helsinki Professional (Producer, event producer, speaker, interviewer) Music teacher for special needs education and autism , London UK Commercial representative and sales for Sibelius software in Barcelona Big Bang Lab Founder (community media education and video production) Public speaker (Barclays Bank, Cambridge University, European Commission Project manager of music and media social project in Delhi, India Online mindfulness trainer (Fundación SGAE) and live workshops Awards Harlock award, composition for silent film, Un Chien Andalou (1929) Tate modern commission of music for film and Berlinale programme European Medea award for media education and use of film archives Ealing council award (London) for innovation in community mental health Cultural Leadership award (British Council) New Delhi residency Changemaker at Southbank centre RFH (Festival of Love 2017) London

Belén, family carer and her mother with dementia https://youtu.be/w-Cwz3vuPZw

POLYHUM TRAINING DURING COVID LOCKDOWN MARCH - JUNE 2020 Activities • 200 hours online training in three languages: Spanish, English and Italian • Four intensive 10 consecutive training days. First online experience • 84 participants took part • Qualitative review and satisfaction of 95% • Deep interview to users published on Youtube channel

Musical Meditations: Paying tribute with a small contribution for the community recovery processes and collective trauma after the Grenfell building and tower fire in London one year after the tragedy that left 72 dead in June 2017

Organizer of mental health public events workshops and debates in London during Mental Health Awareness Week

Examples of endorsements letters

To continue to develop further Polyhum project I am looking for partners and research centres in order to apply for cultural mobility grants as well as R&D development collaboration grants in the fields of neuroscience, music, acoustic, design and artist development in Spain and other European countries looking at practical ways to measure its impact for specific users or new markets. Do not hesitate to get in touch.

Partners Consultants Organisations Individuals Clients Connexions Event sharing Media awareness

Sergio López Figueroa Polyhum info@polyhum.com Whatsapp +34 611098067 (Spain) +44 (0)7811458779

• Youtube: www.youtube.com/hummingman • Instagram @hummingmanart • Podcast Espacio Polyhum https://anchor.fm/hummingman