Cynthia Koh's transformative Spain adventure, and how energy healing helps her acting
Actress relates how she stumbled into her wellness journey and the benefits of self-healing in her subsequent life journey
Ronald Goh
·News and Lifestyle Producer
Fri, 16 June 2023 at 2:04 pm SGT
In this article:
- Cynthia Koh
Singaporean actress
Actress Cynthia Koh with her sound healing diploma certificate in Spain (left) and her new harmonic family (Photos: cynthiakoh27/Instagram)
SINGAPORE - "I have been enjoying acting for the last five to six years, more so than before. Now I see the lens of life in a very different spectrum," says Singaporean actress Cynthia Koh.
What has changed for the silver-screen veteran, who has well over 30 years of acting credits? In a word: consciousness.
Speaking with Yahoo Southeast Asia, Koh opened up on her transformative two-week sound healing course in Spain, how stumbling into her wellness journey changed her, and how self-healing has positively influenced her acting career.
Koh's sound healing adventure in Spain
Koh's latest adventure was a trip to Alicante last month to get a diploma in sound healing, with her friend Yvonne. Prior to Spain, Koh had travelled to Scotland to attend a tuning fork sound healing group session.She recounts the activity of "sounding your name" as one of the most impactful classes in the course, where she experienced a lot of emotional opening and energy shifts.
"Our name has so many vibrations. When you add in a surname, it's called an ancestry vibration."
The activity requires one to continually sound your name. After a full morning of sounding names, participants were instructed to stand in two rows in the afternoon. The group would then sound the name of a designated person walking through the group, as if in a choir.
Through the process, you would have a conversation with yourself, something Koh found extra difficult. As someone who had struggled with negative thoughts, self-worth and self-validation, many emotions bubbled up for the actress.
"How many times do we say 'I love you' to ourselves? Very few, right?" she said.
"I realised that I don't give myself credit for the things I do. I always tell myself that I'm not good enough and that I can do even more. I'm always pushing the envelope, even at my age. I've been very hard on myself. It was during the class that I discovered I don't really embrace myself a lot.
"My voice got louder and clearer. I was also able to acknowledge my self worth, and my ears became more heightened and sensitive to sound."
Koh emphasised that for the process to work, one must be able to "be open to receive healing". During the course, she witnessed an elderly lady in her 60s, who struggled with mobility issues, stand for longer periods and walk better.
How her self-healing journey helped with her patience
Koh first embarked on her self-healing journey in 2011, of which she recalls being careful about sharing her interest in energy healing techniques such as Reiki because the public would deem such practices as "woo-woo"."I was a very impatient person. I cannot work with people who are slow. I need everything fast. I used to have a habit of cutting in or trying to complete a person's sentence in a conversation," she said.
In some situations, Koh's frustration would come first before she could grasp an understanding. To help manage her impatience, she had tried 'Impatiens' from Bach Flower Remedies.
"I do still get frustrated. I still have a temper but it has shifted. When something happens and I feel sad, I sit and meditate and ask myself, 'Why do I feel sad? Why am I disappointed?'"
She now seeks to understand a situation first, before allowing herself to feel the frustration. Noticing positive changes in herself, Koh sought to learn more, and took up correspondence courses up till 2016. She also returned to practice Reiki in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the years, her intuition has grown stronger, allowing her to tune into the energy field of those around her, and having occasional premonitions.
She would experiment with techniques before sharing it publicly through her social media platforms, craftily sharing nuggets of wisdom and personal reflections.
Cynthia Koh on set with co-actress Rebecca Lim filming upcoming 'Confinement' movie in Kuala Lumper (Photos: cynthiakoh27/Instagram)
How energy healing has benefitted her acting career
Koh is currently a certified practitioner in healing practices like Reiki, Bach Flower Remedies and, most recently, sound healing.She describes her self-healing journey as a "personal ecosystem", one that allows her to channel depth into her acting.
Whenever Koh approaches a new script, she would look at the 38 different Bach Flower Remedies grouped in seven emotional areas and ask, 'Which Bach Flower is this role suited for?'. She finds the process fun, as if piecing together a jigsaw puzzle.
"I am very blessed to be doing this healing work. Sometimes I'll talk to the universe and say, 'Okay, I'm gonna play this role. I got no inspiration, show me something.'"
Koh also draws inspiration from her work as an energy healer and therapist. She would occasionally reference stories from her clients in building the character for the roles she play.
Alternatively, the 49-year-old would visit a cafe with a book to sit and observe her surroundings, or sit by her home window and gawk at the robins that fly into her planter box. In moments like these, inspiration always strikes.
"Some people feel guilty for not doing anything. I don't feel guilty at all. I think it's a must."
