The Story Behind Watering the Heart Root

In her mid-20s, Mindy began meditating on affirmations (positive messages repeated to yourself) to help her reduce stress and anxiety that were giving her stomach aches. Over the years, she put melodies to some of the affirmations and short prayers, just for her personal use. She found that mindfully singing and meditating on them helped her not only get free of the stomach pain but also let in more love, feel calmer, and be able to better assist others. They have been a beautiful complement to other healing activities, such as psychotherapy and somatic work.

Using the uplifting songs & chants helped her be more open to receiving powerful dreams and experiences that further helped her grow, which deepened her belief in the healing messages, and led her to receive even more love and support — in a beautiful cycle of learning and connection for which she feels extraordinarily grateful!

Although she originally wrote the songs and chants for her own use, she occasionally offered them to friends and clients and then in occasional personal growth workshops she led. Seeing the song-chants help others made her want to teach them even more. Over time, it felt increasingly clear that they were meant to be shared, especially when she was asked to record them for people’s ongoing use.  She decided to learn how to record and produce the songs and chants so that more people could access their powerful grounding and healing energies. Mindy poured her heart into producing 2 albums, bringing together gifted artists, collaborating with multi-talented audio engineer/musician Reid Kruger, and patiently sculpting each track to bring her vision to life. Watering the Heart Root of Emotional Well-Being was birthed in April of 2024, and the companion album Watering the Heart Root of Spiritual Well-Being was released Feb. 12th, 2025. She is so happy to share it all with you!

Mindy created the melodies and sings lead vocals. She brought in 13 talented artists to help her compose accompaniments and add vocal harmonies. The lyrics are affirmations and short prayers. The few lyrics she didn't write are in the public domain or are used by permission. Full album credits are available here. Two of the songs feature "Give Get Sistet", a Minneapolis-based a cappella improvisational chorus, and another features Songstress-teacher-composer-performer Ariella Rahma Forstein (whose vocals back more songs than any other singer.) Maureen McFarlane’s piano arrangements and vocal harmonies impart grace and power to several songs.

The 2 albums offer a variety of musical styles and sounds. The albums’ accompaniments vary from simple body percussion to more complex hand drum beats to harp to guitar to piano to a multi-instrumental score. Mindy aimed for arrangements that were simple enough for the empowering messages to shine brightest, and for layered harmonies and rhythms that would help create "ear worms" to stay in our heads. She hopes you’ll find nourishment and support as you engage with the songs!