Kara Markovich Sound Therapy

02/21/2026

Tomorrow, join me at the Ayurvedic Wellness Center.

February carries the energy of the seed softening underground—held by winter, but slowly warming toward the light. This is a month for nourishing the heart, loosening what feels tight, and allowing early inspirations to warm and take form.

This Sound Sanctuary uses the gentle shimmer of chimes, the warmth of the Himalayan bowls, and the enveloping space of the gong to support inner softening. As the sound settles through the body, the ideas planted in January may begin to feel more real—still quiet, but stirring, warming, and becoming recognizable.

Come to tend your inner landscape, feel held, and allow your emerging possibilities to gently take shape.

Sound Sanctuary | Awakening Beneath the Surface
w. Kara Markovich
February 22 | 9-10 AM

Save your spot: ayurvedicwellness.center/calendar/2026/february/sound-sanctuary

02/03/2026

Me, one year ago.

I remember this day, resting in the sunshine, laying on the floor in my living room after a morning of sessions.

Me, one year ago, did not know what would become of me one year later.

I know better than to guess.

But what I did know then was that I was gaining momentum. I felt energized and happy about my work and the people I was meeting and that I wanted to continue on that trajectory, with those same feelings. So, when I could, I settled into that space, those feelings, that gratitude and I stayed as long as I could. And when I couldn’t, I rested and I started again.

I went with the flow, because that is often when the most interesting opportunities present themselves and I focused on those feelings.

Me-One-Year-Ago did not imagine Me-One-Year-Later having our own space to do my work .origamihouse and allowing you a space to dream too.

This weekend, with , we are going to dream together- quieting the voices of fear and disbelief. We are going to work on visualizing WHO we wish to become a year from now. You don’t need to know WHAT that looks like or HOW it will happen- the all falls into place. This is an opportunity to imagine and feel who you are becoming and then rest in sound and allow your body to absorb those feelings. A deep restorative rest.

Tickets are still available here:
https://tixfox.co/e/veo7Ndu5l2

10/31/2025

“The session was calming, multi-sensory, and transformative.” ✨

These words mean so much. My client had been listening to recorded sound baths — yet shared that experiencing sound in person was like nothing they had ever felt before.

There are many beautiful ways to use sound to relax, regulate, and return to your body’s natural state of calm — from binaural beats to simply listening to birds outside. But when you’re immersed in live sound, you can feel the vibrations move through you — a full-body experience that brings deep rest and release.

I’d love for you to experience it, too. 🌙
Reach out if you’re curious about individual sessions or upcoming group immersions.

10/29/2025

Some of my greatest ideas come from the quiet.

The pause between thoughts.

But how often do those pauses really last to allow for discovery if we too often find ourselves moving from one thought to the next?

We become too busy “doing” instead of being

My sessions are meant to give you those pauses. To connect to your creative spirit. To see one another and say “so wonderful to see you again. It’s been awhile.”

Join me (and your creative spirit) next Wednesday for a Sound Immersion that allows for the Flow of Creativity. Stop trying to find the next thing but rather, allow it to just come to you with ease.

Allow. Rest. Receive.

Kalamazoo Institute of Art
✨Wednesday. November 5
✨ 6-7:30p
✨please bring a yoga mat, pillow and blanket(s)

Tickets! https://1000.blackbaudhosting.com/1000/Sound-Bath-The-Flow-of-Creativity-05Nov2025

09/28/2025

Feeling really grateful for those who attended my “I’m back” session .center .

I didn’t formally call it that
It wasn’t in the class description.

But I called it that in my head as I was packing and unpacking and preparing. I intentionally took the summer off from community events so I could be with my family and to have my own opportunity to restore and reset. I wanted to be here today so I can be fully present and ready to bring this work to you in such a wonderful space.

Going on five years of Sound Sanctuary at the AWC. What a blessing this place has been for me.

So I’m feeling pretty lucky and I wanted you to know. Because I hope my gratitude never goes unnoticed. How grateful I am and what incredibly amazing people I get to meet.

09/11/2025

It’s been a busy few days in New York.

I fly out shortly for home. I should walk through the doors by 5:15 just in time to make it to the kids’ school open house.

What a privilege it was to attend the in New York and share the powerful impact sound can have on the body. It was a vibrant and lively space and I was struck by the comments of those who experienced a small session with the Peter Hess bowls. It was a universal theme that they noticed they were able to quiet the surrounding noises and go inward, focusing solely on the vibrations of the bowls.

And just like my longer sessions, these guests came out feeling surprisingly pleased at how relaxed they were.

I love surprises.

Thank you ._.hess for inviting me to work alongside you and Benni and to share the work and the bowls that your father developed. .sound .sound.usa

09/09/2025

There’s potential in those white washed beams,
it feels like the underlying lesson in this space.

A constant reminder.

Greg finished demoing the floor last week. Sanding the beams is next. It is both dusty and dirty but incredibly satisfying. The thin layer of paint is proving to come off easier than we expected.

It’s still no easy task. There are plenty of beams and they are high enough that we have to rent a scissor lift. Our initial plans to stain them have been pushed aside, we are going to leave them just as they are.

Thank you for following, one beam at a time.

08/29/2025

When we purchased .origamihouse it came with an organ and a baby grand piano.

We cannot keep them both
(okay, maybe just one)

but what a wonderful testament to this space and how it is meant to be used.

08/28/2025

✨big news✨

This little dream of ours

the one with the space to create. To bring my ideas to fruition. To help others do just the same.

His dream to do something different. Fresh and new. To step out of the box of doing what he had always done before.

For both of us to be a bit more bold and brave and courageous, even when the timing might not seem right.

Our head tried to tell us no but our heart knew better. It kept whispering

yes. yes. yes.

And we couldn’t help but listen.

Greg’s job loss in October gifted us time. Greg became a caregiver for his father, I took on more work and that work began to expand. In March, when my brother-in-law just casually sent a building listing to me, I immediately sent it to my dear friend (and real estate agent) and asked if we could go through it immediately. Not because I thought I would happen but something kept saying

yes.
yes.
yes.

and when we visited this “house of worship” I turned to Jen and said “I always told you I needed you to help me buy a church.”

It has not been an easy process. A small step here, a small step there, plenty of hurdles and a leaps. But magical moments too. The ones that keep whispering

yes.

And here we are. Today. This space.
It is called The Origami House.
I found myself calling it that after our first visit. It felt like Origami to me. An odd enough building that felt just right.

Months later, we would see the blueprints and it became clear that I was not mistaken, the design of the roof is reminiscent of just that- one fold into another.

Creating origami is to take a simple piece of paper and to transform it. To be patience. To create something beauty over time. To enjoy the process, one fold supporting another supporting another.

It sounds like a perfect metaphor.
I suppose it is a perfect metaphor.

There is so much more to say, even more to share, but I will leave this here. This idea. The one that is becoming so you may have a place to help bring your own dreams to life too.

More on that later.

But for now, you can follow us here .origamihouse . Watch as we take this space and transform it into something beautiful.

08/27/2025

8 years ago this Friday, Greg went into work only to come home shortly afterwards. He had lost his job.

And in this photo, we had zero intentions of leaving our lives in Portland. But that night, over a toast to loss and to new adventure, something was set in motion that that was out of our control. What WAS in our control was taking the risk, trusting the unknown and believing. I can’t help but think that Gratefulness, even in the trickiest of situations, can be the greatest of superpowers.

Last October, Greg was let go again and though the change was not quite as quick as this moment 8 years ago, tomorrow I will have news to share that we never quite saw coming…

in a good way.

A very good way.

・・・
August 29, 2017

Greg lost his job today.

We knew it could happen. Nike announced back in June that there would be a major re-org, who would be affected, no one knew. But he had survived cutbacks before so we KNEW it could happen, we just didn’t think it WOULD happen.

Until it did and here we are.

The initial news made my stomach drop. I held my breath and then slowly exhaled “f******ck.” The realization felt like a terrible breakup. We’ll keep the severance package, and in a few months, you take the health insurance.
The health insurance. 4 kids. Ulla. Ulla.

This part makes me nervous.

But I promised champagne, whether the outcome was with job or without. Scared or not scared. I think we both realized we were feeling pretty comfortable, maybe a little stagnant. It is easy when you have a family of 6, including twin toddlers. You just don’t get out as much. But the universe has been nudging us for awhile and today, she gave us a mighty push. With pretty much every ounce of strength. It is time. We have no idea what will happen but I would like to think we are ready.

So, no worries over here. We are grateful for the severance package Greg will receive and we will still have a few months of insurance (so I am making all appointments tomorrow) but don’t ask for Nike passes to the employee store cause we won’t have them. And if you see Greg around a bit more often, be sure to congratulate him.

Moving on after 15 years is a big deal.

08/26/2025

This is me.

And this is me
And this is me

There are a whole lot of me’s.

And I have more new followers than when I began this journey back in 2019 and I realized I have never shared much about, well, me.

I often forget it isn’t just my friends who are following here. Many of you I have yet to meet and maybe, someday, we will.

✨My name is Kara Markovich. That is my birth name and the name I swore, as a young girl, I would keep for the rest of my life. Husband or not.

✨I am one of four daughters. I do have a husband. He told me he wouldn’t want to change his name either.

✨I was born and raised in Michigan and at 22, I hopped a train to Portland , Oregon and promised my parents I would return two years later.
I stayed for 17.

✨I am a mom of four, the first was easy, the last three were not. I have had my fair share of fertility treatments, miscarriages and disappointments. We got lucky, it eventually worked.

I take nothing for granted.
Or at least I try not to.

✨I have been a factory worker, a corn detassler, a sandwich maker, a janitor. I have been a cafeteria worker, a coffee shop manager, a state champ volleyball player. I have run a few marathons and tripped over my own feet while hiking. I have worked retail in departments stores and small boutiques and have driven across the country in a Ford Expedition and a 16ft trailer that had big red dots all over and said “Zits happen. Help is on the way.” I have been a singer in a band, can call myself a wedding singer and own a guitar and mandolin I only can sort of play. I have been courageous and confident, timid and scared and sometimes at all the wrong times. I was an event planner in Portland for nearly 12 years, my most favorite job in the world, until we uprooted everything and left all those we love, to follow the signs back to Michigan.

None of these are in the proper order.

But all of them have contributed to something
or someone…

Me.

My name is Kara Markovich. I am a sound therapist, a retreat facilitator, an event creator, and a writer.

I hope our paths cross someday and when they do, you can share your list of things that brought you to that moment and I promise, I will listen.

08/08/2025

I write this every year. I just add a year to the previous one. The distance spreading out i er time. But this feels like the greatest way to honor him. So I will.

11 years ago today, my dad died. 11 years.

He died the same day as his mother, who had passed away 15 years earlier. It is also the same day two of my dearest, closest friends were born. Both of whom came into this world in the same town, in the same hospital and likely stayed only rooms apart during their first few days of life. One would become my best friend the minute she was born. The other, nearly 24 years later.

This day holds magic for me that I cannot, nor would I attempt, to explain. The day my dad died, I cried at the overwhelming comfort this coincidence gifted me. Because it was everything this life is, bountiful of beauty and pain and so much love.

I miss him. I will forever miss him. Some days, I still cannot believe he is gone. So this I will leave here. A small piece of his story. Just a reminder of my dad.

Joseph A. Markovich
July 11, 1942 — August 8, 2014
What we, his family, would want you to know is that he was a phenomenal man. He was a “character” as some have said; a man who never failed to make you smile. He was loyal in every sense of the word and cherished every friend he had ever made. He was creative, smart and an artist at heart. He was one helluva cook; known for his homemade pizzas and famous gin and tonics. He told great jokes, but also terrible ones that only made him laugh. His favorite vehicle was his tractor and his most legendary scare tacit was having his shotgun next to him when his daughters decided to introduce their boyfriends. His four sons-in-laws love him and that, in and of itself, speaks volumes.

Joe was a fighter who dealt with his heart condition of 18 years with strength, grace and humor. If ever there was a moment he was scared, he wasn’t afraid to show it, because he was genuine in every sense of the word and lived life authentically. Our dad marveled in the simplicity of life, believed mountains were miraculous and that nature was heaven. He taught us that life is beautiful and that we’re nothing without each other. Though we are ridiculously biased, we simply think he was the best and believe no one will ever take his place. For all of that and more, we will miss him tremendously.