How Does Your Voice Feel?

Does that seem like a strange question? Actually it makes really good sense to think about the voice and how it is feeling. After all, the voice is simply an extension or an outward expression or reflection of who we are and what we feel. For sure we would be thinking about how our back feels after helping a friend (with heavy furniture) move to a new place. For sure we would be thinking about how our legs and butt feel after going horseback riding for the first time in years!! So why wouldn't we think about how our voice feels?

Reflecting on how the voice feels is actually a wonderful, subtle way to connect the voice with our feelings (topic of previous post). And once the voice is more connected with what we feel in any given moment, it (the voice) will automatically be more connected to the essence of who we are. Our sound, our vocal expression, our singing will be more authentic and much more pleasing and touching to listen to. And the big bonus is, the more deeply connected the voice is to the essence of who we are, the less likely we'll be tempted to push the voice in ways that may damage or traumatize it. This means that the unique qualities that we each have in our voices will be more able to fully emerge.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF  CONNECTING  VOICE WITH FEELINGS
 If you have read some of my previous blog posts or attended any of my Chakras and Voice workshops, you will know that my prime interest and passion at the moment is in learning how to care for our voices and how to really listen to their messages and signals. I'm really trying to move away from the idea of "using the voice", "controlling the voice" and instead move more towards the idea of developing a supportive and loving relationship with the voice.

An Important and Profound Vocal Lesson!
And yet even with all of my current developing vocal awareness and my focus on paying attention to the signals of my own voice, I find that my vocal coach still has to remind me to ease up or lighten up, more often than I care to admit!! For all of my focus on being kind to my voice, I still have a tendency to sometimes push a little too hard as I begin a scale or sound. As I began my most recent vocal lesson, my teacher asked me how my voice was. Normally I would answer that question by talking about what I felt I needed to work on,  what I was having challenges with, etc.   This time I answered a little differently. I actually interpreted the question as "How Does Your Voice Feel?". And I simply answered, "My voice doesn't feel very strong today". As soon as I said that, I felt the connection between my voice not feeling very strong and the fact that I didn't feel very strong. I had recently been through a bit of an emotional upset and that had taken a toll on me and on my voice.That may seem simple and obvious enough. However, previously my approach to that kind of situation would have been to feel anxious about whether my voice would hold up through the lesson and that would result in my tendency to push a little too hard in order to compensate or cover up that "not very strong" feeling in both my voice and myself. As soon as I was honest with my teacher about my voice feeling not very strong, the anxiety left and I approached my lesson feeling much more relaxed. Just being honest about not feeling very strong meant I didn't have to try and compensate or try to cover up what I was feeling. And not having to worry any more about whether my voice would hold up, (since my teacher already knew that I wasn't feeling strong) really helped me ease into my lesson in a much more relaxed, connected, authentic way. And you know what happened? By the end of my lesson, my voice was coming from a deeper, stronger and more relaxed place than I had ever previously felt or experienced. It was a beautiful feeling.

And really interesting that during my lesson I felt like I was vocalizing and singing very quietly. It all felt so gentle. Yet when I listened back to the recording of my lesson, my voice sounded full and much stronger than I had thought it was. Whenever I can actually do it, I'm just amazed at the power of being truly authentic and connected.

Here's to AUTHENTICITY! 

And here's to ALL VOICES being honoured and respected and appreciated. 

Barbara