Your healthy voice and you will look at how transformational life coaching and vocal coaching come together to clear the cobwebs of the mind whilst harnessing the healing power of your own voice to bring more sensitivity and awareness to the body. Being in the body is the best strategy to get the mind out of the way of holding you back and start realising the immense power that is within you. Soulful Expression Coaching is all about using your voice as a tool to increase self-awareness, boost self-confidence and reinforce your self-worth.
Your healthy voice and you – Authentic Expression for Holistic Wellness
Singing is a very healthy activity. Look at all of these health benefits:
- Singing lowers your levels of stress and anxiety and increases your sense of joy. The release of endorphins when you sing, make you feel great! In fact singing is a natural anti-depressant.
- Singing improves your posture and reduces muscle tension – if you practice correctly.
- Singing improves your circulation when you breathe correctly. It increases aerobic capacity and stamina as more oxygen reaches the brain.
- Singing has been shown to strengthen the immune system and improve mental alertness. The Alzheimer Society have a singing for the brain service for dementia and Alzheimer sufferers
But there’s more…
Vocal coaching combined with life coaching digs deeper into the reason for how we express and how our expression reflects how we are living. Expression carries different aromas, some light and floral, others heavy and obnoxious – like the energy that precedes it, it is changeable and dependent on the fluctuations of emotions – but what would expression be without those fluctuations? Would it be dull and lifeless, or full of universal unconditional love that we carry within our hearts? The question is, ‘are we able to change the aroma of our expression to the true essence of our being? This article is called ‘your healthy voice and you’ because your voice is you – but what quality are you expressing?
The voice produces vibrations that affect us and everyone else – they have the power to heal or to harm. Maybe we would do well to be more discerning about how we use our voices, but lets begin by looking at why we sing and how singing can heal not only our own bodies, but those who listen to us as well.
Why do we sing?
Does singing have a purpose? It seems that humanity has been singing and creating music for a very long time. The invention of musical instruments is thought to be relatively recent (around 40,000 years ago) but music has been around longer. It is now known that 530,000 years ago, the full vocal range was available to humans due to the discovery of the hyoid, a small bone in our neck that changed shape when our voice box moved further down allowing us to speak and sing. This means that earlier species of man, including neanderthals, had the potential to sing.
The why of singing is something that is debatable. It was theorized by Thomas Geissmann at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, that the development of singing had something to do with the evolution of monogamy as only monogamous species have developed the skill, however, it is also thought to have evolved with language. Singing and music communicates different emotions and is thought to have evolved as a way to express those emotions.
As a vocal coach, I’m always interested in the various reasons that people give as to why they would like to learn how to sing correctly. From improving their self-confidence to controlling their voices and being able to sing professionally, all seem to have the same individualistic and identifiable purpose – to perform.
We are often judged on our abilities, our appearance, our talents etc. and the idea of being accomplished in something gives us a way of standing out from the crowd. We live in a society that praises winners and makes fools out of so called losers. Those born with a natural musical talent can spend their lives trying to be the best at what they do, sometimes at the expense of their own joy. Singing competitions are on the TV every Saturday evening. It seems that there is a bottomless pit of talented people who go in search of their dream. Great for the lucky one – but many don’t make it and face rejection – turned away because there is only one winner. Of course this happens in other professions too, but the glamour surrounding the music industry seems to be taking us away from the true purpose of this beautiful expression. We can take this further and apply it to all kinds of expression, and it soon becomes apparent why there is so much anxiety in our modern society.
Could we consider another purpose to singing?
Many people don’t look at singing in a competitive way. They sing because it makes them feel joyful. So, rather than celebrating talent, we could celebrate true expression and make it all about evolving. Rather than getting the notes right, or the speech spot on, controlling the voice, and manipulating our expression, we could deepen the connection to our whole body instrument and allow our voices to express that alignment to our soul. This is when expression becomes a joy, not just to he or she who expresses, but to those who listen too.
When I was young I loved to sing to a little robin that visited our garden. It made me feel happy and it was an expression of love towards that bird. There was no reason why, it seemed to just emerge from me like a bubble of joy, like skipping in the sunshine on a spring afternoon after school or lying down and rolling in the grass. There was no control, no trying to get it right or wondering if I was a good singer.
Your healthy voice and you – the joy of singing
I love to sing from my whole body and to feel the vibrations from within and from all different areas of it. The only way to be aware of those vibrations is to increase body awareness, to relax and surrender the muscles of your body and communicate with the involuntary muscles where the sound is vibrating. You get a sense that the vibrations are communicating to the different organs and energy centres of your body.
Bringing a new energetic quality into your voice by re-connecting to your soul is only a choice away. All it takes is to be consciously present in your body and for your mind to be at it’s command rather than the other way around. You will feel a new gentleness in your voice, but no lack of power – in fact quite the opposite!. If this becomes your default expression, it will change the way you use your voice, not only for singing, but when speaking to people. It will expand on that healing energy for you and for all who listen. Your expression will feel more confident and you won’t be lost for words!
- Feel your body in harmony with your voice and perceive the vibrations as you sing. The more awareness you have of the vibrations, the more joy you feel and the deeper the healing
- Be honest about your needs. If you want to be a successful performer or develop your ability to sing or speak, that’s great! What is stopping you? Be aware of how you can choose to express authentically without giving your power away and be careful of comparison – it is the biggest killer of expression.
- Make it all about energy first. How you use your voice and the quality in which you express, will make a huge difference to your well-being. Work on the relationship you have with yourself, re-connect to your body and express from there. This will be freeing your natural voice from all the ideals and beliefs that are attached to expression, such as what you and other people expect, your own limiting beliefs, and all that has thwarted your expression in the past.
Enjoy the beauty of your true voice & authentic expression and reduce anxiety naturally
Connect & Express is a combination of life coaching and vocal coaching. It involves honest observation of inner rhythms, explorations of how you express, what thwarts your expression, how it effects your relationships with work, the people in your life, money and health. On a practical level it includes breathing techniques, posture and body awareness exercises, holistic vocal practices and a way of singing that is all about healing and connecting to your whole body instrument for a harmonious, soulful expression. You will be encouraged to explore many aspects of your expression and to increase awareness through specific meditative exercises that access your voice from deeper within your body. Boost your self-confidence, find the power and the joy in your own expression and let go of anxiety.
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