Breathing for life - The Doorway to Speaking Your Truth

Your voice is your communication tool. It is vital for you to feel comfortable with using your voice to tell others how you feel, what you want, what you don’t want. So why is it so difficult for so many of us to speak our truth?

In this blog you will understand why that little frog in your throat appears when emotion is near and how you can overcome the fear of speaking your truth. So you can communicate freely and use your voice in a confident way when sharing your opinions, wishes and needs. .

Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a professional, public speaker there is a point within your routine when you need to use your voice to your benefit. The voice itself is a miraculous instrument. As it is both a wind and string instrument.

The vocal chords work when air moves over them. This occurs as they use the breath and begin to oscillate and produced sound. The larynx (voice box) can move up and down. It also tilts forward and back to create the range of sound, an Opera singer singing The Queen of The Night Aria for example, has to lift her larynx high and tilt it forward to reach these impressive upper notes.

This takes a lot of trust and allowing. Very much like life itself!

In the yogic Chakra system the throat chakra, known as Vishuddha is associated with the colour blue, and connects us to our expressive self. You can think of it as the doorway to speech and communication. When this doorway is off balance you can experience self doubt, and fear of lack of control. When in balance it is easy to speak your truth and talk without the pressure of caring about what people think.

Worrying about what others think can be the largest kink in our pipe line for free communication. On an emotional level when speaking about something you care about the throat can naturally begin to close. This is because it is reacting on a primal level.

The larynx (voice box) is moving up to allow more space for the body to cry and let out the surge of emotion. But you need it to stay down to create free vocalisation. In other words your fear and response to this fear is getting in your way.

Ever wandered why your throat gets tight and dry before that all important public speech? The same thing is happening. Your body is protecting you by closing down the throat to protect you from “the fight or flight response” You can override this primal instinct response by reeducating your mind and body.

Turn your wounds into Wisdom - Oprah Winfrey

Keep reading to find out how!

Stressed You: Help! I have to speak out loud to 100”s of people. What if they don’t like what I have to say? I will look stupid.

Confident You: I believe in what I have to say. I will speak slowly and join in with my body as it delivers this important message to my audience. Plus if they don’t like what I am saying they have the choice to leave the room!

4 things which hold you back from speaking your truth: :

Breathing Out

Emotion

Tension

Fear

The late opera singer and vocal coach Howard Milner in his dictionary for singers explains why these 4 aspects get in your way when trying to vocalise.

Breathing Out…….seems obvious but isn't. There are loads of ways to breath and most of the population isn't aware of any of them. For the speaker the more of your body you can soften into the act of breathing the more powerful your vocalisation will be. Muscle holds emotion. The object of communication is to express the feelings of the content by letting your own feelings release out into your breath.

Emotion…… It is from the Latin and means 'to move out from'…….'e' means out of, 'motion from 'movere', to move. In other words, feeling only comes with movement. That is why not getting stuck is so crucial to free vocalisation, and the first place we get stuck tends to be in the breath.

Fear………this is a place many performers/speakers visit without wanting to. Not surprising really as performing is an exposing place which triggers a primal response in us, the 'fight or flight' mechanism. The first response to fear is to hold on to everything, ready to uncoil all that energy either to run or fight. This creates…

Tension is blocked energy looking for somewhere to go. If you think about it on a physical level in order to release the tension relaxation is required. Once you achieve this balance between relaxation by softening the muscles you can achieve effective performance power.

You are in safe hands. The following exercises are taken from lessons I was lucky enough to experience with Howard. I am sharing these with you as this time of my life was a blessing. Howard was like a spiritual singing guru.

He studied Sanskrit and would use Reiki healing to help his students disconnect from fear and connect with flow. He also used positive words like melt, surrender let go, all the time to encourage his students to connect with the flow and move away from the fear and tension.

Through the following exercises you will be able to realign with your body. Face your fears. Move away from beliefs which restrict your body from speaking it’s truth. To truly connect with your voice expect to be broken down and build yourself up again so you feel confident to let out the sound as you do so invite in:

1. tears

2. moments of pure joy

3. euphoria.

Discover the power of breathing out!!!

Q: What is singing? 
A: Breath and movement.

This principle helps you connect to your main power source which is the flow of out breath and allows your breath to do the speaking for you. There are 2 stages to this process.

1. Letting go of all muscular tension

2. Allowing flow to take over.

You need to override life and it's teachings so far which have suppressed you from giving in to this magical power of source, the power of the body naturally knowing what to do. You need to allow this to happen to you.

Q: What is Connection. 
A: Connecting mind and body.

To find the connection to your source (the power within you which will allow free vocalisation without any restriction in the throat) there are 4 directions to follow.

Place your hand on the centre of your diaphragm. You find the centre point just at the point where the breast bone stops - it is in the same place as your 3rd chakra also knows as the Solar Plexus. Breathe out gently from the mouth making a soft shh sound like the sea lapping on the sea shore. Let yourself be:

1. Calm

2. Let go

3. Breath out

4. Create the sound from this centre point

Face Everything And Rise

Now...face your FEAR sing right from the middle of the vowel and replace the voice with breath.

Connection takes place in the diaphragm which is the source of the power breathing is the movement, as you breath out the diaphragm shows you the  note. 

Latin for breath is spiritus when you have the right breath it connects you up it's magical. 

 Picture your body like this:

A column of air - Lie on the floor so it can hold your body weight.

Now breath out through the tension seeing only a free flowing column of air.

Now Hum and chew at the same time (let go of thee what if I look stupid, what if some one hears me) practise letting go of your diaphragm and all the tension within your body.

Freedom from your past

Past Self - Persona -Ego Channel - TV screen - hiding behind limiting beliefs

Future Self - unconscious identity with flow - listening to the internal signal - connected to source

Being Rooted - Finding Your Unconscious ID And Flow

Imagine your friend or lovers hand on the base of your spine and the other into the middle of your shoulder blade. Close your eyes and visualise a small ball of light moving from one hand to the other. This feeling is flow -it is a rush of energy which starts from the base of the spine and moves through you. 

Being rooted is very important by releasing shoulders you allow the bottom and the top of the energy channel to connect. 

To let go you must believe. Belief is part of this source magic. And connecting with this flow of energy uplifts the soul and makes for free vocalisation. Being rooted and in your strength also helps with boundary setting and self esteem.

Become animal like - let your inner power take over

Exercise:

Developing your exhale - you can breath out for longer than you think!

Breathe out for 12 counts then allow your body to breathe in for itself, release the control and allow the breastbone area to relax.Encourage your diaphragm to dissolve like a sponge and think of your spine like olive oil so it can dance and support you without tension.

As you learn to release your unwanted muscular tension you begin to allow yourself to join with with your breath. In turn this strengthens your voice and also gives you longevity so you can speak clearly and with confidence.

Top 5 instructions to achieve Euphoria

1. Let go - is for Movement and floating

2. Don't interfere - is for permission

3. Olive oil spine- is for connection

4. Soften - is to release the diaphragm

5. Diaphragm disappears - to create breath energy.

EUPHORIA - to be well held- supported

Note from Natalie: You spend so much time supporting others the last thing on your list is vocal exercises, I’m sure. However I know I burnt out in 2003 and Howard’s teachings set up a solid foundation for me to integrate into my life.

Howard sadly passed away March 2011 near my 30th birthday. He was 57 and left this world too early. I couldn’t sing. I felt incredibly sad. But I could and did continue to breathe. I turned to Kundalini yoga to continue my learnings of the power of the breathe and this golden flow of source power which runs though each and everyone of us.

And now I am a yoga teacher - miracles happen when you connect with the source which inspires you to flow with life.