What Your Voice Says About You

What your voice says about you - My favorite part of the vocal development part is not the technique. Not by a long shot. It’s the human part. The calling of the soul back to the person. I believe that our souls call to us through our interests through the things that bring us joy. And for most of us, the relationship with the voice is how we come to heal ourselves.

The voice is always based in relationship. The relationship between you and you. Sometimes we try to use our voice like a pretty mask to cover up what is called the shadow side of ourselves. The shadow is aspects of our personality, our behavior as well as sounds within our voice that we don’t like. So we try to cut them away and hide them from ourselves. In my experience, this is what causes the most tension - resistance to what is. the most forbidding of our own voice to rise up from the deep center of ourselves and introduce itself to us. Instead we begin cutting, no I don’t like that sound, no I don’t like that note, no I don’t like my voice at all. In the psyche when we cut away parts of ourselves it causes a sort of dead zone in the surrounding area. This becomes parts of our voice that we absolutely will NOT go into because we know “there be monsters there.” But the point of vocal development is discovery. To go into those places, bringing breath and vibration into those shut off hidden away parts of ourselves. And yes, the very first thing to happen there is chaos. In this way, freeing your voice and becoming whole within yourself is not beautiful like a resurrection, where you just arrive fully formed and filled with elegance. But it’s more beautiful like an exorcism. Where in the shadow is faced, embraced and integrated.

The voice, which I believe comes straight from our souls. Doesn’t care what the voice sounds like. It doesn’t judge in that way. In fact, the body/soul is healed every time we use our voices in our most authentic way. Without protectionism or perfectionism. In my practice and in my experience with my own voice, I find that when I am the hardest on myself to get something perfect, that there is something in my own voice that needs healing. I usually open up a dialogue with that part of myself. “What is it I am afraid of?” “Not being good enough” or “I am afraid of being disappointed.”

Those injured parts of ourself end up influencing the voice the most because the voice is the instant manifestation of all that we are. That includes our innermost injuries, fears, insecurities as well as our joys.

The best question you can ask yourself in order to heal your voice is “What do I want?” This question is kind of like a key that opens the door. This question opens you up for the relationship between you and your voice to begin. So as you reorient yourself to allow the experience of your voice to matter the most to you, you will discover the exhilaration that happens when you simply spend time with your voice as if it was a good friend. Give your voice space to introduce itself to you.

And when you speak or sing, your voice will show the world all the most beautiful, amazing parts of you.