Voice Yourself
As a body conscious person I’ve always shied away from cultivating the voice. The voice, for me, was a remote island, awe-inspiring, but inaccessible. A comment shared by a voice coach recently afforded me with the compass needed to charter my journey to Voice Land. She plainly said: “In order to train the voice, we need to abandon it and train the body instead, so that the voice can naturally express itself.” It made perfect sense. Now the remote island of voice that I never dared to approach became part of an inner archipelago that I was ready to cruise.
Today I see the voice, not as an instrument to be honed, but as a creative space to be opened and excavated through every breath. The voice is our identity, our truth thermometer, the intersection where Authenticity, Reality and Ecology meet. If it is not plugged into the transparent inner life of instinct and emotional response the truth cannot be revealed. In life the voice conveys mood, emotion, attitude, opinion, confidence, conviction, restriction, inhibition and a multitude of shades of meaning and resonance that reflect the influence on the state of mind and body. In Yoga tapping the voice requires the curving of one’s awareness into the essence and full dissolution of imposed or inherited patterns of speech and behavior that prevent us from optimizing our creative potential.
Ancient Yoga breathing practices focus on opening the throat chakra to reveal a largely untapped reservoir of knowledge, spirit and perceptive awareness. As we release the image that we hold about our original self we access a well of genuine awareness of our singularity. Similarly, the voice is the carrier of our arcane, archaic and archetypal memory. It is the living mitochondrial agent which houses our DNA strands to produce a rainbow symphony of our multi-dimensional identity. How do we tap the uncultivated self to reach the unadulterated voice and movement that stems both from our personal blueprint and collective heritage? The answer lies in a better understanding of our environments. Disassociating ourselves from the outer ecology with its conditioning and patterning, with its left brain quantitative forceful influence, and embracing our inner environment with its own mysterious wilderness, with its right brain qualitative and harmonic sensing we are able to tune to an internal vastness where our original voices survive often unheard and unrecognized even by us.
Voice work in Yoga is often associated with the recitation of mantras (japa) or the singing of bhagans (devotional chants) in the form of a Kirtan (a devotional incantation of the Hindu Pantheon.) The repetition of the divine names of Gods and deities undoubtedly raises the vibrational frequency of the practitioner and induces a trance state of mind and body. However, voice stretches further. It is the fuel that ignites the engine of creative awareness in the boundlessness of breath as we liberate our full human and spiritual range. This creative awareness defies any forced originality or imposed replication of pre-existing mantra. It is our own vulnerability that allows our voice to settle into an organic and seamless way of movement that is everyone’s birthright. As we cultivate the voice, we gain strength, confidence and nurture trust and adaptability. We simply nurture nature. Unfolding our authentic voice we could help create a better world which honors communing than just communicating.
Yogea Breathing: Voice Yourself
This fresh blend of Vishudha Chakara (throat chakra) openers helps unclog the fear of voicing oneself and removes deeply seated complexes stuck in the body that impede the full realization of one’s potential. Physically the breathing techniques open the main meridians to facilitate an unimpeded flow of energy from the base to the crown, and stimulate the secretion of healing hormones in the area of the thyroid, parathyroid and thymus glands. As a result a total immune boost is achieved, and each practitioner is able to sit proudly in his/her vulnerability as a pivotal axis for self-inquiry and spiritual growth. Creative energy is released and clarity of purpose and eloquent expression is attained. Codes of personal identity are being activated as the practitioner becomes more lucid in perceiving the causal relationship between intention and realization. Adaptability to varying living conditions and life circumstances is nurtured and the quest for exploration and innovation is fuelled and honored. For its beneficial expansion of the lung capacity this blend of exercises can be practiced in the integrative and preventive healing of respiratory or auto-immune disorders. On a social level the individual’s interpersonal communication skills are developed. On the spiritual plane we are able to access our divine blueprint and voice ourselves with marvel and abandonment.
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