The Healing Power of Our Voice

A little over a year ago, I embarked on a Rasa yoga teacher training with magical and wise teacher Tanja Mickwitz. On the first day, she asked us what our greatest fear around this new beginning was. It is hard to forget what immediately came up for me - my voice.

My voice has been an old struggle. It became progressively quieter in my 20s and especially early 30s. I increasingly I struggled to project it, people increasingly struggled to hear me. ‘How could I ever make it travel in a room of yoga students’, I thought. And the thought wasn’t far from the truth - with teaching, I started straining and overusing my chords, losing my voice completely at times. 

That same voice - my biggest fear - was also somehow what people loved. To add to my confusion, most people who came to yoga and mindfulness classes said that they came for the soothing quality of my voice. Wait, what? I decided to take a look.

The first sessions of voice therapy were mind-blowing. The problem, of course, wasn’t my voice but my shortness of breath and all the subconscious tension I carried around in my chest and belly. As we started releasing some of the physical tightness, all sorts of psychosomatic fears bubbled up, and with that, tears, frustration, pain. You name it.

The journey is only beginning, yet I couldn’t help sharing it - voice can say a lot about our wellbeing. Quickly, it became clear that voice is only a symptom of a deeper problem so I started researching. All the parts of the body down to the cellular level, including emotions, function at different frequencies.  An imbalance in these frequencies can lead to an imbalance in an organ, body system or mental state. The more balanced the energy, the more balanced, efficient and energetic you are. Research shows that these imbalances are reflected in our voice: certain sounds, which are under stress in our voices, correspond to the imbalances in our bodies. In the same vein, voice is subject to hormonal changes and as such can tell us about hormonal imbalances - clinical observers make out the changes in the voice and refer the patients for endocrine evaluation.

Voice problems are common, especially with teachers, and they carry a deeper message. 1 in 2 female teachers and 1 in 4 male teachers suffers from a voice disorder, which is often coexistent with some more complicated mental health condition. Although further research is needed to establish the potential link between the two, it is likely that voice is just the symptom of a deeper and more complex mental health-related factor. 

The good news is that our voice is also the medicine. Changing our voice pattern can reverse the process, changing our brain wave frequencies and healing the original cause. Ancient spiritual practices have been using intuitive music as medicine for centuries and science is slowly catching up. Voice work can help with high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic pain and more. A study by the University of Calgary indicated that participants experienced a significant reduction of stress as a result of the voice training. This included stress reduction in areas such as physical health (less fatigue and fewer migraines), cognitive stress and general anxiety.

How to free our voices then? Sing songs and chant mantras, even if it sounds terrible. Tim Byford - my teacher, amazing vocalist, musician and magician of the gong - says that everyone is a singer. And if singing isn’t quite for us, then vocal toning is is accessible to all and well suited for our time of shower creativity. Whereas chanting mantras and songs uses rhythm, vocal toning is just one tone (a vowel) per exhale - simple, deeply harmonizing and healing. You might enjoy the support of an easy musical instrument, such as a shruti box that everyone can play. It helps ‘pull the voice out of you’ and spares you the fear of ‘not being able to play’. If I can do it, you can do it - trust me.

More sound to come. I am looking forward to sharing with you more healing sound and voice explorations through a series of evenings called MindRest. The first one is due on Nov 28 - come especially if you feel blockages around your voice. We can experiment and welcome them together. Book through link below.

With much love,

Iri

1:1 Mindfulness

Do you feel called to mindfulness but you struggle to develop a daily practice? I’m a certified Mindfulness Now teacher and would be honoured to share my love for this practice with you. I offer in person and online mindfulness sessions in a 1:1 therapeutic setting. I often infuse them with sound healing and self-inquiry. Through this intimate format, I meet you wherever you are at. Not sure this is for you? Book a free online consultation and get a feel for my energy.

Upcoming Events

MindRest

Join us for a sound-infused evening of Yin yoga, deep relaxation and self-reflection on Nov 28, 7pm, Studio Soma, Stoke Newington. Very excited to share this new project with you, where sound healing and mindfulness meet movement and self-inquiry. Magical Antonia Shaw will lead us through a blissful yin yoga practice to open the body for a soothing deep relaxation infused with musical instruments and voice. Take a rest from your busy mind and allow insights to arise from your own inner silence.

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