Energetics of the Voice

Our bodies are energetic vessels. In yogic thought, the energy of the body flows through channels called "nadis".  The main channel we look at is called the sushumna. It runs from the base of the spine to the crown of the head and passes through each of the seven chakra points, the energetic hubs in the body. Two other nadis, ida and pinagala spiral around the main channel. The ida nadi begins on the left side and is accessed through the left nostril. It is considered representative of the feminine and is associated with the moon.The pingala nadi begins on the right side and is accessed through the right nostril. It is considered representative of the masculine and is associated with the sun. We move energy in the body through these channels by the way we breathe, move and think.

Our voices are our primary vehicle for emotional expression. Singing is one of the most universal human impulses. Yoga also seeks to quiet the mind and open the heart to allow for an expression of our essential selves. A voice that is free can enhance that process.

The throat chakra (5^th chakra), serves as the bridge between our hearts (4th chakra) and heads (6th chakra). It is the center of communication, self expression and willpower. It also houses the possibility for change, transformation and healing.

Energetic imbalances in the throat chakra show up as...

Trouble expressing yourself

Blocks of creativity – your inspiration may be there, but you can’t express yourself

Trouble singing – ‘tone deafness’

Timidity – you are quiet when you should speak up

Fear of public speaking/singing – not wanting to look foolish, not being good enough

Tension in your jaw, tongue, shoulders, neck

When your throat chakra is in balance, you…

Listen well

Speak with confidence

Sing well

Express your creativity freely

Have good overall communication skills

Relaxed jaw, shoulders, neck

Negative experiences of the past are transformed into wisdom

Singing is one of the best ways to open this chakra to bring it into balance. 

However, what if you are a singer who is struggling to express herself? This is where yoga can help. 

A practice that involves vocalizing on vowel sounds while moving, focusing on heart opening postures to release negative energy of the past and chanting bija sounds to awaken the chakra centers can bring your voice back into balance.

When you find your voice on the mat, you carry it off into the rest of your life!

Your Voice as Emotional Expression Center

In his book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals Charles Darwin's 4th chapter is called "Means of Expression in Animals".

Here's what he has to say in this chapter about singing... "whether we believe that the various qualities of the voice originated in speaking under the excitement of strong feelings, and that these qualities have subsequently been transferred to vocal music; or whether we believe, as I maintain, that the habit of uttering musical sounds was first developed, as a means of courtship, in the early progenitors of man, and thus became associated with the strongest emotions of which they were capable,-namely, ardent love, rivalry and triumph."(page 87)

Whether Darwin is right about this or not, the point he makes over and over in Chapter 4 is that the quality of sounds animals and humans produce are intrinsically linked to emotions. Pretty modern thinking for 1872, no? We now know through modern science that the voice is linked to the limbic system, a set of brain structures that governs emotion and long term memory among other things.

It isn't hard to understand - you can be in another room and if someone calls your name, you can tell from the tone of the voice whether they are happy, sad, angry or indifferent. When you are upset, you feel a lump in your throat. When you are excited your voice might take on a pitch that is slightly higher and a volume that is louder than your regular speaking voice. When our hearts are clear and our heads are quiet our voices ring true. We give voice to our truth by connecting emotionally to the core of a song. Our expressive ability is challenged when we've got emotions bound up in our memories and stored in our heart center.

For good and for bad, our voices are at the complete mercy of our emotions - and of our past via our long term memory.

In the summer between my first and second years of graduate school I lost my father to suicide. The level of grief was so overwhelming that it amounted to me feeling numb for most of the next year. I dutifully completed all the things I needed to, to finish my degree. I got by in classes where all I needed was my brain to function. My singing was another story. By the time May rolled around, my final recital, which was required to graduate, loomed. I knew I was going to stand on stage and sing right notes with no emotion. The emotions called for in the songs weren't accessible to me because when I tried to open to them all that came out was grief. The only emotion I had to offer was sadness and if I went there, all I would do was cry.

When I look back now I wish I had been brave enough to own my grief and just go to my voice lessons and cry. Every week for 9 months. What I know now, after more than a decade of time has passed since that event, and after many years of yoga study, is that our voices also have an incredibly powerful ability to help us heal. By staying with a difficult emotion and giving voice to it, we allow our psyche to release it, no longer giving it power over us. It wasn't until I traveled to Italy to sing for the summer after graduation where I reached the point that I could face my grief. And I cried. A lot. Sometimes in my voice lessons and sometimes on my own. Singing that summer as I processed those emotions, took on a new meaning for me. I finally owned my voice again.

Your voice might be bound up for different reasons - I meet so many people who love to sing but feel they shouldn't because some adult told them as a child that they couldn't sing in tune, or the quality of their voice wasn't nice. That moment of being told their voice was not good enough to be heard lodged inside them, taking up residence in their heart center. It leads to adults who hide in the back row of the choir, or those who feel guilty singing to their child. Their throat feels tight with muscle strain. Unless you are truly unable to distinguish between high and low pitches and speak in a monotone, you are not tone deaf. Your brain simply hasn't not developed the road map it needs to be able to tell your voice to sing specific pitches and you CAN learn that. If you got the message at some point that you can't match pitch, you also hold that emotional energy in your body and it hinders your brain's ability to do its work. When you do sing it helps if you are willing to sing out. I mean, sing LOUD. I always say to my singers, "if you're going to sing it wrong, sing it loud." I can work with wrong notes, I can't work in between the cracks. Beyond the bravery to sing out when you think others will cringe at what they hear, we need to release the energy you've stored up about how terrible you sound.

In our yoga practice of asana, pranayama and meditaiton, we bring attention to our heart center liberating it from the energy of past emotions. It is in doing this that the energy of the throat and the heart gain a fluid pathway on which to travel. Finding an expansive heart takes bravery.  It is hard to go to places of discomfort and knowingly acknowledge hurt and the person who incurred the hurt -whether that hurt is new or old. You probably will cry. That's okay!

Everyone deserves the chance to sing, as Darwin said "with the strongest emotions of which they [are] capable".  Yoga helps make this possible by combining a sense of community and trust with physical and emotional tools to work with the heart.

From Good to Great, What Tips the Balance?

This question of greatness has been on my mind recently. What is it that separates a great singer from a good one?

There's a high level of singing that a lot of people are doing. If you look at the classical music world, there are lots of conservatories, producing a lot of singers. If you look at the local music venues in any given area, there are a lot of different singers and bands performing 7 nights a week.

If you assume a certain amount of natural talent, a high level of training and a drive to perform, what is it that makes some people move on to greatness and others stay in the category of good?

Some of it is luck, being in the right place at the right time, knowing the right people, leveraging your network and practicing hard. But, I've come to the conclusion there is another element. One that isn't so obvious to the naked eye.

It is the ability to connect emotionally with what you are singing: the ability to sing from your heart.

For some this comes completely naturally. I love to watch these people on stage. When I see them sing it always seems that it doesn't matter if there is an audience, they simply must share what is inside them.

For many, many others, the emotional connection is elusive. It isn't the music that is the issue. Music is always emotionally driven. It is your heart center. Emotions can be big. The can be scary. If you aren't in tune with your emotions off the stage, it can be hard to tune into them when you sing.

It can take some work to get below the surface to see what is going on with your emotional center that is influencing your performing. Perhaps this is why voice lessons so often feel like therapy!

Keeping a journal, talking with a therapist and engaging in heart centered practices will all help you identify your work and move forward.

Yoga is at its core a heart centered practice. By cultivating present moment awareness you are able to ride, without judgement, the waves of emotions that occur in life. The physical practice helps to develop awareness of what is going on with your body, but it is meditation that will tune you in to your emotions and help you move through whatever your issues are so you are present to the music!

Try developing a regular meditation practice. Start small, 10 minutes a day and add time as you get comfortable with the practice. Keep it simple and just focus on your breath. Your thinking mind will engage and all you have to do is notice that you've started thinking and return to focus on your breath. The results might astound you!

Singer's Wellness: Gratitude and Your Immune System

There are the traditional methods of staying healthy including eating well, sleeping and hydrating. Then there are other ways that you can boost your health (and your happiness too) that you don't normally think of.

At the top of the list is Gratitude.

About a year and a half ago, I began a gratitude journal as I found myself caught up in day-to-day struggles and wanted to see more of the blessings in my life. Rather than going to bed each night fretting over what hadn't gone well, or what I hadn't done, I wanted to remember the wonderful things that were going on around me all the time. So, I bought a pretty notebook (I'm a total sucker for notebooks and have a ton of them around at all times) and a pen I liked and put it on my bedside.

Then, I didn't write in it.

Seriously. I wrote in it about once every three months. At most.

One day, I went to bed particularly bothered by the day. I hadn't felt like a good teacher, yogi, singer, parent or spouse. I had snapped at people, I was getting a cold and I just generally felt down about the world. I saw the notebook sitting there and I thought 'what the hell, why not?' and I pulled it out.

It was a struggle to come up with three things about the day that I was grateful for. It was really, really hard. I kept at it though. Each night I wrote.

Fast forward to today and I write almost nightly and can easily fill a page with the things I have noticed happening in my day that I am grateful for. Occasionally I'll write about things that I want to have happen in the hopes that expressing my gratitude for having something will help will it into existence. Sometimes I'm too tired and I just mentally make a list of things I'm grateful for.

I don't even write in complete sentences, just phrases. Keep it simple.

Robert Emmons, PhD, a prof at UC Davis, researches gratitude and the effects it has on people. In an article he wrote for The Greater Good, at the top of the list of physical benefits of gratitude is "stronger immune systems". You can view his list of 10 ways to become more grateful and at the top of that list is to keep a gratitude journal.

Go ahead, indulge in a new notebook and a pen you love. Put the book by your bedside and commit to writing in it nightly. Start with just three things you are grateful for and watch how your list grows over time. If you need some ideas, try keeping track of:

• the things your voice allows you to do, 
• how the people around you have helped you pursue your singing goals, 
• your admiration for your singing colleagues,
• the opportunities you have to share your gift with others,
• other small moments in your daily life that make you thankful.

Your healthy voice and your spirit will love you for it!

Singer's Wellness: Sleep!

There is no question it can be challenging to get enough sleep in today's world. Our schedules as performers may keep us from getting to bed at a decent hour (hello, late rehearsal after working at multiple jobs all day to make ends meet). Sometimes we have things like sleep apnea that keep sleep from being high quality and many, many, many of us suffer from insomnia.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

However, the importance of sleep can not be underestimated. Adequate sleep helps to regulate our endocrine system (hormones), boosts immune system function, keeps fat accumulation at bay, staves off depression and keeps our hearts healthy. We have fewer accidents and work-related injuries when we are well rested. In terms of our voices, cellular repair happens while we sleep. When you've exercised your voice, it needs time to repair itself and time to renew the layer of mucous that covers the top of the vocal cords (this layer serves, in part, as protection to the cords). Sleep is a big part of what helps that to happen.

A survey conducted by Keith Saxon and Pamela Harvey (reported in Vocal Health and Pedagogy: Advanced Assessment and Treatment, Vol. II) looked at a small sampling of singers and found that the most frequently reported problem by singers in nonperformance times is staying asleep (44% indicated this was a problem). During performance time 96% indicated they didn't get enough sleep and the most frequently experienced problem was falling asleep. This same group listed the following as the results of poor sleep:

• trouble with breath support, 
• reduced vocal endurance, 
• huskiness/roughness of the voice
• needed more time to warm up

Do those sound familiar to you? Are you skating by on 6 hours a night when you know that isn't enough sleep, but you have trouble staying asleep and when you're in performance mode, trouble falling asleep?

Yoga can help! I have dealt with my fair share of trouble sleeping both in terms of staying asleep and in terms of falling asleep after a late rehearsal or performance. Here are some tips from yoga that have helped me immensely:

Yoga journal lists these poses as having a theraputic focus of dealing with insomnia. In general, forward bends will help relax you because they encourage a longer exhale and a longer exhale triggers the relaxation response (in other words it turns off the adrenaline that got you through the concert!). I would add the restorative pose of legs up the wall as one that settles the body and mind. Simply sitting or lying down and breathing consciously to extend your exhale will help too, if yoga poses aren't your thing.

The practice of Yoga Nidra, which means yogic sleep, has been enormously helpful to me. I have a recording on my ipod and iphone and if I am awake in the night, I pop in my ear buds, lie on my back in bed and turn it on. I'll be honest, if I'm really stressed out, sometimes it takes listening to it two times to get me to go back to sleep, but it is hugely helpful. There are lots of yoga nidra options out there, but the one I use is from the CD Relax into Greatness by Rod Stryker. I've been fortunate to do a few weekend intensives with him as part of my teacher training and his genius is not to be missed!

Singer's Wellness: Nutrition: Small Changes with Big Benefits

We are thrilled to welcome Devorah Ungerleider-Moore from Progressive Nectar as our guest blogger this week.  Devorah is sharing with us seven areas where you can make small changes in your food intake that bring about big rewards to your health!

Staying healthy is at the forefront of every professional or amateur singer's career. When your body is your instrument—and you only get one amazing body—it’s important to take care of it. Nothing is more uncomfortable than having to perform when you are not feeling well. With the changing seasons, holiday stress and performances around the corner, there are seven areas where small changes can help you be in optimal health. 

1) Understand your Grocery Store:

·       Grocery Stores are built to market and sell food—that is their job—to sell.

·       99% of ingredients needed for healthy living are found in the outer perimeter;

o   produce,

o   eggs,

o   dairy/non-dairy milks,

o   meat & fish counters

·       Walk down aisles only for oils, nuts, the occasional baking supply and kitchen necessities (soap, parchment paper, etc.).

·       Plan your meals and snacks in advance and shop with a list.

2) Eat Whole Foods

·       Stick to consuming unprocessed, whole foods. A whole food is when nothing has been stripped away from the food.  

·       Shop at your local natural foods market, farmer’s markets or farms when buying “whole foods” or “complete foods”.

·       Steer away from low-fat, non-fat, reduced sugar labels.

3) Choose Organic, Grass-Fed & Hormone Free Meats:

·       If you eat meat, make sure to purchase organic hormone-free meats & poultry.

·       You’ll notice a difference in flavor and nutrient quality.

·       Grass-fed meats have lower fat ratios and the fat in the meat is beneficial for your body.

·       Note: Kosher Organic chickens have wonderful flavor and the birds are slaughtered humanely.

4) Eat Greens Every Day:

·       Greens represent a convenient, essentially caloric-free, nutrient-dense source of hard to obtain minerals, like magnesium, calcium, potassium, and manganese.

·       These minerals are what allow our bodies to make energy, regulate blood pressure, and absorb other nutrients from food we eat.

·       Greens include kale, chard, lettuce, mustard greens, collard greens, beet greens, arugula, and endive.

·       Make sure your greens are organic (or chemical free).

·       Buying local may save you money and support your local economy too.

5) Stay Hydrated:

·       If drinking enough water is hard for you, start by adding 1 glass of water a day every week to your fluid intake until you achieve your minimum quota.

·       See this earlier post covering the importance of hydration.

·        If you are used to coffee breaks, drink green tea in its place (no cream or sugar).

·       Stick to drinking water all day and give yourself one 12oz beverage of anything you’d like (apple cider, tea, other juice or coffee). Just choose water the rest of the day.

·       Add a squeeze of lemon to each glass of water supporting your body to detoxify.

·       Note For Kids: Often children like juices, chocolate milk and sodas; in other words, sugar, sugar, sugar. Make it a house rule kids choose one beverage for the day (a 4-6 oz. juice, milk etc.), after that water is the only beverage of choice during the day. Always serve juice as a 1:1 ratio mixed with water. If your child likes soda, try mixing sparkling water and juice for a bit of fizz and get rid of the soda all together. Purple Cows are always a favorite (grape juice / sparkling water).

6) Minimize Sugar

·       White refined sugar leads to illness and obesity.

·       Stay away from processed foods and any added sugar.

·       Minimize dairy and processed grains as your body converts both to sugar extremely fast.

·       Craving something sweet? Reach for a piece of fruit, (that’s your whole food for sweetness).

·       Reduce sugar in your diet and you’ll gain energy and feel your best.

7) Exercise for Happiness:

·       Here at Progressive Nectar we believe total health is 70% nutrition, 20% exercise, 10% inner peace (quiet time).

·       Move your body every day for healthy mood, healthy heart and a happy self.

·       For general purposes, 30 minutes of movement three days a week is a great way to support healthy living. For some that might mean walking, yoga, playing tennis, swimming, Cross Fit, running, group exercise classes, cycling or a combination of activities.

·       Simply engage in what works for your life—something you’ll enjoy.

Making small changes in these seven areas of health of takes a bit of planning and cooking from home. However, if you prep your meals once a week, living healthier gets a whole lot easier in our hectic lives. Pack an apple, a handful of nuts and water for your next on-the-go snack bypassing the local coffee shop on the way to rehearsal. If you implement one or all seven changes in your life, you’ll feel better and be healthier. Your energy level will be up, sustained and your voice clear. For healthy recipes, make sure to visit Progressive Nectar at progressivenectar.com, like us on facebook and share recipes socially. Be the change—inspire others to live for health.    

BIO:

 Devorah Ungerleider-Moore is Culinary Editorial Director and nutritional thought leader for special diet and gluten-free living at Progressive Nectar Publishing. With a previous background in health & fitness, she recovered from a spinal tumor through holistic nutrition has been helping others do the same ever since. To contact her directly email info@progressivenectar.com.

Singer's Wellness: Fluid Facts

Our bodies function best when they are well fed and well hydrated. We'll talk more about nutrition in coming posts, but let's address water here.

Our bodies are about 60% water.

photo by: José Manuel Suárez

Our vocal cords are covered with a layer of mucous that is water based.

This mucous does several things:
1. Helps with vocal cord flexibility (i.e. makes singing easier).
2. Protects them from friction while we talk and sing.

Without it our cords are stiffer, swell more easily when we sing and have a harder time recovering from a long singing session. When we are dehydrated the layer of mucous is either less or non-existent.

When you are mildly dehydrated you might notice:
1. Dry mouth
2. Headache
3. Dark colored urine
4. Dry lips
5. Low level fatigue

Hydration is systemic, meaning water has to get into your body before it can hydrate you - drinking water while singing or doing yoga will do a bit to help relieve a dry mouth and cool you off, but it won't really help your voice in that moment.

How do you know how much water you need to drink? The old way of looking at it was everyone needed 64 ounces of water a day. Turns out it is more individual. Our diets often consist of about 20% water - almost every substance we consume has water in it (especially if you are eating lots of fruits and vegetables).

The remaining, 80% water you take in comes in liquid form - and hopefully a lot of that liquid is water, though tea, coffee, soda, fruit juice all have water. One study showed that caffeinated beverages don't contribute significantly to dehydration in healthy adult males, but caffeine in high levels causes its own issues. Soda and fruit juice are also not 'real' foods, but food products, some laden with chemicals so I advise avoiding them in general. If you exercise and sweat heavily you will need more water to keep you hydrated. In the winter I also recommend sleeping with a humidifier to keep your airway moist (waking up with a sore throat in the morning because you are so dried out is one sign that you would benefit from a humidified *NB a morning sore throat can also be a sign of reflux).

In the singing world we say 'pee pale'. After your first morning void, aim to have light colored urine. (Totally clear urine can signify over hydration, something that isn't particularly healthy either).

The next time you find your energy flagging at 3pm, try drinking some water to give yourself a boost. Carrying a BPA free water bottle is also a great way to be sure you are drinking regularly and staying hydrated!