E049 - A Meditation For Your Voice

Today I want to share a meditation about our voices – those beautiful organic instruments of soft, delicate tissue that create sounds and help us express ourselves.

So many of us have complex relationships with our voices, so in this little meditation we're going to go in and meet it, nurture it, and love it a little bit – we’re just going to pay attention to this incredibly delicate instrument that is our speaking and singing voice.

Why? Mostly because we neglect this area, and this meditation is about bringing in warm, loving, conscious support to your throat, even to the fine little vocal folds that lie unseen in there. Did you know that they vibrate 440 times a second when we sing an A4? The incredible things that move inside when we speak and sing are basically a complete miracle that allow us to communicate in this way. And it's from this perspective of appreciation that we'll do this meditation.

If you're into it, please close your eyes, and let's do this together.

You can watch the video, continue reading below, or listen to the meditation on Soundcloud.

Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Let's just tune into that busyness that is often behind our eyes, in the middle of our heads. And with a bit of loving awareness just focus in and notice that intensity or busyness. We may be thinking in this moment, and that's totally okay.

Tune into that energy (or intensity, busyness, thinkingness, or cogitation) inside your head, behind your eyes. Just pay attention there and let your awareness rest there. Let's voluntarily be in our heads for a moment.

Now we're going to move our attention away from the center of our head, right to our lips and mouth. Bring your awareness down from the head – uncouple or unhook it from all that thinking, and start to pay attention to the sensation and feelings in your lips. Relax the lips, but also just feel the sensation that's there.

And then allow that awareness to drop further down, into the chin, so that you aim to feel your chin from the inside. If it helps, touch your chin with a finger to locate it and to feel some sensation there. We're bringing awareness into the chin, feeling the chin from the inside. Feeling the physical sensation there.

And now allow that attention, that awareness, to move down into your neck, into the middle of the neck where your throat is. You might not have focused on this area much before, so bring your awareness into the middle of the neck, into the throat area. Please be patient with yourself.

And of course, you may find yourself popping up into your head to think, and that's totally okay. Just come back down, bring awareness back down into the neck, into the center of your throat. Allow your awareness to settle right in the middle of your neck, being aware of all the fine muscles inside, in the throat area. Those beautiful, soft, subtle vocal folds.

And as you bring your awareness into the middle of your neck, introduce some love or compassion or support for your vocal folds. Bring in a little bit of thanksgiving and gratitude to these extraordinarily complex tissues. These remarkable, subtle tissues move and quiver and shake in different ways to let sound come out perfectly so that people can hear us speak.

So tune into the physical sensations in the throat, but at the same time, pour in a little bit of gratitude and awe for this miracle inside our necks. Soften a little bit and allow yourself to feel this wash of gratitude or love for the beautiful little heroes inside your neck. Just relax here, allowing yourself to love this beautiful voice.

Some of us need to forgive our voices, too, for all the times we've messed up and been too much or said too much, or said too little or said the wrong things. So pour self-forgiveness and love into these beautiful soft tissues. Just bring in love and appreciation and forgiveness.

Bring soft awareness as best as you can into your throat, into your vocal folds – and if you find yourself popping up into thought, no problem. Just come back down and feel the center of the neck. Feel the sensation there in the middle of your throat.

And now just take a breath and let the air pass through your vocal folds, sighing on the out breath. And another sigh where we connect the vocal fold to make a little sound – Aaaaaaaah. And one more – Aaaaaaaah.

And that's it.

Now we can gently wiggle our toes and fingers. With a final wink and a hug to our vocal folds, we can gently open our eyes and move our shoulders around a little bit.

And that's it, really – just a little bit of love and gratitude for this beautiful, mysterious, complex, sophisticated, expressive part of our body.

Much love,