I recently had a private session with a client. Alice ( not her real name) had been singing in choirs since she was 8 years old, and played a string instrument competently. She had, however, stopped singing in choirs some time ago.
Alice had been practising her gentle breath and developing her conscious presence for quite a while, and now she wanted to learn to sing from her innermost ( esoteric ) awareness. I asked her what she would do when she was able to sing in this re-connected way, and she said she would re-join a choir.
We mused on this, and I commented that this was ok but did she realise that if she took her re-awakened soul-full voice, her gentle breath, conscious presence and re-configured body along to a choir and started to sing songs that were NOT energetically configured, her body would have to ‘step down" energetically to sing those songs and she would then have to “rebuild” the energetic connection inside herself.
She pondered on this , and after a while said emphatically “Well that’s THAT for singing then!”
“Hold on “ I said, “just feel this sound...” and I toned gently, note after note ... very simple, just gentle sounds.
“Goodness “ she said. “I just could not stop myself smiling. What a beautiful sound.”
“OK, lets try it, “ I said, and we started to explore some simple gentle tones. At first her sound was formless, disconnected, forced, and came just from her throat. ( she was in tune of course due to her musical experience, but that was all!)
So we kept tuning in to her letting go of the ‘push’, the self judgement, and the contraction, and then she made her first un-forced sound. She opened her eyes immediately and said “oh That feels so wonderful, I can actually feel it in my body.”
“Yes “ I commented, “ but notice how your mind is leaping in immediately and not letting you feel what else is there!”
“Ah!”, ... she got it.
Her sound became more and more resonant, gentle, heartfelt and connected, and after each sound she was able to be more and more still. So after the second tone there was a 10 second pause before she spoke, then 30 seconds, until eventually she was truly able to connect and feel ... like a radiance through her body, and eventually she said..
“This is the most wonderful sound I have ever made in my life, and this is the most I have ever felt and connected to my body.”
“Great,” I said. “ Now imagine a person with your life experience, your social set,, all the connections you have, imagine presenting to all the people you know what it feels like to re-awaken their voices, hearts, and bodies, and to feel this connected.”
I am going to try and not write schmaltz here, but Alice's face was truly radiant and her eyes alight. She was realising the vast possibilities of what she could actually do with her transformed innermost voice. And she realise how much she could do at home, continuing the process of tuning herself in to her re-awakening body and heart and voice. And off she went.
Oh and by the way, Alice turns 78 in a few weeks.
WHATS STOPPING YOU?
With love
chris
