The Voice As A Self Care Tool - The Breeze

Exploring the singing voice can be a powerful self-care tool when done with compassion, acceptance, and awareness. Follow Maria Wood on this simple exploration of your voice which is suitable for explorers who do not identify as singers and also for experienced vocal voyagers. We will explore the breath, sound and learn and sing a simple song together. Chris Wood plays guitar and wrote the music for this song.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Maria Wood and I am here today to bring you on a voyage of discovery.

A journey into the very magical world that is you,

That is your voice.

I like to look at singing as a way of having a conversation with yourself,

A conversation with your inner self.

And if you converse with yourself the right way,

With kindness,

Acceptance and love,

Your voice will be happy to emerge.

Your voice carries messages from within.

It has plenty to say if you listen tenderly.

So today we are going to check in with our voices,

We're going to check in with our breath,

We're going to check in with simple sounds and start the conversation that way.

And then we're going to learn a song and we're going to sing the song and actually then write our own lyrics to fit into this song.

And I'll explain more about that in a bit.

So the song we're going to do today is called The Breeze and it's a very simple song of awareness and gratitude and I wrote this song while I was standing out with our horses who are called Hazel and Bianca.

And I actually write most of my songs when I'm standing out with them.

Really their magical vibe oozes in and I'm inspired and of course I'm standing outside in the lovely Irish countryside where there's wind,

There's rain,

There's sun,

I can see the ocean just a little small bit from where the horses come in to eat.

And it's just a simple song and I'll teach it in a little bit.

But for now we're going to have a little bit of self-care for our voices to orientate ourselves into the right frame of mind for singing well.

And when I say for singing well all I'm talking about is well enough that you can have a conversation.

We're not talking about sounding beautiful,

Sounding perfect,

We're just talking about singing in a way that is open or more open for you.

So the breath is the first thing we're going to focus on.

The breath is obviously very important for singing and first of all we're just going to bring some awareness to it.

So just for now sit there,

Stand,

Lie down,

Whatever you're doing.

And just notice what your breath is doing.

Don't really try and change anything,

You're just going hello breath how are you today?

Do you feel tight,

Do you feel completely free and relaxed?

What's moving?

Are your ribs moving?

Is your stomach moving?

Are your shoulders moving?

And really start to be kind to yourself from the very beginning you want to be kind to your voice and your breath is part of your voice.

No matter how your voice turns up for you every day if you are kind to it,

It will be kind to you.

And you can start to think now a bit more about the out breath.

We're obviously singing on the out breath so we're going to think about releasing that breath even more.

So breathe out fully.

And when you're ready just let the breath in and then breathe out fully again.

And we're not trying to make it be a specific length of time breathing in or a specific length of time breathing out.

What we're actually focusing on is just allow the breath in whatever that is we're not taking a huge breath we're just allowing some breath in and then we're giving time a bit of patience to allow the out breath go for longer and longer and longer.

So keep doing that just allow the breath in and then breathe out and when you feel you are done breathe out a bit more.

Many people are surprised to find there's a little bit more in the tank.

There's more in there if we choose to just give ourselves a little bit of time.

Let's bring the breath in.

And you might notice a couple of different things.

You might notice that you can actually breathe out for a lot longer than I can.

Or on the other side you might feel that you can't breathe out for very long at all.

And either is fine because what we're trying to discover is your pattern and then we're trying to extend your pattern.

We're trying to break it up a little bit and just introduce a new pattern.

So you're not trying to be like somebody else you're just being yourself and giving yourself more time.

So we'll do one more.

And actually let's do one more where we're breathing out and we're looking at our breath going right out in front of us like a breeze and it's filling the room as you're breathing in breathing out.

It's filling the room that you're in or the space where you are outside.

It's flowing out around the room.

You keep breathing in and breathing out at your own pace.

And just see your breath flowing around all the objects that are in front of you.

The table,

The chairs,

Flowing out the window perhaps,

Flowing around the trees if you have any,

Flowing around the flowers.

Use your imagination.

Let your breath be a little bit magical.

Okay so now we're going to introduce a little bit of sound and we're going to see what we can discover.

Remember this is a voyage of discovery.

This isn't a voyage of being perfect.

This is a voyage of discovery.

So you can follow me and if for any reason you find it's difficult to follow me,

If you're not great at matching pitch or anything like that,

That's fine just do whatever.

It really doesn't matter for now.

Use my voice as a source of inspiration as much as anything else.

So here we go.

And do that again.

And then do this.

And if you relax your jaw,

If you relax your tongue,

What can you feel?

Can you feel any vibration?

Any resonance anywhere in your voice?

Any warm feelings,

Buzzing,

Tingling?

Ahhh.

Notice how you feel about your voice.

Do you love it?

Are you delighted with how your voice sounds today or are you frustrated with it?

And remember that you're trying to be kind to your voice so just notice what it is.

Notice if it's a little bit scratchy,

If it's a little bit tired,

If it's a bit shy.

Just notice all that stuff and just think aww.

That's ok.

There's no pressure.

We're just having a little bit of a conversation here.

And now try this sound.

And just allow your breath out.

Don't hold your breath or anything.

And just notice any physical sensations at all.

If you can't feel anything just notice that.

And gradually you will start to feel something.

Vibration,

A little bit of tension.

You might feel your breath.

You might feel your ribs moving,

Your stomach going in.

We'll try a different set of notes.

And you can start to use your imagination again.

This is really important and it's fun.

See your voice going out around the room like your breath did earlier.

Just see it filling up the space.

You're not putting in any effort.

You're using your imagination to draw out your voice.

These here are your new notes.

And use as little effort as possible.

Can you use even less effort?

And you can hear that my voice became a little bit scratchy there.

Because I was using less effort I was allowing my voice to fail a little bit.

And this conversation,

This voyage of discovery allows for a little bit of failure.

And really it's not actually failure at all.

It's possibly a failure of sound but it's a success in relaxation.

So we're reorientating what our goal is here.

We are trying to relax the voice in order to let something flow.

Let our voices flow,

Let our imaginations flow.

Ok,

So next set of notes.

Less effort.

One more time.

So at this stage I'm feeling really relaxed.

I'm nearly starting to feel sleepy.

Because I'm being really nice to myself.

And my body is relaxing and thinking oh I'm not really trying to perform.

I'm not trying to be perfect,

Replicate anything in particular.

I'm just having a conversation.

Yippee!

And your voice loves that.

Now I've actually given you the melody of the song there.

So I'm going to start to teach the words of the song.

Ok so we've got.

The breeze on my skin.

The breeze on my skin.

The breeze on my skin.

And remember at the moment we're just warming up.

We're checking in with our voices,

Having a conversation.

So what does your voice feel like at the moment?

The breeze on my skin.

And the next line.

The rain in my hair.

The rain in my hair.

The ocean at my feet.

The ocean at my feet.

The ocean at my feet.

And the next line.

And light everywhere.

And light everywhere.

One more time.

And light everywhere.

So that's the first part.

And you can see that this is a song of simple awareness.

Awareness of what you might encounter.

Today what you might have encountered yesterday,

Last year.

Or what you might hope to encounter.

Very simple things like the rain on my hair.

The breeze on my skin.

Very very simple things but they're beautiful things.

I have a really vivid image of myself standing out beside Hazel and Bianca.

After a shower of rain and then the sun came out.

And just loving it and just being so grateful for being where I was.

So we're going to sing through that twice.

And I want you to think about what does it feel like to let your voice fill the room.

And again you're using no effort at all.

You're not pushing.

You're letting your imagination fill the room with your voice.

OK here we go.

The breeze on my skin.

The rain in my hair.

The ocean at my feet.

And light everywhere.

The breeze on my skin.

The rain in my hair.

The ocean at my feet.

And light everywhere.

So obviously some people feel nervous about letting their voices out.

The idea of filling a room might feel daunting.

And that's OK.

That's really really normal.

Add into that thinking what if you even imagine somebody was listening.

Is that really freaky?

Some people think well I could imagine a rock listening to me.

I can't even imagine a tree listening to me.

Because they're so nervous of judgement.

And it's a very valid fear.

Because people are judged so much for their voices.

And of course I'm hoping that things can change in that way a little bit.

So for now if you're nervous about being heard.

Imagine that there are trees listening to you.

If you can see any trees.

Or imagine that the sky is welcoming you.

It's giving you a cloud to let your voice land on.

So you want your voice to be able to flow out.

To be received by something.

Because then your body will help you to let your voice flow.

If you feel like oh no I'm too nervous and I'm going to keep my voice in.

Then your body will help you to keep your voice in.

So the next piece is just aye aye.

So there are no real words.

And I'll sing it through.

Aye aye Aye ay aye,

Aye aye Aye ay aye aye.

Aye aye Aye ay aye Aye ay aye,

Aye aye aye aye.

Aye.

I I I,

I a ee ee So,

Let's just take a moment to stop and think,

Right we're on a voyage of discovery.

What have I discovered so far and how do you feel about your voice?

Are you still being kind to your voice?

Are you still being compassionate to your voice?

Can you accept your voice?

Because once you accept your voice things will change,

Things will open up.

So now I'm going to sing the song with Chris,

My husband,

Playing guitar.

As part of this I'm going to leave a space where I'm not singing at all and Chris is going to keep playing the guitar and you can actually come up with lines yourself.

So if you look around the room or wherever you are you might notice something that you want to be grateful for or just bring awareness to.

So the table where I sit,

The food that I eat,

The shoes that I have,

The trees that wave in the wind,

Anything at all.

And you can actually just sing these along and it doesn't matter if it comes out funny or it's not quite exactly the same melody.

This is just a way of bringing out some thoughts from your imagination and to continue that voyage of discovery,

That conversation with your magical self.

Okay and then I'll come back in and we'll finish the song together.

And don't forget to let your imagination flow.

Whatever you're seeing or hearing or feeling as we sing this together is perfect but really let it flow.

One of the things that I love the most about singing is that it gets your subconscious flowing.

It gets the imagination flowing.

It regulates the nervous system.

When we are letting the imagination flow and when we are letting the breath flow.

When those two things are happening,

Magic happens.

Absolute magic happens.

And that magic is accessible to every single person now.

This is not about technique.

This is not about perfection.

This is about you letting your subconscious,

Letting your imagination flow.

And just about becoming relaxed and notice what you're feeling.

Notice if you're still being kind to yourself as you sing along with me.

And I'm here to support you,

To guide you,

To help you along.

Okay here we go.

The breeze on my skin,

The rain in my hair,

The ocean at my feet and light everywhere.

The blackbird on a branch,

His song in my ear,

The flowers at my feet and life on a branch.

The breeze on my skin,

The rain in my hair,

The ocean at my feet and life everywhere.

The breeze on my skin,

The rain in my hair,

The ocean at my feet and life everywhere.

Ay ay ay ay ay ay.

Ay ay ay ay ay.

Ay ay ay ay ay ay ay.

The blackbird on a branch,

His song in my hair,

The flowers at my feet and life everywhere.

Ay ay ay ay ay ay.

Ay ay ay ay ay ay.

Ay ay ay ay ay ay.

Now your turn.

Ay ay ay ay ay ay ay.

Ay ay ay ay ay ay ay.

Ay ay ay ay.

I I I I a I I I I I A The breeze on my skin,

The rain in my hair,

The ocean at my feet,

The light everywhere.

Aye aye aye aye aye,

Aye aye aye aye aye,

Aye aye aye aye,

Aye aye aye aye aye aye.

The blackbird on the branch,

The song in my ear,

The flowers at my feet,

And life everywhere.

Ah well done.

Well done.

I hope you enjoyed singing along with me.

I hope you enjoyed your imagination,

Letting something flow,

Discovering something.

How did you get on with the making up some lyrics yourself bit?

Was that a bit daunting or was it easy?

Even as you're walking around today or as you're at work or you're having your lunch you can think about this song maybe and you can think what are the things that I could put into this song?

What are the things that I've noticed that I can put into this song?

And then listen to it again and maybe try it out.

The walk that I had,

The rain that I saw,

The bird that flew past,

Anything at all.

Just things you've seen.

They don't have to be spectacular things.

Just any little thing even if it's the wall that I passed.

It doesn't even have to be exciting but of course it's just about bringing awareness to some moments and also gratitude if it is a particularly nice thing.

You could even think the steps that I took,

The courage that I showed,

The things that I learned and hope everywhere.

You could keep rewriting this song over and over and over.

I've got hundreds of lines of lyrics from when I've done this with various groups and it's beautiful because it just grows this huge list of lovely moments.

So if you want to leave any of your ideas in the comments that would be wonderful.

I'd be delighted to hear about them.

So for now just thank yourself.

Take a moment to reflect on how you're feeling about your voice.

Were you able to be compassionate to your voice?

Was that difficult?

If it was difficult make sure to be compassionate to that.

At every stage possible just try and be compassionate to yourself even if you get things wrong.

It's fine.

Just be kind and maybe be a little bit more compassionate the next time.

So thank you for coming on this voyage of discovery with me as we went into the magical centre of your being and just sang.

Just made some sounds,

Breathed out.

It's all very simple but of course it's the way we approach it that is often the most difficult bit.

Have a wonderful day or evening,

A wonderful sleep,

A wonderful morning.

Take care.

Reviews

I really enjoyed your singing as meditation- brilliant. What a beautiful way to interact with the ordinary and recognize it as extraordinary!

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

I felt gently guided nto voice and lyrics exploration and it was very relaxing and inspiring. Thank you ☘️

⚡️ The breeze in the trees
Whispers songs of love
The animals at my feet
This life full of love ❤️

Lovely, I’m curious to see what lines I’ll add on this foggy and rainy day. Thank you for this.