Life is absolutely dependent upon the act of breathing and so is the quality of your voice tone. To breathe is to be alive. All animals and plants are dependent upon air for continued existence. One could say that your life is but a series of breaths. Breathing may be considered the most important of all the functions of the body because all the other functions depend on it and this includes YOUR SPEAKING VOICE.
I highly recommend the book, The Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka, which is available at Amazon.com. Yogi combines eastern and western philosophies of breathing in a very unique and highly understandable way and provides many specific breathing exercises for the health of our bodies and the production of our speaking voice.
One of the more interesting principles he discusses is the connection between breathing in air and the intake of Prana, the name given to “the essence of all motion, force or energy in all forms of life, whether manifested in gravitation, electricity, planetary revolution. This Force & Energy is found in all forms of matter. It is in the air and is taken in by the system along with oxygen”. Pg.19.
I began to think about the how this force/energy colors and supports the tone of our voice. How most of us are living such fast paced lives and just take breathing for granted until we are ill or so stressed out that we are told by a health provider to take time to breathe and meditate on a daily basis.
Many of my private clients are surprised at the effect that the VPS relaxation breathing exercises have on the tone of their voice. One of my clients, a young man around 30, was told in his performance review that he always sounded as if he was angry or on the verge of getting angry. It put his co-workers on edge and they didn’t enjoy working with him.
As we worked with his breathing and I taught him to take a complete inhale and then use the exhale to speak, his energy opened up and so did his voice. His tone became much more relaxed, deeper, and resonant. One could say that with deeper breathing the Prana/energy force changed.
This young man had been raised by a physically abusive father resulting in him always steeling himself for the onslaught of his father’s anger. His tenseness, which seemed a natural way of being in the world, was reflected in his breathing and in the sound of his voice. Once he realized the connection between his life experience and how improving his breathing gave him control over the sound of his voice, he was able, with a little practice, to change the way he was heard and energetically understood by not only is coworkers but also his family and the world at large.
Pay attention to your breathing. Another great resource is Breathing, The Key to Self-Healing by Dr. Andrew Weil. We would all benefit from living in a more relaxed world and I know we would all sound better and relate to each other more comfortably. Are you ready to discover how you can improve your speaking voice by signing up for your 20-minute free voice analysis, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 877-783-2455
