Voice work Step1
Let us explore our typical voices and its present dynamics in our life.
Each of our voice is as unique as fingerprints. It all looks much the same and they have countless variations. Our voices drop clues and unsaid messages about who we are, where we come from, what emotional state we are in and many more.
We each have a unique voice because so many human factors together produce that particular voice. We use many voices in our life in different ages, different spaces, different roles, in different relationships, different locations, etc.– for example:
firm, demanding, hesitant, frightened, squeaky, childlike voice, seductive, insistent, pleading, submissive, obedient, loud, soft, tender, sing-song, commanding, muted, cold, angry, whispering, loving, silent, laughing, crying, rebutting, rebelling, whiny, muffled, and many more in our lives. We also get habituated to use some specific voices with specific people and in roles and mostly not even be aware of it until we take a look at it.
Let us Begin:
- Set your ambience for voice work in your own ‘sacred cave’. Make sure you are not disturbed and choose a time and space and for next 30 minutes
- Take an A 4 sheet or your journal and draw a longest line.
- At the beginning mark ‘0’ and at the other end of the line place your present age. You are constructing your own voice line.
- Sit comfortably or lie down and in your mind’s eye, move through your infancy to childhood, toon, teenage, young adult and mature adult, elder….. and examine how you fulfilled your needs through your voice or by other means, all through your life, from one life stage to another?
- To begin with, as an infant what voice did you use in your memory or in your assumption? Mark the age on your voice line with a ‘x’ and write the names of the voices above or below the ‘x’ and give an emoji or code for that voice. You may not have used one voice; you would have used many voices to fulfil your needs.
- Move through your biography from age 0 up to now, keep marking age and voices you were/are using at what age and keep recording them with ‘x’ and coding them with an emoji or a sy
- When you come to your present age, your voice line is ready now.
Keeping your voice line before you reflect and write in your journal:
- Do I notice any patterns- big or small, changes that happened in the voices I used during different life stages?
- What incidents in my biography caused changes in the way I used/use my voice?
- Presently, am I satisfied and happy with usage of my voice for the ‘good of me’ and ‘good of the whole’?
Stay with these reflections…..
There are 2 more steps to voice work- linking voice to relationships and self-authority. This will be covered next week.