The Healing Power of Your Voice by Coach Georgina Kruse

What has your voice got to do with healing?

Everything. Yet many of us are completely unaware of the power our own voice has to heal ourselves. Our voices are amazing, marvellous gifts. They can declare love, reprimand, uplift, seduce, influence, deny, inspire, cause fear or excitement, move us to tears or heal a broken heart.

Your Voice is Your Identity in Sound

From the moment we are born we make sounds through breathing, crying, laughing, groaning, sighing and so many more that affect how we feel and communicate. The sound of voice can bring memories to the surface and give rise to emotions, thoughts and new ideas. It can literally create and destroy dreams, relationships and projects of all sorts. It is the seat of your personal power and yet we generally take our voice completely for granted and remain largely unaware of its intrinsic power.

Your voice is literally its own beautiful sound-signature that identifies you to others, just like a fingerprint. Like everything else about you, your sound-signature is unique only to you. Your sound is a connector that together with its tone, energy, resonance and choice of words, shape your identity and expression.

It instantly communicates to others your personality and how you are feeling in that moment. Such as, if you are feeling happy or had a rough day, feeling tired or defeated, excited or passionate.

Through voice, your breath illuminates your spirit in the world.

Masking our True Voice

And so here’s the kicker. Many of us mask our true voice. We use our voice against ourselves to adhere to social norms, make others happy, compromise our feelings, values or morals in exchange for acceptance, love, promotion, or forgo our free will out of obligation.

We adjust our voice including tone, resonance, word choice and consequently, fundamentally change our vibration and pure alignment to hide our expression, pretending we are ok, happy or confident when we are in fact the opposite. Over time we break our own hearts and our lives become small – we become discontented and unhappy.

On top of this, many of us may not like the sound of our natural voice because we believe it to be too high, too low, too nasal, too loud or too soft. Possibly we were told as children we couldn’t sing, we were out of tune, or worse, to be quiet. Even our western culture teaches us to analyse rather than express, that intellectualising is more important than feeling and that we should refrain from speaking our thoughts and feelings.

Masking our true voice day after day, year after year is, in my opinion, one of the root causes of all disease and why so many women in particular have thyroid issues.

Healing Lies Within You

When you are connected to your heart and speak with your true voice, centered and in pure alignment with yourself, you garner the power and vibration to transform your life and live fully.

If making your true voice has been a habitual practice for some time you might wonder how you can find it and begin healing your heart. It starts with listening and honouring yourself.

Here are my 5 top tips:

1. Recognise and allow your true feelings to be expressed. You can still choose the timing, tone and words, but let them be from your heart, real and without the mask. Speak truth with passion.

2. Expect and accept that using your true voice might be uncomfortable at first and sometimes terrifying. Go forth with courage in your heart, live your true voice, and live life without regret.

3. Accept that change is afoot. Some people in your life might need time to adjust their own experience and expectations of you. Forgive them.

4. Give up on ‘I have to’ and ‘I should’. Either choose to do something or choose not to. Adding obligation or burden to anything is a recipe for a shit life. Life is for enjoying, growing and expressing. If there is something you feel you must do, either change your attitude towards it or simply don’t do it. Sometimes all it takes is a shift in perspective.

5. Vocal toning: find a quiet space and just make a sound. Start with each vowel, one at a time on a long extended out breath. Just keep going. Then you can experiment with high sounds and low sounds, loud and soft. Get to know your voice like an old friend. Don’t judge your voice. Hum, sing (do it in the shower or car if you have to at first), whisper, read books aloud or even take a singing class or join a choir. Use your voice as an instrument, get to know its idiosyncratic textures. Understanding your sound builds confidence and shapes your identity. Play with it, have fun and if you cry, that’s ok too. Let it flow and let it go.

There are also some other things you can do to look after your vocal apparatus:

1. Hydration is key. Your vocal cords vibrate very fast to make sound. Always drink plenty of water and eat hydrating foods like fruits and vegetables, and avoid alcohol and caffeine in general. Hydrating foods like watermelon, apples, pears, grapes and celery are all good choices. Also warm, clear veggie soups.

2. Honey is good for your throat. Honey and warm water are great before singing.

3. For some people dairy, oil or spicy food can cause phlegm that coats your vocal cords, making it more difficult to sing or cause acid reflux that can harm your vocal cords. If this is you, best to avoid those things.

4. Don’t smoke or breathe secondhand smoke – not good for anything really.

5. Don’t abuse or misuse your voice. Avoid yelling or screaming for long periods and try not to talk over loud sounds in noisy areas for long periods. Be mindful of your vocal load. If you are talking all day at work or singing for many hours, you should be careful of vocal fatigue. If your throat feels dry, tired or hoarse, reduce vocal use and rest your voice.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to open yourself up to yourself and to the world. When you speak from your heart in your true voice, others will not only hear you but also feel your resonance too. This will profoundly affect your ability to communicate and assist you in conveying meaning such that you will feel more balanced and find it easier to be present in your thoughts and expression.

Your voice is an incredible gift. Use it. Heal your heart and embody your true self. Shine your light bright and express who you are for it will inspire others to stand in their truth and be at peace too.