Day 3:  Breath and Voice

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3

Breath and Voice 

You can do anything with your voice as long as you have enough breath.

Take a comfortable seat, or choose constructive rest, lying with your back on the ground, feet wider that your hips, and arms below shoulder level. Close your eyes and move your attention inward:

-Notice any sensation of breath.

-Bring your hands to your low belly and back, and expand these areas as you breathe—filling and emptying.

-Let the outer environment become part of your body with every breath.

-Move your hands to the bottom of your ribs and trace their circumference. This is the attachment site for your breathing diaphragm.  It moves down on the inbreath while your ribs expand, and releases on the exhale. Feel or imagine it moving inside you—like a jellyfish propelling itself through the ocean.

-Place your hands on the full volume of your ribs, (top, side, and back). Expand your ribs on the inbreath. Feel the support of the ground and relax on the outbreath. Remember, there is no muscle of exhale.

-Move your hands to your heart. Place them on your breastbone and imagine your heart pulsing blood to every cell in your body. Your bone cells are breathing, muscle cells breathing, nerve cells are breathing in a process called cellular respiration. Feel your whole body breathing.

-Notice the air moving across your lips. Invite an audible sigh of breath alone. Repeat several times.

-Allow breath to become sound. Feel the vibrations without tightening extra muscles.

-Explore any vowel tone and let it resonate throughout your body. Be touched by sound. Now let your sound touch the space around you.

-Pause and notice any lingering vibration.

-Transition to standing.

-Explore breath and voice in vertical alignment. Partner vocalizing with walking, sustaining inner spaciousness.

-Connect your resonant voice to your fluid body. Relax the back of your neck.

-Paint the whole room with your voice. Try different pitches and volumes. Explore words.

-Practice playful extremes of vocalizing so your mid range of speaking can be more expressive and varied.

-Invite different languages and cultural modalities.

-Invite levity into your voice and movement, bonding with sky. Can you retain full even breath as you explore?

-Some say we develop our vocal habits at puberty—as our bodies mature, and keep those patterns throughout our lives. But we’ve changed a lot since then.  There’s more potential for range.

-Dance your own dance with sound and breath. Listening as well as vocalizing, balancing impression with expression. Allow every body part to be articulate and resilient in this dialogue with air.

Breathing is our hearts love affair with plants.