Voice As Medicine: Molly Mahoney On Hope And Healing Through Song

When the world feels heavy and full of noise, how do we make space for breath, truth, and light? We invited mezzo soprano Molly Mahoney to share how singing— anything from opera to jazz to cabaret—became both her art and her way of meeting hard days with honest hope.

Molly’s new recording of Over the Rainbow with Grammy-winning pianist John Wilson anchors our conversation: not as a sugar-coated escape, but as a grounded arc from jumble and rain to a place beyond the rainbow. We talk about why this timeless song still resonates, how long exhales settle the body, and what happens when a melody lets you feel before you have to explain.

Together, we unpack the somatic side of voice: simple alignment resets, shhhh exhales, and micro-moments against a wall or on the floor that open the ribs and low back. Molly shares stories from her voice studio, where adult beginners—many told to “just mouth the words”—discover that singing is learnable, gentle, and deeply human. With breath support, vowel shape, and kind feedback, pitch becomes a skill and expression feels safe again. We explore live performance as co-creation, the quiet magic of audience attunement, and the way small imperfections turn into fresh choices on stage.

Parenting threads through our talk too: prenatal lullabies, toddlers who light up when a song returns, and the rituals that bind families and friends in kitchens and living rooms. Music becomes a practice for everyday resilience, a place to set burdens down without denying them. If you’ve ever thought “I can’t sing,” this is your invitation to try—one inhale, one long note, one truthful lyric at a time. Press play to learn breath tools you can use today, hear the story behind Over the Rainbow, and remember why your unique voice matters.

If this conversation moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs some light, and leave a quick review so more people can find these tools and stories. Your voice matters, and it helps our healing community grow.
---
Listen on Spotify and Apple Music:
https://linktr.ee/mollymarymahoney

Learn more about Molly:
www.mollymarymahoney.com

"Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg
"Meadowlark" from The Baker's Wife by Stephen Schwartz
Molly Mahoney, voice
John Wilson, piano
Cory Todd, recording engineer and mastering
recorded December 2025 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on a Steinway piano

Photo credit (sky with clouds): Veronique Kherian

Transcript

Meet Molly Mahoney

Lisa Danylchuk 0:05

Welcome back to the How We Can Heal podcast. Today our guest is Molly Mahoney. Molly is a mezzo soprano with a passion for all things music and song. She performs opera, jazz, and cabaret, and brings classical training and deep emotional truth to everything she sings. She holds a master's degree in vocal performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has appeared with leading Bay Area organizations, including West Edge Opera, West Bay Opera, and Livermore Opera. She's been singing with big bands since she was 10 years old, performed with Frank Sinatra's longtime musical director, and her recordings have been named Top Must-Have Releases by Opera News. Her current artistic focus is her collaboration with Grammy-winning pianist John Wilson, presenting performances and recordings that highlight the timeless beauty of the great American songbook. Today we'll talk about their recent release, Over the Rainbow, and the meaning Molly finds in performing and sharing this heartfelt song. We'll also get into the therapeutic aspects of voice, song, and music and explore how we can use music to help us meet the challenges of life, honor our vulnerability, and connect with and share our unique voice with the world. Molly came into my life in a unique and funny way, we'll share here in just a moment. And I'm so grateful to share her wisdom and skill with you here today. Please join me in welcoming Molly Mahoney to the show. Molly Mahoney, I'm Helly Can you. Cheers. How are you today?

Molly Mahoney 1:58

I'm feeling great. I'm feeling happy. It's raining. My toddler's out in the he's not a toddler. What am I even talking about? Kid, your child. My child is out in the world enjoying the morning.

Lisa Danylchuk 2:12

And I'm here with you. And we're here together. All the deep breaths for the what the world needs now. And especially hashtag, especially mamas. Yes. What the world needs now is love. Sweet love. So, listeners, welcome to our conversation. Molly and I have known each other since 2012.

Speaker 2 2:37

Ish? Yeah, I think 2011.

Lisa Danylchuk 2:40

2009. I don't know.

Speaker 2 2:44

Roundabouts.

Friendship Origin And Shared Joy

Speaker 2 2:45

Yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 2:46

A decade and a half plus. Yeah. Or minus or plus. And so we might just be a little bit silly. And I welcome you to join us in that fun fact. Molly and I met on Craigslist.

Speaker 2 2:59

It's our claim to fame. I think you like a Craigslist feature.

Lisa Danylchuk 3:04

Does Craigslist still exist? I think so. So she we ended up doing an exchange for yoga and voice lessons, and we became good friends. And Molly is an opera singer. Among so many amazing vocalizations and has so many skills and talents. And so and she focuses on therapeutic work in her private singing practice. And so I'm excited to have this conversation and share it with folks today. And I'd love to know asking for a friend. How does one become an opera singer, Molly? How did you become an opera singer? I didn't intend to. A singer of all sorts and types. I don't mean to put you in a silo here. But you have pipes. Let's just put it that way.

Speaker 2 3:52

I I do sing opera. Um I my parents say that I was singing ever since I could talk. Um, I was just making sounds and and singing, and music was always a part of my life. And I didn't necessarily think about genres until maybe I was a teenager and I started singing with a big band for the first time at age 10 in New York. And so I really knew specifically, okay, I love this style of music. And then it wasn't until I went to college that I even really knew about opera and studied and thought, yes, I want to do it all. So at the time I was singing with an RB band, a salsa band, singing in choir, singing Carmen in college. Uh, what else was I doing? Obviously, like art songs and stuff in my voice lessons, singing with a big band, and I just love the variety that our voices can make. And so many different styles of music make

Becoming A Singer Across Genres

Speaker 2 5:00

you move and sing in in different ways.

Lisa Danylchuk 5:03

Yeah. What is it about music? It's so uniquely powerful.

Speaker 2 5:10

It is. Yeah, I don't know the sides behind it, I just know the feelings behind it.

Lisa Danylchuk 5:17

And I know you and I trade articles all the time when we find the therapeutic benefits of voice or chanting or singing together, or you know, yoga ohms, all of that. We yeah, there's signs behind these things.

Speaker 2 5:31

We see it, we feel it. Yeah, yeah. Our mamas knew that when they were singing to us, and we knew that deep, deep inside, with or without the articles. Like just I sang to Zephyr so much when I was pregnant. I sang all the time, and it just felt like our secret language, the way that I could best communicate with him. And I know you did too. It's such a special way to start that relationship.

Lisa Danylchuk 6:04

It's such a beautiful thing to have as a regular part of your life, too, because for me, I love and appreciate music, but sometimes I just forget that you can have it on in the background all the time and it just makes life smoother. Yeah. Like right now, I have certain sets of music on and repeat in the background and songs stuck in my head. Yeah, I'm a person who almost always has a song stuck in my head, to be honest, but it's like you can also play things that change in the background and set the mood and support you through support you through transitions.

Speaker 2 6:37

I've seen that so much with my three-year-old and your almost three-year-old, that it reminds me that, oh yeah, I can use these same transitions for myself in creating a mood for myself and singing things help me to transition from work to play. I mean, everything's play, but you know, and to amp myself up in the mornings and to help bring down myself in the evenings. And yeah, there's there's a song for every moment, and and of course, quiet is good at times too. Sure. Um, but yeah, having uh music for every moment can be really beautiful as a song. So your life.

Lisa Danylchuk 7:28

Yes, and you recently released a new single, uh Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Tell us about that and what led to that.

Speaker 2 7:37

Yeah. So I have this new collaborative relationship, artistic relationship with John Wilson, uh pianist at in San Francisco, and we just immediately felt this artistic chemistry, and we're like, okay, we have to record, we have to perform. And so we recorded three tunes in December, and we released Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Yes, a couple days before Christmas, and then this song Over the Rainbow from, of course, the best movie in the world, Wizard of Oz. And we really wanted to record this one in particular

Music’s Power In Daily Life

Speaker 2 8:20

because we both are deeply connected to it. And as I think everyone I've ever talked to about this song is, it was the number one song um by AFI, the film um uh of the last century for a reason, like the number one most beloved song. It really speaks to everybody, and especially when you include all the lyrics, it shows this isn't a naive hope. This is um a beautiful hope with the recognition of um that life isn't always so easy, you know. It starts off when all the world is a hopeless jumble. When all the world is a hopeless jumble, and the raindrops tumble all around. Yeah, so it it recognizes that there are times of hardship, uh challenging times, painful times. And when you think about even when this was written, sure it was written for a movie, but the time in which it was written, 1939, what was happening in the world, like yeah, this song was written out of a similar time when people were feeling it, yeah, yeah, feeling the stresses, big things happening, yeah. And so I feel like this song really meets that moment in that way and feels very connecting to sing, and it feels like the gift that I can give to people right now to listen and sing along with this amazing, amazing song by Harold Arland and Yip Harberg. It's it's just magic.

Lisa Danylchuk 10:30

And what does it do for you when you sing the song? Like if you think of how you're feeling before, during, after, what's the arc of that?

Speaker 2 10:39

It starts off, you know, maybe I'm feeling like I need to sing it. And so maybe I'm feeling a little contracted or a little uncertain. And then, like I said at the beginning, you know, this at the beginning of the song, when all the world is a hopeless jumble, and acknowledging what's happening, even just acknowledging that, already starts to like ground you. And then as you continue to s to follow the flow of these lyrics and think about, it's not the rainbow, it's not this like cotton candy dream or after, it's a place beyond the rainbow. It's what's past that, and that when you think about headed towards this beautiful place that we all know that we can bend the arc toward, I start to feel more expansion in my chest. I start to feel like I can breathe a little deeper, and then you know, the song gets more climactic and these long. Held long notes to exhale. It feels so good to exhale, and then afterward, sometimes I'm literally like buzzing. I can go from a feeling of maybe even not kind of holding my breath to expansion and feeling like yes,

Recording Over The Rainbow

Speaker 2 12:28

we can get there, we can we can do this.

Lisa Danylchuk 12:33

Yeah, like a sense of hope or a sense of the expansion, the opening rather than the contracting or responding to the difficulty. Like you acknowledge it, yeah, breathe through it, right? And then find your way to the other side.

Speaker 2 12:51

Yeah, the possibility, even on the other side. It's like you don't even have to think, okay, we're there or we can get there next month, but just knowing where you're headed.

Lisa Danylchuk 13:06

Yes. I told you I saw this quote yesterday. Art can transform suffering into beauty, and it just makes me think of that. You can use any form of art and singing and song writing or singing being one of them. You can, you know, move into what you're feeling, acknowledge it, and then art can kind of take us for a ride through that.

Speaker 2 13:32

Yes. And singing is, I feel, particularly powerful in that way because we've got the breath. We're like physically changing our body as we are singing and exhaling, which we know is so um here. I go with a little hydration station. Yeah. Take a little breath, everybody.

Lisa Danylchuk 13:56

Molly always has taught me to not clear my throat, but to drink water instead. And so, those of you who watch the video version of this podcast and see me chugging water, I've had some allergies over the last few years. So I feel like I'm always having to clear my throat, especially talking here. So cheers to that. Cheers to that, cheers to that, hydrating.

Speaker 2 14:19

So with the act of singing, you're breathing, you're giving yourself a little massage with your diaphragm. And singing in particular, we've got lyrics, we've got these words that can help guide us on the story.

Speaker 14:45

And in that land beyond the skies, you'll find me.

Lisa Danylchuk 14:54

Words and a melody and instruments, and I I know I'm not a musician myself in a professional sense by any means, but even the I've heard people who perform often talking about doing coordination exercises with the band, like throwing around a hacky sack or doing some sort of game to get in tune with each other. So I think of that too from the actively creating music standpoint of attuning to musicians, of being together in creating this thing that's yeah. And anyone I've known who's performed also says like there's moments where it's very human on stage where something goes just off time, or there's something that was supposed to happen that doesn't, something that wasn't supposed to happen that does. But there's something really organic about that too, and being in the audience rarely, I mean, I never noticed people like, oh, did you see that moment? No, it was beautiful, yeah, right. We didn't, I didn't catch anything, right? But yeah, there can be this co-creative process that happens for musicians performing and recording together. And then I think as a participant in that, as a listener, you become kind of a part of that, right? Because there's so much happening at once. There's whatever musical instruments are at play and the vocals and the tempo, and all of it can come together in this way that sort of draws you in. And we all hear different things when we listen too, and usually the things that we resonate with more.

Speaker 2 16:23

Yeah, yeah. There is no live performance without an audience. And when you're on stage and feeling people breathe, feeling people, even the, you know, sometimes people kind of vocalize when you say you're about to sing a song or at the

Hope, History, And Honest Lyrics

Speaker 2 16:45

end of a song or something, and people are uh, they're wanting to make that sound with you. It's it's magic, uh, in terms of each performance is different. It could be the same set list, the same venue, the same accompanist, but there's something different in the air each time.

Lisa Danylchuk 17:09

Yeah, yeah. So singing and performance can be a transformative experience for everyone involved.

Speaker 2 17:15

Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 17:17

And a journey.

Speaker 17:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2 17:20

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 17:21

How have you seen music or singing transform people emotionally in in some of your work one-on-one with folks?

Speaker 2 17:32

I have loved working with all experience levels, all ages even, and in recent years have kind of narrowed down my studio more towards beginning adult singers, or not even necessarily beginning, but just people who love to sing as a creative outlet and recognize or are learning to recognize the benefits in both their personal and professional lives of taking some time to connect with your alignment and your breath and making some melodies. And so I tend to, I don't know if it's because of you, but I tend to find and connect with a lot of therapists. So I have like I think four therapists in my voice studio right now. Nice. One of them is a union therapist, and uh, with her permission, I asked her if I could share a little bit about her experience. So we've been working together uh exclusively over Zoom because she found me during the pandemic, and we just carried on through Zoom. And so even through Zoom, we've found this connection. And she said that learning to sing with me has helped her literally find somatic ways to release parts of her body that have been holding an early inhibition while bathing in the warmth of my support and healing her earliest attachment, her attachment to her mother who didn't sing around the home.

Speaker 3 19:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:19

And therefore, she didn't sing when she was a child. And this way of exploring your voice, exploring that freedom of expression that she didn't connect with as a child, we're able to do so now with laughter, with fun, and with spaciousness to explore. And it feels really meaningful to me to guide people in this therapeutic way. And I think one of the things I especially love about working with adults is knowing that they have support systems in their lives. Um, they either are therapists or are seeking therapy, and then this is a way that we can lightly explore some of those topics that may come up in therapy or come up because they have done the work themselves. Yeah. And then they can take anything deeper

The Somatic Arc Of Singing

Speaker 2 20:30

back to their therapist, but that we're able to literally breathe and sing and yell if we need to and uh vocalize and get to know some of those things that maybe weren't explored or expressed as a kid. And it just feels so intuitive to me, and so it really feels extra meaningful in that way to work with clients like her.

Lisa Danylchuk 21:04

So powerful to connect that act of singing to attachment and and inhibition too, right? I mean, I took lessons with you for years and I resonate with the warm basque of your glow that she described because you have a really beautiful presence with people, and I know that you're not focused on you can coach people for performance 100%, but you're not focused on outcome in a way that has any kind of toxic pushback, right? Like your approach is so beautifully holistic and integrative of the joy and the freedom and the emotion and the fullness of and the ease of breath. Like there's so much woven in there that feels so healthy to me. And I believe I. Told you when we met, I went to a singing lesson just at the local rec center when I was probably 16. I remember I was in high school and I wanted to sing. I was like, I want to just feel relaxed and like I can belt out a tune if I hear it, you know, not just in the car or in the shower, but in front of other people too. And this really sweet person had a piano and it was in an environment that was familiar to me, the Beresford Rec Center in San Mateo. And she just played probably a C, like, okay, sing that. And I felt like I couldn't.

Speaker 2 22:35

Yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 22:35

Like I I was like, and I didn't. I left. I was like, I can't, I can't, I'm not gonna do this. This is like and so I've thought after the fact of that, like, what was that about? Right. And so many decades later, reflecting on adolescence and voice and expression, or even being female in the world and being, and there's so many things that I think could layer on top of that. But when I remember that moment right now, I can feel the constriction of it. I remember it, right? And it is like it's an inhibition. And there's probably so much layered messaging in that, but so beautiful to have an experience. And again, this isn't my focus in life. I never even was like, Oh, I I want to perform, but you know, if I end up being in your Christmas special, I welcome that. Please. Please. I've moved up from being wanting to be in the chorus of your Christmas special to I want to do it. It can be jingle bells. It's fine.

Speaker 2 23:41

Let's do it.

Lisa Danylchuk 23:41

I don't think there's two parts to that, but anyway, maybe there are. So to be able to move through that isn't something, even in a very somatic therapy session. It's just not something would come up. We would talk about voice. We might focus on neck or shoulders or releasing shutters or even moving through in yoga. The ohm is one opportunity to vocalize. I remember the first time I omed in a yoga class being like, oh, this feels weird. Everyone's oming for a number of reasons, and then getting comfortable with that. And then as a teacher, even when I first came to you, feeling like, I just want to feel more celebratory in this. I don't want to feel self-conscious at all about like, I want to know what note do I pick or how do I hold the space for the room that feels like that really warm resonance vibe instead of like awkward or forced or inhibited. And so there's just so much that can come through in just picking a song that brings you joy. Exactly. Perhaps a song from The Little Mermaid. Perhaps. And perhaps, and then singing it with someone who's there supporting you who can use all of the tools, right? The lip bubbles or the scales or the fun phrases and help you move or the imagery right within your body. That's I think very different than somatic psychotherapy, right? I don't talk about a cathedral in your in your chest or your head when it now

Audience, Attunement, And Live Magic

Lisa Danylchuk 25:10

I do. But I didn't learn that from a somatic therapy training. Those are things that are really valuable that you bring and create this sense of or invite a sense of ease and freedom. And I'll say, knowing you and Madison, who's been on the podcast, like I even breathe differently while I'm podcasting. Yeah.

Speaker 25:32

Yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 25:32

Because of the two of you. And so thank you for that.

Speaker 2 25:36

You're welcome.

unknown 25:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:38

Yeah. I think having a guide, if there is that inhibition, can be so helpful because I can let you know, yes, you're you're singing in tune. Or ah, that pitch that you sang was a little under. And it's possibly because it was a little under-supported. We need to get the breath going a little more. Or ah, maybe let's try a different vowel shape. So uh I think uh some of the inhibition, and not everybody has it, but some of the inf inhibition to singing can be because we feel like we have to just be born and have this innate ability to just sing, but recognizing that it can be a skill. And yes, I went to like six years of school to learn about singing, and yes, I also did sing everywhere as a child, but I also had training, and you can have training too, and that there's no it doesn't detract from it feeling like you or your personal expression to have some guidance along the way, it can just help to free and unlock. And I you wouldn't expect to do so many other things in life, you wouldn't expect to be a master painter or NBA player or any of these things without some sort of coach or teacher or even a book practice, training, reflection, a relationship where someone can hear you and give feedback, hopefully in a constructive and loving way.

Speaker 3 27:22

Exactly.

Speaker 2 27:23

And the voice somehow, because it's a part of us, for some people can have that feeling of, oh, I was told by one person that I should just mouth the words, and so there's no hope for me. I'm just not gonna sing. It can feel so real. And so I invite those people to reach out because there's steps we can take to find your voice, and you don't need to take voice lessons to audition for American Idol. Like you can just take voice lessons because you want to sing an anniversary song for your partner, or you want to sing karaoke, or you wanna sing in the car, or just as a way to explore your body and your expression in a way that you never have before.

Lisa Danylchuk 28:17

Yeah, there's so many ways too. He said, find your voice and free your voice, which can be such a theme in so many forms of trauma or oppression, right? There can be this like sense of voicelessness or of the lack of the power of your voice or the resonance of it, or that or people even listening, do they care? And so I think that's even like your client was showcasing that attachment piece of singing with someone, singing to someone, getting this exchange going. And then maybe even, and I think different people have different inclinations. Some people want to be in front of a big audience and share it. Some people that brings a lot of restriction or anxiety or excitement, right? It can be all kinds of mixes of things, but we can just explore like what's in there. And for those of us who maybe aren't thinking about music or singing all the time, and I know there's all kinds of music therapists and art therapists, and there's these different angles we can work with ourselves, but this is one that can be so powerful and translate, right? And I would say, because of the work we did together, there's just more ease for me. And I've had so many people since then, I'm just singing along to whatever song is stuck in my head, yeah, or to a song that's on the radio playing in the background. People, oh, you have a beautiful voice. And it's very reassuring to be like, oh, I accessed that that freedom, right? Or a sense of ease of oh, I can just sing along to this through the work that we did. And it's just this everyday joy to sing along with a song. I mean, even sometimes I'm working out and a

Voice Lessons As Therapeutic Space

Lisa Danylchuk 30:00

song comes on and I'll just sing along with it, and it's so much more fun. That's it's so much more fun. I could be running on the treadmill, right? And I'm just belt out part of the chorus, and and it's so much more fun. And you know, having a young child, right, that so many of these things we do as adults that are like taskmaster, I gotta do my workout and I gotta express myself and work on my communication, right? Those can be so fun for kids. They're just climbing the walls and belting out of tune. And right so that freedom and that ease and that joy and that play that we can bring into something that as adults becomes serious or stale or restricted. Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:42

Yeah. Whenever I find myself too serious, whether it's you know, expectations of myself or feeling the weight of the world or any of these things, when I find myself being too serious, I turn to music. And music helps me find the lightness, the delight. And in a song, you know, back to over the rainbow, it helps me acknowledge the heaviness. Yes. While also breathing and moving through and thinking about hope and possibility and holding all that there is to being alive. Like we don't have to ignore the difficult stuff to prance around and sing.

Lisa Danylchuk 31:33

Yeah, we can acknowledge it and move through, move with it, right? Move amidst it. And I love the connection you mentioned of the earlier time frame when this song was written. Yeah. Because it even connects us across history and reminds us that growth is not linear for any individual, growth is not linear for any society. We're a part of so much more, and our choices matter for us and for the people that we're connected to. And beyond that, and so when we can acknowledge this is painful, this is difficult, and we have something to connect to, a song that was recorded by a friend or someone with positive intention that was written with heart, and we can connect with that, we can be a part of it, we can sing along to it or dance to it, or just sit and listen quietly, like whatever that is. It can acknowledge the depth of the challenge, yeah, and take us in a different direction than staying just usurped by that.

Speaker 2 32:42

Right.

Lisa Danylchuk 32:44

It can take us to a place, like you said, of a play of silliness, of openness, of expansion. And I really feel like that matters. I know so many therapists, helpers, healers, yogis who are feel the weight when they see anyone they love being harmed in the world socially, structurally, politically. There's so much happening, and you know, any day you open up the news and there's something, whether it's in the US and countries throughout the world, natural disasters, all this stuff, right? It's a lot. There's a lot of trauma that we're processing collectively. And we have that connection across the world now too, where we're digesting not just super local news, we're digesting a lot. So when we have a tool that can help us go, oh, this is a lot, and I'm feeling it, and can bring us to a sense of expansion, connection with each other and ease, like gold, just gold.

Speaker 2 33:44

Yeah, yeah. You bring up such a good point in terms of um people holding so much, and you feel like this is such a time to pay attention in this time when we all feel like we're holding, it can be nice to just set it down for a moment, have a breath and take some time for yourself to listen, sing, come along, those good vibrations.

Lisa Danylchuk 34:18

Yes, and the vibrations and the impact of breath and the body. And I want to ask you a little more about breath, but I just had this awareness as you're talking that you know, a lot of my work focuses on dissociation. And when we think of dissociation, we think about the skill of containing the hard stuff, right? And this spectrum of it, like the highway hypnosis, I missed my exit, I was lost in thought, versus like I forgot my entire childhood, which people say to me often. But they we can also end up dissociating from our joy, from our innocence, from play, right? And I know folks that I've worked with where there's a part of them that holds that, right, and that keeps it alive.

unknown 35:00

Yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 35:01

But we're also in that transition, that arcu map for this song of moving from contraction to expansion. That's also association, that's also re-association, that's also connecting to truth, right? The only it's not that the truth is only the painful stuff, right?

unknown 35:19

Yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 35:20

The truth is is our innocence and our joy and our power and our capacity. And so I love that you're mapping that this all mixes in to even one single song, one experience of choosing a song, of singing it, of listening to it, that all of that can be alive in it.

Speaker 2 35:40

Yeah. So about to take a breath for that.

Lisa Danylchuk 35:45

Breath, yes. How do you see breath practice showing up for folks? What are some common challenges for people? And what are some things that you encourage and see bring that sense of physiological expansion?

Speaker 2 36:01

I see a lot in my students and in myself when we're focused on what's in front of us. You know, shoulders come forward, our laptops, our phone, everything's here. And so one of the first things we do in a session together is think about our yeah, our alignment, our foundation of alignment, and roll our shoulders back and do a little bit of touch, like a little pectoralis, a little temporalis, and just kind of see and feel what's there. And then think about breath.

Unlearning Inhibition And Finding Ease

Speaker 2 36:40

So I always touch on a little bit of alignment first, because if we're like hunched or cramped or something like that, we don't have that capacity to breathe. So just acknowledging, okay, could I be in a little bit more alignment now? And then think, okay, let's inhale through our nose. Exhale on an SH, maybe. Shh, we do a few of those as we scan and think about our alignment a little bit more and feel our body moving. Yes. Your body can move as you breathe. Yes. When we're just going about our day, unfortunately, oftentimes on a laptop, something like that, we don't need a whole lot of inhale-exhale exchange. And so when we move to singing, it can be a moment of more on the inhale and definitely lots more on the exhale.

Speaker 3 37:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2 37:47

Our breath often slows down because we're inhaling and exhaling longer. And even just taking two minutes of this for yourself at the beginning of your day, before you're on video calls, before you're out in the world, taking two minutes of it doesn't even have to be some special prescribed breath practice. Just check out your alignment so that you have the capacity to breathe a little bit more. And then just notice what's moving. Your rib cage, your belly, the sides of your body. And then maybe even your low back is moving a little bit. Yeah. And I love to do this lying on the back with knees bent. I know that's a hashtag yoga pose. Um do it. And feeling your lower back into the floor. So I see so much in myself and in others when we're focused on a task, or when we're, like I said before, feeling maybe really serious, or of course, when things get overwhelming or even towards panic and coming back to alignment and breath. You know, I people see me with ease and giggles and a lot of laughter, but you know, I'm a person too, and in my hard, challenging moments, I come back to these same things too. I'm like strangely afraid of lightning and thunder. So there was recently a lot of lightning and thunder. I went into the hallway, pressed my back against the wall, yes, felt that grounding, and then I breathed and I could feel my low back against the wall. Yes, using my own tools. And then, you know, I belted out some broms. There you go. Exhales. And in the face of it, I started to kind of giggle and laugh because I'm thinking, like, here I am singing this art song to nobody because of this lightning and thunder. And over the course of like two minutes, I felt so much better. And I knew because I was taking my body through something instead of just like holding on for dear life and trying to wait for something to pass.

Lisa Danylchuk 40:26

Yes. So much wrapped up in there. So I knew I resonate with it too because our laundry room is like a long, narrow hall.

Speaker 3 40:34

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 40:35

And I always do that. I press my back against the wall, let the back of my head rest for a moment, breathe into the back of my body. And it doesn't even have to be, I mean, just life is going on. It's just this nice reset, right? Of okay, maybe I just moved the clothing from the washer to the dryer, and I'm about to squat down or grab things out of the dryer. And it's like, oh, I can just feel this support and contact. And it's different than lying on your back, it has a different sensation. And you can breathe into all the way into your low back. And even my postpartum pelvic floor rehab was breathing into that, like just easy, deep, smooth breaths, just like yoga, just like singing, you know, child's pose deep breaths. This can be so therapeutic. And if we don't have a lot of restriction, it just feels nice and easy and flowy. But when we do have something that's half-consciously, subconsciously restricted, we meet it there. We're like, oh, hi, there you are. That's what you're doing back there. And then this thought as you're describing it of like the goddesses of the thunderstorm being like, make her sing again. It's so beautiful. That's all she's saying. We're so happy. I love that.

Speaker 2 41:47

I am totally gonna think about that next time. I love. Uh I think these micro moments. Okay, so now next time you're in your laundry room doing your alignment, foundation one, breath, foundation two, foundation three phonation. So give me some of those lip bubbles next time you're in that laundry room.

Speaker 42:15

Or just a little, ah, or a little unique New York.

Speaker 2 42:19

A little bit of that, New York, a little bit of part of your world. Yes, a little bit of Ariel. It's amazing how 30 seconds, 90 seconds can shift.

Breath, Alignment, And Simple Tools

Speaker 2 42:30

And it reminds me, even at the end of a super long day, I have this client who I see 8 p.m. on Monday evenings, and she's like, Yeah, Mondays are my longest, hardest day. I started at 8 a.m. with this talk in front of hundreds of people, back-to-back meetings, no time for lunch. And then she comes home. And instead of just tuning out, she chooses at 8 p.m. on Mondays, time for herself for a voice lesson with me. We breathe. She feels rejuvenated after giving and giving and giving all day these beautiful thoughts that she's putting out into the world to change the world, doing important, meaningful work. And then at the end of the day, she's breathing, singing, exploring, and experimenting with what her voice and body can do.

Lisa Danylchuk 43:32

Yeah. Such a beautiful transition and way to receive after so much all day. Yeah. What do you say to folks who are like, I can't sing, I'm not musical, I'm not creative, I'm not talented, I'm embarrassed, all those things I'm sure you've heard.

Speaker 2 43:50

I would say you sound like 50% of my clients.

unknown 43:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2 43:56

Yeah. A lot of people who come to me. Say, why didn't I do this years ago? They say, I just been thinking about this for a long time, and I wasn't sure, and I didn't think it was for me. You know, I was told by a choir director that I should just mouth the words or I couldn't sing, or you know, by your own mother. And these types of things get into our identity.

unknown 44:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2 44:27

And we think, oh, that's not for me. That's not accessible for me. The reality is it's something like 0.5% of people actually cannot sing in tune. It's accessible with practice, with guidance for most everybody to be able to match pitch. And you don't even need to be able to match pitch. Yes. Enjoy yourself. But if the thing of that's keeping you from singing is thinking, I can't match pitch, well, I can take you through some exercises. I can let you know if you're high or low, and we can get you there. And we can get you to matching pitch in a song that feels good for you. So I would say just give it a try. It feels vulnerable to do something new. We all know about this beginner's mindset. And if you allow yourself to have that experience and not think, ah, I have to like have something prepared in order to even start. No, you just show up.

Lisa Danylchuk 45:42

No. And I love the truth that everyone's voice is different.

Speaker 3 45:49

Yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 45:50

And that I think sometimes maybe this used to be a thing for me, or I just feel like it's a thing in the world of like trying to match or sound like something else versus just really freeing your voice, like letting your voice find its way up and out so unique. And you don't know if you don't try. You don't ever get to hear that. It makes me think of just the general sort of sing your song, be yourself, give your gifts to the world in the way that feels best to you. It's like, yeah, no one else is gonna do that. There's no two of you, even if you're twins. There's there's differences.

Speaker 2 46:29

Physical body changes the way that you sound. Yeah, you your own vocal folds, your own vocal tract, the space from your lips to your vocal folds. That shape is just you, the length of your neck, the and then, of course, all the life experience that you bring. You're going to sing that song your own way. Yeah.

Lisa Danylchuk 46:58

How has music shown up in your life as a parent? You mentioned singing to Zephyr. You mentioned taking some breaths and stressful moments. What has shown up in parenting for you?

Speaker 2 47:12

It's so huge. It's there's so many different threads to this conversation.

Speaker 47:18

There's next podcast.

Speaker 2 47:22

There's the connection and beauty and joy I found in singing to him when he was literally growing inside my body. Yes. There's the like strange expectation I had when I was giving birth that I would be like singing songs. And in reality, what I was doing was just like deeply focusing on my breath so that I could count every moment going by and vocalizing in a way that I wasn't thinking about, that was just happening and I was allowing. There's working on my repertoire when he was a little baby, and I'm holding him and singing, and he gets to be around that. There's the joy in now when something comes on the radio

Micro-Resets And Evening Renewal

Speaker 2 48:10

that or I put on the speaker, and Zephyr turns to me and he says, Mama, did you play this for me? Did you sing this for me when I was a little little baby? He said, Zephyr, you're right. We haven't listened to Dolly Parton Jolene in a long time. But I remember I played this song for you after Beyonce's album came out, and that was this, you know, and say, Yes, Zephyr, we did listen to this song on repeat for a few days, and I don't think I've played it since. And the joy and connection and just the bursting that I feel knowing that this is going to be a lifelong love and passion that we can share. And of course, when I perform with other people, and he gets to be in the room with other people, like when he was nine months old, and I sang my first post-baby cabaret, and he was held in your mother's arms during this cabaret. She could tell you. And at the end, oh my gosh, I didn't totally plan this full circle. At the end of this cabaret, I sang over the rainbow. Yes. On my final note, your mom will tell you, he made this little sang and reached up. I have a video of it, actually. I'll send it to you. But like the way that even as a nine-month-old, you know, our children, the people in our lives respond to us when we sing to them. Music has so much meaning to me in moments of joy and connection, in friendship, in mothering, in feeling the circle of life in everything when I'm asked the ultimate honor to sing for someone's wedding or sing for someone's memorial.

Speaker 3 50:16

Yes.

Speaker 2 50:18

And to bring music to those moments that feels like who I am, my my spirit.

Lisa Danylchuk 50:27

Yeah. It's such a beautiful offering and connection in those everyday moments and in those really central rituals in life to be a part of all of it. And I think of as you started talking, like gathering around the piano, picking up a guitar, people just being relaxed around, even in your living room. It was a housewarming party or your my birthday party. It was your birthday. Yeah. And just everyone gathering and oh, we both know this song. Let's sing it together. And oh, everyone join in. And what do you what's your inclination? Pick up a ukulele. Let's go. Right. And that warmth that comes with that, like that to me, when I just picture that happening all over the world across time and the connection and ease and creativity and flow. And yeah, there's skills that people have learned, but it's so relaxed. It's such a relaxed way for people to be together. So what brings you hope and joy in this life besides everything we're already talking about?

Speaker 2 51:38

The people that I choose to bring in my life every day that I am so grateful to know. People like you, people like your mom, who I get to see once a week, give me hope and remind me of the beauty in the world, the connection. I can see the change happening within ourselves. I can see, you know, I I'm a proud Minnesotan with our musical Minnesotan tradition of choral singing, but to see the way that people have risen up to meet a huge challenge,

“I Can’t Sing” And Pitch Myths

Speaker 2 52:30

let's say, with song and with an invitation.

Speaker 52:35

Yeah.

Speaker 2 52:36

To say you can make a different choice. Yeah. And that hope that I see in our parenting of our young kids in letting them know you're not a bad kid, you made a bad choice, let's make a different choice. And how that can show up even in our relationships with other adults, and that we can see in them you're not a bad person, you made a bad choice. Here's your invitation to come into my circle.

Speaker 53:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2 53:15

And let's move towards a kinder, gentler future together.

Lisa Danylchuk 53:24

Just drop the microphone there. How can people connect with you?

Speaker 2 53:31

Through Instagram, Molly Mary Mahoney, or through my website MollymaryMahoney.com.

Lisa Danylchuk 53:39

Beautiful. We'll put all the links in the show notes and the link to the song as well so folks can listen. It's on Apple, all the music places, right? Yeah. Beautiful. Well, thank you for sharing your voice and your lovely energy and self with us today, Molly. I'm so grateful to know you. I feel like I should say thank you to Craig.

Speaker 2 54:01

What's up, Craig?

Lisa Danylchuk 54:02

Craigslist. What's up, Craig? Are you listening? Thank you. Thanks for the magic of the universe and the internet. Yeah.

Speaker 2 54:11

Who would have thought that trade would have led to me then inviting you to our wedding shortly after, and then you becoming one of my best friends. Us being pregnant at the same time.

Lisa Danylchuk 54:24

Yes. Belly bump pictures on the Alameda shoreline. Yeah. Yeah. Things unfold in wild ways sometimes. I'm so grateful. Truly. Yeah. So grateful to have you in my life and this deeper connection to music and the joy of it in all kinds of ways. Thank you so much. Ditto. You made it to the end of the episode. Thanks for listening all the way through. Now that you've been listening for a while, I'd love to hear back from you. What's an idea or a story from this episode that sticks with you as we wrap up? Or what's one small thing you can do today to choose a step in the direction of healing or growth? Share your answers and what's been healing for you in the comments below on YouTube, on Instagram at how we can heal, or send me a message at info at how we can heal.com. Also check out howwecanheal.com for free resources, trainings, and the full transcript of each show. If you're listening and loving the show, please leave us a review on Apple, Spotify, Audible, or whatever you're listening right now. If you're watching on YouTube, click the buttons to like and subscribe, and keep sharing the show with anyone that can benefit. Before we wrap today, I want to be clear that this podcast isn't offering prescriptions, it's not advice, nor is it any kind of mental health treatment or diagnosis. Your decisions are in your hands, and I encourage you to consult with any healthcare professionals you may need to support you through your unique path of healing. In addition, everyone's opinion here is their own. And opinions can change. Guests share their thoughts, not that of the host or sponsors. I'd like to thank our guest today again, and everyone who helped support this podcast directly and indirectly. Alex, thanks for taking care of the babe and the fur

Your Unique Instrument And Story

Lisa Danylchuk 56:40

babes while I record. Last and never least. I'd like to send some love to my big brother Matt, who passed away and has to do it. He wrote this music, and it makes my heart so very happy to share it with you.