Hi Friends,
How does excess physical tension in the body impact the voice?
Or, in other words:
What’s the relationship between the tension you have going on in your body and the sound of your voice?
Your voice gets made in your body, thanks to your breath. How you’re using your body impacts how easily you’re breathing, which impacts how easily you’re speaking.
Having some tension in the body is necessary for you to be upright and moving around in the world, but we’re talking about excess tension— tension you don’t need and that’s just making your life and your job (whatever it is in the moment at hand) harder than it needs to be. If you’ve got excess tension anywhere in the body, it’s going to impact how you’re breathing, as well as how you sound. A tense body= a tense sounding voice. This is why we can tell someone is tense just by listening to them!
In this episode, We explore:
The good news is: there are a lot of exercises you can do to relieve excess tension in your body— even starting with mindfulness exercises that make you feel more relaxed (remember that connection between mindfulness and voicing we talked about a few episode back?). AND— these exercises feel good! So you’ll want to do them often. There are many warm ups on this podcast that help you relieve excess tensions, so start by culling through old episodes. We will also be creating more!
Happy voicing!
Christine & Lindsay
ps. If you’re curious about a more thorough anatomical explanation of how the voice works, listen to our 'Breath Support Part 1' and 'Breath Support Part 2' episodes.