The second vocal quality is called Warrior. And you’ll be excited to hear that soon I’ll be sharing a VLOG. Is there really such a thing? Yes!, and you’ll be able to hear all six vocal qualities and do a short practice with me.
All of the vocal qualities speak to healing trauma through voice. If you feel your voice was silenced due to trauma, developing your Warrior will teach you how to take up space and trust your natural expression again.
The other day, I heard a baby throwing a tantrum. You could literally hear the cries throughout the whole neighborhood!
I get that we can’t all walk around throwing tantrums but keeping our feelings hidden inside creates painful blocks to the voice.
The Warrior sounds violent but it’s really about being able to speak up and set boundaries when needed.
The Lullaby quality encourages us to include our vulnerability in our lives.
The Warrior quality protects that vulnerability. It is our very own ally who has the backbone to speak our truth in the world.
The Warrior teaches us how…
to speak up and set a boundary when something doesn’t work for us.
to take up space unapologetically
And to stand firm in our own way of being, rather than adapt to other people’s way.
A Warrior isn’t pleasing, accommodating or even liked by everyone.
A Warrior does carve out our own unique shape and say “THIS is who I am’.
You have to be able to FEEL your ‘No’ in order to give voice to it. So let’s practice that!
Voice Practice for the Week: Embody Your Warrior
This practice will help you to bring more of your true Self into your life…and into connection with others.
Things to Remember:
Be gentle with yourself and pay attention to what comes up
It’s NORMAL to feel self-conscious. I say, “Feel the fear and do it anyway!”
It may feel unfamiliar and even scary at times, to embody and express your feelings. That’s why you go gentle and slow.
It may bring up new feelings that you didn’t know were there.
Start small, and keep it in the realm of what feels GOOD to you. You can even simply imagine doing it, at first, and see what happens when you do.
This is our fight song…take back my life song (Rachel Platten)
We can learn from the Maori Warrior’s traditional native dance called the Haka, in which they stamp their feet, stick out their tongues and bulge their eyes.
I promise if you do 1/100 of the spirit of the Maori Warrior you’ll be in great shape!
Be sure to find a place to do your practice that allows you to let your body move and your voice come pouring out!
Take a wide stance and bend your knees. Feel the support of the ground under your feet.
Take both arms and make a sweeping gesture that communicates something along the lines of: ‘Back Off! This is MY space.’
Now, while repeating your sweeping gesture, open your mouth wide and let your voice make a short, strong HO! sound. Take a breath, make the gesture again and do a HA! sound. Repeat HO & HA with the Back Off! Gesture 3 – 5 times.
Afterwards, be sure to take a moment to close your eyes and feel the energy moving in and around your body. Just pay attention to whatever is there and breathe into it.
This is your Warrior energy and voice. It’s NECESSARY to have access to your big energy and big voice for certain times when you feel your boundary is being crossed.
I’ll be right there with you shouting out my own Battle Cry! Let me know how it goes!