{"id":25594,"date":"2022-12-20T18:06:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T18:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/?p=25594"},"modified":"2023-03-20T18:13:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T18:13:58","slug":"try-this-to-free-your-self-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/try-this-to-free-your-self-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"Try This to Free Your Self-Expression"},"content":{"rendered":"

I interrupt my usual family-oriented sharing today with a little something different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because I’ve got a story to tell you.\u00a0 And\u00a0this is a story about<\/b>\u00a0us.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

About you.\u00a0 About me.\u00a0 About the person pushing the stroller, carrying all the bags, carrying everything, even as we strive to make space for our own journey of healing and self-discovery<\/span><\/p>\n

It starts like this…<\/span><\/p>\n

“Her songs are compelling, but I just can’t get past her voice.”<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This was the feedback I received when, as a young singer-songwriter, an album of mine found its way to an A&R person at a major label.\u00a0 (This was for my\u00a0grown up singer-songwriter music<\/b><\/span><\/a>, some years ago…)<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, it felt like a punch to the gut.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might have thought I’d be used to it.\u00a0 After all, when you put yourself out there, being on the receiving end for negative comments\u00a0is par for the course.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You might have thought I’d have a thicker skin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And in some instances, I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Negative comments on my appearance didn’t phase me. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Negative comments on my songwriting, likewise, didn’t phase me.<\/span><\/p>\n

My singing voice, though…<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that was different.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, my voice was what it was.\u00a0 The voice I was born with.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In writing, I could be anyone – writing to sound like whichever songwriter I most admired at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in singing, well, I was just me.<\/span><\/p>\n

So those comments felt personal, and they hurt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I’m not sharing all of this with you because I seek compensatory praise here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m not looking for you to say something like, “Wow, how could anyone say that? \u00a0You have a beautiful voice!”<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m telling you this story because I want you to know that if you’ve ever struggled with self acceptance or confidence, vocally speaking,\u00a0you are not alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re not alone if you’ve ever<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Wished your voice were different\u00a0<\/b>than it was<\/span><\/p>\n

– Felt\u00a0under-confident<\/b>\u00a0in self expression<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Taken on\u00a0on other’s judgments<\/b>\u00a0of your vocal abilities<\/span><\/p>\n

Or, (and this is the hardest one of all…)<\/span><\/p>\n

– Felt so overexposed in the face of criticism that you simply\u00a0shut down\u00a0and\u00a0stopped expressing.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

AND… \u00a0If you’ve ever felt any of these ways, I also want you to know this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your relationship to self expression is not set in stone.\u00a0<\/b>Here, as in everything,\u00a0healing is possible.\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How do I know?<\/span><\/p>\n

I know because I’ve experienced it first hand.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, fifteen years into my own healing journey, I now have a totally different relationship to my voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Am I a better singer? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Probably not. \u00a0(As Joan Baez said about singing in middle age and elder-hood, gravity affects everything as we get older, and voices are no exception. \u00a0LOL)<\/span><\/p>\n

What has changed is my\u00a0mindset.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, I love my voice. \u00a0Relish it, even.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, my voice is an instrument of joy and pleasure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I love it in every season. \u00a0I love it when it’s clear. \u00a0I love it when it’s raspy. \u00a0I love it in sickness and in health. \u00a0 The more imperfect it is, the more I love it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, I understand that my voice is a channel, and like all channels, how it works depends entirely on how I interact with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The more I love it, the more it opens for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes my voice sounds beautiful to me. \u00a0But most of the time, I honestly don’t much notice how it sounds. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because now I am more focused on\u00a0the felt experience of singing<\/b>, of speaking, and on getting out of the way so that what needs to be expressed through me can come through.<\/span><\/p>\n

What about you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Where are you in your own journey of\u00a0loving and accepting\u00a0the precious voice\u00a0you’ve been\u00a0given?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

How might it feel to\u00a0remove the blocks\u00a0<\/b>to your own self expression? \u00a0To feel\u00a0more fully expressed<\/b>\u00a0in life, less hampered by doubt and fear?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If this is something you’re working on, then I’ve got\u00a0a\u00a0free resource<\/b>\u00a0to share with you today – something I made here in my home studio, drawing on\u00a0twenty years experience\u00a0<\/b>as a\u00a0recording artist\u00a0<\/b>and my expertise as a\u00a0certified hypnotherapist<\/b>.\u00a0 (My other life’s passion, alongside leading Noe’s Garden Magical Music Class!)<\/span><\/p>\n

So – the resource I want to share with you is\u00a0a brand new video<\/b><\/a>, newly posted to a new YouTube channel I’ve just launched, this one devoted to my work as a spiritual counselor,<\/strong> working with adults and kids 9 and older.\u00a0\u00a0It’s a guided meditation<\/b>\u00a0to help\u00a0heal your relationship to your voice.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The track doubles as a\u00a0sleep hypnosis track<\/b>, so the idea is, you\u00a0put this on just before bed<\/b> and get healing support for your journey off to dreamland.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope you’ll enjoy it.\u00a0 And if, after listening, you’d like to share your experience, I’d love to hear about it.<\/p>\n

I always learn so much from how others experience an offering like this, and with many more meditations in the pipeline right now, I deeply value the kind of feedback that helps me grow in this work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I interrupt my usual family-oriented sharing today with a little something different.\u00a0 Because I’ve got a story to tell you.\u00a0 And\u00a0this is a story about\u00a0us. About you.\u00a0 About me.\u00a0 About the person pushing the stroller, carrying all the bags, carrying everything, even as we strive to make space for our own journey of healing and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_s2mail":""},"categories":[144,7,145,4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25596,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25594\/revisions\/25596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}