OR LISTEN...

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode, we’re exploring how vocal work is a powerful healing modality—not just for you, but for the mind-body connection and the world at large.

We’ve been speaking all our lives, yet we rarely stop to consider the immense personal and professional power of our voices. Today, we’re changing that.

From healing old narratives that don't serve you anymore, to aligning your body’s movements with your voice, to using your voice as a tool for advocacy and justice—you’ll leave with a new appreciation for what your voice can achieve.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

1. How your home culture unwittingly shaped how you use your voice today.

2. The difference between necessary and unnecessary tension.

3. The ways that your voice has the possibility to be particularly powerful in the courtroom

Links to Things Mentioned In This Episode:

Jon Acuff's book Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done https://www.amazon.com/Finish-Give-Yourself-Gift-Done/dp/1591847621

Kristi's Year End Recap and Intentions: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEQOHLhPRU8/?img_index=1

Resources & Next Steps:

1. Get on my mailing list for weekly vocal tips at fostervoicestudio.com. I want to support your journey.

2. Follow me on Instagram @fostervoicestudio for more tips and inspiration.

3. Watch each episode on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@FosterYourVoice

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Let’s Foster Your Voice Together:

Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and if you enjoy what you hear, leave a review! This is your year to own your voice and use it with confidence and purpose.

TRANSCRIPT:

(singing) Hellllooooo! Welcome, welcome! Glad to have you here and glad to have you in the Foster Fam.

So, first let me ask...did you make it past Quitter's Day? Are you familiar with this? Apparently, it's the second Friday of January when historically, people give up on their new year's resolutions. Haha! They've made an actual day for it: Quitter's Day.

Okay, it's a bit harsh don't you think? Talk about heaping shame on a person. "Quitter." Gah!

Now, i am ALL ABOUT goal setting. I'm never gonna poo-poo that idea. ("poo-poo"?)

Every year on NYE, I do a monster recap of my previous activities, events, shows i watched, shows I participated in, etc etc. and part of this big post is to also declare my Intentions.

"Resolutions" just seems SO formal and intimidating. "I RESOLVE." No thank you. "I intend" just sounds a bit softer and...more room for grace. haha!

Do you do resolutions? What's your plan for "the day after perfect?" That's a phrase i learned from Jon Acuff. If you're not following him or reading his books already, I highly recommend basically everything he does. But in his book Finish he talks about "the day after perfect" when your best laid plans go to crap and your resolutions go by the wayside. What's your plan? Most people just give up entirely.

So, this year, i took a different approach to my "intentions." I still made them, but i decided to date them a bit. This is another Jon Acuff concept. Seriously...check him out.

Anyway...when you're trying on something that you've never done before with any kind of consistency or not at all, don't marry it out of the gate. That's not a "relationship" that's set up for success. Just "date" your goal/intention/resolution, whatever you want to call it, for like 7 days or 30 days. Then decide if you want to commit to it for another month or for the whole year.

Not every goal is for every person. Just cause it's a good idea, doesn't mean it's a good goal for you. By dating your goals for a week or a month, you can take off the pressure of a RESOLUTION, identify the fake goals (those are like the social goals that everyone says you should do but you don't really know if it fits you. like who came up with the 10,000 steps a day rule?), then set yourself up for success.

And, send me an email or DM me on Instagram to let me know how your goal-dating is going. We ain't no quitters around here!

So, today we're talking about Your Voice, Their Justice: Healing Within & Advocating Beyond. We're not gonna get all woo-woo, but i DO want to unpack some of the ways that vocal work is a healing modality.

You know, we've been speaking all our lives, so it's really easy to just take it for granted, or to under appreciate just how powerful it is, both for harm and for good. And I'm not talking about power that comes from volume or just talking louder. I'm talking more about the deeper, more personal power of the impact of your voice or others' voices in your life.

So...vocal work is a "healing modality." What do i mean by that? I mean that as you learn to unlock your voice, expand your range, explore various tone and how to infuse emotional meaning into your content for the courtroom, you will be, in effect, healing yourself, healing your mind & body connection, and healing the world.

Okay, that sounds dramatic and WAY more indepth that you thought we'd be going today. So, let's just take a breath. I'm just gonna introduce these 3 levels of healing to you just so you can start to increase your awareness around them. it's just a start, just an overview. You're okay. I'm okay. We're safe here. hahaha!

Healing Yourself

So, while we're feeling all safe and cozy, let's look inward first. Think back to your home of origin, the home where you were raised especially in your early early years. How would you describe the culture of your home?

Were you raised in a home with lots of kids where you had to fight to be heard over the busyness? Or did it have the opposite effect; did you become more resigned? Were you in an environment where you were encouraged to talk, share about your feelings or even just share about your day? Or were you given a clear message that "children should be seen and not heard."

All of these early childhood experiences fed into how your personality and your VOICE developed.

By learning more about how your voice works, by learning how to describe it, by becoming aware and assessing it (like we talked about in episode 1), you get to make decisions about how you would like your voice to be NOW and how to have it better reflect the inner person you want to become or at least be perceived as.

If you had to talk over people to be heard, you may not be aware that you're "a loud talker" by nurture and that can be received by others as aggressive, dogmatic, forceful, intimidating, etc. So, you now have an opportunity to learn how to articulate your ideas with a softer and warmer voice.

If you felt like your voice was squelched or not valued, you may carry that into your professional persona and jurors might perceive you as shy, not authoritative, weak. So, this is your chance to learn how to develop some projection and some power through a voice that is supported by your breath.

And if you were raised in a home where you WERE encouraged to speak up, where your thoughts and your voice were valued, where there was a lot of warmth and understanding, you may not be aware at how accommodating you are, or you might be sensitive to harsher tones and feel shut down when others speak over you. You naturally expect everyone to respect and value everyone's voice. This is a good chance for you to maybe explore some of the edgier tones, to expand your range and push yourself to be more assertive and insistent, strategically, at times.

This vocal work can bring healing to those early development years and reconcile how you were raised with the person you want to become now. Vocal work is for healing yourself.

 Healing Mind & Body

It's just absolutely WILD to me how the body does things that the mind does not intend. I mean, maybe that's an obvious statement, but it just never ceases to amaze me when I catch my body doing something that my brain is actively willing it not to do.

So, like, for example, I was working with a client the other day who, as they started using more of their middle voice, they would kind of stretch for the higher pitches.

Quick side note, if you want to SEE what I'm doing, you can watch this episode on my YouTube channel — Foster Your Voice.

But for those that are listening on a podcast platform, as they were trying to use their higher pitch, their chest raised, their shoulders lifted, and their chin tilted up.

Now, no one would CHOOSE to do that, nor did my client believe that this was the most effective way to express their message, but...you know...the body does what the body does.

BUT...when you start paying attention to your voice, when you start paying attention to your nonverbal communication, when you start bringing awareness to what your hands are doing, how you're breathing, etc. you can then redirect and train your body to do what you WILL it to; you can guide it to communicate on purpose.

Now, there ARE some, what I call, "necessary tensions" that we hold. Like, to maintain my posture and carry my frame, i allow for those necessary tensions otherwise my body would just collapse and flop around. SO...i want SOME tension.

But anything that is unnecessary — like reaching for upper range, being stiff in your shoulders so that you keep your body small, and, one of my favorites furrowing your brow when you think — my clients hear me say all the time "Think with your brain, not with your face. — it's those unnecessary tensions that you can release and redirect that cellular energy to better expression.

Doing the vocal work, you start to heal the mind & body connection.

Healing the world

The 3rd example of how vocal work is a healing modality is that you are able to bring healing to the world.

With your voice, you instruct; you teach about what should happen in order for integrity and community standards and right protocols to stand.

With your voice, you invite the jury in. Not only do you provide hospitality by setting them at ease with your vocal mastery, but in your storytelling you give them a window into the scene. You give them the chance to see from your client's perspective which develops empathy within them.

With your voice, you stand up to the bullies of this world. You give a voice to those that companies have tried to squelch; have tried to silence. YOU are their mouthpiece.

And it's with YOUR VOICE that you inspire juries to return with a verdict for your client. It's with your voice, that you empower them to use THEIR voice in deliberations, to speak up and ultimately to deliver justice.

By doing the vocal work, you bring healing to yourself, to the mind-body connection, and to the world.

Wrap-up

This week, I just want you to continue paying attention. Take stock in the ways that you use your voice. Keep a tally of when you are aware of using your voice to heal yourself (do you speak the way you do because of or in spite of how you were raised?), using your voice to heal your mind & body connection (where does your body do something in conjunction to a vocal something and do you really WANT it to do that?), and where you are using your voice to heal the world (how often do you find yourself serving as a mouthpiece for those that are silenced?)

Let's do a lot of healing this week. And until next week, keep fostering your voice.