Acquire: Resilience

Working on your voice is hard.

It is often a series of small shifts forward punctuated by our setbacks. We can find ourselves soaring about our successes only to crash if others fail to notice, or worse, criticize the change.

To have a voice that is truly embodied, vibrant, and free is an exercise in trust. You must trust your own body and mind, they are your only ride. Absolutely no one knows your voice better than you do, guides and coaches are great to speed up your learning and keep you on track, but ultimately you teach yourself. On that note, try to keep outside criticism out of your inner process. This doesn’t mean you don’t take feedback but instead, that you classify feedback as an opinion you can mind or ignore.

Importantly, when the work seems too hard, take a break. Sing something ridiculous, or explore silence — whatever gives you joy. Ultimately, human beings developed the ability to use an air valve, a survival system, to communicate. Not just in sound but in refined and specific sounds. It speaks to how important communication is to us as a species and also to how creative we can be when it comes to voice.

This Friday at 12:30 pm EDT, Gina will be live on FB. These will be short voice alignment sessions aimed at voice skills building. Watch it on the GROW Voice FB page. I hope to see you there.

Gina Razón is the Founder and CEO at GROW Voice LLC, a full-service verbal communication studio in Boston’s Back Bay.  She has over two decades of experience as a teacher of voice and speech, is a communication and change facilitator, and is a voraciously curious voice user.  Gina has worked professionally as a classical singer for over a decade and more recently as a professional public speaker.  For more information on the studio or to book Gina visit www.growvoice.com.