"Discover Your Voice:" Key Ideas
This page is designed as a reference for students in the "Discover Your Voice" class. (Last updated May 2006.)
1. OVERVIEW
cancer and Connor - embrace deep change
- revolutionary paradigm - 24 and Jack Bauer (33 hours to 1)
- 30 years exploring relationship between language/mind/body/spirit
- exercise: Joy of learning emotional recall
- 80-90% image (reveals level of culture) - easy change
- compare to wt. loss - you know this
- value self-awareness 3% brain? maybe 3% voice
- realistic goals and time frames - beware exercises
2. BREATH
- breath breathes life into U AND breathes life into the way we speak
- relaxation and energy continuum
- exercise: lymphatic breathing 2-8-4 ratio
- deeper breathing reduces effects of bad breath and aging
- 13-year Australian study states greater health through deep breathing than stopping tobacco, cancer thrives on shallow breathing and being deprived of oxygen
- dimensions – physical, social, emotional, mental
- anatomy 1/3 nose + 2/3 mouth open channel
- air pressure system, vibratory system, resonating system
- inhale to relax, exhale for energy
- breath moves body, not vice versa – Jung, and voice creates you
3. POSTURE
balance and alignment
- walk confidently - body language - relationship of bone to muscle
- mechanics - back / neck / head relationship (e.g. Alexander Technique)
- exercise: Follow breathing
4. STAGE FRIGHT
B. Crystal
- see yourself in 1 year, 5 years - see yourself as in the process of becoming
- total organismic sensing
- exercise: ICS to create an alert mind in a calm body 1) uninterrupted breathing 2) positive face 3) balanced posture 4) wave of relaxation 5) mental control (remind yourself u r focusing on solution not problem so tell yourself "What is happening is real and I'm finding the best possible solution right now.") mini vacation STOP
- see value of mistakes - have spirit of adventure
- recent study shows anxiety center of brain not near fear center
5. NATURAL VOICE
free yourself through voice - natural vs. habitual
- how does it feel, not sound
- vibrations killed by tension, thrive on attention
- pitch adjustment through instant voice press
- hmmm-humm (emotional agreement)
- hum to roof of mouth zzzz Whooo (ghost voice)
RESONANCE project into mask
- chambers mask zzzz
- vocal point of resonance (rear vs. front projection)
6. RHYTHM
John Wayne music - finest musical instrument
- short to long - fast to slow - dynamic range (loud to soft)
- glide up and down - sing (fare thee well) - value pauses
- emphasize key words
- relaxed environment is unique experience in today's hurry-up world
- exercise: lymphatic breathing 2 inhale - 8 hold breath - 4 exhale
7. PASSION
Liz and "the voice" - heart voice
- what is nearest heart is nearest lips;
- what is nearest lips is nearest heart
- your informal voice (at work too) - know content - trust ideas
- vitality (active face) - energy level appropriate to group
- need to communicate - health and diet
- chunk up or down - role models
- increase power (step by step – scale 1 to 10)
- exercise: Red light bulb
8. SPEECH
tell stories – don't give speeches
- read aloud 8 minutes a day - vocabulary
- diction - regional dialect - practice out loud
- sloppy - volume
- structure and outline (use my notes as one example)
- beware drop-offs (ends of words {ex. g's} and sentences)
- sprinkle modes of visual, aural, kinetic AND sight, sound and tactile
- no rising inflection at end of sentences - cut clutter
- flexible NLP (my recent outline 5X longer)
9. WARM UPS
release tension and stress
- tune musical instrument - stretching to run
- facial massage - facial mobility
TAPE YOURSELF you don't hear yourself - phony?
MIRROR
AVOID ABUSE
- talk into, not over phone or group - no yelling
- beware noisy environment - look body language clues
- get feedback - forced delivery
- irritants (allergens, smoking, drinking, caffeine, clearing throat)
- avoid decongestants and antihistamines
- stay hydrated
LISTENING exercise: Listen to En. exist in relationship to others, seek eye contact and energy of others - active listening
RESOURCES
my website - classes - coach - web
- Morton Cooper - David Allen Stern and Dialect Specialists
- talking books - library
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