How do I OWN my voice? it's the only one I've got! (part 2)

Friday musings...

The continuing musings on the topic of owning and claiming one's voice...

What have you GOT?

It is yours.  You belong to it.  It belongs to you.  You cannot trade up, trade down, trade bigger, trader smaller.  IT IS YOURS.

So what are you going to DO with it?  Acknowledge it, or make excuses for it?

When singers walk into my studio and give me some background of them,  it is often very revealing about how they view their voice, and whether they have even begun to own that voice, or know what it is about.

How can we we begin to own something when we refuse to see its relevance? NOW?

When it is the only one you've got,  a certain reality check has to begin to emerge.

If this is the only one you've got, do you sigh, defeated, and say "oh okay, I'll figure something out" or do you say "yes this is mine. This reflects ME.  This is my life in living vibration!  What do I DO with it for it to belong to me?"

Our voices reflect who we are.  If they didn't, we would certainly all sound the same given that the habitation of it lies in a physicality that is similar in each of us.

The voice you have needs recognition for simply being that!  It is mine, and mine alone.

The voice you have needs nurturing,  not tolerance.  Only in a nurturing environment does anything have a chance to grow, let alone thrive!! Tolerance means you put up with it.  And if you are simply putting up with your voice and would rather be elsewhere,  you have not owned anything - voice nor attitude toward it!

The voice you have needs a physicality.  Are you building that?  Do you know, and are you studying how the physical athleticism needs time,  acknowledgement, strength, power, elasticity and purpose?  This physicality houses your voice.  Is this physicality merely competent or is magnificent?

If the voice is the only one you've got - so is the physicality in which is lives.

The voice you have needs inflection, not deflection.  This is taking responsibility for the reality of it just being there.  Taking command of what is possible,  and working toward it.  It is not everybody's fault it doesn't "sing" the way you want it to.  It does not grow, develop, and realize potential with excuses, pointing fingers, defeatist attitudes and excuses.

You own NOTHING let alone your voice, by creating barriers around it, to let no one close to it, including yourself.

If all you are going to do is wonder why you don't have the voice someone else has, then why are you singing?  Why do you call yourself a singer?  Why are you pursuing singing?

If this voice is the only one you've got,  shouldn't it be enough to say, for the SAKE OF THIS VOICE, I must discover what is POSSIBLE with it?  I need to FIND IT FULLY and quit making excuses?

Often we make the excuses of "it's not big enough", "it's too big",  "it's not pretty enough", "it's not this it's not that..."  We use the voice as an excuse for a bigger issue.

The voice is indeed ENOUGH if we have the conviction of self to prepare ourselves for the reality of what it reveals to us, and then in turn,  what we do with that revelation.

Read that last line once more...take a breath.

Sometimes, the fear isn't about what we cannot do, but rather, what we can.

The fear isn't about what "everybody says" but rather, what YOU KNOW in your heart of hearts.

Your voice.  The ONLY one you've got.  Needs YOU.  Needs your responsibility, needs your acceptance,  needs your dedication, needs your nurturing,  needs your ability to see its truth,  needs your ability to NOT make excuses, needs your ability to accept,  needs to your ability to get down to work and deal with WHAT IS THERE.

If you've got it, you better own it!  If you don't, you need to simply sit down, keep your mouth shut, and do something else.  Owning it takes time - literal and experience!  Owning it takes perseverance;  Owning it takes a reality check and a smack upside the head from time to time;  owning it means making tough decisions;  owning it means taking a step back to oversee;  owning it means taking a step deeper internally and getting real;  owning it means asking questions;  owning means clearing a way through the good the bad and the ugly and acknowledging ALL of it.

