“How is singing different than spoken praying?” He asked.

I love this question!

I just tried it out...

I think singing carries a little more physical vibration for me.

I said “hi” and my tones did carry a bit ...

I sang “hi” and noticed an elongating of the vowel tones, a bigger breath.

I prayed, “Hi” and I noticed I was talking to god and it made me smile and my crown lit up with tingles.

Voice Yoga is useful for all three; praying, speaking and singing.

In relaxing my body sound can move through me with more ease.

From a physically relaxed place, (in my parasympathetic nervous system state) my prefrontal cortex is fully online so I can remember what I want to say and speak it with some eloquence.

In the stress response state I forget the words, go blank, feel how fear tightens and restricts me and draws attention to my pounding heart and sweaty palms.

In Voice Yoga we practice relaxing our physical bodies AS the voice comes through (rather than later, which is what I experienced through much of my life ... I would do yoga or meditate and then the sounds would flow through because I was in a creatively open state).

In voice yoga we take out the personal “I’m
doing it “ experience and tap into the listening that allows prayer to move through us with words, tones, sounds, beats and more.

Just like in yoga, we notice the tensions and allow them. We gently encourage the vibrations created by each person including the self to soothe us like the purr soothes and heals the cat.

We allow parts of our bodies to express their sounds.

We practice courage to speak or sing even if we feel fear (or even terror!). This is edgy work for lots of people!

We notice how those tensions wrapping around our life force energy restrict and with courage choose to step through the threshold of fear to discover what’s on the other side. And it takes the time it takes. No rush. Just like yoga - no instagram asana to get to - just allowing the practice to enliven us.

This allowing the power of our own voices can create a healing repatterning - you will be held in a community of people holding the intention of inclusivity, non judgmental witness and loving kindness.

Of course, this is not to say speaking or praying are less than for connecting with something larger than ourselves. . .

All three are welcome in this space as part of the poetic tapestry.

We are creating voice yoga as one hour use of our voices for the prayer that is connection with sourcespiritgoduniononessunconditionallovemamabeing!

What do you think is the distinction between speaking, singing and praying?

Thanks for inspiring me to write tonight 😊 My heart is so full of love from this experience.

Art by @minhamusicfavorite - follow on Instagram!