Habits of (Vocal) Success and PYV: Words do WORK...

The Week of September 12th BLOG: 

Tuesday Toss Up: Habits of (Vocal) Success

“The HABITS of SUCCESS are forged in PRACTICE. In practice, you LEARN the ART of concentration” (from the book Mind Gym by Gary Mack & David Casstevens). In (voice) practice, you learn the kinesthetic sensations that are the hallmark of voice therapy and/or effective voice coaching. We can’t expect our voice, body, and/or muscles to just DO what we want them to…to just PERFORM perfectly…and/or just BE THERE and “perfectly ready” when we need them to be. We NEED to prioritize PREPPING ourselves for SUCCESS.

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“Concentration is born on the practice court…you must mentally treat your practice sessions as matches, concentrating on every ball you hit” (also from the book, and quoting a former tennis star Martina Navratilova). Related now to VOICE, CAN we mentally “treat” our vocal warm-ups or even more importantly our daily voice use (every single time we open our mouth to speak, especially in our occupational or professional use setting), as “the real thing”? As the target voice? As the voice we want to achieve? Are we realizing that whatever way we are “using” our voice is reinforcing new (or habitual) “patterns”? In voice therapy, negative practice is very helpful in identifying the "feel” and “sound” of what this even means, and awareness is SO important. It’s not about being perfect…that is, of course, an unrealistic and inauthentic goal. It IS about noticing if/when we get to that effortful, strained, tight, tired, “insert your word here” voice… andddd DOING something about navigating to a new and more productive (healing, resetting, re-connecting) sensation that RESETS a more optimal pattern. And by committing to successful practice habits, mind-body connection, and overall heightened awareness, we can easily find VOCAL SUCCESS WHILE navigating through perceived imperfections.

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As quoted in Mind Gym, Sam Snead (a world-renowned professional golfer), “said PRACTICE time is when you PUT YOUR BRAIN INTO YOUR MUSCLES. The conscious practice of ROUTINES leads to the unconscious HABITS OF SUCCESS. A ROUTINE is something you do REGULARLY that you control and has a PURPOSE”.

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OOOoooooh that’s so GOLD right there! PRACTICE is when you put your BRAIN into your MUSCLES. As we know from the theories of MOTOR LEARNING, our BRAIN learns best with repeated practice (of short lengths of time, but multiple times throughout the day). Our brain also learns best (especially related to VOICE) when we can CONNECT to some kinds of KINESTHETIC SENSATIONS. If CONSCIOUS (good) HABITS/routines (those YOU control, do REGULARLY, and are PURPOSEFUL) can lead to UNCONSCIOUS (good) HABITS of SUCCESS, what could be more important (AS AN OCCUPATIONAL VOICE USER) than ensuring you have developed some consistent VOCAL ROUTINES?

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“Once you have decided how you are going to play the shot, and you step up to the ball, it’s time to GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE WAY SO YOUR BODY CAN PERFORM. Turn OFF the ANALYTICAL MIND; SWITCH from the thinking mode to the TRUSTING MODE. You can’t be thinking and swinging at the same time”. …Let your ROUTINES switch you from the thinking mode to the TRUSTING mode” (Mind Gym).

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Prioritize Your Voice: Words do WORK...

I said this to a patient yesterday during some flow+resonance+CTT voice therapy and I realized ooooh I may wanna frame that quote. Last time I wanted to “frame a quote” was when a patient said her throat was smiling after I taught her straw phonation. 

It’s so funny when words truly convey exactly what we are going for. Voice can often be abstract buuuut there can be so many amazing imagery tools and beautiful descriptions of ways that we can better connect to voice therapy concepts. And often too, words still don’t do it justice and it is more important just to just play around with the “feels” to find a body and laryngeal learning rooted in kinesthetic awareness. Buuuut when those words do directly correlate in that moment with the EXACT goal-related progression…BOOM!

By mentioning the importance of FEELING the voice ELEVATE OUT of the throat and FILL the ENERGETIC SPACE that is WAITING for you (ALREADY available to you)… the target outcome of easy voice, efficient voice, purposeful voice, and FREE voice is easily depicted and understood.  

PRIORITIZE YOUR VOICE today by finding (and maintaining) an upward/outward focus and ALLOWING your voice to RIDE OUT on the AIR and positively impact those people you are aiming to inspire.

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#voxfit #voice #prioritizeyourvoice #pyv #yesyoucan #healthyvoice #vocalhealth #vocalwellness #vocalefficiency #vocaldynamics #speechpathologist #voicespecialist #fitnessinstructor #fitnessisfun #goworkout #prioritizeyourhealth #letsgo #prioritizeyourvoicefriday #vocalinstrument #occupationalvoiceuser #upandout #elevateyourvoice #fillthespace