Persistent worry and heightened anxiety have become such ordinary background noise that people have almost stopped treating them as a problem. They are not normal. A woman has a fast and free instrument she barely uses, and it is her own voice. Four voice techniques and what they release were described by Peruquois, a top World Music performer in Australia, musician, composer, author and facilitator of self-development trainings for women.
Why it is easier for men
Singing belongs to every ancient culture for a reason. Sound is a simple, fast and powerful instrument for harmonizing an inner state, and it used to be part of everyday life for everyone.
Men still have sport for release. In the stands you can sing and shout at full volume, which means legally discharging what has piled up, the heavy part of it first.
Women are still pressed on by how they were raised. «Many are taught from childhood to be good girls, which means be quiet, listen and express yourself as little as possible: be like a tidy doll,» says Peruquois. For releasing sound, a woman is left with karaoke at best.
Hence her proposal. «I suggest bringing sound back into your daily diet. My motto: singing is good, but toning and humming is even better,» she says.
The psychosomatic collar
Stored silence has a recognizable physical expression, and Peruquois describes it precisely.
«Many women have the feeling that the top button of a shirt that is too small has been done up. The throat feels slightly tight, pressed on, or a little scratchy,» she says.
This is one of the psychosomatic expressions of stress, and the sequence below is aimed exactly at it. Talking does not fix it, because it lives in the body rather than in reasoning.
Exercise one
Sit in a symmetrical position with your back straight. Turn your palms forward and lower your arms at about forty-five degrees.
Do not start abruptly. Breathe for a minute, calmly and consciously, following the oxygen entering your lungs and the air leaving your nostrils. The belly inflates on the inhale, the muscles contract slowly on the exhale.
After that setup, take a deep breath and exhale unhurriedly with the sound HAAAA. Feel the facial muscles, the jaw, the throat and the shoulders let go. Repeat the exhale and the sound three times.
Exercise two
Now the throat can be activated more strongly.
Place your right palm at the center of your chest and your left on your belly. Take a deep breath and sound out AAAAA at full voice without tipping into a scream. Build the volume smoothly and bring it down the same way at the end, keeping your lips rounded. Then a calm, slow inhale. Repeat five times.
After five rounds, inhale deeply, tilt your head back and close your eyes. On the exhale, AAAAA again, and send the wave of sound up into the sky in your mind. Bring your head back, rest. Repeat three times.
Final stage: inhale and lower your head until your chin touches your chest. On the exhale, AAAAA again, and now the wave of sound goes toward the center of the Earth. Bring your head back, breathe calmly, relax. Three times as well.
Keep the volume comfortable. What matters is feeling the tension drop as you go and taking breathing pauses between sounds. If you start coughing or want to spit during the sounding, do that and continue, it is all going correctly.
Exercise three
The right palm stays at the center of the chest, the left can rest on top of it. Inhale enough to push the palm forward.
On the exhale with the sound HAAAA, feel the chest return slowly to its starting position. Three times, with attention on physical sensation.
Exercise four
Place your left palm below the navel and your right on top of it. Inhale deeply, pushing the left palm forward.
On the exhale, release a slow, calm HUUUU, feeling the belly contract and the palm come back with it. Lips in a soft tube, no extra tension in the face. Three times.
After the practice, give yourself time to settle. Just sit and breathe calmly, with nowhere to rush.
When to be careful
The sequence comes with cautions, and Peruquois states them plainly. It is wiser to skip these exercises during flare-ups of respiratory illness such as bronchitis or tonsillitis. Autonomic dysfunction is a reason for caution: with that diagnosis it is better to try individual elements rather than the whole sequence at once, listening closely to your own sensations.
A woman's throat holds everything that was swallowed and left unsaid, and sound releases it where patience does not. A few minutes of your own voice a day give the throat its freedom back, and part of that background anxiety that had started to look like a personality trait goes with it.
And if you want to work with the fear standing behind that silence and get out from under it, take Peruquois's course Free Yourself From Fear, you will find it on the website under Courses.
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