Chris James is one of Shankari’s voice and sacred sound instructors for Esoteric sound and healing. Shankari wanted to share this article with you, her friends and family…this is the beginning of a new series, be on the look out for more guest writers, and please let us know what you think!

Chris James writes…

Dear Friends

I wrote this article recently about how the gentle voice builds a bridge for all of us. How it’s possible for us all to reconnect to this wonderful instrument.
This builds bridges for the the experienced student to recover their own evolving expression and for the absolute beginner to discover that there is a world of energy and how important it is to connect to it.

with Love

Chris

THE GENTLE VOICE
By Chris James

We ARE all born with beautiful and in–tune voices, and it is possible for us ALL to return to the full expression of this instrument that can express truth and beauty within us.

Remember that your body is your instrument. When a wooden musical instrument is first built, tuned, and played, the wood will align and reform within its structure to this ‘in-tune-ness’. Conversely, if the instrument is played out of tune, or not played at all there is no opportunity for harmonious alignment.

It is the same with our voices. If we are not expressing our truth, what is the vibration that is aligning our bodies? When people are expressing being nice or apologetic, contracted or frustrated, angry, jealous, or malicious, this is not their true voice. Our heart does not get to express truth, our throat doesn’t get to express truth, and our ears don’t get to hear truth. Connecting to our ‘IN-TUNE’ voice is important.

Over the many years I have been teaching the world has changed and so what I present has also changed. The awareness that has energetically developed for me is that what really helps everyone in their self-expression, creativity, singing, and in speaking their truth and being heard, is GENTLENESS.

The awareness and presence of true gentleness is very significant. I know, I practised and taught meditation for many years, but it NEVER took me into gentleness and my inner heart and thence to truly know my self. There was always an intermediary, a guru or a deep conditioning of transcendent awareness, which meant I was always looking outside of myself for something. Even though all the words were saying ‘look within’ the energetic message was, you can’t do it yourself. So now in my presentations on voice work I introduce an awareness of gentleness, and the very first place where this can be introduced is within our breath.  Breath carries our voice, and so the first place we express ourselves IS our out-breath, so we first learn how to allow our breath to be gentle.

Now this sounds simple and it is but I would like you to try something. Close your eyes and allow yourself to breathe gently through your nose, with no pushing or pulling of the breath…  A cool breath comes in from the tip of the nose, at the top of the nostrils, and leaves, warmer, on the bottom of the nostrils.  Allow it all to slow down so the rhythm becomes natural, and eventually allow yourself to rest at the bottom of your breath, and allow yourself to pause and rest there before the next in-breath… simple? What usually happens is that your mind will rebel at that point of pausing because it is no longer running the show. It is also at this point that we can start to make a choice about letting go of the NEED to CONTROL.

Note: to experience a deeper, clear process of The Gentle Breath meditation leave a comment with your email and we  will send you the mp3 file.

As you may know, most voice work is based on getting the voice OUT, projecting out, and breaking through the resistance. Yes this will get ‘a’ voice out of your body, but it cannot bring with it any of your true essence, and is definitely not healing or nurturing. This is not about being compliant or softly spoken.  You can come from gentleness and still have volume, clarity, and strength in your voice and yourself.

So once people have an understanding of gentle breath then they can start to feel what gentle toning is like. What this does is allow the body, in its own natural rhythm, to express in gentleness without imposing any IDEA or CONCEPT of what the voice ‘SHOULD’ sound like. It is at this point where we can start to HEAR the control in our lives, manifesting in a forced, controlled and false tone within our voice, and THEN we have the opportunity to work with and release this.

What is possible then is start to reconnect with our bodies, our stillness and our hearts. With this unfolding awareness we can build new relationships with our bodies, our voices, the rhythms that our bodies love to move to, and each other. This whole process of allowing the voice to emerge with no force and no expectation, enables us to reconnect to ourselves, recognizing, knowing and being all that we are.

So NOW what is able to be brought up and revealed are some of the very old patterns of separation and self-doubt, fear and contraction. These patterns are always reflected in our voice and in what we say, and how we express in our lives.  When these old patterns are exposed and cleared, what is left is the start of true joy and a union with our true selves. This doesn’t have to be ‘big’ and ‘traumatic’, we learn to just observe and let go. What is great about working with our voice in this way is that we can have great insight into where we have been, have the opportunity to start to be honest, recognizing and releasing some old patterns, and then take a gentle breath or two and return to our hearts, singing together again.

Creating harmonious tones with our voices is really quite magical. It creates a joyful feeling of oneness, and brings with it profound healing. There is a sense of union, where we let go of feelings of separation and comparison, and also grow to nurture and cherish our individual path of return to our inner heart

© Chris James 2009

Chris James teaches internationally about the healing power of sound, song, voice and meditation.” Everyone is born with a beautiful voice”.  Through discovering our natural voice, we learn to trust our creativity and intuition, speak our truth…and be heard. Founder of The International School of Sacred Sound and Patron of The UK College of Sound Healing, Chris is renowned for his ability to unite audiences of thousands in song, facilitate intimate groups and corporate conferences. He has led singing at concerts, festivals and seminars for over 20 years. Teacher Training Programmes are conducted internationally.