What is Vocal Meditation?
Meditation can be extremely valuable for your awareness, creativity and well-being. Vocal Meditation offers all of the same benefits, along with body alignment, gentle vocal warm-up, and a poem for warming up the instrument.
While Vocal Center has guided videos available, here are a few tips to practicing your own Vocal Meditation:
1. Find a comfortable, beautiful place where you feel safe to explore your body, emotional life, and voice. Ideas for making this space as relaxing as possible can include,
Lighting a candle or using essential oils.
Surrounding yourself with your favorite plants or flowers.
Wrapping yourself in a soft blanket for comfort.
Preparing a hot tea to have beside you.
Choosing a place where you can have privacy for the duration of your meditation (est. 15-30 min).
Bringing your favorite book of poetry along beside you for exploring at the end of the meditation.
2. Close your eyes & Begin to bring your attention inward. Notice your breath wherever it is. Take three full deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling to your capacity, cleansing the body and signaling the beginning of your practice. Exhale on an “Ahhh” sound.
3. Notice your body and begin to bring yourself into alignment. Here is one guided path you can take to release your body:
Notice anywhere in your body you might be holding, and see if you can bring breath into those areas, releasing any holding on the exhale.
Beginning at the top of your head, imagine your crown rising towards the sky, creating a gentle lift in your spine.
Shake your head “no” and “yes” as you continue to release the crown and spine upwards.
Release all the muscles in your face, in and around the eyes, forehead & cheeks and jaw to gravity and become fluid.
Release your tongue and throat.
Release and breathe into your chest, feeling your heart opening outwards.
Allow your shoulders to release back and down.
Release the belly and feel how your breath deepens with the release.
Allow your lower back to release to the floor, creating polar space in your spine between your crown rising to the sky and your lower back releasing down.
Feel your contact with the chair or floor, and begin to sense the contact with whatever is supporting you in gravity.
Feel the quality of surface you are dependent on - soft? hard? textured?
Feel the entire expanse of your feet making contact with the ground, giving notice and acknowledgement to the front, back and sides of your feet and toes. Give the same attention to your arms, hands, and fingers.
4. As you have now brought attention and release to your physical body, begin to focus now on your being and breath. You can make use any of the following to enter deeper into your meditation:
Use Mental Noting: Identify each moment by the breath, saying to yourself, “In” when breathing in, and “Out” when breathing out. You can also experiment with the words “Rising” with the inhale, and “Falling” with the exhale. If you find your mind wandering, make a note “Thinking” several times, and come back to the breath.
Ask yourself, “How am I feeling?” and whatever the answer may be, saying to yourself, “It’s all right,” and allow yourself to fully embody your emotional experience, knowing that this experience too will pass.
Use your imagination to create soothing mental images, such as a wide lake expanding outward or the ocean tide washing in and out with your breath.
5. Begin to phonate (make sound) on your exhale using open vowel sounds, such as “Ah” or “Oh”. Give attention to the release of your face and jaw and notice how the vowels resonate in your chest and body. You can also use an “Mm” sound, which brings vocal resonance into your facial chambers. (This can tickle.) You can also combine “Ah”, “Oh” and “Mm” for a deeper vocal experience. Allow your voice to resonate on whatever frequency feels right. This is a beautiful prelude or postlude to your regular vocal practice, which can stretch the voice and body to the extremes. Experiment with other vowels, consonants, or pitches as your sessions become more frequent.
6. Softly open your eyes, bringing attention to your favorite poem you’ve prepared beside you. Give voice to this poem, and experience each word fully with the openness you’ve cultivated during your Vocal Meditation.
7. Share your presence, freedom and voice with others throughout the day to uplift and move others. Generously give yourself and others loving-kindness:
“May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be peaceful. May you be free.”
Vocal Center debuted Vocal Meditations in August 2021, all available on YouTube. Vocal Center begins a new series this fall, streaming Live at 12pm every Friday, beginning October 29th. Click here to Subscribe to Vocal Center’s YouTube Channel & be looped into this and other tips on Vocal Performance.
Questions about Vocal Meditation or interested in beginning Voice Lessons? Fill out the form below to be in touch directly.
Best wishes in your practice, and look forward to hearing from you!
Warmly,
