Using your Voice to Tap In

Have you ever thought of using your voice as a powerful tool in meditation? 

Chanting is a well established aspect of meditative practices, although it is not as common in the Western world, although it is growing in popularity. Chanting is a well known practice in Ashrams. It is a highly transformative tool. As we chant, we feel the vibrations of our voice and the voices of those around us move through us. It is related to the very broad and ancient topic of sound and sound healing. 

One of the main applicable keys to why chanting and sound are valuable to add to your practice is the potency of the vibration they create to release stuck emotions and trauma in the body. This is very important because a lot of the time, we have emotional blocks in the body that we don't know the origin of. Luckily, you don't need to know where something came from or why it hurts in order to see and acknowledge the pain, and release it with love. 

Chanting is very easy to incorporate into your practice through humming. It is believed that your body will naturally make the sound or frequency it needs for healing, creating energetic openness, increasing mind-body connection, etc. When you are sitting in your meditative position, breathe in a gentle but deep breath and begin humming whatever note comes out of you naturally. It is okay if your hum wobbles. Don't judge the hum. Hold loving space for the hum and any feelings that might come up while humming. 

Humming releases a very tangible vibration through the body. This powerful vibration can unleash old stuck feelings or emotions in your body which you might not have processed when they first came up. The key when humming is to hold space for yourself and your emotions. Let whatever needs to come to the surface. Whatever emotions come up, let the emotions express themselves fully in whatever way they need. Do not try to suppress your emotion with a feeling of love, focus on holding a loving space for that feeling to express itself, as you might hold a crying child.  This practice can feel quite awkward at first, but don't give up if it feels odd. The odder it feels, the more you probably need it. 

Of course, humming is also fun and doesn't take any singing skills. All you have to do is let it flow. Humming is a good way to start a practice because it is very physical and easier to feel the vibrations moving through your body and connect to your deeper body space than other methods.