The Inner Warrior’s

Emily was raised in a family that liked things neat and tidy.  The focus was on getting a good job that paid well.  

Emily loved to sing, play the piano and write songs but every time she tried to share her love of music with her family they dismissed her dreams as nonsense. She had a sensible job but desperately wanted a career in music however she had no support from her family.  

John, on the other hand, was raised in a family that was incredibly supportive of his music and came to everything he performed in, went to or tried his hand at.  

They applauded loudly from the front row and exuded pride from their seats.  

He decided not to pursue music after all.  

He felt suffocated by his parents and felt their love was conditional and based on his performing. 

These are two sides of the coin that I have seen over the years of teaching singing. 

The success or the lack of success of any singer usually depends upon how they were raised bother parents and how they were or were not supported in this endeavour.  

Music is emotion and each family has a relationship with emotion that is the deciding factor on how music is handled, managed, controlled or allowed.  

With my students we look into their upbringing to see how emotions and feelings were either supported, dismissed, denied and all the shades in-between. 

Managing and controlling emotion is the theme and if you are a singer this is the name of the game.  Singing is learning to channel emotion into a song using the voice as the medium. 

In my work as a voice teacher one of the biggest issue that students run into with their voices is the issue of power.  Everyone wants a powerful voice and longs to have it, and most will go to great lengths to get it. 

Do I need more confidence? What’s wrong with my voice? Am I good enough? All of this creates fear, anxiety and distrust which shows up in the sound of the voice.  

This issue of power is at the core of a singer, unless they are connected and rooted firmly in who and what they are.  

Good training is wonderful and works for some to harness and channel this power, but some people need to go to greater lengths to sort this all out. 

So exactly what is power? How can I have it? Where is it in my body? And an even better question to start is; how can I let go of control to have power? 

This might seem like a contrary statement ‘to let go of control in order to have power’, but this is what is necessary in order to truly connect to and allow the power of the voice versus the pushing and controlling of the voice. 

‘How we do one thing we do everything’ is indeed a true statement in how our voices reflect the way we live. How we are currently living in response to past events and the modelling that we absorbed from parents, teachers and those who surround us all affects the voice. 

Having to control, manage or be responsible for something that was too much for us and overwhelmed the nervous system at too early of an age is all too common a problem. Like John who felt responsible for his parents happiness which crippled his life force and power centre and made him stop pursuing a singing career.

Emily on the other hand went down the path of singing and took it quite far until she lost her voice. Again a sense of having to be responsible for her parents joy crippled her voice as well as her own joy of singing.

This emotional energy that we manage and control and are responsible for sits inside of the solar plexus, diaphragm region and is protected by the warrior energy and our nervous system. This warrior archetype protects us against overwhelm and too much charge, anger or threat. 

The power centre includes the diaphragm which is the major muscle in breathing and singing and so it is important to understand this area for singing and for life. 

As a singer we are asked to allow passion, play and confidence to shine through our body versus the fear and anxiety of control and overwhelm that is so common here. 

To find the right combination lock or the Rubik’s cube to let go of control and defensiveness is no small deal and takes great deal of understanding of who is guarding the charge of energy or the lack of it for us to even begin the conversation.

Understanding this archetypal energy in the diaphragm and solar plexus region can be a very helpful teaching to singers who have struggled with having to be over-responsible as children.

We first need to appreciate how evolved our nervous system is and how it responds to these power settings in us. It's quite ingenious we are at carrying on despite what we are actually feeling.

the spectrum of light with the warrior from the light warrior to the dark warrior and how we are dealing with setting boundaries and bad behaviour with others is a good start.

Are boundaries set through shadowy manipulative ways or are the boundaries set directly and clearly?

Either with a sense of clarity and straightforwardness or murky, disowned warrior energy. 

It is quite clear that however this is set up in our solar plexus and diaphragm, it is directly how the singing voice will be used or reflected in communication and in singing. 

Either with clarity and straightforwardness or murky and manipulative ways.

When the warrior is deactivated, frozen or deflated then how the managing of ones communication with others exhibits itself is by anticipating people‘s needs and wants even before they do.  

The person seems to absorb and take on the energy of others. This weakens the whole body from taking on too much of what doesn’t belong to us. The new age world has a tendency to name this ‘being over-sensitive or empathic’.  

I would say that it’s a lack of boundaries and authority within the individual. 

Another option is simply to freeze and stop moving and functioning which is just another way of controlling the energy in the system. Being immobilized is a fight or flight reaction in our nervous system.  

This is also what the warrior has to take care of in the long run. A trauma based warrior.  Have you ever been with someone who is sucking the energy and the life out of the room just by their very presence?  

I have often called the diaphragm the shock absorber, it absorbs the shock in the system and ‘takes care of it’ instead of speaking to it and setting a boundary. We didn't have any choice in this, it is the wisdom of our nervous system.

This approach is a survival mechanism which is set in the body and then becomes the status quo.  Of course the system is now set to ‘absorb’ versus 'deflect' or 'respond.'  

Having the ability to respond in the situation empowers the individual who was struck with a trauma in his or her system. 

So many people I know manage and control the initial trauma they experienced and never actually heal or change the status quo of how they respond.  We have not had a understanding of this deep fragmentation in our society, until now.

Because of the size and weight of the charge of energy that was initially sucked into the body’s nervous system it can take a great deal of gentle undoing of the fabric of a person’s current ‘status quo’ to get close to a new way of being and responding in life. 

If a singer has this wired into their nervous system and does not have the light of day shed on this then it is extremely difficult to have a career in music and even to have a voice.   

The Warriors – 

Frozen Warrior – Responds with freeze and shock. Behaviour is quiet and withdrawn. 

Dark Warrior – Responds with manipulation, anger and ugly behaviour. Can be confident and bitchy. 

Light Warrior – Responds with very clear boundaries. Looks like true confidence and a balance of the queen (throat), the sage (3rd eye) and impersonal energy.  

A balanced warrior comes across as more like an energy of passion and love – Calm-passion (Compassion) without the defensiveness of the fighting warrior.