***How Voice Training Can Improve Your Life As Well As Your Voice

When I first started my business, I had no idea the number of benefits that would result just by finding your ‘real’ voice. In fact, I never tire of hearing each and every new experience my clients tell me about.

How can this type of training improve your life? For one very basic and fundamental reason: if you want to discover your ‘real’ voice – which is the one you would power by means of your chest cavity instead of your throat – you must learn to breathe with the support of your diaphragm. It is this breathing that makes all the difference.

Breathing with the support of your diaphragm, something 99% of the population is not doing, eliminates the nasty toxins in your blood which helps eliminate stress, placing the body in a more relaxed state. This is why yoga and meditation are so popular today. People need to decrease their level of stress in order to function.

Shallow or lazy breathing, on the other hand, has the reverse effect. It increases your stress because you are using only the upper part of your chest cavity to breathe which means you are not eliminating the toxins in your blood. If I ask were to ask you to take a deep breath, the chances are likely that you would suck in your mid-torso region, lift up your shoulders, and throw out your chest. The physical process, alone, tends to increase our stress because we have a tendency to tighten the throat, neck muscles, and jaw in trying to accomplish the task. This is one of the reasons so many women find they have shoulders that ache or tension in their neck and jaw areas by the end of the day. Blame it on shallow breathing.

Those who support their breath properly are able to alleviate their stress easier which can result in better sleep, lower blood pressure, fewer physical ailments, a longer life span and a more relaxed state even when under pressure. And, there is no doubt that diaphragmatic breathing is the best means of controlling your nervousness in any form of public speaking.

While most voice coaches work on the voice you already have, there are a few of us who will teach you how to find the voice you don’t know you have. This is a sound that begins in your chest cavity and is only possible to achieve if you are breathing with support. In that sense, your chest – the largest of your 5 resonators – becomes your primary sounding board.

Imagine discovering your ‘real’ voice and adding 4-1/2 years to your life to boot! It is truly amazing what voice training can do for you, both professionally and personally.