Can Yin Yoga help with voice problems?

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Tsmithy
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:12 pm

Can Yin Yoga help with voice problems?

Post by Tsmithy »

Hello everyone, I'm so glad to have found this forum. I have recently been reading about Yin Yoga and had some questions.

At school my voice broke when I was just 12. It was really deep and I was bullyed for having such a deep voice. It was awfull. I always tensed in my throat when I was about to talk and then couldn't get my words out. Although the bullying stopped after a few years the trauma remained. I have now left school but I still find it really difficult to talk. Everytime I think about talking to someone my throat just tenses and I can't get my words out. It's so embarrasing that I feel like just hiding away all the time.


I read though that Yin Yoga can help get rid of holding patterns in the body like constantly tensing my throat when I'm about to talk. It can apparently be more effective then Yang Yogas for problems such as this?

Is this true? If I practiced Yin Yoga daily might this potentially cure my voice problems?

Thanks
AlexBoo
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:33 pm

that's really messed up

Post by AlexBoo »

Hey,

Just read your post - i think i've had a bit the same issue.. I'm a girl but i have a deep voice. As a kid, people would laugh every time i'd say something because my voice was deep. I would be able to sing and enjoy it, and now it's absolute torture. It's killing me to not be able to sing.

I did yin yoga for a while... and while it did really majorly relax me, it never freed my voice. I will help tremendously to be completely relaxed BUT I personally think you will still need some voice lessons to overcome to psychological boundaries you're setting yourself. Even if you are completely relaxed, there is still a little something in your head that's going to tense the untense everytime you will go through the motions of singng. You're gonna have to learn all over again is OK and great to sound this way.

Good luck!
AlexBoo
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:33 pm

that's really messed up

Post by AlexBoo »

and listen to Ike Turner :)
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

relaxing your voice

Post by Bernie »

As Alex Boo suggests, voice training may be a good route to explore. Certainly Yin Yoga can help you learn to deliberately relax parts of your body that have become tense. Yin is great for getting right to the edge of your comfort zone, and then releasing into what is happening. You may want to make this a meditative practice.

Go into a pose, playing the edges carefully, and hold until you are near your final edge. Then deliberately and consciously relax that area. Use your breath and your awareness to soften and open. Visualize your body creating space for this area and don't fight the sensations, that is counter-productive. Just allow it to open, little by little. After you come out of the pose, spend a moment visualizing doing the same thing in your throat; imagine a stressful situation where your throat would normally feel tight and feel it open and relax.

Then go into your next Yin Yoga pose and do the same thing again. When you come out, again do your visualization of being in a challenging social situation and again see/feel yourself relaxing your throat. In your mind's ear, hear yourself speaking in the manner you want to speak.

Repeat over and over again.

And don't worry if it doesn't work...so what?! You can still try the voice coach idea too.

Let us know how well you succeed.
Bernie
AlexBoo
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:33 pm

continued Tsmithy

Post by AlexBoo »

Tsmithy,

I wanted to continue with my answer on this.

I have been taking voice lessons, I can confirm that they are needed and recommended along with Yin practice (or any type of practice that will encourage you to breath better, calm your mind, relax your body)

Most people have vocal issues, those come from using the wrong muscles at the wrong time :). Learning to relax all muscles and breath is one thing, learning to use the right muscles in a coordinated way is another!

But I promise, you can totally do it
caemin
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:34 am

Post by caemin »

I thought I'd add my experience here.

I've had a very low voice since I was about 12 yrs old, which, as a young girl, made me very self-conscious and reluctant to speak. I felt that way until I was into my 50s and I learned to chant in a Yoga class. Chanting freed me up since there was no need to "carry a tune" or sound any certain way. I began finishing my daily Yoga practice with 10-15 minutes of chanting. Within a very short time, I "found my voice" and lost my self-consciousness about it. It's been nine years now and I still chant regularly and have no hangups about my voice anymore at all.
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