Exercises for the Vessel

The Body is your vehicle, your vessel, your instrument. You only get one a lifetime and it is your responsibility to care for it. Tuning it is your job…. how can you sing/act/live with a body out of tune??? 

You don’t have to spend hours, but you do need to be aware so you can catch it when it’s out of balance. A check in the morning when you wake up and at night before you drift off to sleep…. a scan to all the joints & to the belly to soften them. It’s very empowering to be aware of yourself this way and here are a few simple things I do daily…..

EXERCISES:

• THE CHAIR -

First and foremost we want to open up the belly.  When it’s tight, EVERYTHING tightens.  Easiest way I find to do this is to bend over a chair that rests just below the belly button.  (I”m always doing this in the wings before an entrance :)

Gently lean over it and allow the back of it to press against the belly a few inches below the navel. As in any yoga pose, just do this to the point of slight discomfort, then breathe to the center of that discomfort into a ball of tension that is usually present.  Allow the breath to gently penetrate, soften and dissolve the tension. Sometimes you will feel a wave of heat running down your legs (quite pleasant actually).  Tension is just too much energy trapped in the body and it releases in peculiar ways. Don’t be worried….. just breathe gently and fully.  If the release is happening too quickly for your comfort level, just back off the chair for a minute and breathe gently. The belly holds all unresolved feelings and sometimes these feelings will present themselves at some point as you do this or later…. it’s important to allow them to surface & wash over you. You shoved them down there because they were unpleasant to experience at the time, but now you are somewhat distanced from them and they have lost a lot of power…… also, they won’t leave until they are recognized and resolved……so…. might as well get on with it! Coraggio!

You don’t have to rush, be ‘perfect’, inflict pain, judge yourself for having this tension…these are simple exercises and should be done w/care, attention & regard for yourself.

• THE TENNIS BALL(S) -

These simple little guys get into all kinds of nooks and crannies on your body for a lovely release. Use one on both sides of the jaw, between the upper & lower teeth, or do one side at a time. Just explore the space between your teeth by the jawline…baby, there is usually a lot going on there. Massage it a little every day and watch it leave. It took a lot of time to accumulate there, so it may take awhile.  Many places in the body correlate w/emotions. The jaw is anger….yep! So trust me, it will leave and come back to visit you again. That’s life.  As you might imagine, a tight jaw is really a nuisance when you are trying to make sound. It affects everything…. so let’s get it gone!

I use these little guys wherever I feel discomfort. I run them along the side of my thighs in that little groove between the muscles, on top of my thighs…. feels good.

I also put 2 tennis balls under my knees, just above the kneecap at night in bed, as I hold a lot of tension in my knees (go figure???)  I lie on my back w/a pillow under my knees, tennis balls in place. It’s like an acupressure massage w/o the effort as the weight of your legs does the releasing….. try it. You don’t have to spend all night like that, just a few minutes…..but if you’re comfy, leave them there for awhile as you drift off.

• YOGA -

Don’t know how familiar you all are w/yoga.  Poses are very natural and even the simplest moves are beneficial.  The shoulders hold tons of crap…..that’s where all your sense of responsibility goes…..so you can imagine.  Look up ‘The Plough’ online…..we’ll do it in class.  It lets go of every ounce of tension once you grow more comfortable in the pose.  Also sends lots of blood to the throat to keep it healthy.

The Lion Pose may be one of the most ferocious looking poses, but you stretch the roots of the tongue…you have NO IDEA how tension there screws up your comfort level while singing or speaking……LEARN IT & give your voice a rest!

• REFLEXOLOGY -

Did you know every organ & gland has nerve endings in your hands & feet?  And by massaging those little points you send fresh blood to the corresponding organ or gland and give them a positive jolt of blood flow & energy.  You start clearing the pathways so that they are more nourished by circulation.  You can be sitting & watching TV and be massaging the base of your big toe & actually feel the energy going to your throat.  It’s a great tool and all the details can be found online under reflexology, or acupressure.  You can cure yourself of a whole slew of issues if they are not too advanced.

• THE STRAW TECHNIQUE -

So I pretty much covered this in the Master Class Info I sent, it’s great.  Understand that the voice reacts to everything you experience everyday…it is so highly sensitive & vulnerable…it’s YOU, your expression!  So it’s easy for it to get stuck, tight, misplaced, disconnected from your breath.  The Straw Technique reminds you of healthy placement.  You simply are not able to make unhealthy sound using a straw.  AND….it doesn’t stress your voice when you vocalize this way.  (I cringe hearing some people wailing, pressing, screaming out vocal exercises…..ugh!)   Use a thinner straw. I’ll demonstrate when we work together, but it couldn’t be simpler and the video link I’m attaching demonstrates it well:

Vocal Straw Exercise - YouTube

There’s also BODY BALLS that work on pressure points in the body, especially the back, to get into those spots that are elusive to release. There’s TAPPING which are a series of accupoints on the face, arms & torso that help balance cortisol (adrenaline) which helps us release fear!  Very powerful work. Check out ‘The Tapping Solution - Nick Ortner’ if you find your nerves are getting the best of you in performance.

FOOTSIE ROLLER, HAPPY MAN MASSAGE TOOL - think Whole Foods has these. The Footsie hits EVERYTHING in your feet….you gotta go soft here…. lots of accupoints in the feet, lots going on here, but ohhh boy, it feels good when you stop. Happy Man is just a lovely tool, his little feet take a lot of stress out of your body…

I’ve used QUARTZ CRYSTALS all my life. I am what I call a ‘high sensitive’ as are so many in the arts. I just seem to take on a lot of the energy around me and it seems to house in my gut.  So to get the day out of my body, I use a crystal at night before I sleep. I massage my belly (I have a large one that must weigh 2 lbs) it lifts energy (tension) right out of you and it feels magical in your hands…different crystals for different purposes. Some for grounding, some for meditation…. you have to do a little homework or just go to a crystal shop and pick out then that ‘speaks’ to you.

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So I think that’s enough for now……. I’m not trying to overwhelm you w/‘cures’….. these are just things I’ve learned over many, many years of maintenance. Should you ever find yourself having to deliver 8 shows a week onstage for many weeks on end, you will need to find your way to stay buoyant. Even if you never set foot onstage, anything worth doing is usually demanding to some degree….. so self-care, self-awareness is just part of maintaining a decent level of energy enabling you live & enjoy a good life!