#wednesdaywisdom – A Silenced Voice
Reclaim Your Life
My 2013 has continued to move positively in a number of directions! It is really amazing what a difference it makes when you focus on gratitude, where you’d like to go next and how to make things positive where you can as you Reclaim Your Life!
I had a recent discussion with someone and she stopped me to really give me some things to think about. I’ll paraphrase here as best I can what was said …
“You have a great mind and that does not need to change. But you’ve been relying on that your whole life because you’ve never really felt safe to be more open and truly have your voice be heard. That is starting to change – your heart, your passion, your voice is finally coming through now and it’s a beautiful thing to see & hear.”
Was this from my therapist? Or spiritual guru?
Not exactly but there are parallels – it came from my vocal teacher.
If you don’t know a lot about singing it has a lot of layers you might not think about initially. As you work to be able to truly let go, breathe and be completely vulnerable a lot of your personal obstacles & beliefs rear their ugly head whether you want them to or not. I also think that the human voice as an instrument is the most vulnerable instrument a musician can “play through”.
Getting back to the words from my teacher, I quietly nodded as she said these things to me. I did not say much in response but nodded in agreement. The reality is that what she said was absolutely, positively and completely true. It was a bit painful & bittersweet to hear but there was no denying its truth.
I’m also aware enough to know I’m not alone. Many of you out there have had part of your voice silenced or made purposely quiet/small. Since it’s your voice, it’s also up to you to give permission to keep it silenced or to finally start embracing it with more courage than fear.
- Have you longed to pick up dancing again? Or singing? Or painting?
- Go back to school to pursue those activities that you justified away in the past?
- Do you miss creative expression in general?
The “how” of the silencing of that creative, expressive voice of yours is not as important. It’s part of your history but does not have to define your now or future unless you give it permission.
Each one of us is a unique mixture of talents, passions and expressions. If you’ve silenced some of those out of deference to others, do you still choose to do that? Are you going to allow a comment someone made years ago permission to keep part of your voice silent out of obedience?
If you’re ready to reclaim your life in various ways, why not start with choosing to use part of your personal voice again that has been silent for too long? It still can be done respectfully to those around you but if you keep that part of you silent, the rest of the world suffers, too. Your personal light cannot shine on others while you keep quiet and wait for proper permission.
by Sean O’Meara 