VOCAL HEALTH - PART 1 What's Blocking You From Performing Voice Over At Your Best? Learn And Move Forward ... By Emily Maguire Voice Actor and Life & Business Coach Your voice over performances can
be inhibited not only by physical factors but also by psychological ones. However, both have a knock-on effect on each other. For example, thinking
negatively, or letting nerves control us, can cause our body to tense up and
our neck and throat to become restricted. Which results in poor performance.
In this two-part series,
we will explore how and why our performances can be blocked and what we
can do to remove these self-limiting beliefs. We will also look at:
Life coaching
works with clients holistically in that we treat the whole person and not just
the symptom. Our mind and body are all interconnected, and removing one block
can have a substantial effect on all other areas of your life. This advice can help empower you, as you go forward, to present the best
possible version of yourself in work and in life. BE AN ACTIVE LISTENER
There is a great quote by Michael Shurtleff, who was the
major force for casting on Broadway in the 1960's that goes:
For the majority, voice over work tends
to be a solo job even when a project
consists of multiple
roles! However, one thing that always applies is listening, be that to
others or be that to yourself. As performers, we need to follow our instincts, listen,
and trust our intuition. UNBLOCKING YOUR CHAKRAS Our body is made up of several different energy centers, called chakras, including the voice / throat chakra. If blocked, this chakra can severely
affect our ability to communicate, and hence, our vocal performance. These
restrictions we place on ourselves
can stem from past and
present fears that can block our vocal performances. For instance, not trusting our intuition or our instinct can lead us to make the wrong choices when reading scripts, or to perform poorly for auditions. In the case of blocked chakras, they can reduce our vocal capabilities, leading to
poor audition performance and / or loss of work. A blocked throat chakra can also lead to imbalances in all other areas of our body.
Blocked chakras restrict the flow of energy through our
body. When we stress too much, we become further unbalanced by placing too much
pressure on the blocked chakra. This can then have a knock effect on the energy
of the entire body, causing sore or dry throats, the production of too much
saliva, tension across your neck and shoulder, migraines, and headaches. All
this causes stress in our body and limitations to your vocal range and
capabilities and can inhibit performance. OUR SELF-LIMITING BELIEFS
Where do these blocks come from?
Blocks/restrictions are called self-limiting beliefs, and in my coaching
sessions, I work with clients to help remove them. A person cannot achieve their GOALS or self-actualise until those
blocks are removed.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states
that to self-actualise, all humans must achieve these five fundamental needs:
So, in order to be the best you can as a
performer, it's important for the key needs of esteem and physiological
well being to be balanced. YOUR CONFIDENCE AND NERVES And what can we do to help increase
our confidence and feel better?
Let us look at confidence and nerves that can all be
linked to a person's sense of self-worth. Nerves can result from many things, for instance:
Low self- worth can
lead to feelings of inadequacy, which only goes to restrict us further.
YOU WILL GET THERE! We all have our own path to walk in this world, and we
will all get there at the stage of life we are meant to. The endgame cannot be
rushed. For each person, learning
and growth occurs at different rates.
-------------------- ABOUT EMILY Emily Maguire is an experienced Life and
Business Coach with 20+ years of business management and mentoring
experience. She is a member of The
British Psychology Society (BPS)
with a degree in Psychology, and a MAC member of the Association for Coaching. Qualified to Level 5 in Professional Coaching &
Mentoring by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), and holding a
Life
Coaching Diploma, she specialises in Business Coaching, Career
Coaching, Coaching for Performers, Executive Coaching, Mindfulness
Coaching and
Spiritual Coaching.
Working as a Talent Manager for over 10 years as the Managing Director of 'Reflections Talent Agency' and as a performer for over 20 years, she has a wealth of industry
knowledge and can help guide entertainers to unlock their full potential.
Voice Talent Web: www.emilymaguire.co.uk Coaching Videos: Me and My Coaching, 360
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