How To Reclaim Your Power With an Embodied Voice
- Brainz Magazine
- Aug 13
- 8 min read
Sharon Wright, the founder of Gorgeous Hearts Coaching, is passionate about helping empty nesters to regain their vitality, realise their soul purpose, and enjoy meaningful relationships. She is a qualified coach and naturopath with over 10 years of experience in somatic voice work (a modality that facilitates alignment to the soul).
I imagine you’ve felt the dry squeeze in your throat, the sudden tightening of your chest, and the ‘not so pretty butterflies’ in your stomach as words slip out of your mouth like you’ve just been to the dentist for a filling. Yes, all of those symptoms are pretty universal because fear doesn’t just live in our minds; it burrows deep into our bodies, changing the way we breathe, move, and speak. Whether you’re in the office, leading a team, or speaking to a relative, you become disconnected from your natural way of connecting to others authentically and confidently.
But what is it about the voice and how we express ourselves that can make us feel so vulnerable?
I feel that the voice is a living expression of who you are. When you reclaim it from the grip of fear, you don’t just speak more clearly, you speak authentically, powerfully, and enrichingly. In this blog, we’ll explore the science and somatics behind how fear hijacks your voice, why traditional communication strategies often fall short, and how embodied voicework can restore settlement and presence to your body and mind, as well as help you to feel empowered in those moments that matter.
Why fear holds us back from expressing ourselves authentically
It’s strange how fear is experienced in pretty much the same way in every human body, but every human body has a different relationship with fear.
Sometimes fear is a tangible threat, other times it’s a projected worry that may never happen in reality. However, the feeling of vertigo as you look over the edge of a cliff, the white knuckled grip on your seat during air turbulence, or the racing heart as you step up onto a podium to deliver a speech, all feel pretty much the same. This is because the response from the human body is identical; that is, the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated. The amygdala is activated, triggering the fight or flight, or even freeze response, and there’s a sudden flooding of stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) into the body, causing muscles to contract. The result? Tight shoulders, neck, diaphragm, jaw, and throat, and a compromised voice.
There’s an interesting article in ‘Science Direct,’ which cites a study about how stress and anxiety constrict the larynx muscles. As the larynx houses the vocal folds, it’s no wonder that this alters the vocal tone and inhibits the voice’s free expression. Now you know why you suddenly feel like you have no voice before a presentation!
When fear sabotages the communication flow in teams, or any work or personal relationship for that matter, you can pretty much guarantee that it stems from expectations. How we’ll be perceived, judged, or understood by others creates a battleground of internal critique, such as the incessant inner voices that cause us to second-guess or doubt ourselves. That’s a pretty vulnerable place to be. No wonder self-protection is on red alert, and we lose our authentic voice, preferring instead to wear a mask.
How fear affects relationships and what presence can do about it
Stress is not the same as fear. Fear is usually short-lived, the response to a perceived threat, whereas stress is what we feel when we’re overwhelmed or under pressure.
However, both can overlap and have similar responses in the body.
Your posture collapses when you’re under stress, and your breath tends to be shallow. Similarly, when you’re scared, you aren’t likely to be breathing deeply and gently. Fear of communicating authentically in a threatening environment (and let’s face it, many workplaces can feel pretty threatening) is a constant stress on the body and has a dulling impact on your expression (verbal and nonverbal). Your body and voice feel like they’re about as bright as a late winter’s afternoon in the North of England, not exactly the empowered version of yourself that you wanted to bring to the table.
It’s no wonder miscommunication, misunderstandings, friction, disengagement, and, in the case of teams and organisations, loss in productivity, ensue.
One study (Integrity Solutions) found that miscommunication costs organizations $26,000 per employee annually. No wonder organisations strive to increase workplace communication effectiveness!
But despite all of these issues, an embodied approach to communication is a simple approach to help balance the body and mind, as well as helping us to be more present and focused in our work.
Presence, that is, when the body and mind are harmonious, is what keeps us steady and clear so that we can bring ourselves back to settlement, even in challenging situations.
But there’s more, because when we are present, there’s a clearer energy wrapped in the words we speak, a vibration from the sound and the instrument that the sound comes from. That vibration is shaped in how we move and how we respond to a situation. For example, you don’t feel the same energy from someone who is reacting in frustration (you may start to feel frustrated yourself) as you do from someone who is supporting you with wise counsel.
Research shows that the tone of one’s voice communicates more emotional meaning than actual words; up to 38% of conveyed emotion comes through how we speak. But what about the energy of the instrument producing the tone? Could it be that how we live, and the integrity of our movements, make the difference between whether we heal or harm when we use our voices? In that case, self-care and self-awareness have never been more important for healthy relationships, both for work and personal ones.
Balancing the nervous system with the voice, solutions that truly work
Studies show that the vibrations of your voice felt within your body settle anxiety and stress. For example, reading aloud can activate both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The deep, gentle diaphragmatic breathing that supports the voice increases parasympathetic tone, promoting a settling stillness in the body even when it has been under stress or dealing with fear.
Techniques like humming, trilling, or toning supported by gentle breathing stimulate the vagus nerve, enhancing the relaxation response, lowering stress, improving mood, and even aiding sleep.
These embodied voice practices help the body transition from a sense of urgency to a steadiness that foments a grounded response from presence rather than fear-stimulated reaction.
1. Your breath, a powerhouse
Your breathing rhythm reacts to outside situations and internal emotions. The rhythm of your breath gets quicker when you’re frightened, and it slows down when you’re settled. This means that your breath is reactive to circumstances beyond your control.
However, breathing supported by the diaphragm gives you instant confidence well worth the small amount of time and effort that’s needed to strengthen this important involuntary muscle. All you need to do is let go of the tightness in your stomach when you breathe in and feel how the diaphragm flattens, your rib cage expands and your stomach makes space for the inhalation then, on the slow out-breath, you just let the air out slowly observing how the stomach muscles support the diaphragm to go back to its original position. This can be a daily ritual either upon waking or before going to bed.
2. From posture collapse to confidence
Moving your body to sit or stand in a more graceful position, connecting with your feet and your heart while taking a walk, lowering your shoulders, relaxing your jaw, all of these body movements make a huge difference to your voice and your confidence when expressing yourself. Becoming more body-aware, you’ll naturally move your body to feel more open and spacious. There’s science behind how posture can affect thoughts.
3. Your voice
When you bring your voice from your whole body instrument, you instantly feel more at ease and powerful within yourself. Try reading something aloud, and feel your body as you do so, observe the vibrations of your voice from within. Where do you feel them?
I coach men and women to discover their authentic voices and to reconnect to their whole body instrument in my somatic voice-coaching program. Find out more here.
Why ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t work
Having worked as an HR manager for 9 years, I feel that standard corporate training often tends to be a ‘one size fits all’ solution. It often focuses on skills like giving feedback, presentation, or conflict resolution without truly addressing the internal state of the individuals involved and what affects their authentic expression.
Considering the cost of miscommunication to organisations, it’s important to understand the problem on a more organic and holistic level rather than investing heavily in surface-level training that ticks a box but doesn’t really change anything; after all, improving communication in the workplace can significantly increase productivity so it’s well worth investing in solutions that have a more sustainable impact.
I feel that if individuals learn more about embodied presence and how their voices can bring them back to the settlement of their bodies while managing the fears and stresses of collaborations, it might not stop the conflict, but it could stop the habitual fear patterns and cycles from taking over when the pressure is on.
The embodied voice: A path to authentic communication
Somatic voicework integrates breath, voice resonance, intentional gentle body movements, and emotional awareness in a way that helps you to reconnect to the body and mind in full presence. When you express yourself, you’ll feel clearer, more focused, and settled.
The embodied voice approach allows leaders (by leader, I mean responsive, responsible, and respectful professionals) to respond from the inner wisdom of a body and mind in presence rather than react from old fears triggered in tense moments.
The voice becomes an instrument of union with the body and soul in harmony.
Your voice is not just something you use as a means to an end; it’s a living expression whose quality of vibration depends on how you are living and how you show up in life.
When you come back to your breath, body, and inner connection, where your expression is constantly receiving and responding to the ‘now,’ you speak from that alignment, rather than reacting to fear created by future projections or old, uncomfortable memories.
If you’d like to explore this embodied transformation, join my Facebook group. I continuously offer workshops to introduce people to this transformational modality. What’s one small way you can love your authentic voice today?
Read more from Sharon Wright
Sharon Wright, Somatic Voice & Relationship Coach
Sharon Wright spent many years searching for true meaning and love in her life. After many spiritual detours that nearly destroyed her marriage, she learned that her body was a way to connect to true love, aka the soul. She has since developed and shared techniques to facilitate that reconnection via awareness of the vibrational integrity of the voice. She both coaches and mentors her clients, empty nesters who often feel alone after their kids have left home, to manage anxiety and connect more deeply with their partners. One of her main tenets, that the vibrations of the voice can harm or heal, depending on the energy one is aligned to, brings focus to heart-led living for purposeful and evolving relationships.
