Voice, Breath & Energy

The voice is a great barometer (and thus a very useful diagnostic tool) for our health and well-being - a fact often overlooked in our age, which is becoming more visually oriented by the day.

The breath is crucial to our sheer existence - we speak of taking our first and our last breath. Oxygen is a prime mover of our metabolic system and of all processes on our planet.

Voice and breath are closely related and both are relying on a proper posture and a balanced mind to unfold their full potential.

Eastern traditions are well known for their emphasis on balancing body and mind. They all have their own specific forms of exercise (e.g. Yoga, TaiJi, QiGong, KumNye) to prevent or resolve unease and disease; and while most use the breath as well as the body to help move the vital energy (Qi), the voice is used much less and often lost on a tradition's journey to the west.

The recently developed system of First Nature puts its main emphasis on working with breath and voice. On a philosophical level the work is based on the understanding that everybody has an authentic voice, which is an essential aspect and thus a true reflection of their core being.

Move with grace, breathe with ease, speak from the heart ......sing!

How we are, may be reflected in your physical and mental state, as measured and assessed by western medicine. But hopefully we can also experience it ourselves as a feeling of well-being and happiness. And, last not least, we see it reflected in the responses of the people around us. Life seems so much easier and so much more colourful, when we can breathe with ease, speak from the heart, smile readily, sing out loud, dance to all and every music, wake up full of energy and aspiration - in other words: when we are at ease, when we are happy.

Happiness is the sister of well-being. But, as a matter of fact, it also is a state we can achieve inspite of physical ailment or difficult life circumstances. If we have forgotten this fact or if we find it difficult to believe, the chance is that we have forgotten how to breathe; in other words, that we have allowed our Qi to leak away and we feel cut off from its natural source und thus unable to replenish it.

Why and how to combine Breath, Voice and Qi work with Shiatsu - or any other therapy?

All exercise, whether focussed on the body, the breath or the voice, moves the Qi and is thus beneficial for health - albeit unwittingly.
Exercises derived from - or closely following - eastern traditions are tuned to cultivate Qi and Qi awareness and have been used well over 2000 years as part of various techniques of self-healing.

Because Shiatsu is a healing art based on Chinese Medicine and Japanese body work, Shiatsu practitioners aim to recommend breath and Qi exercises for their clients to do in order to support the healing process.
These exercises need to be tought well to be effective.

My clinical experience shows that the combination of treatment and exercise has proven very beneficial for my clients during periods of change and transition, whether these resulted from natural causes (e.g. birth, menopause) traumatic experiences (e.g. stroke, accidents, surgery, personal loss) or illness.
While, during a Shiatsu treatment, the client is asked to let go of his or her need to do and instead allow themselves to simply be and be aware of how that feels, Breath and Voice and Qi Work asks for more active involvement. Exercises are given, not so much to be done obediently and correctly, but to be explored, experienced and then used to move our own energy in a way that helps us to increase our self-awareness and consequently become self-empowered and much more self-reliant.

While I in my own practice have found Breath, Voice and Qi work to be, on its own or in combination with Shiatsu, beneficial for all who seek to improve their health and well-being, scientists in a variaty of fields have been busy looking into the benefits of singing for patients with a variety of health problems such as Asthma and other breathing problems, mental illness, loss of balance and hearing or loss of memory.
With the necessary training and practice breath, voice and Qi work can become a wonderful tool for all who work in the healing arts, health care and social work, be it for their own relaxation and self-development or as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool.

The work can be highly recommended for those who use their speaking or singing voice professionally.

Over recent years, the government has re-discovered singing as an important tool in teaching, and consultants in business and politics are getting more and more interested in the role of the voice in success and failure in convincing the custumer, the voter and the co-negogiator.

I teach this work with varying focus and intensity to individuals and in groups. Please click on Workshops and Events for details.