Before continuing with the chakra series, I want to address the issue of bringing the mind-emotional concept into yoga. The techniques outlined below are necessary for any student wishing to make yoga more than just a physical practice. This is one of the many benefits of Chakra Yoga. Applying knowledge of the chakras to your yoga may assist in helping you achieve greater emotional awareness in your singing and yoga study.
As singers, we spend our lives providing others with emotional experiences with our voices and bodies. Whether we are singing a joyful aria from an oratorio or performing a death scene in an opera, we feel it. This is one of the great gifts of being a singer. With all the emotions involved in the art of singing, it is optimal for the singer’s emotional state to be in balance for every performance. If the singer is balanced, the great drama we must portray on stage will not be as physically or mentally taxing.
Scientists are finding that emotions are physical as well as psychological. They can act as a bridge between our minds and bodies. We can change our emotions by changing our physical body, and we now know that our emotional state changes our physical body. Every cell is involved.
What effect do the feelings we need to access and portray as a performer have on our physical and emotional state of being? There is no right answer to this question. I ask it to make the singer aware that felt emotions affect the whole person. Feeling these emotions is a positive for personal well-being. Yoga can help singers access, transform, and heal their emotions, creating a balanced emotional awareness.
The practice of yoga involves the body, mind, and spirit. It helps you slow down and be present in the moment. Instead of being swept along by our feelings and moods in life or on stage, we can learn how to shape them ourselves. This takes time and practice, but it can be done.
If we, as singers, analyze our own emotional state with the same tools we employ to learn an aria, the results can be amazing. When we learn an aria, we ask certain questions to inform us about the character. The hallowed words “what,” “why,” and “where” can help us learn about the character we portray on stage: “What” caused her to be in this situation? “Where” is she? “Why” does she respond this way?
When you have emotional circumstances in your life that may be limiting you, pretend you are a character in an opera and use these same questions to analyze your own circumstances. In yoga, the term for this is “witness consciousness.” In this mental yoga practice, you take yourself out of the situation and look at it from afar. Employing witness consciousness in your own life takes practice, and as with anything, the more you practice, the easier it becomes.
The following exercise helps the body and mind become aware and prepare for witness consciousness:
* Sit down in a comfortable position in a quiet place and focus on your breathing. Your eyes may be open or closed.
* Observe any sensations you are feeling in your body. Start at the crown of your head and work your way down to your feet. Try to focus your mind, to not let outside distractions limit your practice. Keep your attention within.
*Now, include your mind and emotions. Identify what you are experiencing at this moment. “I feel happy,” for example, or “I feel anxious,” or “I feel at peace.”
* Let go of any “why” and just allow the emotion to settle. Continue to focus on your breathing.
* Slowly include your outside world, the sun shining, the birds singing, your children fighting!
*You are simply observing what is happening around you and within you.
* You may close this exercise at this time, or choose to bring it into witness consciousness by moving onto the next and final step.
* Look at yourself as a person right where you are at this moment. Engage your mind and ask the “why” questions to make it active. “Why is this happening?”, “What am I feeling?”, or “Who is involved in the situation?” Or go a little deeper and ask, “Where do I feel this emotion in my body?” or “What events caused this circumstance to occur?”
I first began using this technique in a time of crisis, when I did not know any other thing to help me through. I had learned the technique in class but never applied it to my life. My daughter was sick and we were being rushed in an ambulance to a hospital in New York City. I employed the techniques and they helped me ground myself and do what I needed to do.
I also use witness consciousness for less dire circumstances, such as waiting for the president’s motorcade to pass in Washington, D.C. when call is in 10 minutes! Waiting makes you feel all sorts of emotions —frustration, anger, impatience—and analyzing those from outside of your body helps to control your feelings and keep your body more balanced. It is best however, to practice in quiet moments.
Looking at your whole self—body, emotions, and spirit—from a different perspective can help you develop more self-awareness and create a more balanced emotional state. It is also interesting to apply this exercise to the characters you portray.
As you spend time in relative silence looking at yourself from afar, sometimes things become clearer. Sometimes they do not. There is no right or wrong, just go with it. That is the exercise. Spending a few minutes or hours in contact with your whole self is a valuable tool to create a more balanced emotional you.
