Your Voice

When I say your voice, I mean a lot more than the words you say.

Your voice is your connection to your true self. A term I really like. That state where you are being true to yourself at its core and you are not being directed by external stresses.

Yoga philosophy sees our voice being affected by the fifth chakra. The throat chakra, the Vishuddha. A blue energy. We are looking to have each chakra in balance.

In particular to us chefs I am interested in how this means we communicate.

Balancing your voice

Deficient- timid, not sticking up for yourself, leads to be being walked all over in the kitchen. Being blamed for things you haven’t done, working too many hours as you don’t say no!

In excess- self-important, arrogant, not prepared to listen to the ideas and feelings of others in the kitchen.

A great chef is a chef that has managed to balance this energy.

Which one are you? Can you see a lack of balance in yourself?

Your personality and body composition will of course emphasize this. Too much fire in your system will likely put you into excess whilst too much water will likely make your voice deficient.

This is yoga philosophy at its best. Helping you to understand what you could be doing to feel more in balance and therefore calmer.

How what we eat could help?

In excess, try cooling foods such as coconut or deficient then try a bit of chilli or garlic to stoke your inner fire.

In general, ripe fruits are known to help balance the energy in your throat chakra. They symbolize authenticity as they only fall from the tree at the right time. Also, anything blue to nourish the energy. Purple Sprouting broccoli or blueberries perhaps.

The movement or Yoga Asana and how this can help.

Balance is the key here.

Deficiency of your voice can be helped along by opening the chest, shoulders, and throat.

Asana’s such as fish, ideally supported fish, or melting heart.

In excess means you need to try to close down that area. Forward folds of almost any kind will be beneficial. You should understand as well, this asana has the added benefit of the calming and cooling effect of the inversion.

Balance as ever is the key, doing a combination of both is often the key. It’s not easy to start getting the benefits this way from yoga asana, it takes time and practice, but it really is worth sticking with.

If you have any questions or would like some guidance, I would love to hear from you,

There are always other activities you can do to help balance your voice. Activities that stoke your inner fire will also help. Sport for example? To calm your voice, you Could do something as simple as take 5 deep breaths when you feel yourself at melting point.

If you’re interested, get in touch 🙂

You know yourself, trust it. That’s so important to remember.

Namaste