by Rosie Bason, Mullumbimby, NSW
I attended a workshop with Chris James yesterday. Chris James is an amazing musician and a student of Universal Medicine. In his workshop “Discovering your true natural voice” I learned so much, I felt so much and I cried – which is great, as I do not find it easy to cry. I would like to share my experience with you.
I learned to feel what it feels like in my body when I speak – I could even feel it when I whispered.
I felt the difference when in a group we practised communicating from our body. When we would go back into our minds and disconnect from our body, by habit, it would feel different, almost empty, but when another spoke from their heart and stayed with their breath, I could feel it coming from their whole body. To describe that feeling; it was like a wave of vibrations coming from their whole body, not just a sound coming out of their mouth. To be able to feel this, I did have to learn how to listen.
I learned how beautiful it is to be with someone and fully listen: to listen without commenting, to listen and be there for someone whilst being fully with me was just such an awesome experience. It exposed how often when I am with someone, but because I am not in my body, because I am not with my breath, that I am often thinking about other things, or thinking about what I should say next, so that I am hardly listening at all. But when I choose to be with me, to breathe gently and to not worry about what to say or control the conversation, and just allow another to speak, it is just simply beautiful. It felt so good and the old habit of thinking, controlling and not being present was completely gone. And when I was listened to, in that same way, I just felt so supported and safe to just express whatever was needed to express.
One of my most revealing moments was when Chris brought awareness of how I talk when not opening my mouth very much, how I am in control and that my jaw is very tight. Whoa! This really hit home. I have always been in control and I can feel that in my upper arms, but I had not felt it in my face. I was not aware at all. I am now learning to open my mouth more, speak with more clarity, and allow my face to relax. I am learning to not try to work out and control everything in my mind before I speak because I felt how awful it feels to listen when someone is not speaking from their heart. I will practise being with me so that I speak from my heart and therefore not have that control and that vibration affecting not only me, but those that I am in contact with.
I also became aware of how fast I speak. This can be an anxiety thing or just because I am speaking from my mind: I can now feel that it’s not a very nice feeling in my body when I speak from my mind. I found it easier to feel it from someone else speaking at first, but then I could easily recognise that same feeling within. When I slowed down, when I checked in with my breath, my whole voice changed – and when I really did not think about what to say before speaking, I felt so much lighter and open and relaxed. It is a clear marker in my body, so that if I catch myself speaking like that, I can just take a moment to reconnect with me and my breath.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Talking in disconnection to the heart and the body is easy and may prove very convincing to others. Yet, the moment you clock it and clock how that feels in the body you do not wish to keep going that way as it feels truly yucky.
Expression with our voice, our body, our movements, and our eyes… it is all of great value and the more we share of ourselves, the more we can connect with the world and others.
I have been singing a lot lately after having a few sessions of writing a song and just having fun. But what I realised when I was singing was that I could feel how much I open my mouth, and the focus I had which perhaps I don’t do while speaking… the art of speaking from our bodies, perhaps is the art of surrender into our beingness or innermost.
Our voice and how we speak, the tone, the pace reveal so much to us. If we are aware, we can feel when we are talking from our heads or from our bodies, because there is a marked difference in quality.
Thank you for sharing about not opening the mouth very much while talking – this is something I became aware of recently, and it too makes much sense to me that it is to do with being in control. Everything you share here brings me back to the body, and how it is my connection and surrender to the body first, that pretty much determine the depth of connection that could be explored through my expression.
Thank you Rosie, great to read this today because I have been noticing how much I am not with myself when I listen, and how simple and lovely it can be from reading about your experiences. Very interesting too about how communication from the whole body feels, like a wave of vibrations instead of just sound when it comes from the mind alone.
As a dear friend said, ‘The body is the marker of all Truth’ and Chris James is a master in enabling you to feel this in your own body and to become aware of truths you did not acknowledge before.
I remember that listening exercise. It is so very different to listen like an observer rather than with a mind full of ‘what will I say next?’ And being listened to in this way is truly supportive too.
Thank you Rosie, for sharing just how potent it is for us to bring our presence to our everyday. As, be it listening or expressing, when we are connected to our body and being the quality of reflection we hold and offer is one that honors and represents the vibration of who we are, love.
Very cool to have all those things pointed out to you. A credit to Chris who is able to present in a way that does not have people get their back up, but rather are able to see it as supportive feedback for us all to learn from.
I too have experienced that feeling of my whole body vibrating when I speak or sing from my body. It’s like that particular vibration gently breaks apart any tensions I may have in my body. I feel much looser, lighter and joyfull in my and with myself. It’s like a massage from the inside out.
Thanks Leigh, this is great feedback and very inspiring to read.
Such simple adjustments with our body from our ever deepening awareness have profound effects for our quality of life…
There is no limit to the depths of connect and level of presence we can have with our body in everything we do. It’s a matter of changing our perspective to see and feel the detail of our expression – both physically and energetically.
I have attended Chris’s workshops and they are very powerful and revealing , I realised my quiet voice was really me holding me back, I could feel my body expand when I stayed with my breath and just sang feeling the vibration of my voice throughout my body.
Who knew there was so much to speaking and listening as many of us would say we are great at both. But these two aren’t just things to do and while on the outside we can say we do both this article takes us inside to check in with the quality. I must admit even while reading this article, which to me is a form of listening, I brushed over sections because I was talking to myself and so had to re-read them. It is amazing to stop and listen to the conversation that goes on inside our head no matter what is going on outside. More often then not the conversation is leading to one point, for you to come back again to the same point. In other words, if you aren’t aware the conversation we normally are having with ourselves is one that puts or drags us down. To simply appreciate the feelings you have and appreciate yourself no matter what you are facing is always a choice and a point for us to build from rather than tear down.
Thank you Ray. Appreciation is huge and this is just what I have been lacking recently, I have felt a bit down and this is because I am not appreciating myself and honouring my feelings around a certain situation. Everything changes when we allow ourselves to really appreciate, we really do begin to build from that.
The changes in our tone of voice are a great indicatory of whether we are speaking from our heart or mind.
There is a huge difference when we communicate with body awareness than when we communicate from the mind, the first one creates a flow and simplicity in life and the latter one creates issues and complexities that are not of truth and serve as an impediment in our own evolution.
I have not had the privilege of attending any of Chris Jame’s workshop and cannot wait to attend one day.
But claiming my voice has been another biggie for me and recently I received confirmation from Natalie Benhayon (Universal Medicine Practitioner) that my voice had altered and was asked if I had made any dietary changes. Before this I was drinking soy chai latte and since letting go of it, my voice no longer sounded damp.
As much as it made sense, it didn’t make sense until I really heard it in another. My own partners voice had altered after he decided to give up dairy of his own accord, I suddenly realised his voice / sound didn’t sound so nasely anymore. A whole new factor I hadn’t considered before.
That is amazing Shushila, everything has a quality including our voice, and our diet can impact on how we sound. Everything we express, voice, movement, etc reflects the care we have or have not taken. I have never realised we can sound damp! I’ve definitely heard racy and dull voices so damp makes sense!
There is true beauty when we express love from our bodies. This purity in expression can be felt completely from the one expressing and equally the one receiving…
“I did have to learn how to listen.” We hear so much but how often to we truly listen to what we are hearing?
‘When I slowed down, when I checked in with my breath, my whole voice changed – and when I really did not think about what to say before speaking, I felt so much lighter and open and relaxed.’ I know this is true for me too and as today i have been a bit speedy it is great to be reminded and allow myself more space.
Chris James’ workshops are phenomenal, what he presents about being connected to our breath, our body and expressing from this connection is amazing to experience and learn to live. You’ve inspired me to be more aware of this myself. I could also relate to the tight jaw, so I will be focusing on my face more today as I talk to people. Thanks Rosie.
Great blog Rosie, it makes such a difference when we speak from our body I feel more connected, lighter and more me, and when I am feeling the need to control or am feeling anxious in anyway I always speak from my mind.
The thing that stood out for me too in these workshops was just how little awareness of our body we can have when we communicate. It is so exposing yet so empowering to feel that we do often say one thing from our mind but our body is communicating the almost complete opposite of that!
We can hold so much tension in our jaw. I love how in the workshops with Chris James we get the opportunity just by opening our mouths and annunciating more clearly the words that we are singing to release some of this tension.
I loved how you not only covered the actual need to express from ourselves but to truly listen to another, I catch myself sometimes as my mind tries to think of things when another is talking to me, and have found that when I reconnect back to my heart, and feel the gentle breath from within, my mind clears and I am able to truly feel what is being expressed from another.
We take our voice for granted. It comes from our body. It is ours. Yet, this is not necessarily true. We do not speak with OUR natural voice. In the last few months, I have increased my level of awareness of the vibration of my body when I speak. I have to say that when the vibration lowers, my body feels simply horrible. It brings something into my body that does not match where my body truly is. When my voice matches the vibration of my body, speaking is a delight and a blessing. It is not just the voice; it is also what the voice voices.
This is a great sharing Rosie, expressing from the heart makes a huge difference, because there is no thought in it, only what we truly feel.
I love those moments when what we feel is jarring to us, jarring because we have felt something else that is not that, that which comes from the heart. Like the way I spoke to someone on the phone yesterday really disturbed me as the lovelessness in my voice felt horrible. Change occurs by us feeling and appreciating the difference in our body rather than trying to mentally change that has no awareness of how the movements of change feel.
Thank you Rosie for sharing your experience of speaking and listening from the body and not the head. i have become more aware lately about the way I speak and the different way it feels when I am in my body as opposed to being in my mind, I have noticed my body gives me a clear sign when I feel a wheeziness in my chest, that I am up in my head, as soon as I breath down into my body the wheeziness disappears.
What I have learnt to express from my heart and body is knowing what you express is for another. Knowing your expression is for another opens you up and draws you to connect. That connection is a feeling and a way-of-being in the body. It’s a beautiful difference as Rosie discovers the feeling of fullness compared to the emptiness of circulating an experience from the mind numbing what was originally felt in the body. I notice when I already have something to say and even talk over the top of someone I’m choosing to not feel what the other is really saying through their energetic exchange. There is so much to gain and understand when you listen with all your body and not just your ears.
This blog brings up a lot for me, I think because I have been speaking in a way that is not honouring for a long time. Reading what you have shared in detail is a real gift, it is almost like I got the whole workshop in one simple free article; I certainly will be doing some voice and body homework after this read.
Our bodies are an awe to behold, an instrument for our Soul. So as you have shared Rosie, it does feeling amazing when we connect to our bodies, for we then can feel the quality of our presence, the lightness of our being, which is nothing short of exquisite, delicious and heavenly.
This reveals that listening to another one in full does not require to just concentrate on what the other is saying, but being also totally in your own body and feeling the other one as well. There is much more being communicated than the spoken words.
I attended one of Chris James’ workshops several years ago. I had never ever sung before that in my life and had no idea of the power of expressing in this way. I was amazed at what Chris shared and what he offers in terms of supporting people to express. It was indeed incredible to feel the power of our voice and how we choose to communicate.
‘…be there for someone whilst being fully with me…’What a beautiful reminder of this. I too have experienced this but often let things get in the way. But what a beautiful experience it is to share this intimacy with another – and nothing extraordinary needs to be said. Just talking about the weather can be intimate when we are present in our bodies because we are so much more than flesh and bone and this is felt through our physical being.
To become aware of how you listen can literally change the world if you so choose. Can you imagine if we all chose to see how we listen, and then sit there, breathe our own breath, not formulating a response, not judging what is being said, just openly listening to what is being said. How met would people feel? And then from that method, after they have spoken, you then feel what to respond from your body, not from your mind.
Reading this Rosie, is everything that I’m learning and realising attending an Expression and Presentation workshop with Serge Benhayon today. Feeling the difference between speaking from my head and speaking from my body are polar opposites… there is no way not to know, unless we speak from the mind most the time. It feels awful when I speak from my mind, and I agree Rosie, it feels empty… there is nothing there yet more recalling information. I also love what you shared about being listened to and listening to others without needing to be anything or do anything… this has been huge to practice and feel. You realise how often we interrupt others or are interrupted ourselves and how imposing and controlling it is. Being there with the person, listening and connecting with them through the eyes and body, you hear so much more then just words.
All that we say and do has a ripple effect on the world around us. Thus, the actual quality and integrity that founds what we say and do is vitally important.
I agree, Elizabeth, this article has inspired me to be more respectful and attentive to my body and the wisdom in its signals.
A beautiful, very confirming and inspiring testimony to the power of listening as part of true communication. Thank you, Rosie, I loved reading this article today.
This is brilliant. Thank you for sharing, Rosie. There’s much I recognise in myself too – thinking about what to say next, controlling, talking fast… and it all comes back to not being with my body. And I can feel how not expressing myself is a way of controlling and how deceitful that is and how that buries the stuff deep in my body and builds itself up as hardness over time.
How very awesome would it be if we raised all our children to be able to hear and to understand the whispers of their bodies and not the misleading messages of their minds. What a very different world we would live in, one where everyone is connected to who they are and from there able to express from their hearts, with no holding back.
This is amazing science because it means that there is a pace and a flow and a presence that is available for us in every second and if we connect to that and let ourselves be aware of that then we will experience like a whole other dimension of life. Like finding what we have been searching for our whole life and it’s been right there every second of our lives, we just haven’t stopped for long enough to let it unfold. It’s like we are always a step ahead with our mind and prohibiting the heart to naturally catch up with us, or us allowing the heart to be with us again.
It is very interesting how we try to control what comes out of our mouth, which just leaves our body with a lot of tension and makes our expression often very withheld and stifled.
How different would all our relationships be if at school we were taught to express from our bodies rather than from our minds?
Having the awareness that every word we say and how we say it has an effect on everyone and everything around us = ultimate responsibility. How beautiful! This confirms just how connected we are truly are.
Expressing from our bodies and our lived experiences is super powerful it can be very simple and yet can be enough to inspire others to create amazing changes in their lives.
When we are in connection with our heart and speak from there, the whole body speaks and the difference as you have shared Rosie, can be deeply felt.
Learning how it feels in the body when we speak is something I started to discover as a University lecturer. I could speak very, very fast, but not as fast as my mind was … channeling and deliver ‘amazing stuff’. I could also speak feeling very grounded, slowly, connected to my body. In the first case, I was totally exhausted when I finished. In the second I was just fine. The first one brought and immense amount of nervous energy to the room and to the students. The second one, instead, was very still. It makes a tremendous difference where are we expressing from and how.
I cannot recommend any and all Chris James events highly enough. Life-changing. Seriously (and yet with so much fun!).
Me too Lucy, it’s the first place I learnt how to truly listen to another and it has changed my life forever and I’m always aware when I’m not listening and stop.
How amazing to hear your experience Rosie, and how different it feels when we speak from our bodies and our minds,
I am continually amazed at how different it feels when I speak from my whole body and not just from my mind. I find that when I speak with all of me my voice naturally slows down, and what I have to say feels like it comes with so much authority; and it does, the all knowing authority of my body. Chris James certainly has a wonderful way in getting us to feel the relationship between our body and our voice – life is never the same after one of his workshops, delightfully so.
“I learned how beautiful it is to be with someone and fully listen: to listen without commenting, to listen and be there for someone whilst being fully with me was just such an awesome experience.” How true is this Rosie, so beautiful and a lot of the time an uncommon experience. A lot of people are usually in their own heads working out what it is they want to say, not being present and truly listening, it is a wonderful feeling when someone is truly present.
Thank you for sharing your experience Rosie. Listening to another without judgement or commenting and giving them the space just to be is a really beautiful experience where much can be learnt. As society/humanity we should do this far more than we do. I have been to Chris James’s workshops they are much fun and you definietly learn something new or more about yourself, ultimately they are about bringing us truly back to ourselves and exploring our relationship with ourselves and others via sound. Also how many of us speak from our minds with no awareness or connection with our body!!!! Yet when we truly feel this as you did we can feel how alien and harming it is when we speak from our mind and not being connected to every cell within. Very revealing and very healing.
“But when I choose to be with me, to breathe gently and to not worry about what to say or control the conversation, and just allow another to speak, it is just simply beautiful. ” I agree Rosie. Staying with ourselves whilst listening to another means we don’t take on their ‘stuff’ – which also means we can be more supportive. So many people interrupt a conversation to put in their pennyworth. Learning to truly listen is a great gift for humanity. Chris’ workshops enable us to learn about expressing ourselves in a safe but fun environment.
It is truly incredible what can be learnt about yourself and others when you open yourself up to awareness of sound… highlighting the responsibility we have and forever changing how you communicate and what you offer the world through vibration.
I have had very similar experiences during Chris James’s workshops. In fact they are really amazing, I think we all need to do at least one. In one workshop I was at I was very aware of how tightly I was holding my jaw and this was something that I held for a long long time. I also observed much more about how I expressed, the words I used and then how I would be quite harsh with myself afterwards. All very incredible things to observe all through a voice workshop. It just highlights that everything about us is connected, “There is no separation” as Chris so rightfully sings.
Wow so many revelations just from the way you speak. I’m sat here whispering and you are right you can feel it throughout your whole body, it’s remarkable there’s not one thing we do no matter how quiet or small that does not effect our whole body.
Rosie just like you ‘learning to express from my heart’ and my whole body and truly listening to what is being shared around me is for me not only work in progress but an ever deepening process.
This is awesome to read, and it reminds me of the tenseness that I sometimes feel when speaking. Which shows the control I try to keep, while I know speaking from my body is the best thing there is. It is great to be aware and get to the marker you talk about, that we see what is true, and not let our self drop below that.
Beautiful Rosie. When I truly listen with my whole body I hear so much more than the words that are spoken.
A work in progress for us all but returning to the power we originally come from.
Rosie, this is gorgeous and a revelatory way of understanding our expression. So often we speak from an emptiness as this is what has became a normalised way of being, but speaking from the body is a whole other level. I have found I can communicate so much without even speaking.
“When we would go back into our minds and disconnect from our body, by habit, it would feel different, almost empty, but when another spoke from their heart and stayed with their breath, I could feel it coming from their whole body.” I can appreciate what you’re saying here Rosie – when someone expresses from their heart it can be truly felt whereas when it comes from the mind it’s just white noise and doesn’t make sense.
When we express from our body it is a totally different experience for ourselves and the listener, it allows us to stay connected and to express something that is true – a win/win for all.
Beautifully said Anna.
I have had the same experiences in workshops with Chris James. Super revealing that it is so seemingly natural to go off into our minds and us our voice like a chatter box instead of an instrument of expression for our soul from our whole body. When we speak from our body we feel the responsibility we really do have to communicate in full from our hearts
Absolutely Rod, expressing from the heart is a whole new ball game.
See more about the energy of expression at;
http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=EXPRESSION
Expressing from the heart is simply returning to our true way of being.
Thank you Kate, I agree, when we express from the heart this is connecting to our soul, which is returning to our true essence.
There is such a responsibility when we speak. If that be in a public place or our workplace lunch room.
‘I learned to feel what it feels like in my body when I speak – I could even feel it when I whispered.’ I totally agree with you Rosie, Chris James’s workshops are both amazing and profound simply because he really gets you to connect to your body and feel the vitality and aliveness of it and the absolute power of your expression when you are in this connection.
Thank you Rosie and Suse, absolutely Chris James has mastered the art of getting a group to re-connect to their true expression!
When someone speaks from their mind it is jarring for the other person to receive. When someone speaks from their body, presenting only what is there to be expressed without being attached to how the other person responds, there is no imposition. The words are easy to hear and give the other person space to respond in this way as well.
So true Kate, the mind’s default way of being is seperative and linear which is felt can be felt as an imposition. Speaking from the body includes the all, spherically.
Could you imagine a world where we are trained to speak from early childhood like Chris James does? I imagine it being a subject in school, because speaking is something we do everyday! Speaking, breathing, moving would be the subjects of my choice. I reckon it would be the end of our current worldwide plague: exhaustion.
Genuinely listening to someone as they are speaking is very profound for both the speaker and the listener but speaking for myself, is rarely achieved. As I am doing a quick check with myself, I realise it’s a long time since I really stopped and felt my breath and consciously spoken or listened with my whole being. Thanks Rosie for reminding me that true communication actually involves so much more than the immediate impact with the quality of the lingering effects remaining long after the words have stopped.
This is great Rosie. thank you for sharing something I don’t always achieve either and that is not fully listening, feeling the need to say something when all that is needed is to listen. This is a skill learnt in counselling but you have taken it a step further and share that listening with our body and not the mind makes a huge difference! When we come from the Heart how beautiful is that, and as you mention you felt safe and supported to say what you needed to when someone offered this to you.
The great part is that expressing is never about perfection but being aware when you have gone off track and return to what is true.
An awesome sharing Rosie, how often have I spoken from my mind and not listened to another – more times than I would like to remember. Your blog highlights how beautiful it is when we truly listen to another and express from our body rather than the mind. Thank you for this gorgeous reminder.
The mind loves taking charge, butting in and overriding what the other is saying. The body provides space for the other to just be.
If only we let our body be the guide then life would be very different for all of us.
I can relate to all that you have written here Rosie, especially about being caught up in my mind thinking about what to say next and hardly listening to the other person. I too have found that if I breathe gently and stay with my body I am more alive, I don’t miss a thing, and we have a lovely conversation.
Sometimes when interacting with others we hear only what we want to hear. Truly listening to another is the foundations of true communication and allows true connection. Thus the quality of how we listen affects everyone’s expression – if someone doesn’t feel listened to and thus not appreciated, they may hold back and not express all that they could say and subsequently, not express their fullness or their potential – they may think ‘why should I, no one is listening anyway….’ On the other hand, if someone is not listening how can they fully express themselves in response if they have not heard what is being said in the first place. Wow – is a lack of appreciation on the art of truly listening one of the reasons we have so many relationship issues??
The interesting thing about speaking from my whole body is that this makes me feel what’s going on in my body. I also made and still make the experience that speaking from my whole body makes me cry. I can feel the numbness I had chosen to walk around with, which is a pain and feels like poison to my body. So speaking from my whole body = detox!
Thanks Rosie. I too have been inspired by workshops with Chris James to find my true voice and the true meaning of a quote from Serge Benhayon that ‘Expression is Everything’. Practicing truly listening to another while they speak from their body without engaging with nods, interjections and busy in my brain with what I will say next was very revealing. Listening to what someone is saying with their words and with their body tells you what they are really saying – and you learn to listen to yourself to hear what your own words and body are telling you.
Thank you Rosie and Mary, what a great understanding you have shared when we “learn to listen to yourself to hear what your own words and body are telling you.” All this from our simple stillness while we are learning to truly listen to our bodies!
For more on listening go to;
http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=listening
Thank-you Rosie for this sharing. Chris James is so inspiring and through having sessions and being at some of his workshops, I know how wonderful it is to truly listen to someone and not go into my head thinking about what I have to say next and also to be listened to with that same awareness. There is so much more honest interaction and building of trust when we listen and express with our whole being.
This is a really great reminder of the responsibility we hold in our expression and the affect it has on both ourselves and another. To be able to feel the quality of the vibration and the difference in our body and voice when speaking truth is just incredible. Thank you for reminding me of the power and beauty of not only Chris James’s workshops, but us expressing in connection.
Rosie I so enjoy your blogs as they are very real and practical. This one is a great reminder to be fully with myself and open when listening to another.
Thank you for this.
These are super observations Rosie, I can relate to the fact that, and in my job of Recruiting, there are times when I listen to/interview people who may be non-stop, anxious ‘CV storytelling’ or speaking from the head, that very easily I can switch off, lose interest in what they are saying, and find myself becoming really tired. That when I recognise this, I then pull myself back to come back to me/my breath, and take bodily-command-speaking of the meeting/interview – because it’s as if a heady pollution or fog has occurred, and that in the re-connection of oneself an automatic adjustment or re-connection occurs of the other person (interviewee in this case).
I love this Zofia, ‘it’s as if a heady pollution or fog has occurred, and that in the re-connection of oneself an automatic adjustment or re-connection occurs of the other person’; because my head can get so polluted and it is great to recognise that all that is required is re-connecting to me and the rest flows.
Zofia, this is magic; I have also noticed if the other person is very mental “I can switch off, lose interest in what they are saying, and find myself becoming really tired.” I love how you describe the counter to this is to pay attention to your breath, and to your body. This changes the atmosphere in the room, there is a stillness and the other person can feel they don’t need to be nervous.
I have found the Chris James workshops great fun, challenging and deeply healing. The last time I noticed how much my posture changed and how much more vital I felt. Great to hear your experience Rosie and a reminder to book myself into a workshop when Chris comes to England later on in the year. It is a rare treat.
This is fascinating Rosie, as just the other day I became aware of how if I am present with another when they speak that we both drop more into our bodies and it is a much more supportive way to communicate for us both. I too noticed how many people will often bowl you over with their rapid speech, it sometimes feels to me like being hit by a train at full force. I could feel in these moments how important it is to stay with your own breath and body (bringing and connecting to your own stillness) actually allows both you and the other person, not to be so affected. I can really see how by coming from this space we offer others and ourselves the opportunity to really connect and communicate in full and this feels so healing on so many levels.
Thank you for sharing this lovely example of how when a common language is not present we naturally go into our bodies to express and it is so clear that language is not necessary to communicate.
Thank you Rosie for expressing the depth of what Chris James offers in his workshops. They appear simple techniques to connect to the body and speak from the heart but it has such a profound impact on our ability to truly express and to listen without imposition. I am grateful for this beautiful reminder to take with me into my day.
Thank you Rosie. As I was reading your blog I felt like I was also experiencing the different ways of listening and of speaking. I realise I can choose more consciously, how I am and from where I speak (Mind or Body), when interacting with another. Thank you for bringing more awareness to the presence I can choose to hold in every moment.
During my normal day, I hardly ever pay attention to the way I am speaking or listening to the others. This is a great blog, Thank you, Rosie. Reading your words, following each step of your discoveries, it felt as if I was at the workshop. I could feel my body resonating to what you have shared.
It is just awesome when people speak from their body and not from there mind. When people speak from there body I feel my body relaxing opening up for what is being expressed, compared when people speak from their mind my body reacts and tends to tighten and harden. Knowing this and I read that you have experienced the same Rosie, speaking from my body is such a free way to share what I have to express. The reverberation of the produced sound I feel in my body is appreciative and warming as it is my expression that freely finds is way out to say what has to be said and shared with the people around me.
I totally agree it is amazing how our voice sounds and how we talk reflects where we are at. I observe myself constantly and love my voice talking from my body. It is one of the best markers you can have to feel your connection with yourself.
Wow Rosie thank you so much for your awesome blog – what a great contribution – I feel very much inspired to have a look at my way of speaking and listening.
You say a lot in this amazing blog Rosie and I can really relate to what you are expressing. My voice actually sounds different when I am speaking from my body. It feels full and has a depth to it and that quality is not there when I am rattling on from my head. Also it is impossible for me to speak fast if I am speaking from my body. Gosh this is a revelation for me and thank God I met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine to show me that there is another way to live and express.
Writing is the same – just another form of expression. I know if I read back where it is coming from. In other words, is it from my body and the deep connection I can feel inside me, or is it not. The latter does not do anything and most certainly does not allow the reader any form of expansion.
I do my utmost to stay real and be me so that others may be inspired by my expression.
Wow Rosie, I hadn’t really fully considered before how fully our bodies and breath are impacting on what is being communicated and the totality of what is received by the other person, but it certainly makes sense. I will certainly pay a lot more attention from now on, especially when I catch myself worrying about what/what not to say in certain situations.
That’s pretty cool Rosie, something I had not taken notice of before – My body reacts when I put foods into it that it doesn’t like, and it reacts and acts in a certain way when I have certain thoughts, so why would it not respond to the quality of words coming out my mouth or what my fingers type? I can certainly relate to that feeling of feeling unsupported when people are not listening, there is a feeling of a lack of care or consideration from another – this also gets me thinking about the phrase ”What goes around comes around” if another does not listen to us, do we listen to others and do we listen to ourselves as deeply as we could? These are questions I will be taking into my day – thank you 🙂
Thank you Rosie, great openness in your sharing. You brought a great realization how powerful it is to reconnect with me and my breath. This is bringing me to everything I do. This feels beautiful and easy for me, and when I am with others.
Rosie I have been pondering a lot recently on the question of ‘who are we being in any given moment ?’ Your article for me is about the same question, who are we being when we speak ? When we express from our heads then we are being someone other than our true selves but when we express from the heart we are expressing from the truth of who we are.
The seemingly simplest awareness can offer so much, can’t it … I love how you’ve shared about such things as the tightness of your jaw, and the speed of your speech Rosie, from a point of really feeling how these things are for you from your body.
Having taught singing for many years, and been around developing voices most of my life, I can honestly say that nearly all people I see ‘first up’ have a (substantial) tightness in the jaw, that is, as you’ve shared, reflective of so much that is going on with our expression, or moreso, how we hold back its natural fullness. Coming back to this simple awareness, ‘clocking’ what’s going on via such a simple marker in our bodies, can open up so much for us, and thus everyone we express to and with in our lives.
Rosie you bring up quite an interesting point when you talk about controlling a conversation. I have found I can control which way a conversation goes by my body posture, my facial expressions and emotionally reacting. It is great to read you write about how simple it is to let all this fall away simply by focusing on my gentle breath. This is so simple and takes no effort at all, where as the control takes quite a lot of effort.
I know that too Toni, controlling the conversation, with being busy in my mind with phrases and subjects I can add to the conversation and while doing so bringing the attention to the subject I want to own and I am convenient and comfortable with. Compared to just listening to what the other has to share and to add on this in order to get the full expression of what is being told this is indeed an exhausting way of behaving myself.
Amazing sharing Rosie, thank you. I could feel that whilst I was reading your blog I also was already thinking about what to comment and at times thoughts would come in about something completely different. I could feel how what you shared is also very much applicable at reading blogs and commenting. I also love to talk from my heart and the key to that is to be with my body and myself.
Good point Lieke once we connect to the awareness of being in our body before we do anything it completely changes how we approach that activity.
Great blog Rosie. I was able to feel the control you write about in my arms and my face as I was reading and was able to let go and focus on my breath. Thank you.
Love this blog Rosie, Chris James is such an inspirational man and I’ve learnt many things from his workshops. The way I speak affects my body; it can make me feel full of love and steady or I can feel constricted and drained – very exposing of where I’m at.
Wow, huge learnings for just a weekend! Listening is quite an art, especially when you try to do it with your body not just occasionally but all the time. The ears are like the eyes in a sense. We know how to use them to avoid feeling or to avoid letting people in.
It really goes to show how far away we have become, so much so that we consider speaking from the head a normal way of being.
I agree Rosie that it is true that we often have ingrained habits of speaking from our heads in an intellectual way rather than connecting to our bodies or hearts and speaking from there. I was surprised myself to learn how different the two feel from each other both when speaking and listening to others communicating.