Recently I attended a True Voice Workshop in Wanaka, New Zealand, with Chris James. What I experienced there was the true joy of singing and expressing from my heart.
When I felt I was singing with joy, I absolutely knew that it didn’t matter how the sound came out… if it was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’… if it was too high or too low… I did not even consider what anyone would think of my singing. In fact, I didn’t think at all.
I just felt the absolute joy of being with me and with the music, and feeling the support of everyone there. It wasn’t an emotion I was feeling as I sang – it was simply the feeling of joy and the deep connection with everyone else, the music, and the words we were singing.
There was no emotion in the song to pull me away from myself; rather, it connected me with my real self, with my inner heart, so when I sang I felt it was coming from deep within me and that it was part of me.
I had a heightened sense of my body, the glow and stillness within me, and the bubbling joy – it is almost impossible to express the grandness and glory of it all.
This was such a contrast to previous experiences. I have always loved singing and when I was a child I sang in both the church choir and school choir: I always sang ‘alto’ (low), whereas Chris has encouraged me to sing high and to take risks and not hold back!
I liked singing in the choirs but I never felt such a deep connection with myself or with the others in the choir as I felt in this True Voice Workshop with Chris. Also, there was an expectation from my parents that I would sing in the choirs, or at least I thought there was, and I remember wanting everyone to acknowledge how well I sang.
A few years back I was in a musical, which was something I have always wanted to do. It wasn’t one particular musical – rather, there were many different songs from the musicals that the theatre had put on over the years. The musical director said this was very hard to do as you were constantly changing characters.
Be that as it may, right from the first rehearsal I found I couldn’t sing. My throat would just close up after the first song and I would cough and cough. I was totally perplexed – I didn’t understand what was happening to me, especially as at the audition the musical director was very encouraging and I sang higher than ever before.
I persevered though and eventually made it to the stage on opening night, but the whole experience was not particularly enjoyable! I felt I had to force my voice, to ‘perform’ and I didn’t enjoy not being myself. I was anxious before each part I was in. I remember wanting everyone (friends and family who came along to the show) to acknowledge how well I had done.
I felt this force of performance and anxiety from many of the others in the cast too, as well as comparison and competition and the need for approval and recognition. There was a lack of true camaraderie and connection between us, and I could feel this in my body.
At Chris James’ workshop we all sang together in amazing harmony and unity. It felt like we had sung together like that many times – even though I hadn’t met some of the people there before!
The music we sang was different too from most other music I have heard and sung. This was music composed, performed and produced from the heart. Yes, I cried quite a lot, but the tears were from me releasing my own sadness – they were not emotions I had picked up from the songs. The tears were me feeling the joy of singing from my heart.
This felt so different from other times when I have been affected by music which I have heard or songs I have sung that made me sad or ‘revved up’– and this is perhaps why I couldn’t even sing the songs in the musical (I was choking, literally, on the emotions in them).
It wasn’t simply the joy of singing together at Chris’ workshop – it was the joy of true expression.
We did exercises in groups where one person talked and the others simply listened. I felt like I was really being heard when it was my turn to speak, as no-one interrupted me and no-one ‘wandered off’ while I was speaking – we all connected with each other, through our eyes, the whole time.
This is not often my experience of sharing with others! Also, it felt wonderful to simply listen to another talking without thinking I had to butt in to be nice or to confirm, rescue, sympathise or even empathise, which is how I have often listened in the past. From this connection with the others, I felt safe to speak from my heart rather than my head – in other words, to truly share with others what I was feeling and what I knew to be true.
This is not a common experience for me as I have, in the past, often lived from my mind. The whole time I was talking I felt really aware of my body, and connected to it, whereas when I was in the musical it didn’t feel like ‘me’ at all – my head was full of trying to remember the words and to sing ‘well’.
And so, from this life-changing workshop in Wanaka, I am allowing myself to feel a lot more, to be vulnerable and to connect with my body a lot more and express from there… and I intend to sing a lot more too, from my heart, with joy.
This is pure joy.
I am continually inspired by Chris James – by the man, and by his amazing Music.
By Anne Scott, accredited Yoga Teacher, Exercise Instructor, Mediator and Esoteric Healing Practitioner, Auckland, New Zealand
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
It is absolutely extraordinary how Chris James gets everyone singing like a choir of angels in about 5 minutes! It just shows us that singing is a natural thing and we do not necessarily need to train. We can experience so much joy by simply allowing ourselves to sing from our whole bodies and not hold back.
When I participated in a Chris James True Voice Workshop, I remember just how powerful it was during the active listening practice, as Anne described. It helped me realise just how much I had been both in constant sympathy for others, thereby not allowing them to feel the responsibility for their actions, how much I was in my head thinking about what to say next, instead of actually listening to them, and agreeing with people when I didn’t actually share the same view, just to be liked or accepted. This is really a powerful, yet simple practice that can be applied to all our conversations and open them up to a spaciousness and allowing of the truth to be revealed by everyone involved, where we really honour the other person speaking without judgement or neediness.
When we go to one of Chris James’s workshops we are encouraged to let go of the seeking of recognition, the drama, the wanting to hear our own voice, all those things that further our identification and individuality, yet in this letting go we find our true voice, find harmony with everyone else, experience the joy of singing from the heart in union with others, and all with no effort. This all becomes painfully obvious when we slip back into wanting something for ourselves, for then we lose the joy and feel separated and everything is struggle. It is a choice, and a choice worth choosing.
“There was no emotion in the song to pull me away from myself; rather, it connected me with my real self, with my inner heart, so when I sang I felt it was coming from deep within me and that it was part of me.” This is the beauty and power of music that comes with no emotional attachment, but is written from the truth of who we are. There is a divinity that comes with it that the body can undeniably feel, and it is our connection with this divinity that enables us to then express with such joy.
When we are in the pure joy of our heart, connection to ourselves naturally extends to connecting with others.
You cannot but feel the joy when attending one of Chris James’s workshops 🤗
Hearing a song or lyrics that touch our sadness and choose to let it go is very beautiful. When the sadness is released and we listen to the song again, what we receive will be different too.
The joy that can be accessed through singing is huge not only for those singing but for those listening as well.
A beautiful sharing, thank you Anne Scott.
Expressing truth is far more beneficial for our bodies than any diet or exercise regime.
Your experience of this workshop with Chris James is similar to my own experinece Anne. Although I have attended many workshops with Chris over the last 10 years, it still blows me away how quickly and easily he can get a group of people who mostly dont know each other, let alone have never sung together, to sing so beautifully in harmony without any competition, and sound like a choir of angels. And whatsmore, the joy of singing in this way from our true expression is absoltuley beyond measure.
Attending workshops by Chris James over the years has been a great support to release some old cobwebs I had around singing, (mainly that I couldn’t sing), but also they have been so much fun. Chris brings in a lot of humour, there is always so much laughter, joy and connection in the group. I always leave feeling tons lighter.
True singing is not just from our voice as most singing is judged to be. It is a constant movement that simply expresses as sound or song, a continuation of quality we have lived for aeons.
When I was younger I used to love singing, in the car, in the shower, in my room when nobody is watching. When nobody was watching because often when I sang with joy, people criticised and told me that I shouldn’t sing. Is it because my singing was bad? Or perhaps could it be something in the tone of my vibration that pushed buttons for others?
Through these workshops I’ve experienced what it is to express without filtering it through all my usual thought processes of what people will think etc. It’s wonderful and makes life vibrant. I can feel the quality of what I express and if it feels yuck then I can look to what happened and learn rather than spend my life in constant critique and self-judgement.
Wow, what two totally different experiences of singing. One in the joy of the moment, fully connected to and feeling the body, and the other in the head evaluating and judging the quality of the singing. This sums up beautifully how we can choose to live from two different qualities in life.
Anne, I have never attended a workshop with Chris James but reading about your experience makes me want to. It sounds like a very healing thing to do.
The need to be acknowledged how well we have done, ultimately griefs us when we do not have something that we acknowledge ourselves. We think others will not acknowledge us or we cannot see the true acknowledgment others give us for we don’t feel worthy. So what is grieving me in such situations is that I haven’t felt and expressed through my worth.
I stopped singing for a long time because I didn’t like the idea of performing and this energy was locked in a belief within me. I am starting to sing more now just let myself be. But First I do that with talking and writing.
‘It wasn’t simply the joy of singing together at Chris’ workshop – it was the joy of true expression’ – this ‘joy of true expression’ is what raised my eyebrow. How many times do we truly express from this place? I know for me this has been a work in progress. And as much as I haven’t grown up around singing, I wanted to sing and when I sang along in a song, I was put down. Beside this, I can recall being put down for just wanting to express, so this is going to even affect my ability to sing.
I haven’t had the opportunity to attend any of Chris Jame’s workshops and when one day he visits us in Sydney, I not only would love to be part of, but be this ‘joy of true expression’ as I know it is there waiting to be released.
Making a sound or singing in this way and not holding back is pure joy. Chris James asks us to come out of our heads and into our bodies, and from there the sound resonates so beautifully within our bodies and then beyond the body. This way of expressing is so simple, and we can enjoy this if we can get out of the way, turn the thoughts off and embrace and enjoy the body as the finely tuned instrument that it is.
Some songs can have a ‘catchy’ tune and they stay with you like it is hard to shake it off – this is when I know that there is something hooking in the song (no different to a food that you might crave such as sugar or chocolate). Chris James’s songs are clear of this hooking and pulling energy and instead allow you just to be you and encourages you to express as you!
When we can silence the mind from its endless chatter, and allow the body to speak or sing (expressed naturally so) it is a refreshing thing indeed, and a healing to self and all others.
I was taking part at a Chris James event last night with the majority of people who had not worked with Chris before. It was incredible how much joy there was in the room in a very short space of time, as people felt the way they were being supported by Chris to let go and express themselves with no expectations or judgement.
It was just beautiful.
Amazing to feel how one man can support with so many people to open up and feel safe! Chris works his magic all around the world!
When we sing from the heart our whole chest area and lungs open up which is a beautiful experience..
It’s a huge polarity isn’t it, when we consider that the accepted way of things and the vast majority will go for music with emotion, and is what sells etc. Whereas the healing and power that is available to us when we sing from connection, and when music is created from connection, is unfathomable to most – so much so that it is not even considered possible, when in fact it is not only very natural, but something all of us deserve.
I have started to allow myself to sing more and I just love it. I love the feeling of my chest filling up with love as I sing.
“when I sang I felt it was coming from deep within me and that it was part of me.” Singing from the heart in harmony with others is pure joy.
There is so much joy in singing just to express ourselves and not to impress others.
I totally agree! And I’m inspired reading this to let myself sing more – i sing a lot when I’m on my own, when ‘no one is listening’. Isn’t that so very telling – when someone is watching, listening, the free expression stops.
Singing without reservation with no picture of perfection is awesome we are just self contained in our own joy.
‘self contained in our own joy; love this Adele, and joy nourishes every single cell of our bodies…
The purity of singing with joy is natural and healing for all, and deeply reconfiguring to our bodies to free up more space for more joy.
It is so clear when we are expressing from our hearts rather than our heads and can be felt coming more deeply from our whole body rather than just forced through our throats.Simply beautifully expressed Anne.
Exactly Jenny.. its a totally different experience .
Music is such a big thing in our lives and most of us can’t even to start to imagine the harm it can cause us energetically if it is coming from the wrong place, so it is great to know there is now music coming through that is pure joy without an ounce of emotion in it.
And this is such a radical and profound shift from what people both expect everyone from music… That it is not just possible but amazingly beneficial to have music doesn’t have emotion… But then of course people have to realise the ‘fix’ that the music was providing in their lives.
One of our community choirs sang at a gathering recently. A man came to talk at the end… He said he had asked at least three of the people singing… Is it possible that you are as happy as you look?.… They all said yes he said, and he expressed to me that this just didn’t seem possible.
I love music and dancing like many do. To listen to music that leaves you be, is a joyful and non-emotional experience. How I used to listen to music forced me into a behaviour where my breath and movements were no longer in connection to me, but what the music was imposing. Until I became aware of my innermost and my living stillness within, was I able to discern what music came from the Soul impulse (and this is not what Soul music is classed as today) and healing, to what was spiritually mastered and harming. There is no in between.
“Yes, I cried quite a lot, but the tears were from me releasing my own sadness – they were not emotions I had picked up from the songs. The tears were me feeling the joy of singing from my heart” – absolutely can relate to what you say here Anne… In the past i hardly ever shed a tear, would keep tears locked back and if i did let them go, they were more of the exasperation emotional kind. Music, notes, sound, song from heaven has the power to move the immoveable and crack the veneer of protection.
“There was no emotion in the song to pull me away from myself; rather, it connected me with my real self, with my inner heart,” A revelation in the world of music where every song is designed to evoke an emotion, which ultimately drains us. True music supports us to return to inner glory and completeness. It never hangs around in your head or pulls on your heart strings, but leaves our hearts open and bodies full of vitality.
Our voice, whether we use it to sing or to speak, gives us a way to express God on earth. We therefore need to use it wisely.
To sing from my heart “this is pure joy”. A beautiful sharing Anne, I am exploring the difference when I am singing from my heart or from my mind, with the mind comes criticism the needing to get it right with no true singing voice, slowly as I am exploring my voice and opening up to let more of me out I can feel the joy that is there waiting for me to experience the true me coming through my voice.
So beautiful.That our true expression is simply joy and to return to expressing this joy unhindered, is pure gold.
“I had a heightened sense of my body, the glow and stillness within me, and the bubbling joy”. This is how singing should be! I had never experienced this before a Chris James workshop, as it had been about getting the right notes, keeping up with the group, getting it right – exhausting and not joyful at all! But now I know this is the way it can and is supposed to be and it has to come from my connection with my body and heart.
I love singing too Anne and can absolutely testify to the super power of the worshops Chris James runs. They remind me without fail each time that my body is the greatest instrument I will ever have and if I don’t let it be, harmoniously then it will get played in a super harmful way. We are built to be melodious, resonant, deep and sweet. We need to stop and reboot if we don’t feel this way.
“The Joy of Singing and Expressing from My Heart” – love how the power and quality of true music, true note, rhythm and lyric have the power to shift you back home.
Understanding the power of true expression allows us to feel the level of responsibility we have any moment we express from our bodies, as in connection our voice carries the energetic imprint to heal and offer true evolution to another.
“It wasn’t simply the joy of singing together at Chris’ workshop – it was the joy of true expression.” I can absolutely concur with this Anne. Allowing ourselves to express in this way, by connecting to who we are through singing and the joy that is felt when we let go of any need of ‘getting it right’, encourages and supports us to hold this beuatiful connection we have when we speak as well. Doing a workshop with Chris James is always a revelation as to how much more is possible.
I paused when I read ‘I absolutely knew that it didn’t matter how the sound came out… if it was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’…’ cause I feel when we go into this energy of what is right or wrong we loose the connection with what feels true, the connection with our own body and like you say, there is such a joy in singing and expressing from our hearts.
“Yes, I cried quite a lot, but the tears were from me releasing my own sadness – they were not emotions I had picked up from the songs. The tears were me feeling the joy of singing from my heart” – yes re non-emotional tears, i can very much relate to what you’re sharing here Anne. And I’ve often found myself welling up with tears singing along when Chris James plays his music live… feeling the unity of the people there, feeling our togetherness, the expressions of those there, and the expression of myself being released too… it is so moving and completely healing.
A powerful sharing Anne, I also performed when I was younger as an actress and can really relate to your experiences. Very little focus is put on being in deep connection with yourself it was more about the recognition and being seen as a ‘good’ actress, this ends up taking you further and further away from your true self.
This is beautiful, thanks for sharing. The beauty of speaking and singing from our heart is, that when this is connected the wisdom of the rest of the entire body can begin to express, and a heart with legs, stomach, spleen, liver and arms etc in fiery expression is wonderful!
When we sing in connection with each other, there can be no competition. Just equality and brotherhood pure and simple.
A gorgeous blog – that shares with us the depth of voice and music we can produce , simply by singing from our hearts.. And that we need no make-over or professional crew to actually make truly amazing music (sounds & sing).
Thank you Anne for sharing how amazing your experience was at Chris’s workshop, I too have attended the workshops over the years and got to experience my true voice coming from my body and not my head, it was a beautiful and joyful experience of expressing through my body with others.
yes one’s own true expression , it is such a wonder to come back to one’s true voice the vibration that is connected to the heart and resonates with the whole body what a joyous and loving feeling that will allow one to cry tears of release and freedom .
My life was a musical growing up, I made everything into a song while I was doing chores around the house. So naturally I thought musical theatre was the path for me, I started young and although I loved it, there was also lots of pressure and comparison going on through the long and tedious lead up to the end performance. There was much more focus on the end result being perfect and very little on joy or connection. It’s great that Chris James offers the whole package in his workshops; it’s beautiful to hear your feed back.
Singing and speaking freely, without the need for any outcome, a belief or ideal is a blessing for our Souls and is very much needed in order to restore human integrity and decency in our societies once again.
I never used to like singing but now I find it is something that supports me to bring more joy into my body and helps to shift any density I may be holding onto when I sing songs that I find are inspired from the heart and are an expression of love or truth. The vibration that goes through my body helps to reconfigure things I may have been holding onto.
A beautiful and truthful sharing Anne. I love what you share and the great outcome from Chris James workshop that you attended and were inspired by.
Very beautiful blog to read Anne, thank you for sharing your experiences and your wisdom. There is no doubt that their is pure joy when expressing in full, love and truth.
Inside us all lives a sound that sings the truth of who we are.
I come from a background of musical training, performance… singing and playing (as a piano accompanist in particular) a huge array of musical styles and genres. I absolutely concur with what you’ve shared here Anne – the competition, the comparison, the striving to be more and the sheer impact of the music I played and sang for many years did not allow ‘me to be me’. Rather it brought tensions to my body, being and psyche that have taken years to unravel…
Music is sacred to us all – and we have allowed an abuse of this art form, based upon striving/attaining and recognition-seeking, to dominate our globe. And yet, as you and I have both experienced, we today have music written, sung and played from soulful connection. Music that holds all equally, and never, ever would have us be less than who we are.
You have shared so much here Anne, about the impact music can have upon our body and being – how destructive it can be when used and expressed for acknowledgement and recognition, and how truly expansive musical expression can be, when not only does the music give you permission to be all that you are, it actually offers expansion…
Over the years I have done a few workshops where we had to talk and take our turns in listening, along with connecting to each other, and this feels awesome to give and receive, but unfortunately this is not always what we experience in our day to day. Just the other day I was having a conversation with a family member and the conversation seemed to be jumping very quickly all over the place, a stark difference to the quality mentioned in this blog.
I also so appreciate being encouraged to sing higher in workshops with Chris James. I have found a voice within me that I did not realise was possible from within me, a beautiful voice that expressed so much of what I know is me but had not felt so clearly or expressed so freely before. This has allowed me to form a closer relationship with me as a woman which is ongoing and very lovely.
Powerful Anne – noticing how we are feeling with ourselves and the world – simply by our voice ! What a wonderful gift and marker we have – our voice – to start noticing where we are at in relationship with ourselves and others.. And then the more we open up to our ability to feel – the more others will see, hear and feel us in the truth we are. Being clearsentient beings.
And why leave it just to singing to express from our heart? Indeed I am learning that that same joy and openness from singing from deep within our heart is equally something we can share and experience every day in simple talk or expression with anyone. No one is excluded in the heart.
It is interesting how in a singing workshop you all practised just speaking in front of eachother, without judgement or need. This to me is the sign of a true workshop that develops presence – because it is just as important to value the voice or the expression of another person as it is to value our own.
It is a beautiful thing to experience an open heart when we sing. The difference within is amazing and so joyful when we don’t hold back our expression.
At times it can be scary hearing our own voice, especially when we sing – simply because we feel more of what we have allowed ourselves to live. For example, if I have been walking in anger or frustration my singing will come with a push and a hardening in my voice. It is therefore quite a clear marker to feel where you are truly at – if you take the time to notice.
There is something deeply healing about singing and not caring what others think or ourselves of our performance. I don’t often sing but when I do I often wonder why I don’t do it more, as it feels great to just let the voice out of the box.
The whole world misses out when we hold ourselves back….
Right at the very core of us all lives a spark of light that is breathed forth from the body of our heavenly Father that is sent to illuminate the darkened existence that has kept us imprisoned for so long. Our job here on Earth is to not hold back the expression of this spark so that all others remember that they also are born from this love and this light.
Sound is a vibration (a quality) and when we make it about the quality first, the result is guaranteed, however there is no picture of what it must sound like… This is essentially the opposite of trying to make the sound right, or pleasing without connecting to the quality first.
This is really beautiful to read. The not thinking and expressing from ones inner heart is glorious. To be this way in life is freedom.
The difference of being in a choir which is working as one as opposed to a choir that is many voices in competition with desires for recognition and solos is a profound experience.
I have experienced one of Chris James’ workshops and it was a very powerful experience of connecting to my body, to my breath, and to expression and listening. With this as a foundation the singing was pure joy, as it was from the essence of me by being so connected to myself. Chris is a lot of fun also.
What is really lovely now is how, in the community choirs we work with, everyone feels that gorgeous connection with themselves and each other, how the voices unite in harmony and there is such a beautiful sense of common-unity…. Community in connection.
Thank you Anne for your sharing. I agree with you that Singing workshops as presented by the amazing Chris James open ones heart.
Chris Jame’s workshops are simply amazing. Who’d have thought feeling God and brotherhood through singing was possible – I didn’t but it is so when I sing from every cell of my body. And it’s something to come back to as I speak and feel the vibration of my voice. It isn’t confined to singing but all expression.
I remember my first workshop with Chris James and the feeling of singing from my body. The sound that came from my mouth created ripples in my body that were heavenly. Never before had I sung from deep within, it has always been from high in my throat. This difference is huge.
it is beautiful when we start to open up an express more freely and honestly allowing vulnerability that others can trust enough to open up more also – we don’t realise just how much our guardedness and reaction affects everyone, sending the signal for others to hold on to their own protection also.
This is a great awareness Annie… We are having such an effect on everyone around us and this actually is indeed our responsibility… We all affect each other all the time.
We are so used to feeling emotions in music and singing that it is such a healing when we start singing or hear music from a connection with our body, our heart or music made from this connection.Like you say, Anne, ‘It wasn’t an emotion I was feeling as I sang – it was simply the feeling of joy and the deep connection with everyone else, the music, and the words we were singing.’
sure Annelies, that’s why I do not like songs sung from emotions anymore (which are many), these songs try to lure you into this same emotion while we are just pure joy. Iit is actually simply a matter of allowing ourselves to feel that inner joy and from then on we do not need that emotional song anymore but prefer singing from the heart instead.
‘There was no emotion in the song to pull me away from myself; rather, it connected me with my real self, with my inner heart, so when I sang I felt it was coming from deep within me and that it was part of me.’ Anne, this is beautiful. When I hear someone singing from their heart I am totally inspired and equally filled with joy.
To be given the support and understanding that we really all do have a beautiful voice, and that the focus is not about being in tune when we sing but about connecting to what we know to be true within us, allows a freedom and joy to express how we used to as a child with no inhibitions. This was a complete revelation to me the first time I attended a workshop with Chris James, and it wasnt long before I discovered my true voice which totally surprised not only me but everyone in the room! The way Chris works is absolutely and totally inspiring.
Anne, I have also had the joy of singing in a Chris James workshop…I have discovered that I can sing in tune, that I don’t have to worry about how the sound will come out and that I can make sound in harmony with others. Quite frankly this is a mini miracle considering that I hated singing as a kid because I was told I was always out of tune. It feels great to have broken an ill seated belief imposed on me by a music teacher.
The first sentence of your blog made me want to visit New Zealand! Wanaka sounds AMAZING! 💖 I love Chris James’s workshops and signing groups because it has nothing to do with pitch or tone, is not about perfection and also zero judgement it is about holding a space for people to express all they are with absolute Joy and Love.
I can relate to what you mean when you talk about forcing the voice to produce something for recognition from others; it is very cut off from the whole of the body and allows neither joy nor vitality. And it is straining and tiring, at times even leading to harm ad physical symptoms.
At a recent workshop with Chris James in the UK I discovered the beauty of my voice when speaking. As I was speaking I could feel the resonance of my voice in my body and the silky quality of my voice in my throat as the sound came out. Instead of trying to get to the end of the sentence as quickly as possible like I normally would, I focused on enjoying the quality of my voice as I spoke. It was a totally different experience of speaking. I expressed to the group how beautiful this felt and they could all feel and hear the difference in me. This was such a beautiful confirmation of the beauty that can be found within me that can be expressed through my voice and heard. Just beautiful.
When music is written and sung with no emotion I am finding am I left to be and feel however I am in that particular moment. Recently having started an experiment whereby I sing along to songs written by Glorious Music and other heart-inspired artists. I get to feel how I am with my voice and with my whole body through feeling the quality of my singing and this changes daily depending on whats happened up until that point of singing. When connected to my body it feels amazing to sing and hit notes or sing for the length that I’d never imagine I could reach, when disconnected my voice feels hard, my chest feels tight and it’s painful to sing. All of this reflecting how I live changes how I am in the world.
Thank you for sharing. I have recently had a baby and she loves music but I never considered myself a singer. I recently went to a Chris James workshop where he allowed us to sing in full and not hold back and my baby loved it – and I could feel the importance of connecting with her in this way. Chris James has shown me that it is possible to sing and allow this vibration through our bodies.
It certainly demonstrates the importance of simply expressing who we are – be that in word, song, presence or action. When we try to be something, we are without our true flow and living navigation – for we are singing another tune altogether.
I never cease to be amazed at how much more I am able to feel in my body and what I get to understand about myself when I participate in one of Chris James’s workshops. There is always more to reveal and uncover within ourselves and I find that singing and expressing in this way allows me to open up and connect to myself and others more deeply every time I take part in one.
Even just reading the comments on this article reflects that there is so much that we can discover and explore, enjoy and celebrate in the opening up of our beautiful natural voices.
“I felt this force of performance and anxiety from many of the others in the cast too, as well as comparison and competition and the need for approval and recognition. There was a lack of true camaraderie and connection between us, and I could feel this in my body.” This carries on into the entertainment industry where all the comparison and competition for recognition continues. It’s a shame it goes this way. Working with groups could be so much more equalising if we let it be. I often ask myself how would another way which is more loving, look and feel like in this industry.
Sounds pretty darn cool – I’ve never been confident of my singing voice opting only to really let it go when driving alone on the motorway! Maybe I should begin connecting a little more and giving it a go. Cool article, thanks for the idea 🙂
Beautiful Anne, I recently attended a Chris James workshop and it was so beautiful to let go and not hold back in my expression, the room of about 15 all sung together and I felt a connection and intimacy with everyone there, Chris is very playful and encouraging and this allows people to to let go, open up and sing from their heart.
Chris James’s workshops are amazing. I’ve experienced a connection with others whilst expressing from our hearts that’s blown away my mind’s grip on all my petty thoughts I allow it to entertain. What a beautiful reminder to read this and remember the power and naturalness of expressing from one’s body.
Chris James’ workshops are indeed life changing. Singing from the heart and not holding back is something that Chris encourages and often succeeds in helping people to do. The space he holds is so safe and full of love that it cannot but be healing. Anything that needs to clear simply comes up and out to make way for more joy. Simply wonderful.
Life is set up to get us to perform in many ways, work, family roles, talents, sport etc and it’s rarely about just being ourselves. We are actually encouraged (if not trained) to not be in connection with ourselves and instead focus on doing what’s needed, perform to be the best or to impress others and receive attention and recognition. I have learnt so much about connection to self since studying with Universal Medicine, and what I have experienced in connection is the sense of equality with all, contentment with self, and the joy that can be experienced without condition.
Beautifully expressed Melinda and I wholeheartedly agree.
It’s beautiful to hear how you were supported to enjoy simply expressing from your inner heart, without worrying about if the sound fitted any ideal or was recognised or applauded by any other – how truly freeing is that! I’ve attended workshops with Chris James in the past and he was a brilliant leader and great at supporting everyone to open up and re-connect with a deeper aspect of their expression.
I have felt afraid to express myself with words. I feel it comes from being afraid I would be wrong or judged. It is valid because their is so much judgement in the world.
As I grew older (I am 65) I began to understand that it really does not matter much what other think or say and I have little control of what they say. This allowed me to open up and speak more freely.
I gathered my courage and went to a workshop about expressing yourself through singing. We were given the opportunity to sing all by ourselves. I just went for it, not worrying about what other people would think. It was amazing, it really opened up my natural ability to express myself.
It is so important to express and feel the connection from our hearts. To express all of that and not hold back. As Chris James his workshops have shown me too, when we hold back in expression, who hold back who we are. So that is no longer an option.
It is a profoundly different experience to sing from a connection to our heart, something that we all have the ability to do, and to sing songs that have been written in the same way, than to sing anything that comes from any sort of emotion. Working with Chris James in this way has given me the opportunity to experience that I can allow myself to really open up and express in a way that I would never have imagined possible before. It is completely joyful to sing like this whether it is on my own or when singing with a group of others.
There is a huge difference from a choir singing in real harmony and real unity to a choir that may sound amazing to the ear but energetically are not together. Chris’s music cannot but unite it calls us to be all are and makes it all about the energetic quality of the group rather than the sound. If we focus on the sound without feeling the energy of the group the music can, in fact, be harming no matter how ‘good’ it sounds to the ear.
It is touching how you describe your process, Anne. Singing from the heart is so different to all the singing techniques I learned being in a choir as a child. The pure joy of how the voice vibrates in the body in expressing its tone.
It is our true voice that comes out when we don’t measure what it should be.
Comparison and competition kills any unity and harmony, it is crazy how competition is thought to be healthy and is widely encouraged in schools and sports and takes us further away from experiencing any true brotherhood.
Makes me think of all the times I have judged and criticised another as I am listening to them and just how harm-full this is in the sense that it is imposing and prompting them to go into their heads in protection and defence. The only true way is to be open and listen with our whole body.
Such a joy it is to freely express our innermost truth in any form, with no holding back… and how this frees us from our past inaction, silence and empty expression.
“The tears were me feeling the joy of singing from my heart.” How divine to even have that experience and to share it with us all. Thank you.
When we ‘perform’ our intention is to make an impression so we get recognition, and when we do things in this energy we lose the joy of spontaneous expression and it does feel forced. We often don’t realise how much this affects our bodies until we have an experience of the joy of singing together in true harmony as you did with Chris James, Anne.
I have also sung in musical groups before and the reality is that there is a lot of political and group issues going on usually behind the scenes or there is a tension and a push to ‘put on a good show’ and this has got to be felt by those listening to the group perform. When I have participated in Chris James’ workshops I have felt a different sense of unity and togetherness and ease with people simply expressing from who they are, that feels amazing and completely different and the end result is also very different in quality.
“It wasn’t simply the joy of singing together at Chris’ workshop – it was the joy of true expression.” I couldn’t agree more Anne true expression resonates throughout the body, the body expands and the joy is felt deeply within. The more I connect to my true expression the more joyful I feel and things like self doubt just disappear.
Loved what you shared Anne I have done some of Chris’s workshops and was amazed at the harmony in singing with a group of people that I had not meet before. The times I have sung from my body it has been pure joy, to just allow my voice to come out with no judgment or need to perform.This is a continuing unfolding for me, for much of my past singing has been trying to get it right, not much fun or joy in that.
Singing with Chris James is unlike any other singing I have done in groups before. The joy is contagious and irrepressible and your body simply has to move. There is no pressure, no need to get it right and certainly no stiff bodies trying to push out the right notes. Singing with Chris and Jenny is like singing when I was a kid, making up songs as I played in my backyard. Now I know we were never meant to grow up and lose this sense of joy and ease.
This made me wonder about acting and performances we see on screen, be in television or cinema. How much of what is coming across is from a need for acceptance and recognition. If we watch a performance, what are we taking in if the actor has an anxiety about being liked or fitting in. This surely transmits itself in a most unhealthy way and is an indication of the type of industry that entertainment is based on.
“It wasn’t an emotion I was feeling as I sang – it was simply the feeling of joy and the deep connection with everyone else, the music, and the words we were singing.” Love this Anne, a beautiful way to sing for all involved and all listening and it’s apparent how when you sang like this that no acknowledgment or recognition was needed.
I still refrain from singing when the opportunity presents itself. I am even shy of singing happy birthday in a crowd because I have this idea that I can’t sing well. I am happy to sing on my own in the shower or when pottering around in the house or driving. I image if I can consider that singing is about connection and not if it sounds ‘right’ or not, then it’s something I might actually enjoy.
I had an experience of great joy the other day whilst walking. I found myself walking and moving from a completely different space. Any movement whether it be singing, walking or washing up in true connection is indeed very joyful. There is a whole other dimension to life available when we choose to connect.
Thank you Anne for your sharing. In particular I liked when you said this: ” I cried quite a lot, but the tears were from me releasing my own sadness – they were not emotions I had picked up from the songs. The tears were me feeling the joy of singing from my heart.” – so much music is written with emotion and sung with emotions, which loads the body up more. Chris James helps people sing and let out the joy so it lifts us all. Michael Benhayon and Glorious Music is also one that is super clear, unloaded with emotions and hence lifts you and allows you to be more of who you are. What a blessing to have access to such true music!
How freeing to drop the judgement that can come with labeling our expression or voice as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ according to whatever beliefs or ideals we may have picked up about what we think we should sound like. I love how you describe the experience at Chris James’ workshop being about feeling the quality of your expression, how it felt in your body rather than being attached to the sound being a particular way to the ear.
“simply the feeling of joy and the deep connection with everyone else, the music, and the words we were singing” I too have experienced this freedom and joy while joining Chris James at voice and expression workshop. Learning to listen to others while they speak from the heart has been a revelation and to take my turn knowing that I too am being truly heard.
we had a profoundly revealing moment recently… We were invited to present an evening of Christmas carols… We started by tuning up the audience… ( Of course ☺) • and then eventually we sang one of our songs… Which we realized was quite Christmassy ☺, and then we started on one of the carols… Halfway through one of the audience asked us to stop as their throat, which they had really felt open up, they could feel now starting to close… Interesting!
“and this is perhaps why I couldn’t even sing the songs in the musical (I was choking, literally, on the emotions in them)” It is great to realise that not only food can be poisonous to the body but that emotions can be doing exactly the same thing.
There is such a difference between “performing” on stage and simply being ourselves on stage. “Performing” brings one kind of energy whereas simply being ourselves brings another. The energy of trying, of being something we are not can be easily felt when someone is simply performing and it is harmful for both the person doing it and the person on the receiving it.
It’s funny isn’t it that music can be revved up to be such a thing, a performance and sometimes a competition when music from what I understand should be something that unites both people but also uniting ourselves have we lost it.
Having to remember all the songs in a musical is enough to worry about without the additional pressure of singing too, really great that you were able to attend a Chris James workshop, connecting and expressing from your heart first makes such a difference and you can really feel the joy throughout the whole of your body.
No thinking, just connecting and singing, yes, it is a marvelous experience, doing Chris James’ workshops. Letting go of identification around our voices and being a part of a whole group is pure magic. I am always amazed at how quickly this unified sound is achieved under Chris’ guidance, even with new people to the group, or those who think they can’t sing or who have a fear of expressing. Can’t help but have tears when you feel the full beauty of that.
And then imagine a choir where everyone has that same connection within themselves …that connection from the heart to the voice, imagine what an extraordinary experience that would be, how healing it would be for those participating, and those listening.
….and then imagine a whole world where everyone is in connection with themselves.
Thank you for sharing your experience with singing both within a production and with Chris James. It is interesting how we want the recognition from others to give us self worth, and then feel sourly disappointed because we didn’t get it – it just goes to show how much we invest in wanting others to notice us for what we do. Whereas during a Chris James workshop once all of that is out of the way the experience of singing is heavenly.
Singing with joy Anne is a wonderful opportunity to truly express our innate wisdom and essence. What a wonderful gift Chris offers us in encouraging and supporting us to sing in true harmony with ourselves and others.
Thank you Anne for sharing your experience of the true power of music. So much of the music in our society today does not offer us the opportunity to celebrate who we are, or call us to claim all that we are in essence. When music is expressed from the Soul is has no need for perfection, recognition, or attention and as such does not contain emotional hooks as it is simply the vibration of the inner-heart expressed through sound. When we surrender to singing from our hearts we are in essence confirming and celebrating the vibration of God as it passes through our bodies, which can only be joyous as the glory of who we truly are resounds through our voices. And so focusing on perfection would only diminish the quality of the absolute joy and fullness of being in harmony with our Soul, our-inner heart, with God.
“At Chris James’ workshop we all sang together in amazing harmony and unity.” When we are in harmony and connection we can bring so much more. Much more than any competition and comparison can enforce onto us.
Anne, you reveal so much in your blog which we all can relate to so much. What particularly resonates with me is the elucidation of just how much we try to force our way through life in survival mode just like we do when we may sing or speak. How we are and how we talk/speak/sing is inseparable which reveals a lot if one can say they do not like the sound of their own voice like I once did!
I felt I had to force my voice, to ‘perform’ this is such an interesting statement… When we start to understand that everything that we are actually reflected in our voices, it starts to make sense the rampant disconnection that people have with their expression. In people’s lives there is a constant force, effort, trying, pushing, striving… When competition begins in kindergarten it is extraordinarily difficult to keep it out of our lives… And then this of course reflects in our voices… So when we let go of the push in our expression, it has a very powerful ripple effect in our lives.
And did you know that if a group of people sing together for long enough, their hearts start to beat together in unison… As so many people comment… It is powerful and wonderful way of coming back to the body and the heart especially when it is done with no expectation, but simply with an opening and loving innocence.
What is so absolutely important about this subject is that: True Singing is not based on rules, tones or experience, but simply a connection of thy heart. AND.. connection is everything, as if it is missed, the mind can be distracted and fooled with something else.. but this always comes from the choice made to not be connected first.
The joy and connection that is experienced in Chris James’ workshops and singing sessions brings back the natural harmony we join in to make one sound, as we can also be with each other in every way in life. Singing is not about competing and being the best performer, but a constant learning and deepening of the harmony and joy we can bring together.
Thank you Anne for your sharing – I must share too that when I have attended Chris James’ singing events, I too have found myself crying and singing at the same time. It is like the flood gates open as there has been so much repressed expression and finally I let myself sing and allow myself the freedom to really just be. This is such a healing to experience.
Being a non singer, to doing a workshop with Chris James, I also cried as the connection to my heart felt inner self was so tangible, they were tears of Joy as I connected to my Soul. The music was unimposing only connecting and this allowed a true voice to come through.
Emotion – wow, how far do emotions take us away from our natural selves, as Anne’s excellent description of her experience/s singing reveals? And when we consider pretty much every song or tune we hear is (literally) orchestrated to illicit an emotional response in the listener, we can start to see the potential evil in this set-up – and even more so when we further consider the degree to which music can stay stuck in our heads – years later a song from our past can resound unbidden within us. That alone should alert us to the potentially insidious nature of music.
‘I didn’t think at all.’ What a radical statement that is. We have exalted thinking to an art form, a glamorous kind of intelligence at which we are all expected to excel, yet the mind is so not where it’s at. Yes, the mind acting in concert with body? A big tick there. The mind aligned with the inner heart and the divine – same again. But the mind leading the show and calling the shots? No, here life happens at the expense of the body and out of sync with the soul. There is nothing to recommend in a mind-derived life for it has created the ill of the world.
Anne you have really summed up the difference of being in true connection, or separated from ourselves and in comparison, competition, and desperate for recognition – although this was highlighted in singing, it’s really something we can experience in every facet and moment of life.
This blog is excellent Anne and clearly shows how rarely we speak from our hearts in true connection to others. I know I still at times speak from my head and do not always register that I am doing so. But when I feel my body I can clearly feel the difference within myself which is always colder, damper and harder and guarded.
What I love about singing with Chris James and a group of people is how after only a short time we all feel connected and it is as if we have been singing together for years – this is what singing in a choir should feel like.
Gosh you have shared so much here to be discussed. There is a lot of glamour and illusion in the music industry where people crave recognition and acceptance, or where their music literally pulls you energetically away from yourself into their emotions, thoughts and feelings. So to find somewhere where you can just be and express with a group of other people without judgement or being pitch perfect is pretty awesome. I have been to a few of Chris James’ workshop they are fun, revealing, exposing (in how we hold back in life with ourselves and others) and very freeing. I distinctly remember one time singing within a group and allowing my voice to go all over the place, it made me laugh and feel like a child again ….. it was soooooooo not pitch perfect 😂 This is also really important as is with both Chris James’s and Glorious Music’s music, as well as a few other people: ‘There was no emotion in the song to pull me away from myself; rather, it connected me with my real self, with my inner heart, so when I sang I felt it was coming from deep within me and that it was part of me’.
It is extraordinary that a course can have such profound effect on your life, the way you sing, express and listen to others and in doing so unravel and shed such light on your singing experiences of the past. Such inspiration is a rarity in this world, so it is no wonder that having found such stillness and grandness within, you are bubbling with the joy you have uncovered unable to hold it back. Gorgeous.
Chris James is amazing at getting people to sing and express. So many of us, me included, have been told we cannot sing yet as Chris says we can all sing no matter what may have been told or think. For many of us this may have meant we have quietened our voice and do not feel others want to hear us. But this is not true and Chris has helped me including many others reclaim our natural voices.
What is lovely in this article is how Anne mentions stillness… It’s not something really that you would associate with such a dynamic activity as singing that involves your whole body… and yet when you combine the two together, singing and stillness , there is a reflection, a feeling, of a totally different quality, and it is this quality that we can feel in ourselves and in each other, this resonance of connection.
Thank you for this great reminder to sing more as I know how joyful it is to sing and how singing is a great tool to connect us to our heart and our body. Singing with Chris James is a true present, I feel grateful to know Chris and his work. Beautiful to see how he keeps expanding in his love for himself and us all.
Thank you Annelies, and there is so much more to come 🙂
This shows how singing for recognition as supposed to singing to just be ourselves feels totally different in our bodies and what a different it would make to the audience also – we do marvel at people having tremendous voices but after reading this it makes me wonder how much of it is forced and what is really happening to everyone who is listening.
Hi Julie, yes once we start to really feel both our voice and other people’s voices in our body, when our senses are really opened up and we’re not just hearing the’ great’ voices, then so much as revealed, and if there is force, strain, desire, in fact anything like this it will be felt.
There is so much glamour with music that shouldn’t be there. Quite often when music is played you can feel the hook in it, that it wants you to be emotional, which is quite imposing actually.
Let’s face it… How often do we feel music that doesn’t have a hook in it!… there are some writing courses that actually and blatantly talk about bringing the hook in… Does the music have a hook in it?… Because that doesn’t it will not be ‘ successful’ 🙂
Thankyou for your inspirational sharing Anne. I can relate to your some of your experiences. It is truly wonderful when we feel the freedom to sing with joy from our hearts. Interesting how you could not sing when practicing for the musical, as this is something I always wanted to do as well, to be in musical, but never went there, and this saddened me for decades. If I was ever in the audience I used to be crying because I wasn’t on the stage. Now I fully understand why.
What Chris James offers is absolutely evolutionary when it comes to singing and expressing with our natural voice. So much of the constructs and external limitations is life can be shed simply by feeling and appreciating the true joy that is there when we sing from our hearts.
That’s exactly right Sandra… The appreciation is such a key… And when we appreciate our own voices… Wow! That really is a fast track 🙂
When we claim the sheer beauty of our own unique expression being shared with the world though our voices, we have surrendered to the joy and playfulness of life. We are expanded and all matter of thinking is evaporated because we are connected to our vehicles of true expression. Thank you Anne.
Recently I too attended a 3 day retreat with Chris James, something I had been avoiding because of the belief I held told me I couldn’t sing. The time with Chris supported me to realise it is not about singing as much as it was about re-connecting to my body and bringing all sound whether it is a conversation or a song through with the beautiful fullness we all have but have denied. Sound can be so much fun and very healing when we choose to use our voice in re-connection – thanks Anne.
“When I felt I was singing with joy, I absolutely knew that it didn’t matter how the sound came out…” Anne isn’t it just so lovely to express without monitoring what comes out – just allowing ourselves to be in the joy of each moment without any thought of what others might think. It’s amazing how beautiful the voice can sound when we allow our hearts to sing.
Anne, your blog is a good demonstration of how our bodies register much that we are often not consciously aware of. It’s such a good barometer to show us if we are living harmoniously or not.
I feel the joy of expressing in singing as you write Anne, and how this is how it can be, just the most natural thing ever without trying.
Thank you Anne for sharing how it was for you singing with Chris. I’m so glad you intend to sing a lot more from your heart with joy. This is how it is for me. I struggle to even hold a note ! However I cannot stop singing because it opens my heart to more love.
lt is incredible how open and amazing can be our experience when the ground is laid for success. Chris James knows how to bring us to a place of unfoldment and joy through singing and this is glorious to feel and behold.
Singing a song together as a single unit is a very different experience to singing as a lead with the intention to be seen as a good singer, or simply to be seen at all. This does not mean that singing a lead part instantly means that you are looking for recognition, for it is possible to sing with humbleness allowing the words of the song speak for themselves and to not need the audience to respond to either you or the song in a certain way. This is not how we are often shown to relate to music though. The work that Chris James is doing in this field is really extraordinary in allowing people to find their true voice of expression.
I have also experienced in workshops with Serge Benhayon how incredibly freeing and healing it is to truly listen to others and also to experience being truly heard. It is amazing how little of that we do as a society and what a huge difference it would make if we took seemingly small (but really huge) steps like this in our expression. Imagine for example if parliament conducted itself in this manner!
Singing is such a natural expression of our voice. It is a tragedy that so often our song gets crushed out of us by comparing ourselves to what others consider to be a ‘good voice’. Given the space and encouragement without judgement, such as at Chris James’ workshops, our voice can be discovered once again.
Reading the start of this blog it reminded me once again how “right” is such a kill joy. Joy is a quality of the Soul as is Truth so it shows how much is wrong with right if it kills joy!
A truly lovely sharing Anne. It is amazing the difference singing, or anything at all, if it comes from the heart feels and sounds so beautiful and very different coming from our head.
“I am allowing myself to feel a lot more, to be vulnerable and to connect with my body a lot more and express from there… and I intend to sing a lot more too, from my heart, with joy”.
Simply gorgeous Anne and what an absolute joy it is to sing from our hearts in harmony with others.
To sing from our hearts in harmony with others is a deeply healing experience. We can experience that we are actually one and that brotherhood is our natural way.
“There was no emotion in the song to pull me away from myself; rather, it connected me with my real self, with my inner heart, so when I sang I felt it was coming from deep within me and that it was part of me.“
I know this feeling so well Anne. Such a joy when we drop all thinking and sing from deep with in and all our being.
So true Janina- singing with no emotion allows our body to feel more spacious and sing without a push.r Our voice is then naturally impulsed to express from our whole body.
Abandoning all emotion allows the vibration of joy to be felt once again through our vocal chords. When I sing from this detachment it feels very freeing in my body. I enjoy every Chris James workshop that I attend because I always come away having felt and experienced more of me through this expression.
“At Chris James’ workshop we all sang together in amazing harmony and unity. It felt like we had sung together like that many times – even though I hadn’t met some of the people there before!”-
Chris has an amazing ability to teach anyone how to sing by first connecting to their inner heart and body.
Every workshop I have attended with Chris, the group having come together randomly, has sounded so beauty-full and in harmony.
I agree Linda there is such joy when we allow ourselves to freely express with an open heart.
I just experienced an amazing one day- sounds wonderful expression workshop with Chris James in Melbourne.
It was a small group and therefore very intimate. It felt very supportive and when Chris started toning the sound felt very gentle, nurturing and healing. There was no push in his voice, as it came from his whole body.
He taught us how to sing from our heart and body, not pushed via lungs and throat. We also learnt how to talk spontaneously from our heart , and not from our head, which is how most people express.
A very powerful, transformational and joy-full day experienced by all.
I agree with all you have written Anne, singing is an amazing healing tool and Chris James is an awesome practitioner
Thank you Anne for sharing your joyful experience of opening up your heart to sing from the deep love within, and the joy this brings. I love Chris’s workshops and am looking forward to a Big Sing coming soon, time for me too, to open up to feeling my true voice flowing through every cell in my body.
“Also, it felt wonderful to simply listen to another talking without thinking I had to butt in to be nice or to confirm, rescue, sympathise or even empathise, which is how I have often listened in the past.” I can very much relate to this and it feels so different and energising when we do not give our power away to these emotions. I can still fall into the trap of saying something to be polite often depending on who it is but I am becoming a lot more aware of this behaviour which I find contracts me instead of supports me to remain in the expansiveness.
“When I felt I was singing with joy, I absolutely knew that it didn’t matter how the sound came out… if it was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’… if it was too high or too low… I did not even consider what anyone would think of my singing. In fact, I didn’t think at all.” As I read this sentence I could feel ever since I was a child the pressure I put on myself to sing so that every one else could say how good I was. Although as I got older I didn’t totally give up, joining a chapel choir at around twenty which lasted a few years I do feel today that there is much healing to be done in this area. Thank you Anne for sharing as it has brought much up in me to look at.
Singing with true joy and full expression is certainly a wonderful thing to experience. On reading your blog Anne I realise how much I miss and have denied myself this absolute joy over the past few years. Your blog has inspired me to rekindle this flame.
When we sing from our heart we feel the joy of knowing our divine connection. No wonder tears come.
I love that everyone is connected through voice and heart. When I was a part of one of Chris James workshops, what I noticed was that there was no need to hold back as no one stood out, (except maybe Chris because he was leading) no one came with competition and that I sang but couldn’t hear myself just the joint expression of everyone and felt the support of everyone. It was a beautiful day.
I agree Amanda there comes a point in the workshop when you just get yourself out of the way and we can be amazed at the voice which has been hidden under the anxiety of singing or speaking in public. The Chris James workshops break through those barriers.
I have heard many things about Chris James’s retreats and they have all been amazing transform experiences. Chris has magic when he works with others in connecting them back to themselves and humanity. He achieves this in all his groups whether they are one hour long or from what I have heard a week long.
Chris James is amazing at offering people the pathway to connecting with their body and singing from there, releasing the performance anxiety and simply making singing about the expression of our love and joy, and being together with others from the fullness of our heart’s expansion in our body.
“…the tears were from me releasing my own sadness – they were not emotions I had picked up from the songs.”
I love this line Anne, as it depicts the significant difference between emotional crying and crying as a release and healing experience, which is a huge difference – one contracts you the other expands you.
Crying in order to release a tension held in the body is so freeing and I always feel so much lighter afterwards. With emotional crying I have left my body usually gone into sympathy and feel not steady in my body. There is indeed a huge difference.
Very beautiful Anne;
“And so, from this life-changing workshop in Wanaka, I am allowing myself to feel a lot more, to be vulnerable and to connect with my body a lot more and express from there… and I intend to sing a lot more too, from my heart, with joy”.
Expressing from our bodies, a work in progress, but what a powerful continual journey of love, joy, harmony and stillness.
Anne the difference you described in how you felt in the workshop with Chris James and at the musical feels like the difference I often feel in myself day to day. One is me being with myself, connected to all of me and expressing and moving from that place, and the other is me forgetting how wonderful I am and chasing offer recognition or being in comparison. The first one feels full and harmonious, and the other feels empty, tense and stressed out.
When we allow ourselves to express from our heart it is a joy not only for ourselves but also for those who receive the expression.
That’s true Elizabeth and its,probably why we feel so delighted by children!
Beautifully said Anne the power felt when we express from our heart is truly joyful. Chris James’s workshops are a wonderful support to get ourselves out of the way and to connect to our true voice. I attended the local choir with Chris and Jenny James this week, it was amazing how many members of the community came along and were so willing to open up and sing in harmony – it was beautiful to experience and see so many people enjoying this feeling of unity and joy.
Learning to sing from our heart builds our awareness from within and builds a foundation to express more honestly with ourselves and with each other.
Exactly Sally… It is rebuilding the trust, the reconnection with our own expression that is so powerful… And because so many people have so many ‘ issues’ around singing that if we can reconnect to our very own beautiful instrument, this reconnection spreads to our other expressions… Speaking et al.
Thank you Anne, having experienced a couple of marvellous Chris James workshops I can say it is such a joy to express in this way. The world does not teach us to express who we really are so – wow is it refreshing to be in an environment where it feels safe and supportive to do so.
Exactly Samantha, the workshops with Chris do offer a platform where it is the most natural thing to do to express freely who we are. I absolutely refused to sing whenever there was the ‘danger’ of someone hearing me and I did not like my voice at all. At a retreat with Chris I discovered not only my real voice which now feels fitting and is pure joy each and every day, but I also discovered how much I in truth love to sing. For me this experience with Chris James has definitely been life-changing.
“This was music composed, performed and produced from the heart.” That is certainly a quality of music that cannot make us think whether it is in tune or is better or less than another’s voice. It is music that does no impose and enriches a connection with the body. Anne you can feel in your sharing how such singing has opened you up to a greater depth of feeling and understanding how to live. That’s really powerful and to be celebrated.
Most of the songs have so much emotion in them and really ‘grab’ you. I watched this commercial for 30 seconds the other day which had music in it and that song just stayed with me for days. I just shows the impact that music has and how it takes us away from us. Of course this is my choice but I can still find it verychallenging at times with music in shops, supermarkets etc. and the loud music that is being played.
Singing together in a group at Chris’s workshops is a beautiful experience, and the exercises, like just listening to someone talk holding our full presence are wonderful experiences.
Exactly Lorraine, these workshops offer us the opportunity to meet each other in our essence and not as the behaviours and patterns with which we normally mask our true essence.
What a lovely setting for this workshop, I fell in with love with Wanaka when I visited it, Lake Wanaka is gorgeous.
When we sing from our fullness we automatically feel expanded, and as we feel this expansion it builds confidence within ourselves.
My first experience with Chris was at a workshop in Tauranga, NZ with my parents. At the time I thought they had gone nuts as the idea of expressing from our heart sounded a bit spiritualist and ‘feel good’. This exposed for me where I was at with my expression at that stage, so caught up in my mind I was not even aware that there is a very normal and very natural way to live from our hearts, our true essence and Soul
Chris’ workshops are truly a work of art- I super love them. Before going to one I realised my throat would get sore from singing and I couldn’t do it for very long. After the workshops though, what a difference! This bit Anne – ‘I felt I had to force my voice, to ‘perform’ and I didn’t enjoy not being myself.’ I wonder how often people do this day to day without realising.
Thank you so much Anne for not holding back what you have experienced on the workshop with Chris James. It is very inspiring to feel the joy you have had and expressed while you are singing. So I am looking forward to see Chris James in Germany very soon to sing from my heart and express my joy as well.
I used to go to choirs and workshops with Chris James but over the last year I have been too busy with work. I went last night and thought to myself, why on earth did I not make time for this. It was so great to sing with the group, to move and to open up with the music.
Thanks Rosie… This is such a common experience but one which needs to be said again and again because we are also time challenged, and yet when we did take the time to sing with each other, to open up, reconnect, feel that wonderful sense of common unity, it is in fact, re-energising.
It sure is re-energising and I feel that in the busy lives we live, it is really important that we make time to connect with others and to do the things we love.
Thank you. I love singing and I haven’t been doing this enough lately. A lovely reminder to express how I feel in song and let the joy out, whether there is anyone there or not.
It’s amazing that we all innately know that our voices can harm or heal – take someone yelling at you in anger as a very clear example – and yet this knowledge is not owned and taken responsibility for by the vast majority of us. It’s a truth we conveniently forget. We are powerful beyond our wildest dreams. How glorious and beautiful will the day be when we all live this truth? Also beyond our wildest dreams I imagine.
I loved reading “When I felt I was singing with joy, I absolutely knew that it didn’t matter how the sound came out… if it was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’… if it was too high or too low… I did not even consider what anyone would think of my singing. In fact, I didn’t think at all.” Attending a workshop on “Expression and Presentation” with Universal Medicine recently I found the same was the case when I was expressing something in words. It is what leads to that moment that we open our mouth that counts. Am I choosing an energy that tells me I am separate and I need to control and strategise to to avoid being hurt? Or am I choosing an energy that reminds me that I am part of a greater whole and by opening up, letting myself be sensitive and perhaps vulnerable, what will be expressed through me will be in harmony and in line with the expansion and evolution of us all. What these two workshops offer as learning is profound and can be applied to every aspect of life.
This is great Golnaz – I attended the workshop you speak of and your reminder of what was presented has made my day. Thank You.
I wrote a blog about this, are you on autopilot or are you with yourself, which energy are you being run by. I find that if I am worried about what to say next, or thinking about how I sound when I sing…. then I have probably lost the connection to myself because when I am with me, connected and not needing to be anything, the words and the sound is just there for me and comes naturally with no need or no trying.
I agree Golnaz. I also attended both workshops in the past and they offer true transformation in my thoughts and behaviour.
I met with a group of people at the weekend who have all studied with Chris James. We met to sing and play music together. The fun and lightness and joy that we experienced was simply gorgeous – a testimony to the teachings of Chris James which invite us to get ourselves out of the way, connect to our bodies and express together in joy.
I wholeheartedly agree Rebecca. It is heavenly to express in this way and the quality expressed as a group expands way beyond what it would be if we just sang together as individuals.
…and it feels pretty amazing singing duets too!
Rebecca why don’t you put some audio or video clips of your group up on Facebook? I would love to hear you all, including the duets.
Now that’s an idea Melinda. Thank you for the gentle nudge…
I would say, how about youtube? Then everyone can see and enjoy.
I second that Brendan, it’s a feeling nothing can match.
Beautiful Anne, your line ‘it was the joy of true expression’, explains it beautifully. When we are connected with the all what comes through us is pure joy.
I love attending Chris James true expression workshops. I didn’t know what singing from the heart meant until I learnt this from Chris. I was taught singing and music at school but this had felt like a push to get the voice out, and there was lots to memorise in the head. I was also worried to make a mistake because the teacher was very strict.
Instead learning from Chris has been so much fun. On day one he said to us all-
” Everyone is Born with a beautiful voice”- and I now know this to be true.
From believing I could only sing Alto I have discovered my Soprano voice to be very sweet and angelic like. Joy is felt throughout my whole body- it’s exquisite to feel and reassuring to know that it was always there just waiting to be released, like a flower blossoming.
I love attending Chris James’ workshops too! Until I went to one I was a firm believer that I could not sing as my music teacher at school told me to mime in the school choir… she did not want my flat tones, along with two other girls, to ruin the overall sound effect. Since then I never opened up to singing until I met Chris. To my amazement I found I could sing in tune…this was a very joyful discovery.
I had a similar experience Rachel, where I was told that I could not sing enough times to shut me up completely. It has only been with the support of Chris James that I now do not only sing on my own in the car, but I sing in the choir or with friends and I love it! I don’t worry about how it sounds because it feels so good.
So much disempowerment happens at schools with regard to music… If a child is given time, with no pressure, they will sing in tune, and if they don’t get it in tune that first time, then given time they will… We really do all have beautiful voices… And from the stillness and from true listening this can be restored.
This is unbelievable what you are sharing here Rachel, what a sure way to shut someone up for life. Thank God for workshops like the one offered by Chris James that help us to undo the damage done and activate our voice again!
Mistakes don’t exist in Chris James’s workshops, you can’t get it wrong, there just is no way. I love that. I love that everyone is encouraged to play around with their voice, to try things that they may have never dared to in the past and to have fun with it. Just reading the blogs and the comments makes me want to sing!
Workshops with Chris James can be a little exposing as we get ourselves out of the way, completely out of our heads, and connect to our inner heart. THEN the fun begins when we can feel the joy of true expression.
I can relate Gill, singing from our minds (singing for recognition) is completely different from singing from our hearts. True soul- full music allows us to just be with no imposition of any kind.
Yes Gill,… But only a little exposing… As you say :-).
I love hearing people sing from the inside out in celebration of themselves and other and not for recognition the sound, and the feeling in my body is very different
True, as a listener you feel and hear the difference between someone singing in ‘oh please tell me how beautiful I sing’ and someone expression in full the love they feel inside. The first is harming and awful and the reason why I don’t like clothes shopping with my daughter. And the second is healing and connects me back to myself.
Yes Monika , the difference is extraordinary, and this is what the world needs to hear, because the ‘ears’ of the world need to be re-tuned, because expression with love is the most powerful sound healing there is.
That is true, and when you hear someone sing with all of them, the joy that comes out of them is infectious, and I find myself just wanting to sing along.
Yes absolutely Rosie, the first time I felt this it was overwhelming and I was not sure what to do. I have since felt that it is in all of us equally and what a joy to share.
It makes absolute sense that when we connect to our innermost, the quality that is then produced is truly from us. it’s a lovely confirmation that this then applies to anything, singing, cooking, writing, painting – All expressions of truth.
Well said Rosanna. It then follows that the way to up the quality in every aspect of our life is to connect to our innermost – and the exquisite quality will naturally follow.
Yes I agree rosannabianchini that makes absolute sense and when we can truly feel this difference in our body than nothing is the same. From this moment on we now it – because we have lived it.
Thank you Anne, sounds wonder-full, especially since I have just completed a five-day workshop at Camp Creative in Bellingen N.S.W. with Chris James. To sing and express with the group of people was amazing but what stood out the most for me was how I had to completely get myself out of the way to listen. Conscious presence with a true purpose to listen without the imposing thoughts, became a new marker, which is now a responsibility to live in that deep connection to my inner heart. The reality is that when I got my thoughts totally out of the way, so that I opened up to listening in this connected way, this was also felt in my expression when I sang and talked.
Hi Anne, yes when we choose to enter the world of true listening life cannot help but evolve . Humans usually hear around 8 %-10% of their aural environment, and then we are so in the habit of ‘tuning out’ that we do not feel what is being expressed anyway. Listening with conscious presence, without agenda, is a blessing for anyone who speaks to one.
What Chris James presents on listening and being listened too is so beautiful for both people. I remember one of the first workshops that I did where I paired up with someone and it felt so supportive to have someone listen to me 100%. It brought me to tears.
Holey Markrel – 8-19%. Having someone truly listen and then truly listen in return is amazing. And really, what connection is all about.
Cjames, the numbers you share here are staggering, it shows how much potential we have to develop true listening.
It does not surprise me though, there is so much “noise” in our lives, everywhere we go they play music or the radio is going or the TV, even in people’s homes and when we meet with people they often talk a lot and not always things we necessarily want to hear, so no wonder we switch of our listening faculty and as you say “tune out”.
When we get self out of the way, we can sing from the truth of our bodies and express without investment.
Yes… As you say Gill, it’s getting ourselves out of the way… And in this case it is the internal monologue of self-doubt, putting down, the endless diatribes that our mind keeps churning out like a stuck slushy dispenser… We get so used to this that it really is an amazing experience when this stops and we are left to just be who we truly are and express.
Over the years Chris’s workshops/retreats have so helped me to put into place gentle everyday changes. The difference in really listening to another and, expressing in truth from my heart and not that so busy mind which so wants to manipulate and take over. Practising this in groups and sharing brought so much clarity (laughter and joy amongst us all) and to observe with eye contact and a listening heart. Bringing for me a whole new meaning to conversation.
You can really feel the difference between the glamour of music and the true version of it which I feel Chris James is presenting. There’s a lot of identification going on with music where we use it to boost our lack of true confidence and so when we listen to certain music we feel more cool and less insecure but really it is showing us that we are lacking the natural ‘coolness’ and confidence we should naturally have. Chris shows a way to develop confidence based on a connection to ourselves and the body which is something that lasts if we choose to keep it.
There is definitely a certain quality in music that we can connect to and it is this quality that can either heal or harm us. Emotions feed the hooks to glamourise the music and make it about the benefits of ‘self’ whereas the way Chris performs without any emotion is unifying and is for all
To feel the resonance of our true voice in our bodies whether in song or conversation is amazing. Like yourself Anne I felt very comfortable singing the low tones but with encouragement I gently and playfully experimented with the high notes which just opened up another playground of sensations in my body. To not hold back – felt amazing. Let alone the harmonies within the group felt so joyous and a coming together as one.
This is a great point Marion… we can sit comfortably in one vocal range and not even know that we have a whole new world just waiting there… and exploring this world is a multi-dimensional experience as our voice is always a microcosm of the macrocosm of the big picture of our life and livingness.
I sang in a choir over twenty years ago and I chose to sing alto as it seemed to suit my voice at that time. It has never occurred to me until now to sing the higher notes and I find this most interesting. I am inspired to play around with singing the different tones high and low the next time I have an opportunity to do.
Learning to speak from my heart and from the truth of my body rather than from the ideals of how I should be expressing that I have imposed upon myself and as well as onto others, is a big learning curve for me. Attending a couple of Chris James’ workshops was a revelation in true expression that reignited in me a playful and genuine way of communicating – that involved listening as well!! To do so in an environment of joy and celebration, of being with fellow learners in the art of expression was awesome. I loved reading your blog, Anne and it is reminding me to save my pennies so as to attend his retreat later in the year!
Hi Peta, yes people can often forget that communication and expression are 2 way streets, and that listening as you describe it is an essential part of this ever evolving path.
So true Chris, listening goes often underrated – yet it is a truly powerful medium of evolution as you say. Sometimes all we need is for someone to really listen to what we have to say.
Great points you are making here cjames and Abby, everybody wants to express themselves and we tremendously enjoy it when someone listens to us, so offering the quality of true listening is a great gift and a great practice in selflessness.
Until I attended Chris James’s workshops, I never knew singing could be so much fun. The expansion that I now feel in my body when I sing is so joyful, I can no longer hold back because it feels too glorious.
I agree Donna “I can no longer hold back because it feels too glorious”. Working in a group the sounds just resonate and feels like we are all ‘one’ together. No voice no louder than another just clarity and harmonies that lift our hearts (and the rafters) with joy.
And it is this wonderful sense of oneness that nurtures something deep inside humanity… Something that we crave for, and yet we do not know it… And yet even this is just a glimpse of what is possible when the deepest connection of the inner heart is reopened and the ancient wisdom of interconnectedness and one true heart is reawakened.
Agree 100% Donna. I feel like a little kid again, in that I am having so much fun and feel super joyful.
I didn’t dare sing when anyone was around before a work shop with Chris, now I don’t hold back when I feel to sing….
Thank you Anne and Susan, I agree, Chris James workshops are ‘natural play-full’ and full of joy and harmony as well as harmonies and this is felt by all who open their hearts to true healing.
I agree Anne, Chris James offers us so much connection to our bodies through singing and expressing with our entire bodies. I truly appreciate and love participating in the choirs, workshops and the retreat is amazing.
I only can agree Sandra – for me singing from my body is the ultimate possibility to share my joy.
For the past 6 years I do twice a year workshops with Chris James in Germany. Through the support of the workshops I was able to deepen my relationship with my body and voice. My expression is expanding more and more and I feel so much freer to sing and communicate.
“…to speak from my heart rather than my head – in other words, to truly share with others what I was feeling and what I knew to be true.” When we speak from our hearts there is a truth that can be felt by everyone, and the sound of our voice vibrates through our body – it is a whole body experience and so the truth spoken cannot be denied because it resonates with others too.
I agree Paula I know when I have spoken from my heart I can feel my voice resonating through my whole body, it feels and sounds great. I can also notice this in someone else’s voice and I know they are speaking the truth in their heart, it is like it is coming straight from their soul and the whole body harmonizes in agreement.
It is truly beautiful when this awareness reawakens isn’t it… the wonderful feeling of listening to someone expressing truth restores trust, balance and harmony, and who better to listen to but Serge Benhayon, who’s every word resonates so deeply with truth that he redefines what sound healing is.
So true Paula… And we are very power-full when we speak from the heart.
Your sharing of the musical experience Anne very much exposes the contraction recognition brings to our bodies – no wonder your voice was choking up! It is in complete contrast to the expansion and space felt within and without when we naturally express from our inner heart, from our bodies.
Anne there are so many wonderful areas you have touched on in this blog.
Comparison and competition and emotional expression and its damaging effects and…
Truly expressing from the heart, listening to others and being listened to and how deeply healing this is for all.
The latter bit is so beautiful when felt and done.
How profound that when we truly listen to our hearts the joy of singing, such inspiration as so much unfolds when we allow ourselves to not hold back expressing. Playing with our tones. Communicating with all the group as one. On Chris’s workshops this is what also came about for myself. what you share Anne is an amazing opportunity to allow ourselves to freely become playful, enjoin with others with no competition the JOY is palpable and just resonates through our amazing bodies.
Learning to accept that our own voice counts in more ways than one is in itself a huge healing.
I agree Adam…accepting that each of us has an important role in the world, and valuing what we bring, is very much a healing – just feeling the acceptance and value is a healing, before we even take that into our actions.
Beautifully said Paula, we all have our own gifts we bring to the world and each persons gifts are equal in importance as another’s. We are all uniquely equal.
Agree Adam, expressing how we feel about things is important because if we do not stand up for what matters how will anything change.?
Great point Elizabeth. Our expression on every occasion is key. We can either let things sly and have it all stay the same, or accept our voice.
Yes but we have been so fooled because people say – why bother saying anything, nothing every changes – and I see that because quite often only 1 will speak up and people don’t back each other (if they agree). So I feel many of us need to speak up (all actually) and with their own unique expression because that is where great power can come from – is our collective expression.
That is a great point that you are making Elizabeth, how often do we stand by and think to ourselves, ‘that does not concern me’, ‘don’t rock the boat’, ‘it will just lead to trouble’, etc. and not say anything, whilst we are the one that could make a difference by speaking up.
I like your comment Sarah, because I have been fooled by this belief as well in the past, but from life I have learnt no matter how another reacts our expression has an effect on them, whether we see it or not.
Love this Elizabeth, expressing is so important even if we think it is silly or stupid. By speaking up it lets others know how we are feeling and then we are less likely to hold any resentment towards them.
I agree Judith there is a huge tendency if there is something in a group happening but it did not concern me personally to accept or ignore it. I have learned recently in a training course I am doing when there were conflicts to address them again and again until they where finally resolved. And there was a lot of resistance even of the people who were involved to deal with the issues. We have accepted so much for such a long time that it is time to say no and no longer accept disharmony and conflicts among men.
Yes it is, Adam. The acceptance of our expression and the breadth of what it can bring to all, including ourselves, is not to be underestimated in its power and grace.
For too long we have turned our heads away and did not want to rock the boat, time to start expressing what there is to express wherever we are and even when there is nobody backing us.
And for too long have we looked behind us to see if there was anyone following us, hoping that if there was that would mean we are doing the right thing.
Once we start feeling what is true and learn to express we can learn that it does not matter if people will follow us or not but knowing they have heard what we said and it will have an impact. We do not need confirmation from others that what we say is true because we can feel it in our body.
That felt truth is only known in the present moment. Looking for confirmation from others whether we are doing the right thing or not is keeping a foot in the past, and not allowing ourselves to be present in what is here now. It is not that we will be perfect by being present, but in the present we do not need to know from anyone else what we can already feel.
Beautifully expressed Naren 🙂
Anne, I relate to your experience you have been caught in singing in the musical on stage forcing your voice. I have used this force in other areas like working or accomplishing any task. Often the motivation was to fullfill expectations, be it my own or others. This attitude is draining and exhausting. How easy it feels to do these tasks from a connection with me deep inside, doing them not to please somebody but to enjoy me.
When there is joy with anything that we are doing then I have found that thinking goes out the window so to speak. I love how you talked about singing and not thinking or worrying about getting it right.
Yes I love that too Sally and I find there is a sense of completeness in it as well – no need for a certain response or praise from others..
I have attended several workshops with Chris James and they have been life-changing – and I mean that literally. I love to sing and have done so for recognition and praise all of my life. I’m now learning what it feels like to sing from the absolutely confirming joy of it, without the need for others to comment. Work in progress but the changes so far have been massive.
Anne thank you for sharing your experience of the joy you felt singing from your connection to you, very inspiring!
When someone sings from their heart, the music they make sounds very clear, unimposing and does’t make me feel emotional at all, but I feel a huge warmth spread in my heart too. The same happens when someone talks from their connection to their heart too, it’s quite easy to feel and discern it completely differently.
My work involves me using my voice only, no face to face contact and so I have always been aware of the quality of the voice. Over time, being inspired by people like Chris James and Natalie Benhayon, I have come to feel much more deeply that the person I am inside comes out very clearly in my vocal expression, be that on a microphone talking or singing in the car. There is a vibration that is totally influenced by where the energy producing the sound is sourced from.
Anne, you could take the word “singing” and out anything in there, including the work we do. I relate to the force you described in the musical, for although I have never sung on stage I have applied that same force to my work. Exhausting, draining, demoralising it is too. When I do not think, do not seek approval and do it in the way that feels true to me, then it flows and it is nothing short of pure joy.
Thank you Anne for sharing your experience, the joy of singing from your heart. I also liked the earlier comments about when we speaking from the heart, and how it brings a lightness and playfulness.
We learn from early childhood about the fact that there are poisonous foods and drinks, but never have I been told as a child that there is poisonous music. I also haven’t been trained how to properly detect poison in music, art… until attending Universal Medicine workshops. I learned to re-awaken my innate ability to feel what I can consume and what harms me. It is not about how much I like something, it is about how my body reacts and this can be very subtle. Or obvious as in you case, Anne.
There is a joy that emerges when I begin to sing from my whole body – it comes up through my heart in pure divine expression and suddenly the whole world looks and feels joyful. There is so much to appreciate, colours are brighter, people are more approachable and it’s a joy to connect with them. What a wonderful marker and reflection to have.
How you express Anne that it felt you had all sung together before at Chris James workshop, yet it was your first time together, speaks volumes of what you were connecting with through singing. Whenever I have had that experience of being right at home with something from the outset, it is always been connecting me to my innermost and the stillness that is so familiar and can be expressed in many ways.
I loved hearing about the difference you felt between singing in the musical and singing at the Chris James workshop. I can totally imagine the difference and it makes sense that you could not sing easily in the musical because of it being a bit emotional, like it is not natural for the body. Yet then to sing music from the heart is very natural and beautiful. Thank you Anne, the difference between emotional music and music from the heart is very needed to be shared with all of us.
Well said Lieke, that the difference between emotional music and music from the heart is very needed to be shared with all of us.
Singing, speaking, dancing or any form of expression done without the restricting need for recognition or to be seen and identified with what I’m doing, totally frees up my expression to be from me – pure and simple with no need holding it down.
When I take the pressure to ‘perform’ out of anything I do it leaves me gorgeously unencumbered and free to explore, go out of my comfort zone, make mistakes and be open to learning. I find this inspiring – whereas the ‘performance mode’ is scary and loaded with judgement.
I agree Matilda. Performing involves calling in a huge force to ‘steel’ ourselves to be able to overcome the nerves which so often come in, which are in reality nothing to do with singing (or whatever we are ‘performing’) but to do with the expectation of the approval/recognition we may or may not get. As soon as we do something for the reward it just becomes “all about me” – an act of self with no brotherhood at all.
A beautiful sharing Anne – it is quite a remarkable and joyful experience when the space seems to open up inside and the natural melody from within is let out – when I experienced this during one of Chris’s workshop it brought me to tears because I had missed that melody of me.
Beautiful blog Anne, what stood out for me was: .. and this is perhaps why I couldn’t even sing the songs in the musical (I was choking, literally, on the emotions in them).
I remember this too , as I have played in a musical once and also had experience in auditions for roles in them.. I was always busy remembering the words and making sure I sound good and well like everyone was expecting (wow!, that is a lot), never to actually enjoy my own voice and song. So different then to the Sing Workshops of Chris James, as I have done quiet a few! Like you shared, everytime I tried to sing a song that I tried to perform I felt the emotions streaming into my body – they did not even feel mine – and so it felt like I was literally ‘perfoming someone else’, horrible really. To feel the effect it had on my body afterwards was no fun , I would feel exhausted, anxious, shaky and would have based my value on the approval and recognition I would get.. It made me feel independent too, which is not such good feeling. SO thank you Anne for bringing this up – I was not really even aware of the big difference that one singing workshop by Chris James can truly offer people, as it has not only done for me but hundreds of others. True support to feel you and your own voice and beauty.
Sometimes in meetings when I have the floor and can see watches being checked, papers being rustled or surreptitiously read and a blank emptiness looking back at me from the so-called ‘listeners’, it’s a challenge to feel I have been fully granted the space to truly express and can find myself feeling like a performing seal by the end of it. Listening is a real skill and requires presence, respect, no judgment and a bucketload of equalness.
Thank you Cathy, the analogy of you as a, ‘performing seal’, has brought much laughter to my morning.
A awesome blog on the power of expression – thank you Anne. What you write here reminds me that ‘we all have a beautiful voice’ which is a message Chris takes around the world. And I realised from my own experiences singing with Chris is that the beauty that I connected to within myself and the group was not at all about technical skill or even how it sounds – but the quality with which it held. Chris James is truly a master as in my experience he supports people to re-connect to the stillness of God within, and with absolute joy and simplicity he supports people to simply let it out!
I completely agree Sarah – Chris James is ‘truly a master as in my experience he supports people to re-connect to the stillness of God within, and with absolute joy and simplicity he supports people to simply let it out!’. It’s amazing to watch and feel him bring a group of strangers together to sing as a heavenly choir within minutes. The connection does not just fade as the group leave the event, it lives on as a marker in the body of every participant which is constantly calling us to live it and then some.
I have been to a few of Chris James’ workshops and found that the listening exercises very powerful. Up until then I had thought expression was all about what you say or how you move. Now I can see that we express so much when we listen and when we listen without reaction or an agenda we allow for true connection.
A wonderful expansion on what Anne has shared Leonne- I can relate to this in Chris James’ workshops and Universal Medicine workshops where I find myself listening with intent to hear and not an agenda to fix or resolve. This sure does make for some lovely connections with others and truly getting to know expression in it’s multi-layered forms.
It’s wonderful to be reminded here that our voice is just as powerful as a touch. It can be harsh or it can be loving, it can be weak or it can be full and steady, it can be harming or it can be healing. This is something I recognise in my own voice as I build my awareness with how I talk and what I do and don’t say. To see the voice as equally potent as touch, brings a new understanding of how we can relate with one another.
‘Our voice is just as powerful as a touch’ – I am inspired by what this awakens in me in terms of deeper awareness and responsibility – thank you.
Wow rosannabianchini – this is deeply inspiring and is calling me to greater responsibility.
You know Katie, it makes so much sense when we start to understand things in terms of their vibration. And very clearly explains why we can hear what someone says but have a certain feeling whilst listening, that doesn’t match the words you’re hearing.
Sound is a vibration and when sound originates from the inner-heart heaven opens up for all to hear.
The very first workshop I did with Chris James I was blown away by the healing process that I felt in my body. In that workshop I could feel my whole body reconfigure with so much energy shifting and releasing. This shift then allowed for the space for me to feel the joy that comes from connecting and singing. Now I love to sing, whether that is alone or in a group. This is a far cry from someone who used to shy away from anyone hearing me sing a note.
“I felt this force of performance and anxiety from many of the others in the cast too, as well as comparison and competition and the need for approval and recognition. There was a lack of true camaraderie and connection between us, and I could feel this in my body.” That is a true description of what is going on in the world, not only in a situation where people sing together in a musical. And as all of these circumstances have made it difficult for you to express from your joy and essence, it is the same in so much people’s daily situations they have to face. I agree, the workshops and retreats from Chris James are a true healing as one is able to turn around old experiences with singing but also with expressing and being in relationship in general. These courses would be the best for every team and business to learn how to express, perform and sing/work together from a basis of unity and joy. So powerful and healing.
Thanks to Chris James I have become much more aware of how my voice is when I speak – and the lacing of emotions that impose on others – my voice can be hard, determined, edgy, anxious, pushy, strident, and so on, but when I speak from my inner heart connection, my voice, my true voice is gentle and completely non-imposing. When I speak from my whole body, I can feel every cell vibrating, it’s awesome. It has been a work in progress over many years and there is still much to learn, and when I listen to recordings from years ago, it is great to hear and feel the difference now.
How many of us hold back when we come to express? I know I have, and whether that is singing or talking or writing we simply put out a contracted, watered down version of ourselves that is safe. And when that is received.. it’s clear that it is a lesser version of all we can be. I love the way you have been encouraged here Anne, to simply give it a go with all you have got…. that is what we are meant to be expressing in this life.
To express from and with our hearts is the greatest Joy and it’s really beautiful to sing with others in this way. There’s a very unified feeling when we do – without competition.
As soon as I started to read your story Anne, I could feel the joy emanating from the page. The joy is of true expression with no thought or emotion, but feeling it coming from your heart. Very powerful.
Thank you Anne for sharing your experience of Chris James’ work which I can totally relate to and which has also enabled me to connect with ‘the joy of true expression.’ I was introduced to the joy of singing because I had been told at school that I couldn’t sing and thus suppressed this area of my expression and recognised how this affected my expression in all other areas to my life which has been beautiful to explore and open up.
Yes Anne, I can relate to what you share in this blog… being choked up in emotion shuts us down from connecting to our heart and our truth so everything we do is forced, an effort and not enjoyable. It is beautiful to sing music which is not laced with emotion allowing us to connect and sing joyously from our truth… Chris James and his workshops rock.
Thank you Anne for sharing your beautiful expression and joy at your workshop with Chris James . He has reconnected me also to my voice and expression and the joy of singing together as one in harmony and love naturally with out any effort and trying , Simply beautiful like being a small child again with a freedom, expansion and joy within.
Music written from the heart and sung from here is simply divine.
Anne, I love what you share about the power of listening. So true and such a revelation when we just be with the person speaking rather than feel we have to butt in, or be preparing what we want to say next. To me it has the effect of completing the communication, something that doesn’t happen when listening is absent.
Learning about true expression has been a real joy in my life. Expression has been something I have struggled with in my life, feeling it is safer to keep quiet than say what I am feeling. Chris James, Serge Benhayon and Simone Benhayon have been a massive inspiration in supporting me to come to know the joy there is in expressing myself to the point now that I would say it is the most important factor in how I feel every day. If I want to change how I feel I now know the most powerful thing I can do is use expression. All else pales into insignificance beside it.
I love this awareness that ‘I didn’t think at all’. How awesome is that! Feeling totally free to just be and to just sing with everything you are. This is something I too have experienced many times when working with Chris James – just me, singing with all of me. It sounds so simple but when we see how much other stuff we bring into singing and other forms of expression, it is like a miracle! Lovely appreciative blog Anne, thank you.
When i sing songs form Glorious Music i also feel very support to be just me and to sing. It gives us a marker of how true music feels within our bodies when we sing. This is something many of us have to learn as we have listened, played and sung for such a long time to pranic music.
What I have really learnt over the last year or so is that most music has a hook to basically hook you in but true music doesn’t need one you can just feel how unimposing it is.
I find that also kevmchardy, most of the music I hear on the radio or when out shopping I find disturbing and have to turn it off or leave the shop, and most often there is a catchy repeating theme which gets stuck in my head – like you say most music has a hook, whereas true music doesn’t need one.
Yes, most music is imposing, when I am in places where it is being played, hairdressers, shops etc., I have to consciously choose to not allow this energy to enter my body.
The more the true me emerges, the more freely and fully can I sing and with much less inhibition, and the more I love it too.
I know that too Anne, the joy of singing from my heart and from my body. It is so profound and joyful compared to expressing from my mind that never brought me any fulfilment but always left me with the emptiness, the emptiness that I cannot fill up from the mind but only from my inner-heart and the connection with my body.
“I didn’t think at all.” The joy of singing from the inner-heart, no thought, absolute connection to and with the body, true healing.
The best things in life come without ‘thought’ it seems! It just comes out, and when it’s coming from deep within the body, it’s a truth and can be life changing for the receiver.
How awesome Anne, to enjoy yourself through singing freely and without emotion. Rare these days yet so wonderful to experience true expression. No holding back.
lve not realized the phenomenon of stuck emotions in the throat. This is a revelation to me as l often get the sore throat when singing but haven’t known why.
I love to listen to music that touches a cord within me, not an emotional vibration, but one that resonates with a deep recognition of joy and true harmony.
Beautifully expressed Rosanna, ‘I love to listen to music that touches a cord within me, not an emotional vibration, but one that resonates with a deep recognition of joy and true harmony.’ I feel this with Chris James music, I find that it supports me to re-connect to me, I feel light and joyful when i listen to it, other music that i hear in shops or on the radio i find has the opposite effect, it makes me feel sad and melancholy and usually makes me want to leave the shop because it feels so imposing.
When I was younger I would never stop to consider the effect music would have on me, but I would indulge constantly in the emotions it offered as an escape. For me now this is not a consideration as I hate to leave myself in this way. Any music that does not support in my own connection is now completely avoided as I am aware of the harm of it. When out shopping and hearing it can’t be helped, I am observant of it and rarely take it on.
And when you can’t avoid listening to imposing music, like at the haircutter or in shops for example, the gentle breath meditation helps to not let it have an impact on me. I love this support and that this meditation can be found on the Universal Medicine website – for free!
rosannabianchini I love what you share and the importance of knowing the difference is the key. One that makes us emotional and one that allows us to settle into our bodies and remember what it feels like to be home. The choice is not always clear, emotions serve a purpose and if there is any desire to not feel home then we will of course go for the emotional music, wonder what that says about the state of the world considering the quality of music that currently makes the top 10.
Beautifully said Laura: ” One that makes us emotional and one that allows us to settle into our bodies and remember what it feels like to be home.The choice is not always clear, emotions serve a purpose and if there is any desire to not feel home then we will of course go for the emotional music, wonder what that says about the state of the world considering the quality of music that currently makes the top 10.”
We need to understand the aspect of energy in context of music and how harmful music is when loaded with emotions and investment. As most people are not aware of this fact.
But the point you are making Laura most people use music as a way to distract and escape from a way of living which is not harmonious.
What I love about singing from the heart is that there is no thinking. It is just pure and simple expression from the soul and I love that.
I agree Kelly, and as we commit to doing this more in the simplest of moments and ways it will steadily grow greater for us in expression.
Exactly Kelly, there is not tension of doing things right, just a joy in expressing me.
Yes, Michael and Kelly – this is a whole body experience then, expressing from my body the power and joy that we are.
It is lovely to read how much joy you experienced and the awareness and understanding this brought to your past. I have always found Chris’s courses profound and have never forgotten the gorgeous vibration that can be felt through your entire being when you speak or sing connected to your heart…. just stunning to experience.
That ‘gorgeous vibration’ has brought me to tears many times, as I marvel at why I haven’t always chosen this for myself.
Yes agreed there is nothing like a Chris James workshop to remind us just how capable we are of expressing and singing. He has an amazing ability to unite and bring people together, true glory in expression when it is unified.
I have become more aware of the effects of music on me. In an instant a song can make me very emotional, or really jangle my nerves, depending on what it is. I prefer now to pay very careful attention to what music I listen to.
I have also found I’ve become far more sensitive to music, maybe it’s a case of taking more responsibility with what I listen to. I used to enjoy really loud music, now I can’t stand anything being too loud, it’s as though it’s physically hurting me, a real assault on my body.
I can relate to music feeling it’s physically hurting me too. This might seem a stretch for many to understand, but knowing how everything is energy, then it follows that the energy a musician is in would come through the music too and hence be able to harm, even abuse the listeners.
It is amazing to what extent music is created to drag us into a certain emotion or mood. Sound is very powerful, therefore it is very wise to discern what sounds we listen to and to observe in how far we let ourselves be carried away from who we truly are by music.
What an amazing experience Anne. Thank you for sharing this with us. When I listen to some singing from their heart and with their true voice it certainly is a joy and blessing to feel, listening with my heart.
The experience of being listened to is very healing. Once you have had it, it is a real marker that you never forget. When I have been listened to, I often end up expressing things that I had never voiced before. Being given the space to express out loud and have another just listen is a gift. It is also lovely to be the one who listens without expectation to another.
Just love what you’re sharing here, Debra. When you feel like you’re being heard, there is a beautiful connection that holds you and allows the space to share all that’s there to be shared. You’re right, it’s a gift, for both parties.
We do notice when we are really being listened to, really being heard, which makes me consider what we are feeling when we are not. I know that when I am not listening it feels like the space is being filled with wayward noise that no one is attending to – it feels very chaotic (and that is without considering the disconnect to and lack of respect for the other person).
The joy of listening beautifully expressed Debra Douglas – thank you.
I am training as a Coach at the moment. My experience with listening was the more space I give to my client the more healing is possible and they can understand and come to their own “solution”. In our society we often don’t take the time to listen to another but instead throw solutions and advice at people who don’t even asked for it. So listening and receiving another person and giving a person space to fully express is something very needed.
Me too Debra! Communications that I have with Universal Medicine practitioners and students are so rich, full of expression. There is still that element of playfulness which I love as well, not always serious, but there seems to be a quality about my communications when I express from my heart, my body that is very lovely and very powerful.
Being truly listened to without an agenda or any expectations is a great support to bring out what is there to be expressed.
Thanks Debra, this is a beautiful reminder of the gift of space to express we give when we truly listen. I am reminded of my mum…..I could give her more of this space.
There are so many things that hold us back from truly expressing. Singing is just one element, but even speaking truth is something I haven’t always felt comfortable doing. I can tell from your blog what a freeing experience you had in being able to sing without any inhibitions Anne.
I can totally relate to your comment Debra. When I express from my heart, expressing truth my voice emanates from my body but when I am not, it comes from my throat and the nervous tension in my body.
Possibly the ‘ums’ and ‘aahs’ and voice clearings start to happen too.
I can relate to what you are sharing here Debra because I haven’t always found it easy to express truth either. What I love about Chris James’ workshops is that he supports us in the whole of our expression, supporting us to consider sound and where it comes from, our bodies or our heads. When speaking from my body the sound and tone is much richer, which resonates more deeply. I am reminded of the responsibility here to remain connected to my body, especially when I am speaking. When I speak from my body there are no doubts about the truth I am offering.
And if we can do it through singing we can do it in our conversations-willingness, patience and absoluteness is key to allowing this to happen.
I loved how playful you sounded when you weren’t performing, Anne. In the same way that it was shocking to consider how performing is really restrictive and loaded with the need for recognition form others.
Yes, great point Matilda. The other day I watched someone who is a professional dancer being asked to go up on stage and just start dancing with the band, but he found it extremely difficult, saying he didn’t dance without choreography. He had all the ‘right moves’, but it felt like it was not coming from the body, or the heart, just from the mind.
Yesterday after reading and commenting on this blog I had the most beautiful experience, and so appreciated having felt the inspiration here. I spent my morning getting ready for work singing along to most beautiful songs by ‘Heaven’s Joy’. As I got ready I had my 4 year old friend join me, and by me singing and not holding back I could feel she felt the freedom to do the same. The quality of us being together with this singing was pure and beautiful – confirming for us both. Thank you Anne again for sharing and your inspiration in this.
‘by me singing and not holding back I could feel she felt the freedom to do the same. The quality of us being together with this singing was pure and beautiful – confirming for us both.’ …. this is so gorgeous Amelia and I realise how true this is in every moment … when we don’t hold back we give each other the space to do the same, to allow ourselves to be in the fullness of who we are. Thank you.
True Alison and when we hold back we send the message to all others to remain contained and guarded, hence why the world is as it is.
Such a crucial point you make Alison: “….. when we don’t hold back we give each other the space to do the same, to allow ourselves to be in the fullness of who we are.” This is what I experience in the singing groups I do. In singing without thinking about the absoluteness we offer this quality to others to experience and be simply themselves.
I love this Amelia – when we don’t hold back and let ourselves express, it inspires others to do the same – to celebrate the joy within.
Yes I agree Marcia and this demonstrates the responsibility of not holding back.
Agreed Marcia, very gorgeous Amelia, singing to unite, not holding back to inspire. Not sure if this is what we can say of all expression but definitely if it comes from the inner-heart and a responsibility towards all. I look forward to the days these are the pre-requisites for a song to be released to the public and not what is sexualised and shocking enough. No unity there.
Wonderful moment! It is one of the most beautiful things to experience in this world-listening to a child hum or freely singing along to something with joy.
That is gorgeous Amelia. Young children are such a beautiful reflection. Sometimes it feels as though they are simply waiting for an opportunity to let it all out. I am often inspired by children I see singing and chatting away on trains, in shopping centres and out and about, making up their own songs and enjoying the sound of their own voices without judgement or inhibition. The fact that we stop doing this as we grow up shows that most of us have shut down this part of ourselves. What a joy it is to return to true expression.
Beautiful Amelia. When you expressed uninhibitedly, you set the foundation for someone else to do the same… actually it feels like more than that, in that you actually present an invitation (one that is too gorgeous to turn down!)
Matilda, pure gold, by not holding back and expressing you invite others to do the same.
Matilda the way you have expressed this has made it even clearer to me what a responsibility we hold to keep expressing and not hold back. Inviting others to do the same, I love it.
Adorable Amelia 🙂 There is something about singing just because that invites everyone to join in, no holding back.
Hi Amelia… I had a similar experience recently … travelling down south and arriving at a friends house and their 4 year old was joyfully singing along to Heavens Joy… knowing the words and skipping around… it was just delightful.
Thank you Anne and yes Chris James is so wonderful, constantly encouraging us to sing from our hearts, to discard all those learnt restrictions about how it sounds and whether we’re in tune or not. What is so beautiful is seeing how people who have held back their expression just blossom with all that joy you so evidently connected to within yourself. It is a magical moment when we can feel the music coming from deep inside our bodies and in that feel so deeply connected to everyone else.
I agree rowenakstewart. Chris has also supported me with expression and I have to say I have a different relationship with myself as a result. I was never a singer and stopped singing as child in the belief that I was really bad at it and couldn’t hold a tune. This really saddened me as I held myself back and was crippled with insecurities. Letting go of all of that and singing with joy and in connection with others has been life changing!
I agree Rowena. I have made the same experience like Anne in a Chris James’ retreat about 5 years ago. As most people are holding back their real expression, how amazing to break through that and discover the amazingness and joy we are. And for me this took some years, in the first years I was crying very much during the workshops. Letting go of a lot of stuff and emotions.
Today I talked with a friend and we were talking very Gracefully although there was also some seriousness kicking in. When we started to explore we felt how we’re not used to speak freely from the heart and that we’re protecting that, which takes away the playfulness. I realised from that experience how often I choose to still not be in my heart while expressing and / or listening. The Stillness that follows when I do is so worth it to be felt, although I could also feel that people are and have been reacting to this. So from these experiences somewhere along the line, I’ve decided to not be within my heart and express and / or listen. A new marker. How lovely it is indeed to sing or communicate from within ourselves. It does truly resonate and radiate through all of our bodies. True magic.
This is a lovely reminder Floris of the fact that when we talk from our heart there is always lightness and playfulness, and we can notice when we come out of this by the seriousness we go into. It is like chalk and cheese and so very obvious, but it is so easy to not notice! Thank you for sharing your experience.
Thank you Rebecca, your confirmation is fuel that builds me. It is indeed very obvious. Even now when typing I can feel the total different flow of energy that flows through me as soon as I choose to be with my heart and feel my sweetness and delicateness with me while typing. I still need to build my own foundation within (again) that I can be with me while being with others or doing something or anything really.
Rebecca and Floris your comments are very powerful and have awakened a deeper awareness in me I can relate to what you say about the speaking from the heart feeling light and playful. I now realise when I don’t feel the lightness and playfulness I am express with protection which is not true expression. This is a great awareness for me thankyou both.
Great to be reminded of this, ‘when we talk from our heart there is always lightness and playfulness, and we can notice when we come out of this by the seriousness we go into.’
” I realised from that experience how often I choose to still not be in my heart while expressing and / or listening.” I agree Floris I realized that I can be very honest expressing how I feel but still not in my heart and avoiding intimacy.
Yes Janina, great that you bring in Intimacy. I too can see how often I avoid intimacy. A had an interesting observation this morning while walking. At a certain point during my walk I felt the loveliness and manlyness in my right leg, which was the first time that I was so aware of this. But after a short while I lost the connection with that feeling. I can see how I almost make a game, a play out of feeling the Grandness – ‘use’ or maybe ‘abuse’ it to be satisfied with the remembering of the Divine, rather then taking full responsibility. Just because I can make that choice?
Great point Janina, often I accept just being honest when there is so much more that we can be and share, and thank you both for the great marker of lightness and playfulness as a marker of true expression as apposed to the seriousness which can accompany honest communication.
And it is possible to evolve to a point where if we do not express from that clear and radiant resonance that you write about Floris then it feels …. distasteful and empty. What an extraordinary built in barometer of true expression we have in our human bodies.
I’ve found this also very possible. How beautiful is it that our bodies are communicating so loudly with us, but so many times I haven’t listened at all. Where it feels amazing, expansive, flowing, loving when I do express from that inner sacred place within me. And even this point is not the or an end point, a goal. This is also evolving, it never stops. The beauty that we are and that is inside of us has no boundaries. The only boundaries there are, are set by ourselves. What a beautiful science. I love it.
Music has such a powerful influence on our body. I would so rather have this effect come from the inspiration of the heart, rather than from where many other songs are composed from today (fueled by emotions, violence, drug or alcohol).
I truly enjoy singing, allowing my divinity to be expressed. Singing with others is so very intimate and something I would like to do more.
Beautiful that you could rediscover your true voice and everything that comes with that! Enjoy sounding like YOU 🙂
I agree with what you have shared about listening Anne – “it felt wonderful to simply listen to another talking without thinking I had to butt in to be nice or to confirm, rescue, sympathise or even empathise”. I have noticed that when listening to another I am scrambling in my head with a response and notice that my shoulders end up close to my ears in nervous tension and my toes curl under. I am practicing feeling these areas of my body and letting go of the tension and really listening without needing to respond right away. While it may not always be exactly what the other person wants, it feels so much more honouring of us both.
Absolutely Simone, it is ‘honouring of both’ when we open our heart and listen without any interjecting thoughts, which is only the mind wanting to take control!
Anne I love how you have so beautifully expressed the joy you experienced at the discovery of your true voice, and in turn your true expression through attending the workshop with the amazing Chris James. These workshops, in my experience as well, have been life and voice changing, as Chris gently, and ever so patiently supports and nurtures us as we explore what has been placed in the way of re-connecting to the beautiful voice that we were born with. Now that is something to celebrate, as you have by sharing your joy with us.
Singing together, in union, brings harmony and so much fun. I love Chris James’ workshops. Although we may have never sung together as a group before, we attune to each other so quickly. Connecting and singing from our hearts – such joy!
With every workshop from Chris James, I am deeply inspired as well. There are no rules or techniques with him, nor shoulds or should not. He creates a space where people can just be themselves and express. No performance, no applause, just being, singing and having fun.
I have had these wonderful experiences too at the workshops of Chris James. The love and connection in the space that Chris provides invites and enables so much healing. I have reached new depths of love and opened to new levels of expression, which I have been able to take into my everyday life. The amount of joy that is available when we truly connect and truly express from our hearts is incredible and very wonderful.
I’m experienced very similar feeling as to what you have described Anne. Spot on.
I know that singing from the heart does not seek in the way that singing from the head does. To sing from the heart is a joy, a joy to simply sing without holding back. I also love singing with others, not in comparison but in celebration of the different expressions and the harmony they produce when there is no competition with each other.
I love this Anne – “I am allowing myself to feel a lot more, to be vulnerable and to connect with my body a lot more and express from there”. This is so key no matter where we are, what we are doing or who we are with – this is everything.
In anything and everything that we do, there is such a difference between ‘going it alone’ and bearing a task front on, and working as a collective, harmonious group. I’ve recently been experiencing the major drawbacks of trying to ride solo, and can say that living, singing, working, walking and everything else is a billion percent more of a struggle when you avoid support and punish yourself by cutting off relationships. I can imagine that singing as a one unified group would be absolutely incredible compared to singing in a choir as individuals.
I find when we get out of my head, get myself out of the road and truly connect with my essence I feel a deep awareness of my body. There is no pressure from within me, no expectation that I will express in a particular way, to be heard, get a message across, to be right, recognised or anything else this free me to express from my heart true expression just flows through me. This is not a common experience for me when it comes to singing it is something I am consistently working on.
Reading your blog Anne I feel like I went on a journey with you, from the choirs you sang in to the musicals and then Chris James’s workshop. What a development has taken place for you and certainly one to be celebrated. There is something very special about a group of people singing from their heart. It brings a tremendous power with it and as you say the joy simply cannot be contained.
“This felt so different from other times when I have been affected by music which I have heard or songs I have sung that made me sad or ‘revved up’.” – How beautiful to enjoy music and singing without any hidden agenda or emotion.
This is so lovely to read Anne – thank you. We rarely consider the effects of music on us and yet as you have so beautifully described we feel so much and can so easily be manipulated by music. I’ve had a similar experience attending Chris’ workshops and from these I have felt the difference for myself – no imposition, no manipulation, no push – just the freedom to be me and feel the total joy of singing with others as I re-connect to something that feels very precious and divine.
What a joy to read your blog Anne – I almost felt I was at the workshop with you, especially as I could relate to what you were feeling. When we come together in unity we can each support one another to truly embrace who they are and in this way we can express the harmony of the whole group.
That sounds like an amazing experience, very healing.
Having been a person who felt they could not sing, was told I sang out of tune and on more than one occasion asked to stop ‘singing’. Attending Chris James’ workshops have been a revelation and a joy as he has enabled me to rediscover my voice and that I can sing.
Go Jonathan! I have similarly felt and been told that I could not sing. To now feel free enough to sing without worrying if I sound good or not is very liberating.
Anne I love how you’ve shared that “it was the joy of true expression.” To me this speaks volumes in that through true expression we have the world we are so deeply seeking.
Singing builds a healing bridge between people and reminds us that we are all connected and to be in brotherhood is possible and our natural way.
Yes Janina, I have definitely experienced a feeling of unity when singing in a group. I love singing, however I feel very joyful when there is more than just me singing.
Debra, It is also very joyful to experience to express through singing (on my own) the divinity that I am.
Having experienced singing together at the Sacred Esoteric Healing level 5 last November it was very much like you’ve described here Anne. A feeling of togetherness and unity that didn’t matter how each individual sang as per the standards set out in the world of what ‘good’ singing ‘should’ sound like because all together it felt amazing. Even in the student concerts, it may not be ‘pitch perfect’ but it feels good to the body. In my teens I used to listen to a lot of ’emo’ (short for ’emotional’ – generally anger, frustration, pain etc) music and that pretty much summed up my teen years and how I felt after singing those songs. Today I would never sing those songs as gradually I could feel how it hurt to listen to them let alone sing them! But what does that say about the wider music scene and our awareness that allows and accepts people to become successful by putting out these emotionally heavy music? or even in our pop songs/radio friendly songs as I heard at work about becoming friends with heartache and pain.
I can relate to the feeling of singing to perform where you feel like you are pushing your voice out with all your might and also to singing in connection, without trying to stand out or be better than anybody else, when I sing this way I feel gorgeous no matter if I am on a stage or not.
My whole life was about performance before I came to Universal Medicine. Also singing… to sing now, without impressing people to stand out is new and at the same time not holding back- to really embrace the purpose of my voice is quite lovely, not always easy 😉 , to play around with.
Thanks Anne for your beautiful account of Chris James’s workshop. Chris does have a magical way of supporting people to open up and it is great to read how different this experience was – open, honest and spontaneous and I get the feeling fun, even though it was deeply moving as well.
I have done quite a few of Chris’s workshops myself and found that the hardest part about them was trying to sing whilst sobbing!
Ha ha Alexis, I too have experienced many tears throughout Chris’s workshops. The first couple of workshops were tears of sadness, of years and lifetimes of holding back my expression and it was incredible to feel the opening up and clearing process that was taking place in my body. In the more recent workshops the tears have been tears of joy as I have felt the absolute joy and beauty of what it feels like to express in connection to me. I have found these workshops deeply profound in their healing.
Anne I have to say that although you said ‘it is almost impossible to express the grandness and glory of it all’ I think you have managed to convey the joy amazingly well! Reading your blog felt like being massaged by sparkling mineral water, how joyous is that!
“I am continually inspired by Chris James – by the man, and by his amazing Music.” I whole heartily agree Anne. Chris James is a living inspiration for me. The amazing work he is offering through his workshops and music has supported me in many ways to self heal and explore my own expression. The transformations I have made are indeed miracles. “From giving up to claiming my expression and voice”.
Beautiful to feel your appreciation of Chris James and yourself in this comment Janina.
Sounds like a wonderfully different experience you had Anne. It’s amazing how great it is when emotion is taken out of music and you can feel the true beauty of it.
Thank you Anne for sharing your experience of singing with Chris James. I have never really liked singing and didn’t like the sound of my voice but once I learned to connect and sing from my heart, my voice sounded completely different. I love singing along to the songs by Glorious Music the words are so profound and each song is so different I never get bored of them like I did when I listened to the latest songs in the charts.
Being able to experience simply listening and the also speaking while others are simply listening is transformational and super powerful as you share Anne. For me this exercise was a lovely stepping stone to being able to bring it more consistently into my daily life.
For me too johanna08smith – letting go of the need to have an answer and just truly listening and trusting that if there is something to be said it will be there.
Wow Anne you are on fire! Another amazing and deeply confirming blog. I know what you mean about the feeling of harmony in the group and singing with our heart. I too have experienced this at Chris James workshops. They are well worth experiencing.
Anne, it is beautiful to read you blog. I too went to a Chris James workshop and I was blown away by it, I had always been told I was tone death and could not sing and so I stopped singing altogether, but at this workshop Chris told everyone that they had beautiful voices, I felt like I was given permission to sing and it felt amazing expressing in this way, I did not hold back.
I can relate to having experienced one of Chris James workshops and the joy of singing without worrying about getting it right. Like many others I always thought I couldn’t sing very well but Chris has way of assisting us to find our true voice – I found the whole experience quite healing.
The joy of singing to express all that you are shines through every word of this article.
The freeing feeling in her is definitely felt …
What I’ve noticed with so much music is that it is so often telling a story to take us away from our bodies and make us disappear into our thoughts and get sucked up in emotion. It is easy I find to get hooked into the glamour of music, yet what you describe Anne is very different, singing along to music that connects you more closely to your body, your heart, we could say to your soul!
It is super powerful, I know pieces of music that will take me back to a memory as if I was still there,to particular moments in my life. That sort of power can be misused for sure, and often it is emotional and taking you away from yourself as you describe Stephen.
Moreover Vanessa, virtually all music is composed from a place where the artist is looking for recognition, to be cool, to be seen, and respected, I wonder how much music is produced where the artist considers the quality of the space/energy they are in themselves, i.e. how much integrity they live their life with. If someone is making music on drugs as is seen as normal in many musical genres, then does that not impact the music that is projected out. These are the considerations that as a society we have not been willing to go to and look at, perhaps it is time we did.
I agree Stephen that it is so easy to “get hooked into the glamour of music”, and this is what most music today does, taking us away from ourselves to a world of illusion, separating us from who we truly are. There is not one ounce of glamour or illusion in the music of Chris James or Glorious Music; it is simply music that takes you home, to you.
Completely agree Stephen… there are songs that will transport me to far away places, both in time and space. Memories and emotional states from way back in my past….. and if I just consider for a moment, they take me away from where I am today. Who I am today. Why would we choose that?
Anne, this sounds (and feels) so beautiful – “When I felt I was singing with joy, I absolutely knew that it didn’t matter how the sound came out… if it was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’… if it was too high or too low… I did not even consider what anyone would think of my singing. In fact, I didn’t think at all.” How different that was for you to the way you had thought you should be when you were singing in the past. What a sense of freedom you must have felt, nothing had to be ‘right’ or to be as others think it should be and you yourself did not judge it. So beautiful to be singing from your heart.
Yes I loved this too Beverly the not thinking part, I have recently experienced this with exercise, just really enjoying how my body feels with no thinking.
Anne, I have recently starting playing the piano again after 20 years and am loving singing along to the tinkering notes. Over the past few years I have attended workshops with Chris James and I now have a newfound confidence in singing which I have never had before. Since attending Chris’ workshops I discovered that we all indeed have beautiful voices when we connect with our inner-heart.
I have loved that about Chris James’ workshops, he helps you hear that everyone can sing and everyone has a beautiful voice. His workshops are incredibly empowering and it is lovely to hear that you are bringing that into your piano playing now.
When we connect with our inner-heart it does not matter if every note is sung or played correctly, as the beauty of such music is far beyond anything that could be labelled ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
Anne I can feel the joy in your words. I have had similar experiences in Chris James’ workshops, rediscovering the glory that comes from connecting with the body and singing from the inner-heart. Reading your blog has brough back fond memories of the workshops that I have done with Chris and the amazing beauty that comes from sounds that arise from the body when connected with the inner-heart.
Indeed Donna and Anne, the workshops with Chris are simply amazing and amazingly simple. It is a beauty to feel how letting out ones natural voice and expression changes everybody and that really everybody has a beautiful and unique voice.
This is so great to read, the freedom you talk about with Chris is a true healing.
Absolutely Natasha, true expression equals true healing, this is so clear and simple.
So well said 🙂 and reminds me of the workshops Chris James holds on true expression ~ as well as Victoria Carter 🙂
Thank you Anne, the difference you describe in how you felt singing with Chris James… ‘I had a heightened sense of my body, the glow and stillness within me, and the bubbling joy – it is almost impossible to express the grandness and glory of it all.” and times from days gone by in a different situation… ‘I felt I had to force my voice, to ‘perform’ and I didn’t enjoy not being myself. I was anxious before each part I was in. I remember wanting everyone (friends and family who came along to the show) to acknowledge how well I had done. This contrast is a perfect illustration of the difference we all experience in a myriad of ways every day when we choose to express the fullness of who we are, versus expressing what it is (we think) is expected of us.
Spot on Doug, countless times l’ve run with something I think someone else is thinking (usually about me!) and turns out it wasn’t true, and yet l’ve spent umpteen hours/days/weeks in the disturbance of whatever l’ve expected is being or will be held. Such a game we entertain and such a waste of time and energy!
The joy and wonderment you describe your experience in is truly felt in your words Anne. Thank you for sharing. This experience makes you realise the impact of voice and sound on the body, in reference to all different types of music played on the radio, TV, film, etc.
I agree, so much can be felt through this blog of the wonder and joy Anne experienced. Really inspiring.
Great point johannebrown17 I never really listened to music, I really liked to dance but never would listen to music on my own; as an adult I do remember loving ABBA, and some bands I will not mention in my teens, but from my 20s onward I just didn’t listen so much. Now I know it is because it didn’t feel good in my body, so I was able to honour myself on my own but when I was wanting to have ‘fun’ and ‘party’ I would override my knowing about music and how if felt in order to fit in.
Yes, the joy is certainly palpable and so inspiring to all.
Thank you Anne and Johannebrown17, I agree, listening to the music that does not impose is definitely a joy. Could it be that one of the reasons drugs and alcohol are so much part of the music industry, ‘radio etc.’ is because how much disconnection is needed to listen and not feel from our body? Chris James is a master at getting people to listen and feeling from the body and the body is undeniably the marker of all truth. Feeling from the body is one thing that is profoundly felt when we connect to the inner-heart and the feeling can not be denied..
This is really interesting Anne. I often wondered why some songs were harder to sing and some were easy. It wasn’t the key that they were in, and to realise that it was perhaps the emotions that came with the song is fascinating and makes sense as emotions affect the voice very quickly. Your experience with Chris James sounds great and very freeing. How lovely it is to sing with freedom and no judgement or expectations and pure joy.
I agree Amanda, it’s very freeing to sing without expectations or a need for recognition, letting go of any ideals and instead just allowing our heartfelt expression out with no attachments.
It is a deep healing to hear our own true voice expressed every time we speak or sing connected to ourselves. What a healing we are endowed with in life, simply to have voice and the ability to express with it, we are given such a precious gift to self initiate.
Very true Adele, it is deeply healing to hear our own true voice.
Lovely expressed Adele! I agree- the voice is an indicator for so much and can heal or harm… what a powerful instrument?!
To fully enjoy the beauty of our voice makes freedom of expression so much easier.
Beautifully expressed Adele. I sometimes bring attention to my voice and feel its vibration as I speak and get a bit of a surprise as it can feel so full – so different to the out dated version of myself as meek I’ve let go of.
Beautifully said Adele, from reading your comment I am appreciating this amazing gift and to use it to express truth and love, very powerful.
Beautifully expressed Adele
A great reminder Adele, of how powerful the voice is in… a multitude of expressions and the ability to touch so many people. We would be wise to consider how we are using it.
Listening deeply with the inner ear of the heart definitely is a precious gift! These blogs and comments are definitely allowing me to connect more deeply, which is a true blessing!
Thank you Anne and Adele, I appreciate how we can bring ‘deep healing’ through our true expression, which is part of the workshops with Chris James.
Just beautiful Anne, thank you for sharing your experiences. Your last sentence says it all really;
“And so, from this life-changing workshop in Wanaka, I am allowing myself to feel a lot more, to be vulnerable and to connect with my body a lot more and express from there… and I intend to sing a lot more too, from my heart, with joy”.
Beautiful indeed. We also get to feel our own beauty when we let go and trust our bodies and our hearts.
Beautifully true Shevon!
Thank you Anne and Shirl, I agree, the magic of Chris James ‘workshops’ has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
To be able to fully express, and not hold back, singing, speaking, listening – is such beauty Anne, I can feel your joy, and it is inspiring to feel your appreciation in this.
Yes, I agree Zofia. I can feel the joy expressed through Anne’s blog, it inspires me to be aware of how I express and where it comes from as in my heart or my head.
Anne what a beautiful sharing. I can feel your joy in expression and in being heard – how different it is when we speak from the heart, and drop all the trying to be anything other than us. It is indeed a joy, and how gorgeous to be able to sing with that.
Anne I could relate to a lot of what you have shared here. I too grew up singing through school and performed in many school musicals. There is a true distinction between how I performed back then, which was really about being seen and applauded for what I could do. To now being able to sing and express from my heart and enjoy the pure joy without anxiousness feels so far from where I was before. Singing from the heart is an absolute joy. Thank you.
Anne, I enjoyed reading your explanation of the group sharing when “the others simply listened”. It is great to be given the space to express. I’ve often held back from expressing because I sensed that people were not truly listening or they were wanting to interrupt to have their say. I realize now that I gave my power to them and my voice would come out weak and people often would not be able to hear me. But if I give myself permission to speak and value my expression then I command the space and people listen because they sense that something of value is being expressed.
Thank you for sharing your experience of expressing from the heart Anne. I have felt a huge difference between talking and engaging from my mind and expressing from my heart what is there to be expressed. I have found that when I express from my heart there is an ease, the right words are spoken, the right amount and rate – when I am talking from my mind I often say too much or cut other people off or hold back. True expression expresses all that is there to express – nothing less and nothing more.
GLORIOUS!
Singing with Joy is a vitalising experience for the body, it is energising and ‘resonates within every cell’. This magic inspires others to feel the grace of this wonderful connection, and inspires joy like a ripple in a pool. The JOY is magnified through the Earth.
Loving what you are sharing and can really feel just how much you have en-joyed this. I have been on Chris James workshops and yes they are great, everyone singing together no comparison and judgement, just this huge letting go and just being, plus my voice was all over the place high, low, squeaky all within the group it didn’t matter, it was like being a kid and just playing around with it was great fun.
It’s gorgeous to read your experience of the singing workshop Anne, having had the same profound experience too. I love how singing like this can be so unifying.
Something I know about Chris James, is that he lives the Joy that he presents through his singing workshops EVERY single day. His workshops are so FUN and INSPIRING.
This is true harryjwhite – Chris James enjoys his presentations fully and makes them fun and playful – participants cannot help but enjoy themselves as any embarrassment or awkwardness fades away very quickly.
Thank you Anne Scott, The work of Chris James is so amazing and you have described so well in this blog what it is all about! I have done many workshops with Chris James and always felt that consistent Joy of reconnecting with my true voice, and the connection of singing with other people. It is something that I cherished and take into my every day life with me.
It felt so beautiful reading your blog, Anne, I could feel the joy in your heart and the strength of the love in your connection with you, with the music and with everyone else at the workshop, simply divine.
Thankyou Anne, there is a simplicity in what you write about listening, just being present with yourself, your body, and in your heart, “without thinking I had to butt in to be nice or to confirm, rescue, sympathise or even empathise.”
The beautiful thing about this for me is the juxtaposition of the two experiences of singing: performing on stage singing musical numbers, and singing from a place of connection and communication. Music is such a powerful form of expression. It is something that can affect us in innumerable ways, and therefore carries with it a responsibility for those who are listening to our music and our performances. It is not about striving for perfection, but holding the listener as an equal and not imposing our need to be heard upon them.
Thank you Anne! I always held back from singing as I felt I wasn’t good enough to be sharing my voice. I simply love to sing, and know my voice has a beautiful resonant quality that has something to bring to whoever hears it. It is still for me to bring this absoluteness all the time when I approach singing – but a beautiful unfoldment nonetheless.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful experience, Anne. I really could feel your joy expressing yourself.
Chris James is so much more than a singing teacher, and with your voice, he gives you permission to let you connect with you with absolutely no judgment in the process.
What you share here Anne reminds me of the way my young child sings with such pure joy and no attachment to how others see them. It is purely for the pleasure that it brings.
To be able to express from our hearts and not let any thoughts or distraction and doubt come in is quite extraordinary in our world of today yet it is something absolutely natural to us and it is beautiful to read your words Anne and see that it is possible to express that way.
There is such a difference singing from the heart and with the joy that brings. Chris James is a gorgeous man full of joy and has a deep feeling of love in his expression and he supports others to bring that forth and connect to from within themselves. through singing. Singing in this way allows us to express naturally, it’s empowering, not forced and not confined to ‘how it should be’ and it’s fun too.
There is nothing like singing from the heart, and working with Chris James is so much fun as he really brings out the joy in singing. I love what you have shared here Anne, it’s inspiring me to sing more in my fullness and connection to me.
This is beautiful to read, I always felt like I couldn’t sing, but with the workshops from Chris James, I found I could. And now feeling more and more to sing along to all the beautiful music produced by the Esoteric students. It is a true joy to sing from the heart.
I feel Chris James is brilliant at what he does. He manages to facilitate people getting into their bodies, connecting to their hearts and the joy of singing so quickly. I have seen him do it time and time again.
The body makes the truth known in so many ways during the course of our lives as has happened for you Anne. The impact of society attempts to separate us from this truth and asks us to live and express in a way that is not true. What a powerful revelation in your comment – ‘This felt so different from other times when I have been affected by music which I have heard or songs I have sung that made me sad or ‘revved up’– and this is perhaps why I couldn’t even sing the songs in the musical (I was choking, literally, on the emotions in them). Your experience of finding your true expression through the work with Chris James has allowed and honoured and release through you voice what was true. Life is about trusting and living the living wisdom of our bodies – simple really.
What a great experience Anne. I have resisted doing a singing workshop for some time, for many of the reasons you list above. However I’ve read so many blog posts about how amazing they are, I’m this close to making the choice to take one, one day soon.
I remember avoiding doing a singing workshop for many years because I judged myself as not being a good enough singer. When curiosity got the better of me, I was amazed at what I learnt about myself, and it was not just about singing. It made me realise the importance of expressing my truth in all areas of my life. Well worth it.
A glorious , inspirational sharing Anne. Chris James certainly brings out the magic in our voices and shares so much in his presentations. Thank you for sharing your joy with all Anne.
I love what you have written here Anne, you have expressed so well what happens in one of Chris James workshops. I was at the same workshop and like you actually loved going to the high notes, which in the past I would normally avoid like the plague, and I had no attachment to how they came out for a change. I surprised myself with my sound when I just allowed it to be, it felt glorious.
Your last line is beautiful and I can echo it. “I am continually inspired by Chris James – by the man, and by his amazing Music.”
I am inspired by you too Anne, and what you discovered about yourself, your voice and your expression.
There is a reason the angels sing in Heaven…. As vital as our breath is as humans, so to is a song to our Soul – forever singing within and calling us home to the All that we are.
Expressed with such beauty here Liane I am truly blessed to read your words, you know heaven, it’s clear.
What a beautiful experience and contrast in expression you have noted here Anne, thank you for sharing the joy that you are and that resonates through your body and out of your mouth when you express you in all that you are. Joy is a way of living that encompasses each choice we make to honour and tangibly know our expression without the hindrance of pressure to be anything else.
I love the fact that you describe what it felt like to sing when you were performing and hence trying and what it felt like to sing with the freedom of expression in just being you. Both definitely have very different affects in our bodies. Keep singing Anne.
Anne, I love your description of how you were choking on emotions in the songs you sang earlier, compared to the ease with which your true voice flowed when free of this imposition. It really highlights how much we swallow that which we are not, at the expense of that which we truly are. When we sing with true love, we ignite the world with the All that we are, so that all can feel that they are also of this love.
Beautifully said Liane, and this applies to our expression all day, every day, not just when we choose to sing. To express from who we are, in full and hence without imposition is the sweetest experience, not just for the one expressing but all around us.
Anne, reading your blog leaves me in no doubt as to the power of what you experienced. I was particularly struck by your comments about listening and talking to another person with a real openness which generated very honest sharing and communication. What a wonderful lesson for all of life because every moment in every day we are communicating with our surroundings. Imagine how much more is revealed and heard when all the neediness is out of the way and we are simply ourselves.
Anne, I love your heartfelt sharing! Most have heard of the expression ‘dance like no one’s watching’ which we could translate to ‘sing like no one’s listening’ – what is interesting about this is that if we do actually sing differently and more ‘freely’ when we think no one is listening then it is exposing that we hold back the fullness of our natural expression when there are others listening! And what if we could actually totally let loose the fullness of our natural expression all of the time for all those around us to enjoy, and sing freely – then could we not say ‘sing like everyone is listening’? Our divine expression is here for us all to enjoy, it is not something to be kept in a box or to be hidden from the world, or saved for a select few. It is time we all sang like no one is listening yet at the same time like everyone is listening – to share the joy and beauty we have connected to.
Great point Shirley-Ann! It is common to oscillate between the showing off and then the false sense of humility, but this is not accepting our fullness as something that comes from the inside – this happens when we see our grandness as something that is achieved from the outside. Our most natural state is a grandness that holds humbleness in knowing the extent of the grandness as well as a celebration of it but never one that puts oneself as greater, instead it is about putting oneself as equally grand as everyone else!
Anne, the joy in your writing about this is so gorgeous – I feel as if I have been at the workshop with you!
‘There was no emotion in the song to pull me away from myself; rather, it connected me with my real self, with my inner heart, so when I sang I felt it was coming from deep within me and that it was part of me.’ …. I have never done a Chris James workshop, but as I read these words I could feel so clearly how most music DOES either pull us away from ourselves with the emotion, or shut us down with it’s aggressive harshness. I can feel how we crave feeling true love in music, love that meets us and supports us in who we are, when we feel anything less than love, we cannot connect from our hearts and feel the joy, rather, we react by checking out, allowing ourselves to be taken away with the emotion or going into our hurts, whatever it is, it’s not supportive and certainly not nurturing our soul.
Me too Stephanie, I have never attended a Chris James workshop in person, but now I feel I have been to one and it was amazing, thank you Anne.
When I am feeling a bit off, I often sing to bring myself back. I put on a song, usually by Glorious Music, connect to my body, open my mouth and let the music flow out. I make sure that I am not ‘trying’ to sound good, like I used to when I sang, or to hold back the love that I am expression as I sing to my hearts content.
I have done this in the past too Eleanor, I used sounding that I learnt from Victoria Carter and found they brought me back to my body, it was the most beautiful experience. Thank you for reminding me of the power of our voice and singing in bringing us back to ourselves.
Beautiful Eleanor, so important to know how to bring ourselves back to the fullness of who we are and music can be a very powerful tool to support that.
I went on my first Chris James workshop last year and can really relate to so much of what you have said Anne. It was the first time I could feel my voice resonate through my whole body bringing an expansion to it. And the union of many voices becoming one divine sound was amazing and a great reflection of the power of brotherhood.
Yes Eleanor, I have experienced the same in the Chris James workshops I have attended, both in the connection of my voice through my body and the gorgeous sense of brotherhood when we sing together, sometimes it feels like a choir of angels, the harmonies are so light and clear. Amazing what can happen when we don’t hold back.
Your words here Anne sing with such joy and show that harmony is not just a note, but flows from a deep union inside of us with everything and everyone else. How powerful are Chris James’ workshops that they bring people together this way.
“And so, from this life-changing workshop in Wanaka, I am allowing myself to feel a lot more, to be vulnerable and to connect with my body a lot more and express from there… and I intend to sing a lot more too, from my heart, with joy.” I can relate very well to what you say here Anne. I have worked with Chris James now for several years, and I too feel the joy of expressing from my heart. I have always enjoyed singing, but was super scared to sing on my own up until a few years ago. Having been given the grace to express myself in this way I now sing regularly to other people, unaccompanied, and they too feel the joy. It is indeed a beautiful way to connect to yourself and with others, when there are no expectations from how we should sound. Thank you Chris James for supporting me to be all that I am through singing ; ))
“At Chris James’ workshop we all sang together in amazing harmony and unity. It felt like we had sung together like that many times – even though I hadn’t met some of the people there before!” – this has blown me away before, how a group of so-called strangers come together to one of Chris’ workshops, and by morning tea are singing in harmony. Everyone is singing from first feeling connected to their own essence and so, there is no competition to out sing anybody else, or to perform. It’s very beautiful and very healing to experience.
Although it sounds incredible that a group of once strangers could, in a few short hours sing together in joy and harmony, it is in truth our natural way of being.
It shows what is possible when people connect to their essence and come together without a personal agenda … instant harmony is felt by all. Amazing but very normal and natural if only we allow ourselves the space and grace to go there.
Anne, I have attended many Chris James’ workshops and I remember the day when I first felt myself sing from my heart – the joy I felt in my body was immense.
Agree Sandra, and i remember few years back when for the first time i allowed myself to truly feel the music, its notes, words, the feeling of the entire group in brotherhood, and as i began to open up and sing, the freeness in expressing from the heart had me singing with silent tears of complete joy. This felt amazing and confirming of the love we all are, together.
Amazing Anne. To not think, to just be. No rules, no expectations, no ideals and no beliefs. That is a freedom most of us crave and endlessly seek because life is exhausting and no fun when we are always trying to fit into the rule book, ticking all the boxes of life’s constant demands, dulling our expression and our true voice.
I love this Joshua, so light and playful. Life is no fun when we dull our expression in an attempt to tick boxes.
So true Joshua, your comment reminds me of when I used to sing as a young child and with other children at school. Back then their was no inhibition, just loads of fun. To return to this way of being as an adult is an absolute blessing that I am sure would positively impact all other aspects of life as well.
I feel this is the way many of us feel about life and the potential that lives before us as a child, yet we feel the pounding and thrust and feel that this is not possible but anything is possible when we connect with our hearts
Anne, I can feel your joy in this very beautiful experience and how you are being held by this in the connection you now have with your body. A heartfelt sharing.
Yes Anne I was going to comment the same, you can feel the joy that was experienced and the joy in which this was written.
A workshop with Chris James is in indeed a live-changing experience. For me it meant discovering my beautiful voice and a joy in singing after 30 years of hiding behind a much higher pitched and muted voice and not singing at all if there was the faintest risk that anyone might be able to listen.
A workshop with Chris James is on my menu in the next year or so. I so look forward to it, even more since reading Anne’s delightful description of her recent experience. I want to free up my expression much more, and I feel Chris is the person who can really help me with this. I have not been able to truly sing for many, many years, it is time to let this go and ‘let it rip’. (gently of course).
Thank you Ann for sharing your experience and the difference between singing from within or singing from the need to be heard, accepted, confirmed. I feel it’s the difference between expressing from the love that we are or from the hurts, beliefs and ideals that we hold.
Yes Carolien, and a lot of music has been written “from the hurts, beliefs and ideals that we hold”. You can often hear the singers ‘begging’ to be recognised or loved, or the band expressing their anger and frustration, or the New Age music taking you off into dreamland. But when music is expressed from love it is uplifting and the body expands as you play it or listen to it.
Musicians can be incredibly influential, particularly for the younger generation. It’s a shame there aren’t more people producing ‘glorious music’ in connection with their divine true selves as the difference when this is done is astounding and so impactful, pure joy.
I would take it a step further Sandra by stating that even if the words may not speak of the hurts and beliefs the energy of those producing the music definitely is. There are many emotional hooks as was written in this blog too. We just have come to crave these emotions for ourselves.
I thank you for sharing your experience – it is amazing to get past all the judgement and self criticism and just feel the power and magic of your own sound.
When we let out who we truly are, it is such a joy and we cannot but sing. Your example of the workshop of Chris James and of the musical is a proof for that when we connect to our inner heart and express from there everything and everyone feels the simplicity of love, whilst when the focus is on performing and trying to be the best and be seen, comparison and competition comes in and we all loose in the end.
So true Annelies, I love how you say to let out who we truly are. It is such a joy and why would we keep it trapped inside?
Yes it feels amazing when you can tell you are being deeply listened too and heard.
I love it when there is total connection and presence between people. So many of our issues would never escalate into dramas if we spent the time really listening and connecting to each other first and foremost. A simple lesson I wish I had of grasped much earlier in life. its crazy how basic human interaction is something we haven’t really focused on as a species, yet we lament wars, bullying, conflicts, divorces. Crazy.
‘its crazy how basic human interaction is something we haven’t really focused on as a species’ … true words, Felicity. We are often too busy protecting ourselves or needing something from the other person, so our focus is more about what we’re going to say next than truly feeling what the other person is trying to share with us. I am working on allowing a pause after someone has spoken to me, so I know they have finished what they feel to say, just allowing some space in case there is more to share.
That is great , that you are creating the space to truly listen to people, and to let them feel heard- even that alone makes communication easier between people.
Gorgeous Anne. It is beautiful to read about your experience connecting to your voice. I found it interesting to read about the emotions you felt in the musical music. I hadn’t considered that the emotions in music could ‘choke’ me but it makes perfect sense.
I have had a similar experience Leonne where I have had the emotions in songs physically affect my voice and movements. Music is a powerful form of expression and the energy is either supportive or not.
Thank you Anne, it is beautiful to feel the very distinct difference you discovered for yourself via singing from your body, your heart, as against that of your mind and expectation.
I agree Giselle. To me singing feels like any other form of expression which can either come from our body or our mind. Having paid attention to where I am expressing from I can feel the difference in quality when I express from my body.
What a refreshing way to sing – straight from the heart with pure joy.
Very refreshing and not coincidence that singing from the heart would feel so free and that the alternative can produce something that sounds right but feels awful
There is a richness in the sound when we sing from our body that feels amazing and alive.
I agree Deborahmckay, – in fact what a refreshing way to do everything – regardless of whether or not it’s singing – and “straight from the heart with pure joy.”