In Your Own Voice
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(Lose the Net by Rasmus Faber Courtesy of Epidemic Music)
Isn’t it amazing how good questions lead us so naturally to good answers, and how beautiful questions lead to even better answers! When we open ourselves to the things we don’t know, we’ve opened the doors to discovery and wonder and greater understanding.
I’m Scott Lennox and you’re listening to The Beautiful Question, a consideration of things that matter every day.
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You were born with a beautiful and powerful voice. Before you understood any spoken language, your voice was the instrument you used to get your needs met. But that was before the world began telling you to silence it or change it.
Join me this week as we consider the strength of your voice and some powerful ways of using it for your own good. Stay with me.
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I’ve said many times that one of my deepest desires is to be a strong voice in the world for hope, optimism, and possibility—a voice for compassion and acceptance and civility and peace. Yet I know that the voice of even the finest instrument remains silent until it’s in the hands of a musician who has carefully tuned it and brought it to life.
photo: Scott Lennox
Imagine sitting in a stunningly beautiful and acoustically perfect concert hall. The musicians walk in with their instruments and take their seats. A hush falls over the audience as the lights come down. The conductor taps her baton on the edge of the music stand and on the downbeat, the musicians begin to perform. But not one of them has tuned the instrument they’re holding. Not one of them has spent the countless hours needed to master the pieces they’re playing. Not one of them has learned the power of the priceless instrument that’s been entrusted to them or the limitless range of things it can communicate.
The sound they produce would be chaotic and downright unbearable.
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In contrast, now imagine sitting in the same magnificent hall and the same orchestra is playing the same music. But this time, each musician has spent countless hours practicing and refining their skills. Each has spent time mastering the subtle nuances the composer wrote into the music to make it beautiful and moving. And each has painstakingly tuned their instrument as they readied themselves to perform.
What you hear will be so breathtaking and inspiring that you’ll be moved and lifted up and perhaps brought to tears.
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But now, instead of an orchestra hall filled with musicians and priceless musical instruments, imagine yourself tuning and skillfully handling the miraculous instrument of your own speaking voice.
You’ve given conscious thought to tone and volume and inflection. You’ve considered the effects the mindful use of your voice has on those who hear you, including yourself. You’ve spent time thinking about the words you use and the subtle and often life-changing power they hold. You’ve become increasingly intentional about how you speak to yourself and to the people around you. And you’ve consciously chosen exactly what it is that you want your voice to communicate and the effect you want that communication to have.
In fact, you’ve become a master of your own instrument, confidently playing the music that only your voice can bring to the world—only yours! You’ve discovered that there is music in you that only you and your miraculous vocal instrument can offer—the music of kindness and the soft words that come with only your voice, the music of your own thoughtfulness, the music of your loyalty and your generosity and acceptance, the quiet music of being fully and lovingly present, the music of being bold and direct. The rare and wonderful music of being authentic.
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When you first arrived in this world, you had no reservations at all about using your voice. You didn’t stop to think about it, you didn’t ask permission, you just let it happen. And happen it did. In fact, using your voice was a matter of survival and wellbeing. The only way you had to make your needs known was to “sing out.” In fact, you were able to accomplish that before you knew a single thing about anything that remotely resembled language. You cried passionately. You screamed passionately. You expressed your displeasure passionately. You laughed passionately. You expressed wonder and surprise and joy and pleasure passionately.
You didn’t hold back in any way.
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So, what happens now when you accept that the powerful and passionate voice you had as a child is still in you, and that it is completely and authentically yours to use in ways that are good and healthy?
What happens when you own the fact that you are the one to decide what is “acceptable” and what is “not acceptable” when it comes to the use of your voice?
What happens when you release all of the constraints that were imposed on you from forces outside you?
It’s simple, really.
With all that, you are, you play the music that is in you.
You sing your own song of being fully alive.
You sing your own song of Compassion.
You sing your own song of Patience.
You sing your own song of Peace.
You sing your own song of Possibility.
You sing your own song of Joy.
You to sing your own song of Presence.
You sing your own song of Light.
You sing your own song of Hope.
You sing the song of your most authentic self.
You stop allowing anyone or anything to silence you.
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This week’s three Beautiful Questions are designed to encourage your consideration of the power of your own voice and the authority that you alone have over how you use it. I look forward to hearing your responses. Here are my questions for you this week.
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Question One: What do you know about what caused you to put your voice away?
Question Two: What is it that your voice has been waiting until this moment to speak, and to whom do you speak it?
Question Three: What will most likely happen when you reclaim the power and the joy of speaking in your own voice?
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After you’ve considered these questions, write and tell me what you discover. I’m listening. But be sure and tell me in your own wonderful voice!
As I say each week,
My Light with Your Light!
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I’m happy we can engage this way as we consider things that matter and what to do about them. If nothing else, I hope you feel inspired to look more deeply at ways of caring for yourself.
You can be further inspired by visiting my friends at Kosmos Journal. That’s K O S M O S Journal. Their mission is to inform, inspire, and engage global transformation in harmony with all life. You can easily find them online at Kosmos Journal dot O R G.
And at thebeautifulquestion.com, you can read the illustrated transcript of each podcast as you listen. We’ve also included an archive of all previous podcasts, including guided relaxation audios that can help you practice letting go on a daily basis.
If you find these podcasts useful, I encourage you to share them and tell others about them. That’s a great way of helping me get a voice of calm and collaboration and balance and encouragement out into the world.
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I’m Scott Lennox, and this has been The Beautiful Question.
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The Beautiful Question is a One Light production, written, produced, and engineered by Scott Lennox at HeartRock Studios in Fort Worth, Texas, as a way of paying forward to life, being fully present, becoming better engaged with things that truly matter in a complex world, and committing to a healthier future for all of us.