Turn right onto Worth Street, and you end up at my house.  This is not a joke.  I really do live off Worth Street.

And this gives me great pause, makes me think, because the concept of worth, even feeling worthy of being here on this planet, is too often impaired or ignored or decapitated.  We (might) have a collective problem in this department, Houston.

Tonight I get to meet with a group of beautiful, rambunctious, super-charged women to talk about their desires and how to live more authentically.  We meet every two weeks and discuss books or ideas that teach us how to be more alive.

Tonight’s theme is about having the courage to say “I am enough,” and exploring how we would make different decisions in specific areas of our lives if this belief were true.  There is a video out there on the ole’ YouTube by Marisa Peer, a fairly famous, non-trad therapist, who suggests that the biggest disease affecting humanity is the single thought, “I’m not enough.”

So, she is asking all of us to turn this around and start saying the opposite: “I AM enough.”  Marisa also suggests that we go ahead and lie to ourselves if this doesn’t feel real.  Go ahead, lie away.  Keep saying “I am enough” and watch what happens in your life.  Write it on your bathroom mirror, put it on a sticky note in your car, plaster it on the walls of your cubicle, she says.  Go ahead.  This is a “won’t hurt, might help” kind of suggestion.

So . . . where are we going with this idea?  It will help us with our voices too.

Do you remember the first time you heard your voice recorded?  Every single person I’ve surveyed about this says they couldn’t believe it was them.  You hear yourself differently from inside your cranium than what is heard out in the space in front of you.

Often, people have a very negative reaction to the recorded sound of their speaking or singing voice at first.  Sometimes people continue to have a negative reaction to their recorded voice for reasons that are probably as varied as there are individual psyches.  I’ve heard brilliant, accomplished singers say they don’t like the sound of their recorded voice.  (What??)  But, okay, I kind of get it.   That sound is so very much unlike what we experience when we sing!

The disparity between what we hear and what the audience hears offers us insight into how accepting we are of our own voices.  Our reaction to this difference offers us the opportunity to say . . . I am enough.

Beyond dealing with the difference between the voice inside our heads (haha) and what is heard on the outside, often people just flat out don’t like their voices.  “I don’t like my voice,” is not an uncommon statement.  This pains me.  I want people to experience an awe-struck delight in all the things they can do, even if they don’t do them perfectly well or exactly like the guy next to them.

Think about how a child feels when then run and jump and play, they take delight in ALL the things.

Your voice matters.  Your voice is powerful.  Your voice conveys your emotions.

And there will never be another voice like yours in all of the universe across all of time.  Your voice is an audio brand unlike anything else out there.  Wow.  Based on just that little factoid there, you have evidence to stand in awe.  Like, everyday.  AND you have cause to say, “I am enough, and since my voice is part of me, it is enough too.”

How would you feel if you believed the thought (about your voice!): “I am enough!!”

<<< This voice is enough.  I am enough.  My voice is enough.  I am enough.>>>

What would those thoughts do to your singing and your music?  What changes would take place in your heart?  How would that feel?

I’m actually imploring you to give it a shot, say it out loud.  As you are singing and making music and being alive, go around saying “I am enough, my voice is enough,” and see if it helps.  Living in a state of worth of being here, having a voice, and sharing that voice with the world will get us closer to the #loverevolution.

Helpful Hint

I made a #22secondsofvoice video last year on how to hear yourself from out in front of your beautiful face by making ear panels.  (Ear panels, yay.)  Check it out here, and use it in your practice.  I learned it from Diana Spradling at the University of Western Michigan, and it has come in handy over and over.  Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!