Voice

~Why your voice matters~

When I was a little girl, I asked my mother, "What is a soul?"

I was standing at the top of our staircase, calling down to her. She was in the kitchen, and she called back to me after a moment, "Well, when I'm talking to you, I'm talking to your soul."

And in that moment, as a little girl, I kinda believed my soul was my voice. I mean, not exactly, since I had quite the religious upbringing- but kinda; I envisioned that my soul was perched somewhere in my throat, and that when I speak, I'm using my soul.

Let me be clear: we all hold different beliefs about what a soul is. I am not about to tell you what you must believe in, or undermine any belief you already have about these peculiar things, but I will, as always, explore the language. Let's begin.

After all, what is soul?

There are two definitions I came across when searching for soul, and I liked both of them very much.

Soul:

1. Spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal

2.emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance.

There seems to be many people who believe that a soul is within us, a part of us, or the essence of us. It's what we call that "energy" that ignites passion and inspires art. To have soul is to emanate that energy so powerfully that others can see it and feel it. In fact, I can think of no greater accomplishment than taking my passion and planting that same passionate spark in others.

That is why I believe that when we speak, we are using our soul.

After all, what is voice?

The human voice is a sound production. It has an exact, measurable function and years of science behind it to explain it. If you google the definition of voice, you get a pretty clear cut picture:

Voice:

1. the sound produced in a person's larynx and uttered through the mouth, as speech or song. 2. express something (in words)

And at first glimpse you may think gee, that's boring. Yet, packed into this plain language is the idea that voice doesn't have to be a sound...it can be words, too. Now, there is a literary definition of "voice" that writers and lit theorists know all too well. It's the fancy way of focusing on the "words" part. You can read that definition here.

Here is my definition: Voice is expression and you have options as to how you choose to use your voice; spoken or written word, or honestly any art form, but I'll touch on that some other time. For now, I'm going to focus on the two most obvious ones; spoken voice and the voice of the written word.

All day, every day we are in constant dialogue with voices from the moment we wake up to the moment we close our eyes. Like when we check our newsfeed and notifications, listen to music, speak with colleagues, send emails, watch videos or listen to the radio, read a book, write a note, order takeout, leave a comment...in literally everything we do, we are using voice to communicate. Additionally, I like to think of literature as a space in which one encounters extraordinary voices, hence why I developed The Literary Matrix theory. When we bring all of these ideas together, I can't help but see the similarity between voice and soul.

Both voice and soul are within us, a part of us, and the essence of what makes us. When it comes to our voice we get to choose how we use it (via art) and how we communicate with it- those decisions make up who we are (Many Worlds Quantum Theory, anyone?)! Our voice is the unspoken and the spoken. Everything we know and the way we share and encode ideas works directly through voice. When we understand this idea, we begin to unlock a plethora of potential; the power of our voice is infinite. We can speak ideas into existence, we can alter our reality just by using our own voice to say things like I can and I will. When we use that little voice inside our head, we're speaking to an inner dialogue deep within us. Maybe, just maybe, that's our soul.

I'll leave you with a favorite quote of mine. I happened upon it one night when I was stumbling around in the matrixy realm (that space in the internet where people explore these fringe science ideas). This journey took me deep into a new territory I never knew existed and I will be sure to write about it in the future. In the meantime, here is a sneak peak from Yantara Jiro, someone who actively seeks enlightenment concerning sound, consciousness and quantum healing...

"Each person’s voice is unique and one of a kind. No sound in the world is ever the same. Our voice has power, and when utilized and trained consciously it can open doors to infinite possibilities. If you have a voice; you can sing; you can tone; you can hum. And so, each sound, each note you express from your heart represents a thousand words."

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