Your Voice Matters

Your Voice is your essence in expression. Your essence is your spirit, your soul.  Many of you search for your purpose, and yet the search usually is focused on finding the right method or teacher or external solution—copying someone else.

This is looking in the wrong direction. It is your Voice, the language of your soul, that will provide direction, excitement, and purpose, and give you that sense of wholeness you want to experience.

We are conditioned to listen to others as experts and truth tellers. There are many wonderful teachers to listen to. I’m not saying don’t do that. But the way to listen or study anyone is for the wisdom that leads you back to your Self.

Otherwise, you get lost in the next shiny object. This is great for the marketplace but not for you. In fact, it keeps you spinning in circles and never going deep.

It is in the deep silence of your own consciousness, your own experience of awareness, that you will hear and feel the truth and wisdom that you crave. You are unique, just like every snowflake is unique. Knowing this and honoring this is the basis of self-worth.

I believe that each person’s voice is important to the world. Each person is part of the whole. But it takes discipline and work, healing and devotion to Self, to bring forth your Voice in all its glory.

Have you ever felt what it’s like to speak from a heart filled with enthusiasm? To speak words about which you may think later, Where did that come from? Or perhaps you write privately and never share the wisdom and truth that is yours. But you feel it when it comes onto the page. Your voice can also be an action you take. An action you are compelled to take.  

Do you remember a time when you were young and you experienced great excitement over expressing yourself at school, in writing or drawing or speaking? But something happened. Your delight in yourself got shut down. Someone shamed you, laughed at you, told you that you were silly or crazy.

What shut down your voice? 
When did you stop expressing your deepest Self?
What are the beliefs you carry with you that keep you silent?

You see, there’s always a next evolution, a next larger expression of who you are, so the process of unfolding never stops.

Take some time soon and really look at your relationship to your Voice, to your full self-expression. There’s wisdom and love and truth in your Spirit that you came here to express. The expression of this truth, love, and wisdom is up to you. It takes conscious intention and commitment to not just your life but to the whole of life. 

Find out about upcoming programs with Nancy Swisher at Kripalu.

This article was originally published on Nancy's blog.