Free Your Voice, Women of the World

“A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.”

Melinda Gates,

For women to succeed in today’s world, it is more important than ever that we stand up, and speak-up; that we speak not only to be heard but also to be seen.

We can no longer defer to our male colleagues to take the lead; gone are the days of us remaining silent when we feel the urge to speak. Women hold up half the sky, as the saying goes. Now is the time for us to build up our confidence, to raise our voices, to speak-up to be heard and speak-up to be seen.

But first, we must find our authentic voice! We must speak from the heart of the matter. Then, we must lift our voices up, so they resound loudly and clearly.

There are two critical and pivotal aspects to finding and then raising our voice.

• First, we must look deeply within ourselves to discover our truths, our values, those aspects of life we hold near and dear to our hearts. What we know what we hold to be True, Beautiful and Good. We can call this our Inner or Authentic Voice – the foundation upon which we stand and from which we speak to the world and articulate who we are and what we stand for at our deepest level. This is where the seeds of our vocal confidence are buried.
• Secondly, we need to develop our Spoken Voice. The human voice is the most magnificent of all instruments and yet it is the hardest of them all to play. We must educate the voice into the union of self and body. The voice that originates deep in the body goes far beyond the speaker. As a matter of fact, when we master the resonant qualities of our voice, the vibrations of our sound actually have the ability to create new thinking patterns in our audiences. This is the power of the spoken voice and is an influential and formidable tool for women when we speak. In this way, not only do we speak and are heard but we also speak and are seen!

How do we do this? It is much easier than you might think. Holding back words or emotions can cause tension in your throat and jaw. We work to free your natural and beautifully unique voice. Through a series of vocal exercises and by answering deeply ‘evocative’ (from the Latin ‘to bring out the voice’) questions, we quickly begin to clear emotional blocks and tensions that are interfering not only in what we want to say but also the way in which we are saying it!

“To free the voice is to free the person.”

• Kristin Linklater

Paddy Kennedy

Principal, Kennedy Communication Studio

Sohar, Oman

October 3, 2020