When our voice gets lost

Posted on 22. Apr, 2010 by Susan Wright in Life Coaching

“Cat got your tongue?” my mother would say. Today I had two experiences of seeing and feeling the effects when our voice gets lost. As I picked up my son from the school bus, I learned that he and the other children were acting out and therefore got “pink slipped” – isn’t that something that happens when we get declared redundant and let go? Anyway, as my son left the bus he was very quiet and this situation clearly impacted him in a way that he could not voice.  Just an hour prior to this, I listened to an adult tell a story of how her voice and that of a community got lost. In both cases, how it all happened was in the eye and experience of the beholder. However, being privy to these experiences has left me with a few questions:

How do we let this happen?

What can we do to empower those or ourselves when this happens?

What can we learn when our voice gets lost?

I’ll venture to start with the last question first…as someone who listened and observed after the fact, I noticed the bewilderment, dis-empowerment, and general apathy resulting in their experience.  Having a few occasions and life events in which my own voice got lost, I could empathize. So for my question, I believe that the learning is huge and there are many ways in which we can approach it; primarily, first being the personal piece but also significantly what happens on a broader scope. Individually, we can learn the value in being honest, true, and accepting the consequences as a result of who we were being in the moment. On a broader scope, we might learn that it’s so necessary for all in the dynamic to raise their consciousness and not get lost in ego, agenda, and the familiar way of doing things.

Often it is in retrospect that we understand how we let this happen, but at the time it’s really easier to suggest it was the circumstances or other influences that made it happen.  Respectively, in every dynamic, there are exchanges that affect the experience, but ultimately we must go back to ourselves and begin to understand what really took place within us. It might be helpful to ask: is it possible that I got intimidated, lost connection to my true self, masked who/what I really am, or simply got swept up in the momentum?

So when I, you, or a collective lose our voice, there are ways we can reset the switch that turned us off. As a start, a little time to retreat, take stock, and sum up the experience is okay and often necessary. In process, rediscovering our true selves by quietly listening and letting our spirit guide us can be restorative. Allowing the words, feelings, and emotion unravel to eventually find the resonance and perspective in which to move forward or take some action, can be profoundly helpful.

Empowerment grows when we begin to reset, reignite, and acknowledge what has power and meaning for us.  This can be a very unique and individual experience and yet, so moving and compelling when reset among those who truly care and understand that when one voice sings, many more will join in harmony.

Start singing your song again, others will begin to listen, but remember to sit quietly on the bus!

Susan

Tags: collaboration, communicate, consciousness, courage, empower, Mind Body Spirit, trust