Grounding Skills to Connect to Your Authentic Self
Image ID: A person listening to headphones is smiling and dancing. Their hair swishes from the movement.
Connecting with your body is the first step in learning your authentic self. In trans voice work your voice is impacted by your entire body. For many individuals it can be difficult to engage with a body that does not match who you are inside. In order to shift your voice to be more authentic you must first recognize where it is now. In music therapy we often combine music and the use of walking, humming, breathing and movement to help you be present in your body. It isn’t a one size fits all so if these don’t work or it is triggering intense emotions- please seek a professional to help you.
Walking can be a great way to engage with your body. It can be used as a chance to change your atmosphere and get some sun. Likewise it often wakes your body up. Connecting with nature can be a great source of grounding as you learn to be more present in your body. Music can be incorporated at various levels while walking to provide an extra stimulus or motivation.
While humming you can connect more to your body through the vibrations created. You can begin to notice where in your body feels buzzy as you hum high and low. You can take that time to notice if you are tense and you can use humming to notice how consistent and full your breath is. Humming often keeps the vibrations more inward than singing would and can be a great chance to notice how your body responds to different body alignments and notes.
Breathing slowly connects us to our parasympathetic nervous system which is what allows us to be in a relaxed state. It helps us come down from fight or flight mode that people may spend a lot of time with especially if they feel disconnected from their body. I often like moving with the breath to help me slow it. For example, square breathing is when you bring your arms up as you breath in 4 counts- cross them together for 2 counts as you hold the air in and breathe out 6 six counts as you bring your arms down and cross them together again creating a square with all 12 counts. Breathing out for longer than you breathe in can be a useful tool to slow down the breath. If breathing is not usually grounding for you it may be helpful to notice the air and how it feels as it goes in and out of the body. Slow relaxing music can often help slow down breath while trying to relax and connect to the body. Relaxing music is subjective so pay attention to how different kinds of music feel in your body before choosing a slower song to focus on your breath. If you often feel tense or worse after breathing slowly you may need other supports in place to feel safe enough to slow down in that way.
Often dysphoria can lead to less movement in everyday life. Dancing, stimming, walking, wiggling and being silly with our movements can be a way to engage our muscles and start feeling our body more. Finding music that fits your emotions and dancing or moving in a way that portrays the emotions can be helpful in working through an emotion and connect to your body.
