Can you Speak Up? [Fix Your Soft Voice]
The following chapter is from Word Play: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills
The voice is tricky.
Sometimes, it feels like your friend.
Other times, it feels like an arch-nemesis.
Have you ever had that moment where you had a nice strong voice with your best friend…
But when you were talking to an authority figure, like your boss, the voice became weak?
It felt like each word was 10x harder to say?
That was the soft voice.
Most beings have 2 things in common:
The breath & the voice.
The voice allows a person to communicate their ideas & emotions.
It serves as the invisible bridge between the internal & the external world.
So, when the voice softens, it has more effects than you can imagine.
Not only does a soft voice hurt your self-esteem, but it also indicates to the other person that you have low self-esteem.
All soft-voice people don’t have low self-esteem, I know that.
Some people have a medical condition known as vocal paralysis which softens their tone.
If you know you don’t fall into that boat, then it’s your duty to strengthen the vocal muscle.
But before you do, you must understand a few things about the voice.
The voice gives direct insight into the mindset.
Remember the earlier situation where your voice softened around an authority figure?
That happened because you assigned yourself as the lower social valued party in the interaction.
Have you ever talked to a little kid?
Picture conversing with your little cousin.
There is a nice, strong, radiant voice from your end.
That’s because, in this scenario, you have assigned yourself as the higher social valued party.
Your perception of yourself will dictate the power behind your voice.
Whenever you are nervous, feeling self-conscious, or doubting yourself, the voice will indicate that.
Not doing anything about it is going to continue to lower your value in social situations.
Guess what?
‘What?’
Your issue can be fixed!
A weak voice is like a weak muscle.
When you are lifting weights for the first time, I’m sure you are shaky with the lifting process.
Over time, you have well-structured & coordinated movements.
Same thing with the voice.
Remember how I said your voice will give direct insight into your mentality?
‘Yea.’
Well, your body can INFLUENCE your mentality.
So, if your voice is softening up, then check your body language.
Scrunched shoulders, droopy chin, frowning face. Are these moves displaying strong body language?
‘Hell no.’
So stand up straight, raise your chin & peel your shoulders back.
Allow the breath to flow out of you.
Don’t restrict it champ.
This sudden change in body language will lead to an alerted mentality.
A stronger voice will follow.
If you want to take it a level further, then begin recording yourself & listening back to the recording.
It will be super cringe at first.
Trust me, I know…
Over time, you will bring awareness to strong parts & weak parts of your voice.
Simply making yourself aware of the weak parts with the conscious mind will signal to the subconscious mind on which areas to fix.
Over time, a confident voice will follow.
Fix your body language
Hear yourself back on tape.
That’s the summary of what has been discussed.
Simple, yet nuanced.
It’s things like this that impact social status.
It’s things like this that will determine who really wants to fix their voice & who just wants to whine about being born with a soft voice.
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