Ep. 26: Stop Focusing So Much on Your Voice

Do you find that you’re listening to yourself sing while you're singing way too much? 

Did that note sound good?
Am I in tune?
Do I sound okay?
Do they like me?
Ugh. That was terrible. 

Like you’re overly focused on your sound and not actually enjoying the act of doing it.

I talked about this during my recent Step into the Spotlight workshop, and two questions that came up during the Q&A really stuck with me because they're things so many singers struggle with.

One of them we're talking about today (the other next week!) and it's about what happens in the moment we're singing—when our attention gets hijacked by our own thoughts and we start monitoring and judging ourselves instead of actually experiencing the music.

That's what we're tackling in this episode.

In this episode, we'll talk about:

• Why you don't have to be a victim of every thought that pops into your head
• How mindfulness and meditation can help strengthen your attention muscle
• My At Ease Breaks—short, two-minute check-ins you can do practically anywhere
• How to notice where your attention has gone without judging yourself for it
• How to gently redirect your attention back to the story, the person you're singing to, the meaning of the lyric, your body, or whatever you want to be focusing on
• Why getting distracted isn't failure—the redirecting is actually the exercise

And we're going to talk about how you can start training your mind now, so that when you're on stage, you have more ability to choose where your attention goes.

The goal isn't to never think about your voice. 

It's to stop letting monitoring take over the experience.

A resource I mention:

Peak Mind: Achieve Peak Mindfulness and Unlock Your Full Potential by Dr. Amishi Jha 

Dr. Jha is a leading researcher in the science of attention, and her work explores how mindfulness practices can help us train our ability to focus and redirect our attention.

Get my free Joyful Singing Starter Kit

Want to try one of my 2-minute At Ease Breaks?

I've created a free Joyful Singing Starter Kit that includes a guided At Ease Break, plus a 12-minute vocal warmup and other tools to help you reconnect with your voice.

👉 Get the free Joyful Singing Starter Kit 

Stay connected

Follow me on Instagram: @joyfulsingingwitherin 

Find me on Facebook: Erin Stewart Voice Studio 

Visit my website: erinstewart.net 

And if you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast, send me a DM on Instagram! I genuinely love hearing from you and finding out what you're struggling with and what you'd like to hear me talk about.

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