A guided meditation/reflective talk by a speaker named Sam that invites listeners to notice and explore their habitual tone of voice. The speaker prompts introspection about tones that are 'least from the heart' (e.g., withdrawn, aggressive, irritable, victimized), encourages seeking external feedback if unaware, and frames awareness as the first step toward replacing harmful tones with a healing, heart-centered tone.
So as you just realize that we're going to explore tone of voice, just see what your feeling reaction is to that. Are you in a state of openness? Do you feel afraid? Just be aware of whatever your feeling state is now as it relates to exploring tone of voice. Does it matter? Is it boring? And then just start to ask yourself, of all the times in my life that represent my deepest tendency, what is the tone of voice that I put out that is least from my heart? And recognize that even asking yourself this question is an act of courage. If you sincerely ask it because you're looking at the way in which you yourself might be withdrawn, it might not be an active tone of voice, it might not be aggressive, or maybe it is aggressive, but you being able to unite with your witnessing awareness to see what your tone of voice is, that basically is in the least loving state, allows for the possibility that you won't have to be acting in that same way. Because if you stay unaware of it, it's never going to change. And your tone of voice is such a causative influence in your life because people are always going to react off it. So give yourself encouragement, look and flash. Oh yeah, there was that time where I exploded. Or maybe it's even more perpetual, where every day I'm just a little bit irritable, but of course I'm justified. Where every day I'm just kind of downcast or I feel victimized. And just by seeing it, get the paradox that you're giving yourself the chance of the exact opposite to occur. The whole point isn't masochistic. The whole point is to allow for the possibility of a healing tone of voice to replace the challenged tone of voice. This is the ultimate optimism because you get to see where your tone of voice takes you in a direction that isn't consistent with your higher intention in life. And notice whether it's really hard for you to see anything. And if it's hard for you to see anything, rest assured you're unaware. Really, rest assured you're unaware. Because all of us leak. It might be in the subtlest of ways. It's so easy to see it in our partner, so easy to see it in the people we work with, and so hard to see it in ourselves. And just this dedication to look for our tone of voice. And if you truly can't find any tone of voice at all, and you think you're God on a energy level, then ask your closest friends, ask your partner, ask your workmates, what tone of voice do you see in me? Now, maybe you're the type of person who has a tone of voice that's always nice and you never let yourself be strong. That's possible. Maybe it's a tone of voice that just seems like a good one, but it actually doesn't quite balance your life. So you'll see a tone of voice that's. Oh, that's right. I don't quite say it with the strength that I want to, the natural strength. But fall perhaps even in love with looking at your tone of voice. Because being in that state of awareness leaves you in that fertile ground of being awake, being aware. And every day you have a chance to be aware of what tone you're putting out in the world. And instead of being so fixated on the people around you, you have a real chance to make a difference in the quality of your life. Because you can pause in that gap of awareness of the tone of voice and find an intention to come closer to your heart, closer to your being, closer to why you believe you're alive and just appreciate that you have an interest and make whatever suggestion you want to as to whether or not this seems important for you for the rest of your life and appreciate the fact that you're actually wanting to stay with it longer. That there's a sincerity that's really palpable in the room, an integrity, curiosity, and there's a silence that's actually here as you're looking at, well, what is it? And there's a sense of actually gaining a stability of awareness, some kind of constancy of looking. Of course, it is possible that the reason why you're closing your eyes is because you don't want to talk. So I find that one of the most intimate conversations I've had in life have been when people are willing to talk about their tone of voice. Because it's so gut level, it's so, in a sense, unabstract. It's just kind of real. It's usually very simple, rarely takes more than a sentence, sometimes only a word. Sam.
