Your Voice Matters

Welcome empowered empaths to the Power of Healing Your Energy show. This show is all about your unconditional love, your light, your intuition, your soul's purpose. And depression and anxiety are a side effect of not living intuitively, not trusting your gut, the lost connections with your higher self and others. Your soul's purpose is here. Hello and welcome everyone, come on in. Happy Wednesday. Yes, it is, it is January 20th, 2021. I'm Christine J Gold, I'm your Soul Purpose Mentor, and this is The Power of Healing Your Energy Show. Every week we come on, we share, we talk, we laugh, and really it's all about finding your soul's purpose. That was my mission almost 4 years ago, and it still is. That's why we're here. And I have a very special, lovely, beautiful guest as always each week, you know, bringing in folks that, you know, you know, your voice matters. 'Cause that's important. And my next guest is all about the voice. Her name is Debra Lynne. She is a Direct Line Scholar, bel canto, which means beautiful singing in Italian. I went and looked 'cause I was like, it sounds Italian, so it must be. She is the author of Bel Canto Buzz: Beautiful Singing Made Simple. So, and I'm just, I love to sing, although it's been a long time. And, um, just sharing before the show, you guys are going to want to pay attention because I learned a few things within the few minutes talking with her about singing and how it can transform your life. All right, here she is. Hello, Debra Lynn.

Hello, Christine. Thanks for having me tonight.

So, so glad you're here. And, uh, I'm up in Canada. I always ask, where are you?

I'm located in Northern Kentucky, right near Cincinnati.

Wonderful. I don't think I've ever had anybody from Kentucky.

This is the first. I'm right close to the Ohio River, so it's a really nice area, historic area.

Lovely, lovely.

Thank you.

Yes. And we were just, yeah, we were talking about singing and how I used to sing in elementary and all that. But, you know, we'll get to that in a minute. But come on in, guys. Please say hello. Let us know where you're from. If this is your first time, if you're on the replay, say hello. We're not going to leave you hanging. And if you have a question or you just want to share, uh, go for it, please. Uh, this is your space to do so. This is not for me. This is for you. This is for anyone that feels, yeah, my voice matters. And it's about time because 2021 is about that. It is your miracle year. You're here for a reason and your time is now. So maybe just tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, you know, it's— I like to say recently that I've been a lifelong singer, professional singer. I was for many years, who's just finding her voice. That's like a riot. So I've been singing my whole life and searching for my authentic self, you know, through the journey. And the singing process in my life has been quite the adventure. You know, I felt guided to be a singer from a very young age like you. You said you were— I don't— would you say 6th grade?

Yes, memory was.

And I started in public at the age of 11, so very close to the same time. Um, had a very long journey to get to my professional career. And, and interestingly enough, a lot of what kept me from getting to that result was my emotional body. And of course, for most of us, that's where we get stuck. Somehow our emotions or our judgment of self, our belief that we can't, for example, can't sing. Lots of folks that believe they can't sing. And the reality is everyone can sing. And there are some challenges that face us that most of us would be surprised by. For example, the English language. The English language is the biggest challenge that we face when we go to sing as English speakers because of the nature of what happens when we speak. And you and I were also just talking a little bit about that vagus nerve connection and trying to activate the body. Well, there's a correlation with singing there as well.

Wonderful. And what is the correlation? I mean, we talk about healing frequencies and bowls and chanting. I mean, is it going along the same lines? And how— For me, it sounds like it would be the quickest way to reset.

Well, exactly. And I think it's also that we, we can control our vocal folds from the vagus nerve. Um, interestingly enough, you know, of course that runs the whole length of the body, but there's a branch that they call the pharyngeal branch and the laryngeal branch. It literally go to the thing that controls the vowels and the thing that controls the vocal cords. And if you engage your pelvic floor, you actually help yourself as a singer. Okay, who knew? There's a really funny video on YouTube of Christine Chenoweth, who played Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked, on the Ellen Show teaching Ellen how to sing. I highly recommend you going— everyone going and looking for that video because it's hysterical. Talks about that, that pelvic floor.

I, I most definitely will.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. But you know, I, I feel like, um, I meet a lot of people who are struggling, especially right now, uh, after 2020, being in— still kind of being amidst the pandemic, um, really trying to find their voice and then having some challenges right now because of just the sheer, uh, fatigue the isolation, the emotional distress that people are feeling. And the reality is that singing bypasses post-traumatic stress disorder in the brain. And if we can make ourselves sing, even like little ditties around the house or our go-to—

yes, little Looks like you froze there for a minute, my dear.

No, I'm so sorry.

It's okay. It's all good.

So it— you can— you can— with this ability to bypass the post-traumatic stress in the brain, we actually can lift the emotional body and, and help ourselves by just singing 2 or 3 minutes a day.

Yes.

And it doesn't have to be fancy and it doesn't have to be perfect. It can just be authentically you.

Yes. And raising the global vibration. I mean, if there's meditation and all this other stuff, why wouldn't you want to sing? Why wouldn't you want to dance? Any way you're expressing yourself through creativity, you're raising the global vibration.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And right now, that appears to be the most important thing we can do. You know, especially as empaths, I think that, that it's— this has been a very difficult time for empaths. It certainly has been for my body. I— there have been moments where I haven't quite been sure how to navigate the energies, and it's really only been through connecting to spirit going internal on meditation, doing the deep breathing, all the practices that we learn, uh, in, in a spiritual journey. That's— I think that saved me.

Yeah, and I think it's saved a lot of people. Um, they're, they're fully realizing that they need to do these things. It's not— it's not nothing outside of us. It's, it's here. We already have it. We just have to go and do it and actually have the courage to step into that fully. And not— and like I had said to a client this morning, you know, she goes— I go, what's the silliest thing you could do? I said, is it blowing bubbles? Is it singing? Is it dancing? She goes, no, that's too easy. I'm like, oh. I said, so what is it? She said, running down the street dancing and singing at the top of my lungs. She goes, because people will look at me, including my kids, and go, that lady is crazy.

I said, "That's your challenge." But I think that's what's interesting about this time. I know for myself that COVID has also been a blessing. I know that this, this will make sense, but the isolation sort of put me into a space of silence. And although there were friends that, you know, were part of my little bubble, I realized that the time was now. There, you know, this idea that we would look for a purpose somewhere up ahead and okay, we're going to work our way towards a purpose and like that. Suddenly the purpose was upon us. Like, you know, okay, here we are. What can you do? What can I do? What could I do? And as a result of the shutdown, I started producing tons of YouTube videos to help singers. And singers have been hit hard in COVID because considered super spreaders, they suddenly were facing into not being able to sing together, not being able to connect, not being able to be with their friends. This is, you know, it was traumatic to singers on a whole nother level. And the beauty of bel canto is that it takes us out of being a super spreader. It's one of the things that's made me passionate about, you know, helping people understand what my body is trained to do. We're in bel canto. We're not moving air. We're not trying to project. And because of that, we're maintaining more of a— almost like we're in our own little optimal bubble of vocal production right inside our— we're designed to be that optimal little bubble. And so anyways, you could, you know, people can go to my YouTube channel and they can check. They can just go like this and just hit some buttons and suddenly be like, Wow, I didn't know that about singing. I could try that. Not hard, just little bits.

Yeah, and I followed along. I have watched a few and they're fun and they're interactive and they make you think. They make you rethink what you thought you knew, but you don't know nothing. I still say that I know nothing. I am a student of the universe.

Well, and it's interesting because I think ultimately we all are, right? That it's a constant journey. What I think is fascinating for me is that having been a professional singer with that objective, never thinking I would be a teacher of singing, and then having people come to me and ask me for that understanding, I had to go back inside my body and basically re-engineer how is it that I'm getting this result. Because it's not intuitive. As a matter of fact, I would say what I do is very counterintuitive. But when I started doing that, what I discovered is I loved working with people more than I loved performing. And so I, you know, I still like to sing and I still love performing, but there's something magical about watching somebody else's light bulbs go off and suddenly they're singing. It's like, whoa, we could all be singing.

Yes.

Wouldn't that be fun?

Wonderful.

Yeah.

That's a beautiful aha, light bulb epiphany moment. I love it. Just saying hello to Anne. Angie, aloha. Yes, she is in Hawaii. Thank you for joining us. So nice to see you. And anyone else, if you're joining, let us know where you're from. If it's the first time, if you're on the replay, please say hello.

Well, that's, that's cool that Angie just jumped on from Hawaii because of course my career, my, my professional career predominantly was on Maui.

That's right.

I love Hawaii. I miss Maui.

I miss my, you know, I miss the shakas and the aloha and the, you know, the kindness. Kindness. I learned, I came from New England. All right. So you would talk about Canada and then, you know, the United States. I'm in right now, I'm in the middle of the United States, but I grew up up north and northeast. And the New England area tends to be a little bit more conservative. It's a little bit more reserved. It has, in my experience, has always been wonderful people, deep people, caring people, but a little less socially inclined, let's say Hawaii, where everybody's smiling basically all the time. And I say I learned to smile on Maui, and it helps the singing because if you lift your face and you engage the voice this way, your singing voice improves dramatically with the English language. So the face engagement, as simple as this sounds, Just smiling while you sing changes your tuning, changes the beauty of it, changes everything. And so, so hello to Angie in Hawaii.

Wonderful, I love that. Yay! Uh, Terry's coming in from Delaware. Hi Terry, so nice to see you. And, uh, yeah, she's— Angie's on the Big Island and she's also saying the amazing aloha.

Amazing. Aloha. But Delaware, Terry from Delaware, Delaware is a really wonderful state too. I've had to— it's got a really cool vibe. I've had to drive through. My parents, my dad passed this summer, my mother passed a year ago, and I actually have written a book that sort of tells that journey too. That's after the Bel Canto Buzz called Divine Mirror. And driving through Delaware I know this is gonna maybe sound weird, but maybe Terry can tell me why this is. It's like, it's meditative.

Oh.

You get off the New Jersey Turnpike, you start into Delaware, and the vibe totally shifts to very sort of like cool. And then I get to Maryland and it would be different there too. Wow. So yeah, it's a cool place.

Beautiful. We've got some new faces too. Victoria, Upstate New York. Hello, I've got a few friends in New York and New Jersey as well.

So yeah, Victoria is actually from my world. I, I— hi Victoria, nice to see you here. Nice to see you. She's another singer.

Wonderful. Yes, yes, lovely, lovely. So you, you talked briefly about your— the Divine Mirror and, and your parents, and I'm so sorry for, for your loss.

And oh, thank you. You know, um, You know, I sort of have a lot of joy around my parents now, but I didn't always. Divine Mirror ultimately tells my personal journey out of dysfunction and alcoholism with my family of origin and the transformational healing journey that I chose to take. And talking with a dear friend of mine, she, you know, she asked me today, she just finished reading the book And she said, I had no idea that you were dealing with what you were dealing with. And I had no idea how you were walking through sort of, you know, we'll call it the abyss, but walking through the shadowy stuff, walking through. And my dad 10 years ago gave me a small painting that was purchased by my grandmother in out of a Palm Beach estate in 1950, a very famous man who was one of the one of the primary founding benefactors of the National Gallery of Art. Joseph Widener had a very large, like 60,000-square-foot estate in Palm Beach, huge. And this little tiny painting lived in his private study. And then she bought it. So it didn't go to the museum. It went to an auction house and disappeared into my family for the last 60-plus years. So when I healed, when I chose to heal with my dad and I chose to actually forgive and find compassion for him and actually face into my fear of him, he gave me this painting. Well, it turns out the little painting, I saw sacred geometry. It's a little tiny biblical scene of, um, Jesus and the woman taken in adultery. So I see the sacred geometry and suddenly I'm on an 8-year research mission into this painting to figure out what it is. And the Divine Mirror book tells the story of that research and the messages that have come across 400 years.

Wow.

Powerful stuff. Yeah.

Wow. That sounds amazing book. I'd love to read it.

I'd be happy to send you a copy, Christine J Gold.

Oh, thank you.

I have a new book to read. Anytime I have an author, I'm always like, please, I'd love your book. And I could share it because it's important. Like you said, your voice matters. It doesn't matter if it's written or otherwise. And you said something very important too. I chose.

Yes.

Yes. I feel that key.

I think it is important, but I also want to say that I was absolutely terrified. I was absolutely terrified to take the journey. I was terrified to face my father. I was terrified all along the journey. Through what I will call a very extended dark night of the soul, as many of us have had. And I feel like it's important to say that because maybe once you kind of come through it and get to the other side a bit and you've got a little perspective on it, I think some people think it was just, that you weren't, it wasn't traumatically like, I don't know how I'm going to do this. I don't know how I'm going to walk this. I don't know how I'm going to survive this. I don't know how I'm going to be who I am in the middle of this. Right. And I think the more that people hear that we all face these demons, yeah, no matter where we are in our spiritual walk, it gives courage to other people that it's okay. It'll be okay. And you're not alone.

Ever.

I love that. And yeah, it's, it's a transformation. It's a bridge. It's a, it's— well, I always think of me too. That's probably the quickest. In some part, there's a me too, that there's a, you know, the light within me greets, sees the light within you, and we're all one. That's a pretty simple concept. Um, jumping back to Terry, she says, I think it's the water.

Oh, that's right, because the ocean is right there all along the coast.

Oh, lovely. Yes, I, I'm feeling those ocean vibes. I also am surrounded by the ocean. So, um, Victoria is just saying nice to see you and just started reading The Divine Mirror.

Yay, yay! Awesome, Victoria. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it after you've taken a read.

Yes, yes. And that is— and of course we have the links to all of that. For your book, it's through Amazon.

Yes, it is.

Yeah. Wonderful. So we talked briefly about the vagus nerve. Now I want to— I guess I kind of want to segue because a lot of the ladies that join us, or maybe in the future, might have some issues related to their pelvic floor.

Yes.

What's the correlation between singing and the pelvic floor? This is—

all right. So I have to tell you a little funny story and everybody will get it. Okay. So I was coaching a chorus, and I said to— and it was a group of men, they were— it was about 65 of them on the risers, and we were talking about the nature of the voice and how we could control the instrument and like that. And at one point I had them do an exercise and I asked them to engage their pelvic floor, which a lot of men don't know how to do, but there is actually a Kegel for men, and I highly recommend men Googling that too. So for women and men, the same issues of collapse can occur if those muscles are not strengthened. So anyways, one man from the back row, after I asked him to do this, he says, "So what the heck does that have to do with singing?" I said, "Well, when you engage your pelvic floor, you close your vocal folds and it makes them work more efficiently." And he almost fell off the risers. So what happens is, and you can probably feel this even if you're at home, try this. If you If you exhale gently and then you inhale gently and then you engage your pelvic floor, you will feel something right here. Yeah. So, and I feel it. You could try— everybody can try that again. So you just, you just breathe in gently, engage your pelvic floor. What you're feeling right there is, and I believe it's there because of the emergency systems of our body, like If we were drowning, our body would tighten in a way to keep water out from going through the folds, which are really the last gateway to the airway. So if the— and there's lots of fun facts about the vocal folds that I know because I'm all about vocal fold efficiency. But when we engage pelvic floor, it reinforces their natural closure or approximation and that's how we make tone. So if you engage your pelvic floor and you start singing, you're suddenly going to be singing. It's just a weird correlation between how we're, you know, as they say spiritually, everything is connected.

So that's true inside us too. Yeah, I'm going to ask the question in case someone— how do you know if your pelvic floor is engaged?

You know, well, so it's different for men than it is for women. All right. For women, you can feel it different ways. If you're seated, for me, like if you've ever had a child, then Kegeling is sort of the natural exercise piece that women are taught to do after childbirth. But as we get older, even if you've not had a child, the pelvic area can tend to get weaker. So if you've had bladder dysfunction of any sort, The Kegel would be the exercise that would sort of— if you just sort of stop peeing, you'll feel a little bit of that engagement. And for women, if you take it up more into the vaginal area, then you really get an engagement. And so it's a question of holding that.

Gotcha.

Now, when you're singing, what becomes difficult is that once you engage the Kegel or the pelvic floor, you really can't let go for the song. So you're going to really strengthen your pelvic floor when you sing.

More reason to sing.

That's right, you'll be in better shape.

Love it.

Now for men, it's a little different. That's why I suggest Googling it because they, they obviously the different anatomy, but they're still sort of lifting upward into the pelvic area. And, you know, even the root chakra work, like doing root chakra work and then doing breath work with regards to the root chakra, that can be really helpful.

Ooh, yeah. I'm all about the root chakra work.

Yeah.

There's a wonderful, if you wouldn't mind me sharing this, there's a wonderful little exercise that kind of ties across with us grounding.

Yes.

Into the root. And then also connecting our higher self to ourselves. It's pretty easy. You just take the tip of the tongue and put it on the little bump above the top teeth. Are you familiar with this breathing technique?

I am, but share with everyone. It's awesome.

So especially right now when bodies are going like this and we start, and we start panting, you know, like the anxiety can come up or the little bit of panic when we're unsure of our whatever. If you put the tip of the tongue on the little bump and you keep it there while you do the exercise, you breathe in through the nose gently and exhale through the mouth over the connected tongue. And then I usually do it 3 to 6 times. And what I feel is sort of an energy of just— you, you probably feel this too— just an energy of sort of coming into the body. But my understanding is the connection of the microcosmic electrical circuitry of our body is connected. We connect to our higher self. It's just awesome. Awesome.

No, I, I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Um, and Angie, thank you for joining. I, I really appreciate it. I'm sure you'll catch the rest on the on the replay as well. So, oh gosh, what, what else? I know we talked about the, uh, well, you talked a little bit about the singing, the vagus nerve, and, um, what I, I guess I, I know there's people out there that are still like, I have something to share, I don't know what it is, I feel like I should be, I feel like I should be singing more or, or doing something. But then I, I've also heard some clients say that they have issues with hearing their voice. Does that make sense? Because I know I did. I always thought I sounded like a man, like, because it would— I have a deeper, a deeper tone. But now I know that that's a gift.

It's—

everybody has— is unique. So do you get that from your clients sometimes?

Yeah. And so I think everybody evaluates the quality of their voice. I don't think that's, um— I think everyone tends to be, unless they're highly trained or unless they've got a lot of experience or unless they're just naturally extroverted and really don't care, they just, you know, they just sing, right? And there are some who got really lucky and came out of the womb singing and they've just sung and they've got that. And, you know, God bless you, that's an awesome thing. But most people, that's not their experience. And I feel like the We live in a culture of evaluation and judgment.

Oh, yes.

And so we, instead of feeling free like children, if we watch children, they just sing, they just do, they play, they dance, they move, they, you know, they don't evaluate their performance. And I feel like because we're conditioned to some degree to be in evaluation, the other piece of it is that when— so I'll just share this piece, and, and this will be another— somebody can try this, and then I highly recommend going to my YouTube channel and getting some more details, because then you have some things to practice. But most of us, like, if we sing something, if you take your hands and you go like this as you're singing, you'll feel sort of a natural pulse happening as you sing. All right, and it's, it's caused by us pushing the sound out of our body. All right, now in my universe, the inside of you is the instrument. And, and so instead of pushing away from the instrument, I'm going to pull towards myself as I prep that breath or breathe in gently, and then I'm going to pulse backwards while I sing. And just changing that little kinesthetic action causes the mechanism go into alignment And when we are physically in alignment, the instrument will sing for us. You don't have to work so hard. You don't even have to worry about your air because the instrument will control it for you.

This is crazy. And I just had an epiphany when you're saying push, it almost feels like you're closing.

Right.

When you reverse, you are opening. It's like heart opening yoga. Yes. I got it.

Yes.

And in fact, We can control the entire inner instrument just by being aligned and not collapsing, just by maintaining this integrity. And we do this kind of a— I would play a lot with sort of backward waves, talking about Hawaii, of sound. And what we discover is that our resonators, how we're designed inside our head, is designed to amplify sound with absolutely no force. This is— it's mind-blowing. Bel canto is mind-blowing.

It is. Um, Dawson, thank you for joining us. I, I know you're new to the, to the show. Thank you so much. Uh, he says, I'm afraid to sing because I don't have much range. Is there any way I can reach new octaves?

Absolutely. So, so the problem basically is the higher you go, the more likely the body is going to push. And so you, you might notice as you try to sing something high that your impulse is to kind of lurch at it or lunge towards it. All right, so the first rule of thumb is less air under the vocal folds the higher you go makes it easier to sing. So when we don't overbreathe, when we breathe in much more naturally and hold still, the mechanism behaves better. And then the other is— I'll do a kinesthetic again just because it's easy to see— is that so my body goes like this, and as I sing higher notes I open up bigger. So I'm actually pulling the sound towards me as I articulate. And you may find that it's much easier to go up into your higher range. Typically, people are hitting problems in their singing because of these things in our voice called— they're called in Italian, they're called passaggi. And it's literally like an hourglass where the voice narrows and then it expands and we're good, and then it narrows again, and then we're good again. Um, I think I'm going to give one other example. The Italians and the distinction between sort of the American, Canadian, European pedagogical world that sometimes is telling you to kind of move a lot of air— the distinction is in Italy, they're doing the opposite. So if we go to Pavarotti and Caruso and Mario Lanza, they were trained with a candle, and the candle was put in front of the mouth at 2 inches away, and they were told not to move the flame. Oh, don't bend it, don't flicker it, don't move it. So if we as singers take our hand and put it 2 inches away and just try not to pulse air at our hand, it's another way we can get control. And that might help Damon. So that's another little piece there.

There you go, Dawson. I hope that helped.

Dawson, I'm sorry.

It's all good. He—

she has videos as well, so maybe go and and play and see, you know, what works for you, what doesn't, and reach out to her.

Yeah, you can comment under the videos too if you have specific questions. I'm trying to be better about seeing those comments as they come up and responding to them.

Yes, and I, and I'm just asking everyone, do you sing? Have you thought about singing? Did you used to sing? Why, why not? I mean, it's— I think it's, it's fabulous that this is coming up because I'm sure I'm not the only one that's been thinking about this. Whether it was chanting or whatever it was, it's, you know, raising the voice to new levels. So, yes. And Victoria's giving you beautiful accolade here. She had the privilege of having, um, PDI with Deborah and can attest to how singing changes the technique. I still have the recording from that.

Oh, that's awesome, Victoria. Thank you so much.

Oh, that's great.

I love my time with you. But it's interesting, the key here, and it may not make sense initially, so you kind of have to process this a little bit. But when we kind of try to be in charge of our air or managing our sound or micromanaging our voice like that, we're actually getting in the way.

Yes.

And when we stay more stable, when we open— I mean, this is again such a spiritual principle. When we open up, stay still, and just allow the sound to reverberate within us, we actually can be incredibly efficient and beautiful singers.

All of us.

All of us.

And I hear people— I mean, I used to think it as well, like, oh, I wish I was a poet. No, you already are. I, in the last year, have written many poems, which I used to do. It's like That's why I do a lot of inner child work, because we're bringing back all the stuff of the child.

Yes.

And it's time to, to act and play and just be.

Well, and I think there's a correlation with the child piece too, in that as children, if we've had anyone criticize us even once—

yeah—

as a singer, it shuts us down. And that one negative comment that frankly, in my opinion, was erroneous. Because if they made a negative comment, they didn't know how to help you.

That's right.

That it stays the whole lifetime until we make a decision to flip and choose differently. So this is— there's a huge opportunity for us in this moment. And I think that's part of why I have such passion for my work, is because I've watched transformation in action, and it can happen in 30 minutes. Yeah, not 30 years.

We don't, we don't have time for that.

We have no time for that. We need to do it quickly.

Yes, things are happening quickly, so we're, you know, we've been preparing for this. We're ready for this.

That's right.

Uh, Terry's just saying she's been thinking a lot about it this year. I used to sing when I was young. Isn't that interesting?

Yeah, I feel like our voice, there's something about The beauty of COVID has— it's caused us all to kind of, you know, sort of take a timeout.

Yeah.

And in that timeout, we've had opportunity to look at what really matters and look at what really matters to us. And I feel like because of that, it is connecting into our voice and the voice of our heart, the voice of who we are, who we want to be. Be, how we can be of service to our world.

Yes.

Right?

Purpose.

So absolutely. Christine J Gold. That's right. And the voice is critical, whether you're singing or speaking. I mean, unless you found a silent way to do it. And there are certainly people who cannot speak that that would be the truth for, right? It's not that's the only way.

Yes.

It's a powerful way.

Absolutely. And speaking of singing, I am going to attempt— we are going to share my screen. We got our fingers crossed and our toes crossed, but I want to share a video of you singing on YouTube. Now I know there was one on your website. I think it was maybe a minute clip. This is a couple minutes. I'm going to share about a minute, but then you can, you know, see how beautiful this is. So, and I really wanted to, to share this. So, um, yes, my entire screen. Here we go. All right, um, here we go. Hopefully you can hear this and see this.

I am a dream from me. This is not like me at all. I never thought I'd know the kind of love you show me. Now, no matter where I am, no matter what I do, Yes, bravo, bravo! That was a—

that was a moment.

So much. I— you know what, I only wanted to play a minute, but I'm like, no way, she's building I can't stop now.

I can't stop now.

Well, you know, it's interesting that that performance was my farewell to Maui in 2009. I had been there 12 years. And the funny story about that night was that there were 1,200 people in the auditorium. It was at the Castle Theatre. And they all at the box office told the box office that they were my best friend and my partner's best friend at the time. So we had a house full of friends. And it was just an extraordinary moment.

Oh, wow. A beautiful voice and such control and telling a story. Like, you can— you really can tell that you love singing.

And I love— I love singing for people. I love— you know, I had— I made a decision years and years ago before Maui where I decided not to go into what would what could be considered an operatic career. And part of my reasoning for it was I enjoyed singing for people sort of out of the blue, spur of the moment, more than I thought about singing for just the high-paying audiences. And so it just, it changed my life to make that decision.

Wow, power.

Real folks, real folks.

Yes, that's where the magic happens.

Yes.

Yeah, and Connor is just saying, hi Connor.

Hi.

Such an amazing voice. Thank you, Connor. Oh, so sweet. I love that. Now, I always ask my guests— I don't ask beforehand because I feel I really, you know, think this is important— but I always ask my guests a question. And how can we as a collective energy, meaning all of us and whoever shows up, help make your dreams come true? And, ah, and what does magic mean to you? So I guess those are two questions.

Yeah, so I think as a collective, I have a vision that every voice is lifted on this planet. And my vision through my work through Bel Canto is to help people, either from singing or speaking, feel more confident about the beauty of their own unique instrument. And everyone has that capacity. So I feel like the collective energy would be to help focus. You know what it means? Send me some good vibes.

You'll be part of my prayers.

Thank you.

And I mean, what does the magic mean to me? I think that's— I was looking at your site and seeing that we had this in common. I call the first series on my YouTube channel, Debra Lynne Belcanto, I call the first series for singers The Magic of You. Because the reality is that the inside instrument is magical and it's designed to be effortless and easily accessible. And if you understand how to get it to stabilize, boom, it's yours. So I am, yes, I'm on a mission and everyone is magical. So boom.

Well, you heard it here first, guys. You heard it here. Remember that. Don't forget. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

Exactly right. Exactly right.

You know, I mean, the soul always knows. Victoria, again, an awesome person and teacher as well.

Thank you, Victoria.

And I've learned so much in, you know, 40 minutes already. And I'm excited to, you know, I think if anything, you're going to inspire people to say, yes, I have a voice, and I'm gonna to explore this, whether it's for you or me or someone else, as long as it's art.

And I'm going to add one piece. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how old you are.

Yes.

Doesn't matter. This work rejuvenates the maturing and aging voice. So if you were a singer and you feel like you've lost it, you need to go see my site because that will take you right into a— you'll go, you'll be like, oh, you'll be 30 again.

Who doesn't want to be 30 again? No.

Well, there's probably some of us that don't want to be 30 again, but vocally I would be 30 again.

Yes, that's very true. Very true. Well, thank you so much for your time. I have left all the links to buy your books, your website, your social media. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us before we say goodbye?

Yes.

Until we meet again.

Until we meet again. I would just say, you know, to anyone listening, absolutely, no matter where you are in your journey, if you feel that what I'm offering can help you, please do not hesitate to reach out because my vision is being of assistance and service to this world.

I love that. Yeah, to be in service, that is our soul's purpose.

That's right, that's right.

First and foremost, that, that was a good, good thing to remember. I, I do appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Oh wow, this was amazing. I know I'm gonna go and check out more on YouTube and play around more with my voice. I'm definitely inspired. I don't know if you are. I know Teddy is inspired. Teddy with me? He's my, you know, keeps us going, you know, when you're online a lot, that's my focal point. But anyways, that's a different story. So that's right.

I have a rainbow bear in the other room.

That's mine.

Next time I'll bring him.

Please share me— share your stuffed animals because this week is all about soothing the soul. We got to find ways to soothe and comfort ourselves. So, um, I just— a couple things, uh, house cleaning, I guess, or housekeeping. Unleash Your Magic intuitive one-on-one mentorship, I still have one more spot left. So if you're looking to transform your life, uh, you're finding your soul's purpose, I would love to guide you. And so many have gone through already, including Terry, who was here as well. Um, and also, if you're looking to outline your 2021 dream vision, I have a— it's a magic map workshop. It's like a blueprint. It's available for purchase as well on my website. All right, so yeah, and if anything, um, go out and sing. And, and just, and just be. And, uh, make sure to follow me on YouTube, guys, because if you want an energy update every week, it's up there already. Um, so we're talking about soothing and comforting. I also talk about the January energy as well, and then 2021 and beyond. And if you have a guest, you know, that you would love to have on my show, please send them my way. If you know someone amazing that has a that, you know, their voice matters, please send them my way. I would love to have them on the show because like Debra Lynn, your voice matters and so do you. Oh, Connor is coming in here just at the end. He said, I had no idea about the involvement of the pelvic floor to sing with efficiency. Love this. Thank you both.

You're welcome.

You're welcome, Connor. All right, guys. Well, I love you so much. Please take care of yourselves. Please be kind to each other. And please remember, healing begins where the ego ends. Love you.

Thank you.