In this short guided session, vocologist and singer Nancy Bos introduces a breathing practice designed to calm performance anxiety, release throat tension, and activate the parasympathetic nervous system for speakers and singers. She begins with a personal introduction, explaining her own experience with vocal anxiety. The core of the exercise consists of two parts: (1) a repeated 5‑second inhale / 5‑second exhale diaphragmatic breath, performed several cycles after a full exhalation; (2) a box‑breathing sequence (3‑second inhale, 3‑second hold, 3‑second exhale, 3‑second hold) with specific guidance on maintaining an open rib‑cage posture rather than constricting the throat during the hold. Throughout, she cues counts, emphasizes relaxed throat positioning, and encourages participants to notice the resulting calm, grounded state and freer vocal movement. The session concludes with an invitation to carry this relaxed state into vocal expression.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Nancy Bos, vocologist, singer, speaker, author. I know what it's like to have anxiety about using your voice, restricting in throat. So the breathing exercise I'm going to give you, short little exercise to help you get grounded about your voice to release the tension that might be holding you back, and to activate and check in with that parasympathetic nervous system that brings you out of flight, fright, flee, whatever, all the Fs. So here we go. What I'd like you to do is first exhale all the air, then you're going to inhale on the count of 5 and exhale on the count of 5. We're going to do that many times over. So first exhale all your air. And inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Last one for this set, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Good. Now the last breathing exercise we're going to do is often called box breathing. What we'll do is we'll exhale all the air and then inhale to full for 3 counts, hold for 3 counts, exhale to empty in just 3 counts— that's fast— and then hold for 3 counts. Now when you hold, you have 2 ways that you can hold. One is by squeezing your throat tight so that air can't come or go. The other way, which I prefer, is if you exhale by maintaining equilibrium or balance in your breath by using the rib cage muscles to stay open but not moving air. I think you'll get it once you try it. So let everything out and in, 2, 3, hold, 2, 3, out fast, 2, 3, Hold. 2, 3. In. 2, 3. Hold open. 2, 3. Out. 2, 3. Hold. 2, 3. Open. 2. In. 3. Hold. 2, 3. Out, 2, 3. Hold, 2, 3. In, 2, 3. Hold, 2, 3. Out, 2, 3. Hold, 2, 3. In, 2, 3, hold, 2, 3, out, 2, 3. Gonna do 2 more. 3, in, 2, 3, hold, 2, 3, out, 2, 3, hold, 2, 3, in, 2, 3, hold, 2, 3, out, 2, 3, hold, 2, 3. There, that's it. Take a moment to notice the relaxed state that you're in, the calmness, the groundedness, the connection with your breath, and hopefully the free movement in your throat so you can go forward Voice your passion.
