In the women’s circles I offer, there is always an invitation to express sound.
Perhaps it is a soft sigh Perhaps it is a primal roar
It comes with an invitation to connect into how your body wants to express in sound And feel how that sound creates vibrations in your body Allowing that to be medicine for your body.
Being with the sound and vibrations also adds to the capacity to bring in more presence into your body.
At first this can seem a little weird and perhaps a little uncomfortable – as mostly we are silenced or learn to only express in certain ways. So I’m adding a dash of science to spark curiosity if this is new to you!
The longest cranial nerve in the body is called the vagus nerve which travels from the brain all the way to the lower organs.
The vagus nerve is central to the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for resting and relaxation and can be stimulated in pleasant ways, increasing the capacity to relax in our body.
One way to stimulate the vagus nerve is through sound. The ear and hearing have a substantial effect on the body become of its proximity to the vagus nerve. We can stimulate the ear and therefore the parasympathetic nervous system via the connection to the vagus nerve.
Singing, humming, chanting, sounding etc can promote good health through vagus nerve stimulation.
And this is a dash of the ‘why’ sound is so powerful and a medicine for your own body!
How many times have you ‘swallowed’ down your words? Silenced yourself?
This is an invitation to free your expression from the confines of expectation.
I invite you to consider that your voice is your own medicine.
Reclaim your voice. Reclaim your expression. Reclaim your medicine.
The Lost Language of Sound
Do you remember a time when you expressed yourself fully through sound?
When your laughter bubbled up uncontained?
When your cries rang out without apology?
When your voice carried your full emotional truth?
For most women, that memory lives somewhere in early childhood…
Before we learned to:
🌹 Make ourselves small
🌹 Keep our voices down
🌹 Speak only when spoken to
🌹 Say what others wanted to hear
🌹 Hold back our authentic expression
The wild, untamed voice of the feminine has been silenced for generations. In many cultures and traditions, women were explicitly forbidden from raising their voices, from singing in certain spaces, from expressing the full range of their vocal power.
This silencing lives in our bodies. In our throats. In our nervous systems.
In Shakti Yoga Flow circles, we create sacred space to recover this lost language of sound.
Your Voice: The Bridge Between Inner and Outer Worlds
Your voice is extraordinary.
It translates your invisible inner landscape – your feelings, thoughts, and sensations – into vibration that others can perceive.
It’s the bridge between your inner experience and the outer world.
When that bridge becomes constricted, when you habitually swallow your words or modulate your expression to please others, something vital gets lost.
Energy becomes stuck in your throat, your chest, your womb.
Your nervous system holds the tension of unexpressed truth.
Your authentic self gets buried beneath layers of adaptation.
In women’s circles, the invitation to sound is an invitation to freedom.
To let what’s inside move outward.
To allow the truth of your body to be heard.
The Science of Sounding: How Your Voice Regulates Your Nervous System
The vagus nerve fascinates me.
This wandering messenger (vagus means “wandering” in Latin) connects your brain to your heart, lungs, digestive system, and reproductive organs.
It’s the superhighway of your parasympathetic nervous system…the rest-and-digest mode that counterbalances fight-flight-freeze responses.
When your vagus nerve is toned and responsive, you can:
🌹 Return to calm after stress
🌹 Digest your food properly
🌹 Feel safe in your body
🌹 Connect authentically with others
🌹 Access your intuition and creativity
🌹 Experience pleasure more fully
Here’s the magic: your voice directly stimulates this nerve.
When you hum, sing, chant, or make primal sounds, you create vibrations that travel through the tissues of your throat, activating vagal tone.
These vibrations massage your organs from the inside out.
They signal safety to your nervous system.
They bring you home to your body.
The Emotional Release of Sounding
Sound doesn’t just affect your physical nervous system -it liberates your emotional body as well.
Every emotion has a sound:
The deep groan of grief
The piercing cry of anger
The gentle hum of contentment
The wild laughter of joy
When we allow these sounds their natural expression, emotions move through us rather than getting stuck in our tissues.
In women’s circles, I’ve witnessed profound releases through sound:
Women who hadn’t cried in years finding their tears through a simple toning practice.
Women accessing righteous anger through powerful roars after decades of silence.
Women expressing ecstatic joy through spontaneous song, releasing shame about taking up space with their pleasure.
The voice becomes a pathway for emotional alchemy, transmuting stuck energy into flowing expression.
Cultural Reclamation Through Sound
When women gather to sound together, we’re not just healing our individual nervous systems.
We’re participating in a cultural reclamation.
Indigenous cultures worldwide understood the power of women’s voices. From birth songs to death wails, from harvest chants to healing tones, women’s voices carried the community through transitions and transformations.
This wisdom was systematically suppressed.
Women were removed from their sound circles.
Their medicine songs were forgotten.
Their vocal power was feared and silenced.
In Shakti Yoga Flow circles, we remember.
We allow ancient sounds to emerge through our modern throats.
We trust the wisdom that lives in our vocal cords, even when we don’t intellectually understand the sounds that want to move through us.
The Spectrum of Sound: Finding Your Voice in Circle
In circle, all sounds are welcome.
The tentative whisper
The melodic hum
The guttural groan
The piercing wail
The resonant om
The spontaneous giggle
Whatever sound wants to emerge from your body is perfect medicine for you in that moment.
There’s no right way to sound.
No perfect pitch to achieve.
No performance to perfect.
Only the honest expression of what lives inside you, allowed its voice.
Some women worry: “What if nothing comes out when I try to sound?”
This too is information. The silence itself speaks volumes about how deeply we’ve learned to contain our expression.
With gentle practice, in the safety of circle, the sound will come. Sometimes as a trickle at first, then eventually as a flowing river of expression.
Sounding Together: The Power of Vocal Community
There’s something particularly potent about sounding in community with other women.
When one woman gives herself permission to express through sound, it creates permission for others.
When our voices intertwine -whether in harmony or beautiful discord – we create a sonic tapestry that holds each individual expression while creating something greater than any one voice could create alone.
This is the magic of women’s circles:
We heal individually while healing collectively.
We express our unique medicine while creating communal medicine.
We find our authentic voice while remembering our shared song.
Simple Sound Practices for Daily Life
While the container of circle provides unique support for vocal expression, you can begin to work with sound medicine in your daily life:
Morning Humming
Before speaking to anyone else, take 2-3 minutes to simply hum.
Feel the vibration in your chest, throat, and face.
Notice how this gentle sound activates your vagus nerve and brings you into your body.
Shower Sounding
The shower provides natural acoustic amplification and privacy.
Allow yourself to make any sounds that want to emerge as the water flows over you.
Let your voice mix with the sound of water.
Car Singing
The car is a wonderful sound sanctuary.
Sing along with music that moves you, or create your own spontaneous melodies while driving.
Feel how the vibration opens your chest and relaxes your jaw.
Nature Calls
Find a secluded spot in nature and call out to the trees, the sky, the earth.
Let your voice be as wild and untamed as the natural world around you.
Notice how different your voice feels outdoors versus indoors.
An Invitation to Sound Your Truth
If you’re longing to reclaim the medicine of your voice…
If you feel the weight of unsaid words in your throat…
If you sense there’s more to your expression than you’ve allowed yourself to explore…
I invite you to join us in an upcoming Shakti Yoga Flow circle, where sound and voice are integral to our practice of feminine embodiment.
Together, we’ll create a safe container for your authentic expression to emerge.
We’ll tone the vagus nerve together, regulating our nervous systems through the healing power of sound.
We’ll remember the ancient songs that live in our cellular memory.
We’ll free our voices from generations of silencing.
For Canberra women, this page contains information about upcoming circles.
Or if you are wanting to join online from anywhere in the world, see what is available here.
You can also send me a message to secure your place in circle.
With a voice full of possibility,
Kate 🌹