I entered the cocoon. Again.🐛
The past few days were spent at the Lichtenberg in the village of Fischbachtal with less than 2800 residents. It’s one of those environments that lends itself extremely well to enter the proverbial cocoon; a state where your usual self dissolves due to the absence of your usual distractions. It is in this state where we, much like the butterfly, we break down parts of ourselves in order to reorganise them.
The past few days there were spent on the topic of our larynx (DE: Kehlkopf, NL: Strottenhoofd), or as I’ve now been reminded to see it: that little friend inside of my throat.
This organ is as fascinating as it is mysterious. It’s claimed an autonomy by descending deeper into our throats throughout our evolution, telling the rest of our body: “I can do different pitches all by myself!”, yet when we speak or sing, how often do we find ourselves using so much more ‘muscle’ than we actually need?
Its composition is intriguing, as it holds nearly every different types of tissue that we find throughout our body. The large amount of sensory nerve endings and it coming from our Vagus nerve invites us to see our throat organ as a sensory organ.
The result of when we do this is astounding; depth, resonance and brilliance of the voices of all participants increased. Ease becomes such a vivid dimension, and the reverberations throughout the rest of our body-mind system are felt, as the self-organising principle & innate intelligence/wisdom of our body is put in the drivers seat.
This switches into an unraveling process that is not only pleasant. Due to the larynxes primary function, protecting your lungs, there is a deep survival instinct embedded into the tissues there. This process of familiarising ourselves with it also leads to coaxing it to let go of strong fear responses. Even for me, as someone who’s been working with their voice for the past 20 years, this has taken on new meaning.
However, I’m curious about your relationship to your voice and presence! Is this a part of you that you’ve befriended yet, or is this something you’re completely unaware of? 🤔