Dare to Suck

(waves crashing) So something that has really come up for me is the parallel between what you're asking of us and the yoga that I teach because in the style of yoga I teach I'm all about starting from the foundation, from the ground up, and then we move into that center place for the kind of engine of power to lighten up the heart, to let the mind and the throat kind of back off and become really spacious in this whole area instead of powering with that like we do so often in yoga which just causes compression and causes you to be inauthentic in the practice. And so it's been really cool to see that translated into a voice. Yeah, it's amazing. And if you even think about it like that, when we are not in our gravity, when we are not in our body, we have a tendency to, all that's really left is okay, what can I do from here? Like how can I display?

And what ends up happening when we start to use that voice in communication or expression or singing, is that we tend to go into what sounds good, what's the right thing to say? How am I coming across? As soon as we come back into our gravity and into our body, into the middle center of our brain, we back off, I liked how you used the word back off, we back off, we really also with our (speaking quickly) get after the things that really need us. Our body really needs us to be in it. We're given this gift, you know?

Like to be present and aware of this beautiful body that we are, that we have, and also our breath really needs us. Our engine really needs us to be expansive, to be up to that. Once we're in that place and we come back into the middle center of our brain, we back off our mind. All of a sudden we have a sense of what we want to say. There's a little bridge, there's a little gap that we definitely need and it's called courage.

It's called dare to suck. We have to be up to the opportunity to take a risk. We have to be able to just go there. And be up to what it is that we wanna say and go beyond the alarms, the triggers, and the survival messages that are saying don't do that. So we do need that courage bridge to give this a try.

And anything great in life needs that courage bridge. Yeah, I love when you say dare to suck. How many people don't? I mean I know I tried for so long to have this image and to be great at everything and never let you see me sweat and all the things and I know so many of my clients who are trying to break through and transform themselves are like, but I don't wanna be wrong. I don't wanna make a mistake.

I don't wanna take a risk and find out it was the wrong thing to do. I don't want people to see me being vulnerable. I don't know if I can do it, well you don't have to do it, but if you don't, you'll never bridge the gap into, I think, who you truly want to be. That's imperfectly perfect. That's ugly as well as beautiful but in that ugly it's also so pretty, it's so riveting to watch someone be human.

Well the people that we most admire, they truly dare to suck on a daily basis. I mean I know, you know we know successful people, I know some people who have done extremely well and they've had a bunch of crappy ideas and some have been fantastic and really worked, and that's in a business sense. It also goes into their communication, their ability to voice what it is that they see and the common denominator amongst anyone that's successful and alive and content and up to being in their expression, dare to suck. Which means you take the risk that what you are going to voice is going to be not great, quote unquote, and that that really, once we play enough games together, isn't much of a risk at all. What really is a risk is not voicing yourself at all.

Displaying to recreate, to sound good, is never really fulfilling, but to feel what it feels like to just allow what it is that you wanna voice to come out is extremely fulfilling, so it's kind of, it's the gateway. And we're gonna do more of that. One of the things that we're gonna do now is a little singing exercise, I guess, that I, maybe the only one I've ever retained from all the voice work that I've done, and I don't even remember what it was called, I learnt it from someone and I guess I gave it the name or it was already called singing into the chakras, and that is a kinda, tends to be a convoluted word in the yoga world or in the world, just the western world, of chakra. But to me the simplest way to experience the chakra is to experience the zone for each, where that chakra is to it, experience what it's like to have that part of yourself, that energy center, what does that feel like? Well it's the physical, emotional, and mental experience to have that place.

And I also love that in the chakra system is seven centers and that in most scales are seven notes, I think that's fantastic. So really what we're doing is singing to and singing from the human scale. And we're gonna bring back each of these, rejoin, and re-empower, and make whole and complete this whole body instrument using the seven chakras. So it's called singing into the chakras. Each chakra has its own sound.

I'm gonna sing to them, I'm gonna sing 'em before, each time we sing a note. The base, we're gonna talk a bit about now the base and the foundation's lam, L-A-M. And we've already talked about foundation today, it's your root, it's your connection to the ground. It's your gravity, you know, the beginning of your gravity. It's one, it's the, from where everything else sprouts.

So that's lam. We move to the groin. Vam, V-A-M. The groin really has a voice. Is maybe the unsung hero, you know.

I would almost say most people aren't speaking or singing from their groin, and they're missing out. It's a fantastic place to come from. It's a really firy, instinctual, animalistic spot. So that's the groin, I'm gonna get into that later, so that's vam. I remember the first time I sat with you and you were like, like Rihanna, I want you to sing from your groin.

And I was like, (laughing) excuse me? (laughing) But now I understand. Yeah. And living from that root too. Did I say that first session? Well, you know.

I probably did. Probably. (laughing) I probably did. You probably did. (laughing) Um, (laughing) the groin. Next is the belly, the engine we've got to know. It's ram.

Ram. Yeah, R-A-M. It's our roar, it really does come from there, that beautiful belly, and then the next up is the heart, yam. The emotional home, the house of the heart, of course, and our emotion. And then as we come up we've got ham, which is very suited, is very (heavy breathing).

Ham. Very throat. And that's the gift. Our communication and expression gateway, where the magic happens. And then as we come up we've got om, obviously, very famously, the third eye, our will, our strength, what is that spot to you?

Seeing that someone, you spent time there. Yeah I mean like we call it the third eye, but to me it's the first eye because it's somewhere that we can truly see without seeing. It's something to clear if you want a different perspective on life, it's not based on only what you see, but the reality beyond, and to me om is an empty sound until you put your intention into it, so it's really lifting your intention all the way up and out. Yeah, clearing that is important to me. That's fantastic.

And last but certainly not least is the crown, right at the top, and that is two syllables, tsu ham, T-S-U ham, and we'll play with that. We'll sing a slightly higher note for tsu and then we'll come back down to ham. So each of these spots lam, the ground, vam, the groin, ram, the gut, yam, the heart, ham, the throat, om, the third eye, and tsu ham, the crown, one note starts it all and one note finishes it off. Seven notes make this beautiful human scale. We're gonna sing to these spots and we're gonna sing from these spots.

It's up to you how you'd like to do it. It is an imagination exercise. You can have your eyes closed, I guess for these exercises we'll close our eyes and I just want you to really send your voice to each of these spots. If you feel any resistance or any block of any kind, nothing to adjust, you can just send the vibration there. Yeah, and I would say too, don't just watch, do, because this, I've meditated all over the place.

I've done a lot of different things, and doing this with you, I've gotten the most deeply into that sense of center as anything I've ever done, so do it with us and enjoy. Awesome. Okay so just want you to come back into your captain's chair, your middle center. I just want you to start allowing that breath to just enter that belly, that effortless belly, that expansion, and that contraction, that falling away. And on each breath I want you to expand further.

And contract further. And one more deep inhale. And exhale, drawing belly button to spine. And we're gonna start with lam, the ground. We're gonna pick a low note to start with.

I'm gonna pick up my guitar now. (gentle guitar music) Now for all the dudes at home, you can sing with me, and for all the ladies, unless you have a truly low voice, join Sadie, here we go. Lam, the ground. Inhale. (heavy breathing) â?« Lam Lam. â?« Lam â?« Lam Beautiful, now the groin, vam.

â?« Vam The groin, the fire of the instinct. â?« Vam â?« Vam Gorgeous, now up to the belly, the engine. â?« Ram Ram, the roar. â?« Ram Beautiful, ram. â?« Ram Now the heart, yam.

â?« Yam The emotion. â?« Yam The vulnerability. â?« Yam Beautiful, now the throat, ham, the communication, the expression. â?« Ham Ham. â?« Ham Ham.

â?« Ham Now the third eye, that will, that strength, that first eye, om. â?« Om â?« Om â?« Om And last but not least, the crown, tsu ham. â?« Tsu â?« Ham â?« Tsu â?« Ham The crown, our connection back to (mumbling). â?« Tsu â?« Ham Get a higher note, start from the ground up. Singles this time.

Lam. â?« Lam Big groin vam. â?« Vam The guts, the belly, ram. â?« Ram The heart, the emotion, yam. â?« Yam The throat, communication, ham.

â?« Ham The third eye, om. â?« Om The crown, tsu ham. â?« Tsu â?« Ham Again, a higher note, lam, the foundation. â?« Lam Groin, vam. â?« Vam Belly, ram.

â?« Ram Heart, yam. â?« Yam Throat, ham. â?« Ham Third eye, om. â?« Om The crown, tsu ham. â?« Tsu â?« Ham Foundation, lam â?« Lam Groin, vam.

â?« Vam Belly, ram. â?« Ram Heart, yam. â?« Yam Throat, ham. â?« Ham Third eye, om. â?« Om Crown, tsu ham.

â?« Tsu â?« Ham Lam. â?« Lam Vam. â?« Vam Ram. â?« Ram Yam. â?« Yam Ham.

â?« Ham Om. â?« Om Tsu ham â?« Tsu â?« Ham (gentle guitar music) To an om. Om. Om. Om.

Fantastic. How did that feel? I dunno, I wasn't there. (laughing) Felt amazing. Awesome, you sounded fantastic.

I felt it. I didn't sing it. I was it, that was the coolest part. Well what did you experience with each place? I mean I could definitely feel the resonance in the areas.

We talk about this in yoga a lot, right? So what areas represent you in re-attuning, but to really sing those, we call them the seed mantras, do you even know that? Do you know it's a yoga thing too? Yeah, yes. Like the chanting, I'm sure. Yes.

Of course. It's really awesome. I mean, when I met you and you did that, it feels like I'm getting back to myself. You know? It's interesting to hear Sadie speak and this is one of the things that I find so amazing and inspiring is just hearing Sadie speak after doing that.

Her voice sounds different. It does, it feels different. It sounds like it's in her gravity, it's in her body, and you wanna listen to what she's saying. And really this is an exercise in you being your voice. This is about you exploring your voice.

No one else can but you. And no one else has your voice. And that's a reality. And maybe it seems like I did a really good job, I feel like I did a good job of singing that, but I didn't know if I would, I didn't really care. As we went higher I was like, ah, my voice might crack, I thought about it here and there, like what if you can't go that high, what happens?

I'm like, well then you'll curiously know that oh, that's interesting. Well here's the fun about this. It wasn't a thing. You will crack at some point. There's ridiculous videos of me online of all the hundreds of shows that I've ever played and I've played to eight people and I've opened in arenas, I've played to 40,000 people, and you do screw up, and that's just fine. (laughing) It's like the reality is, there's nothing wrong with cracking, there's nothing wrong with that.

We don't have to make it mean anything. We're after big things, we're gonna crack. When you really boil it down, when you're experiencing this and you're feeling it and you're with it, the absolute outcome is that it's going to sound great and better and more awesome than you've ever sounded before. Fact. Fact. And you know people say that to me all the time, it's like it's easy for you, you're a singer, you've been doing this for a long time, you were given a voice, blah, blah, blah.

No, I was just given a voice too, I've spent time exploring it and mine is mine. I don't want you to sound like me. I don't wanna sound like you. You know what I mean? I don't want to sound like the best vocalist I've ever heard. I admire and I think in a really awesome way, being just like, oh, I'm so jealous, you can just do that.

At the same time I would never want their voice. What would be the fun in that? That I have, I've had the privilege of seeing many, many people find their own voice and what I find is their own voice is just as amazing as anyone else's, if they're up to exploring it, and you did a fantastic job, so. Thanks. Let's get to the next place, let's see if we can really tip her over the edge.

Oh man, that wasn't the edge? (laughing)