A singer's Achilles heel

 Oh no...#voicestrainalert
The moment of realization finally arrived for me. Last week, while I practiced one of my regular voice warm-up exercises, I felt that my voice sounded slightly cracky and strained. I told myself that maybe this slight strain was normal - a normal way to remove my vocal cord cobwebs! Keeping this mindset etched in my mind, I continued my warm-up exercises.

Another moment of truth arrived when I sang my rendition of George Micheal's Monkey. I noticed that while I was singing the song, I was beginning to lose my breath. But once again, I continued singing- as I told myself, what if this was a live performance? Would I stop singing in the middle of the song? If that was the case, all the other performance elements could have been affected (i.e the musicians, the back-up singers and dancers)

I'm sure you've imagined the result of my practice and warm-ups - I strained my voice. Despite this, I continued to sing a few notes and lines of some of my favourite songs - like I usually do. I eventually decided to take a self-imposed vocal rest - I just hummed and mumbled songs. That experience "re-taught" me the significance of listening.

Listen to your body
What I learned from my voice strain experience is that sometimes, we have to listen to our body. We should take a moment to stop a task that may veer us off the road that leads to our goal pursuit. I know, this is easier said than done. But nonethless, I think a pause is a worthwhile pursuit. Who knows, maybe you'll be surprised to savour the insights you gain from taking a 5 second or a 10 minute break. Perhaps during this break-time, you might discover a new angle to pursue along your path of pursuing your goals.