That’s right, friends! The one thing that holds us back, that makes us the Hesitant Singers that we are, is our INNER voice. Certainly not your singing voice - that is beautiful!

The inner voice is the enemy here - it is cruel and heartless - it tells us lies with such confidence and strength. Before we even open our mouths, the inner voice tells us about better singers. Once we start singing, we hear things like “that sounds like a joke American Idol audition” or “you messed up that line/entrance/note” or worst of all “people aren’t even listening”

So how do we combat the cruelty of our mind? I have two ideas for you that I hope help liberate you from the negativity of your inner voice trying to keep you away from sharing your song.

1) POSITIVITY! Like any bully, you shut it down with kindness, compassion and positivity. If we think of this internal resistance as a bully, we kill it with positivity. So surround yourself with people that want to hear you, that want you to succeed, that are positive minded people. If you hang with the haters, it is too easy to project those negative words onto yourself in your head. BUT if we listen to compassionate supportive people, we internalize that positive vibe in ourselves.

2) PRACTICE!!! Yes, we are talking about practice, and I mean practicing being positive about your own voice. We all (include me in this, too!) have to work on and nurture the habit of telling ourselves kind, compassionate, and positive things about our voice more often. Again, finding people to work with that share those values can make all the difference. That has been the difference maker for me in my musical journey.

So it starts with acknowledging our inner resistance and purposefully creating a habit to defeat it.