Auditory inclination

Last year, I took a short NLP course and discovered the extent to which I am audibly inclined... in a big way! Additionally, I am somewhat face-blind (that's a word, is it? I don't recognize faces quickly, just like cars. Of course, I notice the color immediately, but the brand?) However, I am highly sensitive to sounds. I dare say that I quickly pick out voices and can place them with someone. I would almost like to label it as a superpower, but being modest, I'll stick with: my auditory proficiency is strongly developed.Pretty cool to think about! With my dear friend, I rigorously selected based on his voice. He was (still is) super nice; laughing eyes, a beautiful mouth, very sweet and funny, but what ABSOLUTELY was not overlooked is his voice; warm, deep, and calm. Lovely! How could that not be a criterion to "check" on your first date? Falling asleep against the chest of a man with a monotonous nasal croaky voice is almost impossible. 

The importance of making sounds

Voices are of fundamental importance. It starts as soon as you come out of your mother's womb; there is applause as the first sounds of crying emerge. Extremely important! Then it's pretty much the only thing you need to communicate with your caregiver; I want milk is; WEEEEEEH!!!! Or WAAAH!! (And my daughter cried like a little lamb, that certainly grabs attention).
Then your first word; a milestone! Place and date are noted. Again, extremely important! I could elaborate on this much more, but I'll try to keep it short; elementary school: making contact with other kids; you use your voice, the teacher raises her voice; oops, you talk too long, singing songs together, telling stories by a campfire, reading to your child (one of my all-time favorite activities), giving a speech at a wedding, your last words before you die; your voice makes it all possible. If that's not valuable, then I don't know what is.

My Fascinating Voice Journey

Throughout my life, my voice has been the center of attention more than once. Not necessarily a positive point, I must say right away. I'm about to share a very personal thing with you that I've never shared before, I realize now. Will I do it? Yes! In the context of "the person behind the voice," I almost feel obligated to.
In primary school, I didn't speak. The feedback my mother got from the teacher: "Your daughter doesn't talk. Never." I was afraid. At the next primary school, I started speaking, very softly and almost unintelligibly, but I spoke! However, something strange happened; when I spoke in public, my voice distorted, making it sound strange. Most kids didn't know that my real voice was different (and they didn't care), and they got used to my quirky voice. I slowly made contact with other kids and started speaking more and more. It seemed that I was still a "normal" child. Phew!
My childhood went on peacefully, but this is a small part of it that occasionally raises questions. Why did that happen?
Once in high school, my voice no longer distorted, and I sounded like myself. At least; at that time, I had no idea who I was, what I wanted in life, and how to best use my voice, but I could speak freely and didn't get strange looks... in that area. (Perhaps in a future blog, I'll open a book about the hardships during high school, but for now, I find this period sufficiently illuminated; essential, enriching, but as befits a classic high school period; confronting and uncomfortable).

Exposure therapy

I loved singing but only did it secretly when no one heard. Until I was 18 and started performing with a musical classmate at an open stage, and suddenly everyone heard me. I literally went from never humming to singing "You're the one that I want" on stage with a microphone. It was actually the perfect exposure therapy because this gave me so much energy that I wanted to do it more often. My mother was amazed by this development. She had no idea that I dared to stand on a stage at all. Anyway; I had overcome my fear and wanted to keep singing for an audience. In much smaller steps than this first big step, I gradually appeared in the foreground with my voice. I sang along with a friend when he played the guitar, introduced songs at after-party campfires, and accompanied myself on the piano in the living room.Now, many speech therapy sessions and singing lessons later, I have crawled out of many of my shells and delight the world daily with my babbling, humming, chirping, stories, and often entire songs. I love performing. This form of singing is still a strange combination of nerves in your toes to your spinning little head with an unparalleled feeling of fulfillment. Enough about me though!

Sounds in your existence

Sounds can evoke emotions in humans. We all know that, but I challenge you to think about the way sound plays or has played a role in your life. Think of the sob of your firstborn, the song at your sister's wedding, the shrill voice of that one elementary school teacher, or the warm voice that softly said goodnight every evening before you went to sleep. Or an endlessly annoying voice in a commercial? The vulnerable way a particular song is sung? The infectious laughter of your colleague? It can be GRAND but also small. Let me know on my Instagram? I love reading about it!