Last Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Barbara McAfee.

A master voice coach, author, and singer/songwriter, Barbara McAfee has worked 25+ years “midwiving voices across thresholds.” Whether it is an individual seeking to express deep truth, or a group looking to embrace its power, she guides them on an intimate journey to find their unique voice, sound by primal sound. “Your voice is how you get the gift inside of you out. Nothing much happens in the world until someone gives it voice.” That’s why the words “voice” and “vocation” share a common Latin root, she says. Her work merges lessons from organization development with the transformative power of sound, aiming to foster awareness of unconscious vocal habits that interfere with us doing our best work. Barbara believes that the gifts uniquely expressed through our voices are part of a shared destiny. So when individual voices are more fully expressed, communities become stronger as well.

Below are some of the nuggets from the call that stood out for me ...

• Some of my earliest memories from childhood are of the St. Croix River, the sights and smells and sounds of that river, where I grew up in Wisconsin.
• During this time of covid, I found a house there, and moved there. Now I go to the river every morning, and jump into the cold water. I sing prayers for the water in the language of the native people that we stole the land from. I sing for the deer and the elk.
• My story is a story of my voice lost and found, lost and found again, and lost and found again.
• I was shy as a kid. Then I had an illness in my throat. They took out my thyroid.
• There were so many chapters of my life where there were physical and psychological obstacles to my voice -- and the opportunity for me to learn in a very personal way about midwifing my own voice across thresholds. So this work is very personal for me.
• There are so many ways to heal.
• The archytypes within me, as in the universal Jungian archetypes, are what come through me when I'm singing.
• Our voices can also take us into dark shadowy places, into the archetype of the shadow.
• What I love about voice work is that we can experience these shadow places, and bring them into our lives, in ways that are healthy. We can express parts of us that are in exile, so we can walk in this world in a way that is more whole.
• I love being able to express all this in a way that is joyful.
• When people open up their voices they feel more alive. And more connected with other people. That's because so much of our connecting with others is through our voices. "Aliveness feels like, if my work was a little factory, what would come out the other end would be aliveness and connection.  Because we connect with other people through our voices.  And we give our blessings. We give our curses. We both were caregivers, you for your grandma and me for my mom, and their voices are still echoing in our memories. And so there's a way that how we express ourselves while we're here will live on in the memories of the people we leave behind as a legacy."
• My mother is still here in my voice.
• There are lots of ways that coming home is a struggle.
• When we open up, there are so many tears that can come through us.
• You can talk from your head, but you can't sing from your head.
• Even as you open up to places that are terrifying, you can heal in a way that is joyful and playful and silly even. "Because there's a lot of grief and trauma that gets released, but also it's possible to do healing with pleasure. It feels good to make these sounds. And that still is a shock to me that, oh, you can heal in a way that is joyful and embodied and playful and silly even, and feels really good, while it's being terrifying sometimes. So that is part of the return, the coming home, that is surprising and lovely.  And good sound feels good.  Good speaking, good singing, and that pleasure is transmitted directly from my system to yours, even though Zoom. So if I'm talking from a place of tension and anger, that is changing your cortisol levels, that's changing your system."
• If I'm coming from a place of tension, that is transmitted through my voice. And if I'm coming from a place of pleasure, that is transmitted as well.
• What I've learned, and what I teach, is that there five kinds of voices, that relate to 5 elements:
  • Earth
  • Fire
  • Water
  • Metal
  • Air
• Earth -- sleepy cave man
• Fire -- belly and solar plexus
• Water -- heart and throat, flowing, more intimate, saying what your heart has to say. voice of therapist, yoga teachers
• Metal -- cat sound. amplifying my voice. sharp, bright, cuts through. people from mountainous regions — bluegrass — nose
• I think singing is a human right. it’s been a part of our cultures throughout human history. It’s only recently, in the dominant cultures, that we’ve stopped. "My daily prayer is: may the voices that need amplifying find their way to me. And they have been more and more. I've been working with a lot of different kinds of people for a long time, but I really want the voices to the amplified that we need to most be listening to right now. And I think when our voices are suppressed it's not just this generation. We're all standing in a long line of silenced people, especially women, people of color, various other groups. But I think also when I open and free my voice, I feel like that healing travels back through time."
• To learn more about Barbara and connect with her work, she says the best way is to go to her web site: www.barbaramcafee.com
• You can hear some songs on her web site at Community Songs.

Lots of gratitude to Barbara, Mia, Preeta, and all the behind-the-scenes volunteers that made this call happen!

Aryae