Wellness

By Ramona M. Wis

“Better breathing means a better and healthier life.”  B.K.S. Iyengar

Singers are professional breathers.  We take what is a normal part of our human functioning and turn it into a specialized art.  But have we perfected breath for the art of wellness, as well as singing?

I have been singing for a long time, but it wasn’t until I began to practice yoga that I realized how the breath was our always-with-us tool for managing our state, for bringing emotions, mind, and physiology into balance.  I also became more discerning about choral breathing exercises we may have inherited without examining their potential counterproductive effects.

Breathwork in yoga is called pranayama:  prana=life force and yama=regulation or control.  Breathing is central to meditative practices, a mode of purification of the energy channels in the body.  Put simply, breathing well is not just about sustaining life but also about improving it—from surviving to thriving.  

There are many breathing practices in the yoga tradition and volumes written about breathing in both yoga and singing.  Our focus today is on reframing our approach to breathing to help build the well choir, especially during this era of enormous challenge to mind, body, and spirit. 

Breath awareness (Anapana).  Breathwork begins by simply becoming aware of how we are breathing in this moment.  Ask singers to “become aware of” or “notice” their breathing, without judgment or feeling the need to change anything.  This simple but powerful cue begins to bring the room (even the Zoom room) into focus and allows singers to switch from their prior activity or bad commute or technology snafus to the new intention, making music.  Ask, “Is your breathing smooth or rough?”  “Are your inhales or exhales longer, or about the same?”  (Leave some silence in between to give them time to sense this.)  Remind singers to just notice, not criticize or fix.  Give them time to “be” and you provide an important meditative opportunity for focus as you move forward in the rehearsal.

Inhale (Pūraka) and Exhale (Rechaka).  Once singers sense their current breath reality, we can teach them how to improve their state by directing their own breathing.  This is an important distinction between yoga breathwork and breathing activities that we guide corporately in rehearsal, such as counting beats out loud for singers to follow.  By allowing singers to determine what they need, we teach self-awareness and give them a skill they can always call upon, whether in singing or in life.  “This can be a very useful thing to know when you need to either calm yourself down, prepare yourself for sleep, or increase your energy if you need to focus.  The breathing practices can energize you or slow you down.”  (One Simple Thing, Eddie Stern, p. 201) 

Stern describes the relationship between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, from which we can understand how to guide singers in their breath management:

“The sympathetic nervous system moves us toward activity.  The parasympathetic nervous system moves us toward rest.  When we inhale, the heart speeds up.  When we exhale, the heart slows down.” (p. 199)

How do we apply this in our rehearsal teaching?

Singers feeling anxious or distracted are likely experiencing shallow breathing and a faster heart rate (the sympathetic, fight-or-flight response).  Invite them to extend the length of their exhale, encouraging the parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest response) to calm their state.

For singers feeling sluggish or depressed, invite them to take a deeper, fuller inhale to increase their energy and prepare the body for activity (the job of the sympathetic nervous system). 

Reassure singers that they can always return to their natural breathing pattern and should never do anything that makes them anxious or uncomfortable.  

There are helpful and interesting ways to incorporate physical gesture into the breathing exploration, which we will look at next time as we continue discussing practices to develop the well choir.  In the meantime, two cautions about breathwork for singers:

Though holding (retaining) the breath is an aspect of some yoga practices (Kumbhaka) and choral warm-ups, be wary of retention because it may create more problems than it solves.  In Yoga for Singers, author Linda Lister writes:

“. . . the practice of holding your breath can actually be counterproductive for singers.  Unlike that of swimmers, the breath cycle of a singer should not include a holding period because it will most likely cause the support muscles to grab or lock and thus will impede the flow of the breath cycle.”  (p. 23)

Be mindful of the effect breathing has on singers’ physiology, particularly with advanced practices like the rapid breathing of Kapalabhati.  Unless you have sufficient training and a population accustomed to these practices, leave them out of rehearsals.  Though we might have done certain exercises our entire singing life, we may not have understood their full impact on ourself and others.  That said, there are many forms of pranayama that singers find helpful, healing, and interesting when instructed mindfully.  

“The practice of pranayama develops a steady mind, strong will-power and sound judgement.”  

B.K.S. Iyengar

Dr. Ramona Wis is the Mimi Rolland Endowed Professor in the Fine Arts, Professor of Music, and Director of Choral Activities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and the author of The Conductor as Leader:  Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium.  Dr. Wis is a 500-hour CYT (Certified Yoga Teacher) with training in yoga history, philosophy, meditation, energetics, pranayama (breath work), anatomy, Sanskrit, and the teaching, sequencing, and adaptations of asana (posture-based) practice.

Further reading:

B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Pranayama. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0007921284/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_miroFb5E5DHF3

Linda Lister, Yoga for Singers: Freeing Your Voice and Spirit Through Yoga.  https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Singers-Freeing-Spirit-Through/dp/125709212X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Linda+lister&qid=1597514463&s=books&sr=1-2

Eddie Stern, One Simple Thing: A New Look at the Science of Yoga and How It Can Transform Your Life. https://www.amazon.com/One-Simple-Thing-ScienceTransform/dp/0865477809/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=eddie+stern&qid=1597514580&s=books&sr=1-1

By Ramona M. Wis

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416), Christian mystic

I have loved these words since I first heard them in Joan Szymko’s “Vivos Voco” for women’s voices.  I began using this phrase in March as my email sign off and now, as we return to our choral rehearsals in their redesigned formats, these words resonate in new ways.

“Well” can be understood in the literal sense of “not ill,” the world’s great mission right now.  But “well” also means “fit, thriving, in good form.”  I have thought of wellness as “being right with the world,” resilient, filled with grace and grit, or as a state of loving, assured spiritual comfort.  However defined, wellness is an integration of mind, body, and spirit, a balance that is challenged every day, every moment.

My hope for all of us is that we would be well as we live this new school year or season.  That we remain safe and healthy and that, as conductors, we would embrace our roles as agents of wellness with our choirs and for ourselves. When I find myself distracted by so much that bombards us these days, I try to rewind and ask myself three important questions. Over the coming weeks, we will look more deeply into these questions, encouraging us to move toward wellness in a time that has never challenged us more:

Will I remember that singing, alone or even in virtual community, provides important benefits for building and maintaining wellness? 

There is a fascinating array of research on the effects of music, particularly singing, on our mood, blood pressure, increase in oxytocin, and other measures of wellness.  When examined in conjunction with research on the effects of breathwork, yoga, and meditation, these findings remind us of what we have known, experientially, for as long as we have been singing and conducting—that the overall experience of singing is a powerful avenue for building and maintaining wellness.  

Recently, this interesting read in Neuroscience News encouraged me to see how singing can continue its power even in safe, virtual formats (I want to underscore this point, that the benefits they describe can happen together “via video conferencing platforms” or “mass jam sessions online”):  

“Lockdown singing:  the science of why music helps us connect in isolation.”

Will I craft strategies that help build a “well “choir, trusting that wellness will fortify us as we learn and create in this era?

This is the “deep work” (Dr. Cal Newport’s phrase I referenced in an earlier post) that we are doing right now and must adapt as we learn what works and what doesn’t with our choirs.  Connection, humor, physical and meditative approaches to activities we have always used, skill building, and performance goals can all be part of our planning.

Will I commit to my own wellness, more than ever, and welcome this time as a catalyst for personal growth?

Tough question, right?  

Personal wellness is our source from which we give, create, grow, and nurture.  If the source is dry, so is our potential for helping others. Even now—more so now—we can strive to make changes within the reality we experience—even small changes like a walking meditation to encourage deep breathing, physical mobility, and a calm mind. 

(See “What if I Can’t Meditate?” https://choralnet.org/2020/07/the-conductor-as-yogi-what-if-i-cant-meditate/)

A final, most important, note: 

I know some of you reading this are struggling with decisions that have been made about the modality in which you have been assigned to teach and lead this fall; perhaps you are facing a tough decision between job and health for you and your family.  (A member of my family is making this decision as we speak.)  While I don’t know you personally, I do “know” you as a choral colleague and fellow human, and I hope that however life unfolds, you are and will remain, well.  

This Julian of Norwich text can be a kind of mantra, a phrase we repeat and meditate on to calm our thoughts and to invite insight, clarity, and direction.  We can remind ourselves—as we teach, lead, and live—that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.  As we make decisions and do our work, let us do our best to build our wellness and contribute to the wellness of our singers and all those we touch in this still wonderful, yet imperfect, world.  

Dr. Ramona Wis is the Mimi Rolland Endowed Professor in the Fine Arts, Professor of Music, and Director of Choral Activities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and the author of The Conductor as Leader:  Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium.  Dr. Wis is a 500-hour CYT (Certified Yoga Teacher) with training in yoga history, philosophy, meditation, energetics, pranayama (breath work), anatomy, Sanskrit, and the teaching, sequencing, and adaptations of asana (posture-based) practice.

By Ramona M. Wis

I have to admit, I am feeling the heat.

Virtual rehearsal planning.  Technology.  Pandemic updates.  Constant communication. Summer heat.  

Conductors are tough folks—we know what it’s like to feel the heat and find ways to get through it.  Though “no pain, no gain” is usually considered an athlete’s mantra, musicians live this, as well.  Usually the gain is an end goal—an accomplishment of some sort, like an award or a concert well performed.  But there is a deeper way to understand the purpose—and the result—of “heat” in our lives.  This is the principle of tapas.

Tapas (here, not referring to the delicious Spanish small plates) is derived from the Sanskrit root “tap,” meaning “heat” (or blaze, burn, or shine).  In its historical context, tapas means personal discipline for the purpose of purification. One of the niyamas, the inner observances from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, tapas is often likened to the purification of gold.  When applied to our lives, we can view the burning off of impurities as the practice of using our time and effort in a focused way, getting to the heart of our work and letting the rest burn off to unveil what is the most valuable and precious.

Tapas can be understood in its strict sense as a practice of austerity, as when we deny ourselves a particular food or give up a behavior in order to gain greater physical health or spiritual awareness.  The larger understanding of tapas is our discipline in making choices which result in a cleaner, leaner mode of action, clearing or freeing us because decisions always involve a “cutting off” of options.  Going through the heat ultimately brings us to a better version of ourselves on the other side; we experience in our thinking and practice a kind of purification, which the dictionary defines as “refinement” or “distillation.” This is the defining construct of tapas.

On the yoga mat, tapas may mean working on a more challenging pose or staying with it longer to build strength or endurance.  This translates off the mat in much the same way—staying with the planning of virtual rehearsal and concert experiences or employing new technologies and strategies that can build our intellectual strength and missional endurance.  We are going to need our passion and will, the inner heat we have always depended on, in order to emerge from this season with a refined level of clarity for our new and future choral reality. 

Type A personalities may seem better built for tapas but if not careful, can find themselves moving ahead with force instead of wisdom, with speed and grandeur instead of discernment and elegant simplicity of action.  This may result in a lot of ineffective and hard-to-manage strategic baggage, while our more disciplined colleague finds a way that is effective and exactly what is needed, and no more.  

Tapas always involves a releasing of the ego.  

If we exert effort in any area of life in order to look good, be famous, one-up the next person, or have something to post on social, then the purification—the real transformation which occurs within us—never happens.  But if our focus is on the singers and programs we are given to lead, we might even, on our best days, begin to welcome the heat because we know it will mean we worked tirelessly for their greater good and we can trust that who we are at the end of it all will be a more refined version of ourselves and the unique gifts we are designed to bring to our corner of the world.  

In the Robert Frost poem, “A Servant to Servants,” the main character realizes, “ . . . [T]he best way out is always through.”  In our most difficult moments, we want “out” of this surreal time . . . but if we reframe all we are experiencing as a narrative we want very much to be a part of, and even lead through when we look back on it, we know down deep we just don’t want to miss this opportunity.

“The whole science of character building may be regarded as a practice of tapas,” wrote one of the world’s foremost yoga teachers, B.K.S. Iyengar, in Light on Yoga.  What will be our commitment to tapas as we prepare for and experience this fall season?  And how will we emerge when we stand on the other side of this era?  

Purified in spirit, strategy, and strength is my hope for us all.

Dr. Ramona Wis is the Mimi Rolland Endowed Professor in the Fine Arts, Professor of Music, and Director of Choral Activities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and the author of The Conductor as Leader:  Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium.  Dr. Wis is a 500-hour CYT (Certified Yoga Teacher) with training in yoga history, philosophy, meditation, energetics, pranayama (breathwork), anatomy, Sanskrit, and the teaching, sequencing, and adaptations of asana (posture-based) practice.

For more on Tapas:

https://yogainternational.com/article/view/heating-up-your-yoga-practice-understanding-tapas

By Ramona M. Wis

The first time I heard the phrase “holding space” was from a colleague describing her experience with someone going through a tough time.  “I just held space for her,” she said.  It was a phrase I was not familiar with but soon started seeing everywhere (or maybe it was just “blue car syndrome,” where my increased awareness led to noticing what was always there).

“Holding space” is being fully present with someone, usually someone who is experiencing a difficult time.  By allowing them to express disappointment, frustration, pain, or anger without judging them, responding with our own life experiences, or trying to fix the situation, we “hold” space for them to feel safe and we respect their agency to work through their thoughts and feelings without interference.

Holding space for someone is challenging because our instinct is to launch into action to take away the pain.  When our choirs went to virtual mode in March, and later, when our seniors graduated without final concerts and in-person commencements, they grieved and we had to hold space for them to do so.  We couldn’t say, “Don’t feel that way” or “I had that same experience when . . . ,” or anything else we might otherwise have been inclined to offer.  The reality of this global pandemic was so big that we just had to be with it, for our singers and for ourselves.

We are now well into July and the grieving is far from over.  Concerts or full seasons are cancelled, large in-person rehearsals are not happening, and much of the ceremony and community we typically enjoy will be altered in significant ways.  There will still be upset and confused singers (and colleagues) so we will still hold space for them to vent, cry, and question.

But even as we continue to hold space, we must move forward to the freedom and action of “making space.”

Making space is a common theme in my yoga classes because it has very real applications on and off the mat.  When we make space in the body, we find freedom to move differently and we discover new mobility or strength.  When we make space in the breath, we change our mood and energy level and encounter a sense of wholeness and balance.  And when we make space off the mat, we do two important things:  we let go of that which no longer serves us and we allow something new to come into our lives.

As we plan for fall, how do we make space for ourselves and our singers?  What no longer serves us and how do we prepare for the new?

To be clear, like everyone else, I yearn for the day when we can safely reassemble our full choirs in person, singing joyously, our notes punctuated with laughter and tears, just as they were in that last rehearsal in March.  I can see this future day clearly in my mind’s eye and while I don’t know when it will happen, I know it will be a moment like no other.

But for now, what no longer serves us is holding on to the belief that anything different from our traditional choral model is subpar and not worth doing.  It will not serve our singers to stay stuck in our own disappointment, frustration, anger, or fear when we can be using our time, energy, and considerable teaching and artistic gifts to create something new, something which can be of value now and reap benefits for us after—and there will be an “after”—this global health crisis has passed.

I released that belief pretty early on.  What took me longer was letting go of the idea that if I knew just a little more, watched one more webinar or video or had a few more conversations, then I would have it all figured out and have the perfect plan of action for my collegiate choirs in the fall.  I realized that while I will continue to seek information and inspiration, clarity would not emerge for me until I had the courage to do the hard work, to venture down new paths and craft an operational plan that would keep my choral family singing, learning, and meaningfully connected.  I am in the midst of this now and know that much will change in the coming weeks—but my commitment to doing the work, to adaptability, and to new ways of thinking must remain firm.

Let’s continue to hold space for ourselves and others (and refer to professional help where needed) as we also make space by letting go of that which cannot serve us right now.  Let’s see new ideas with new eyes, not to replace or compete with our beloved history, but to grow in ways that will support us now and when our traditional practices return.  Unless we make space in our lives by letting go of, or at least, putting on hold, our former way of doing things, we will never see the enormous opportunity that lies ahead for us all. 

“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities 

brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems.”

John. W. Gardner

Dr. Ramona Wis is the Mimi Rolland Endowed Professor in the Fine Arts, Professor of Music, and Director of Choral Activities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and a 500-hour CYT (Certified Yoga Teacher).  She is the author of The Conductor as Leader:  Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium.

You can Google these terms and find much more.  Here are two you might be interested in:

On Holding Space:  https://chopra.com/articles/holding-space-the-art-of-being-present-with-others

On Making Space:  https://conniechapman.com/letting-go-lessons/