neck placement

Elenore W. is a Gokhale Elements alumna hailing from Canada. She kindly volunteered to share her experience with the Gokhale Method. —  Editor

Elenore W., singer and Gokhale Elements alumna, with her trusty ukulele. Image supplied.

I lost my voice completely 5 years ago after singing a full out concert of Brahms’ Requiem. My voice came back, but never with the same resonance. The ears/nose/throat specialist said there was nothing wrong, but I knew something was. I couldn’t sing for long without having a sore throat. My speaking voice became raspy very easily. I couldn’t sing through a phrase without gasping for air. After a physio appointment, I’d have “my” voice back for a day or two and then everything would go back to “not normal.”

Voice problem...or neck problem?
Finally an Alexander Technique teacher told me: “Elenore, it’s not your voice, it’s your neck.” I took about 10 lessons with her and they did help, but I found the exercises tedious and didn’t experience enough success to stay motivated. Still I searched — acupuncture, chiropractic, reflexology — nothing helped for long. But I knew that if it was my neck and posture, there had to be something out there that would work for me.

Feldenkrais was another modality I tried. After a free summit I signed up for a course. It was lovely and gave me lots of new body awareness but was disappointing as an ultimate answer for my vocal issues.

Lots of women my age would just quit choir and singing, saying they must be too old. I was determined to show that a 67-year-old could still sing!

A new tack — that worked
I’d found the Gokhale Method online, ordered the book and tried following the instructions, but couldn’t seem to get it. After a free class with Esther, I was infected by her enthusiasm, convinced by her statistics, and decided to bite the bullet. Thank Goddess I did! I did the initial consultation with Esther and then the Elements class with Sheelagh Tobin. The results speak for themselves…

My husband and I put on three beach concerts from the balcony of our home this summer. This is what the distanced crowd looked like:

The distanced audience for our July beach concert. Our house is in the background, with the balcony visible. Image supplied.

The first of our three beach concerts took place in July when I had just started the Elements class. Notice how my shoulders hunch around the ukulele in the picture below and my neck strains toward the microphone. I was so disappointed to see this picture. I’d been determined to use my new learning. But I wasn’t surprised. This was a 30 minute children’s show and my voice felt strained throughout. Afterwards, I was vocally very fatigued.

This balcony concert with my husband Roland took place before I’d finished the Gokhale Elements class. You can see how I’m hunching my shoulders around my ukulele, with my neck straining toward the microphone. Image supplied.

The second show of about 45 minutes was much better, but still not what I’d hoped for. I made Roland do most of the songs, fearing my voice wouldn’t last.

Then we started planning the season finale. By the time of our performance on September 5, I had completed the course and looked like this while performing:

The air was a bit hazy from distant West Coast wildfires, but you can still see a noticeable change developing in my posture. Image supplied.

We put on a one-hour (!!!) program called Love and Dreams! Afterwards, I felt great. I’d sung lead or harmony in every song and afterwards my voice still resonated while speaking!

Just so you know, every muscle in my body (except my vocal chords) is a bit achy all the time right now. Maybe it’s having misused my muscles for 67 years, or maybe I want the results too quickly. I’m so new at this that I am always cautious to maintain my alignment lest the raspiness return. I keep telling my body that the challenge of re-learning movement is going to be worth it in the long run. I give my muscles sauna time, and lots of stretchlying or stretchsitting for relaxation. Every time I feel the power and resonance back in my voice, it’s totally worth it!

Thank you Esther and Sheelagh!

This bronze figure shows an open chest and “heart space;” his shoulders are well back and his ribcage is anchored. He is part of a fountain in Piccadilly Circus, London, sculpted by Sir Alfred Gilbert in 1893. Referred to (erroneously) as “Eros,” the figure is in fact Anteros, Eros’ brother, who represents a more mature, less capricious love. Original image courtesy Gareth Williams under CC BY 2.0.

“Heart space” is a term used in yoga to describe the upper part of the chest where the heart is located. Valentine’s Day is an ideal time to give some special attention to this region, and explore its relation to your posture and wellbeing. 

The Gokhale Method teaches four particular techniques which enable you to open your chest without doing damage to your back:

1. Rib anchor video
   Learning to engage your rib anchor is an important first step. It will prevent your lower ribs from popping up and your back from swaying in the techniques that follow.
    
2. Up and back with the neck video
   By drawing the base of the skull gently backwards and upwards, the chest is no longer crowded into the body, but rather allowed to expand outwards and upwards.
    

3. Shoulder rolls video
   Shoulder rolls help position the arms further back along the torso, which immediately opens the chest to expansion with breathing. In the long run, this results in a larger, more open chest.

This Ecuadorian school teacher is much loved by his pupils. Note that the teacher and his pupils have open chests and posterior shoulder placement.

4. Breathing into the upper chest
   The first three techniques may already leave you feeling more open-hearted. They enable you to breathe more deeply, but this may not yet be your habit. Take a few slow, deep breaths that further open your upper chest. Then rest a few breaths before repeating. It is common to feel resistance in the chest at first, but by using these techniques to open your structure and deepen your breathing, with practice it will become easy and pleasurable. 

The functioning of the heart is clearly essential to good health and life itself, but the organ and its position in the chest are also given special importance in many religious and cultural frameworks. Even our language is full of familiar, evocative idioms such as “from the bottom of my heart,” “faint-hearted,” “heart of the matter,” “heart and soul,” “heartening,” and so on.  Let’s explore the symbolism and associations a little further, especially where they intersect with posture.

Heart symbolism in Western European cultures
Let’s begin with St. Valentine. According to most popular accounts, Saint Valentine was either a priest or a bishop in the times of the Roman Empire, who, with great bravery and compassion, ministered to persecuted Christians. He was martyred and buried north of Rome on February 14, which has been observed as St. Valentine's Day since 496 AD. Another plausible legend suggests that when Roman Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for young men – reasoning that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families – Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. 

Whichever legend has truth, love, bravery, and compassion are all qualities said to reside in the heart in many Western European cultures. In Catholic Christianity, the Sacred Heart of Jesus symbolises his unconditional love, and the church and its patrons commissioned many paintings on this theme. These paintings show the heart radiating divinity; they often also show the very visceral detail of an attached aorta!  

Allegorical painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The central heart radiates hearts gathered up by putti (cherubs). Painting by Robert la Longe, ca. 1705. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The heart-shaped symbol ♡ evolved around the 14th century, loosely based on the organ’s shape. Today we have numerous emojis preprogrammed in our smartphones, ready to use as shorthand for love, broken-heartedness, and associated feelings and events.

Heart symbolism in South Asian and East Asian cultures
Many Asian cultures also identify the heart space as essential to our wellbeing. Traditional Indian medicine describes energy centers, or chakras, that lie along the central axis of the body. The heart chakra (Anahata) is considered the center of love and compassion that can become blocked by grief or selfishness. An unblocked anahata is associated with loving-kindness and peacefulness. Tibetan Buddhist understandings of chakras also typically include a chakra located in the center of the chest.

This illustration from an 1899 Tibetan manuscript shows the body’s energy centers (chakras), including the twelve-petalled heart chakra. Public domain. Original image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

In Japanese language and culture, the word kokoro (distinct from the physical organ) encapsulates heart, spirit, mind, and soul, among other concepts. And in Chinese medicine, the Mu, or front correspondence point, of the heart is located at the midpoint of the nipples, and is used to heal emotional hurt.

This Buddha figure in Sri Lanka displays a beautifully relaxed, open chest and heart space. Original image courtesy Sadaham Yathra on Pexels.

Posture and the heart space
Of course, with its emphasis on our structure, it is natural to think of healthy posture and the Gokhale Method as primarily benefiting our bodies. It is certainly true that having a well-developed ribcage and open chest are important ingredients for a straight spine and well-positioned shoulders. Such good structure also benefits physiological functions such as blood circulation, breathing, digestion, and allows space for the brachial nerve plexus. However, our structure is also intimately connected to our body language, revealing and communicating how we feel.

An open heart space can often look like balanced, approachable confidence. Original image courtesy nappy on Pexels.

A mounting body of research connects open upper body posture with confidence and vitality; and crumpled upper body posture with depression, exhaustion, shame, and poor health. According to a 2017 New Zealand study, it is more challenging to be depressed with open upper body posture than with slumped upper body posture. According to another, even our performance in subjects like math improves when we adopt an open posture.

These subway commuters, with their varied seated and standing postures, demonstrate a wide range of heart space openness. Original image courtesy Laura Dewilde on Unsplash.

It strikes me that there is much cross-cultural convergence on associating this area of the body with “matters of the heart.” How does your experience and knowledge of other cultures stack up with this?