The Womb + Voice Connection
Usha Anandi. 6 | October | 2023
Popping, clicking, or tension in your jaw? The answer might be in your pelvis.
Pain, tension, or numbness in your womb space? The answer might be in your jaw.
Most of us think that these two areas of the body are separate, but they’re actually linked.
In this blog, I’ll tell you exactly how the voice and the womb connect.
Looking for holistic practices and education to help you release tension in these two areas of the body (without mouth guards or needing to spend hundreds of dollars for relief?)
Doors are opening in a few days to Wise Womben Circle, the only place I teach voice & womb practices regularly online.
If you’re looking to build a better relationship with your womb and learn alongside me and other leading experts in the womb healing field… Wise Womben Circle is for you.
And you’ll only hear about doors opening if you get on this waitlist.
And now, the teachings —
Silent woman, I dare you to speak.
I beg you to allow the unique, Earth quaking tremor of your voice be heard.
Since the beginning of time, womben have been the wisdom keepers. We have carried cultures for thousands of years through the transmission of oral tradition.
We weave webs with our stories and heal with our song.
Every time I sing, I heal. And you can too: your voice is a unique medicine that has been specially formulated to heal your heart and reconnect you to the essence of your soul.
Women have always sung, as a way to magnify collective intention and to mark important passages in cultures like menstruation, pregnancy, birth, marriage, and death.
I open every lecture in our in-person trainings or intensives with a song. To my surprise, at the end of our time together, I always receive feedback that singing was one of the most powerful, transformational tools my students experienced during the training or intensive.
It’s no coincidence that singing not only feels good, but is GOOD FOR YOU, too.
As humans, we’ve passed down certain ways to cope with stress. Practices that have been used by our ancestors for thousands of years. Singing is one of them.
Ideally, we want to respond to stress in a healthy way – without feeling frozen or getting stuck in patterns of in guilt or blame. One of the ways that humans have evolved to cope with their stress is through a process called ‘Tending and mending’.
This is a response to stress that encourages the integration of the experience through sharing, touching, and bonding.
The ‘tend and mend’ response creates an environment for an extremely powerful neurotransmitter and hormone called oxytocin to be secreted from the hypothalamus. Oxytocin is released in large amounts during orgasm and triggers contractions in the uterus during birth.
Oxytocin is released in large amounts when you sing in groups. When the body feels safe, supported, and connected to the whole, oxytocin is released.
Encouraging the release of oxytocin is also a powerful way to mitigate the effects of major stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Yep, that’s right – keep singing and soon you’ll balance the effects of stress in your body and mind.
Vibrational Healing with the Vagus Nerve
Not only does singing stimulate the release of oxytocin, it’s also one of the most powerful tools to turn on the parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. Known as the ‘rest, digest, and reproduce’ division of the nervous system, parasympathetic response is largely governed by the vagus nerve.
Known as the wandering nerve, the vagus nerve exits the amygdala and innervates the larynx, traveling through the throat and making its way through the digestive system and internal organs, all the way down to the cervix.
Creating vibration in the throat through singing, humming, or sighing is a powerful way to stimulate the vagus nerve and ‘tone’ the nervous system out of a place of alertness, hyper-vigilance and stress. This encourages your nervous system to rest in a place of relaxation and calmness.
The Jaw + Pelvis Connection
We can trace the connection between the womb and the voice all the way back to early development in utero.
During embryological development, two depressions form on the dorsal side of the embryo. These eventually become the oropharyngeal membrane (which goes on to form the mouth) and the cloacal membrane (which forms the opening to the urinary, digestive, and reproductive tracts).
Later, the spine develops and forms a bridge between them — but the connection and memory from the early stages of development always remains within the body.
The Fascial System
Not only are the jaw (voice) and pelvis (womb) connected on a cellular level, they’re also connected on a fascial level. Fascia can be defined as an interconnected web of soft tissue that encases the entire body and laces between individual muscles and organs.
A large fascial line runs from the tip of the coccyx (tailbone) to the tip of the tongue. When we soften and relax the jaw, the same relaxation is mirrored in the pelvis and the muscles of the pelvic floor.
Practice to Release Jaw + Pelvic Floor Tension
Find a quiet space in your home where you can sit alone, undisturbed in silence for 5 – 10 minutes.
- Guide your body in a comfortable position, either seated or lying down.
- Make whatever final adjustments you need to before resting in a place of complete stillness.
If it’s comfortable for you, close your eyes. - Guide your hands to your womb. Connect thumbs over the navel and guide the index fingers to touch as they face the floor – creating an inverted, downward-facing triangle over the womb. If you don’t feel like touching yourself, that’s okay. Know that you can always hover your hands above your body.
- Relax your jaw and sense that your tongue is wide in the mouth. Allow even the back of your tongue to become soft.
- For this ritual, we will explore Brahmaree Breath — an ancient Hatha Yoga practice used to emulate the sound of the honey bees to bring stillness and expansion to the mind, body, and spirit.
- Keep your jaw soft and gently close your lips. Guide the tongue to the roof of your mouth.
- Take a long, expansive inhale through the nose and feel your lungs expand 360 degrees inside of your ribs.
- As you exhale, keep your lips close while making a humming sound… just like the honey bee.
- Create a small pause between the end of your exhale and the beginning of your next inhale to pause, be curious, and notice the effects of the breath.
- Practice this breath ten times or as you feel is needed for you and your unique body.
This practice is a wonderful ally to those who experience jaw and/or pelvis tension, anxiety, stress, migraine headaches, digestive issues, and insomnia.
I’m all about transmitting spiritual wisdom in a real, grounded, and ACCESSIBLE way.
That’s why I created Wise Womben Circle, the only place on the internet where you can learn from me and other leading guest experts in the field of womb health to get the tools you need to build a better relationship with your womb.
We only open doors to people on the waitlist, so if you’re interested to join – add your name below.
