Expanded Awareness: The Missing Link Between Technique and Freedom in Singing

Have you ever noticed how, the moment something matters—really matters—your focus narrows?

Your attention zooms in on the high note.
Your breath.
Your jaw.
Whether you’re doing it right.

And suddenly, instead of feeling supported… you feel small.

What if the problem isn’t that you’re not focusing enough, but that you’re focusing too narrowly?

When the focus is narrow - what do you notice?

When Focus Becomes the Problem

In a recent Group Class (now added to the Wholehearted Singer’s Vault), we explored how the way we organize our attention directly affects our coordination, breath, and nervous system.

Many singers try to improve by concentrating harder.

But intense focus can unintentionally create holding. Tightening. Interference.

“How we organize our attention affects our coordination, our learning, and how our nervous system responds.”

When attention becomes narrow, we lose access to the support that was there all along.

How does your nervous system respond to being surrounded by this space? By this view?

The Moment Everything Changes: Receiving Instead of Controlling

We began with something simple:

Noticing the breath.
Not fixing it.
Not improving it.
Just noticing.

One participant shared:

“When I focused on my breath, it felt like I was making it happen instead of letting it happen.”

This is a profound realization, because freedom doesn’t come from controlling the breath.

It comes from allowing the breath.

Imagine YOU are the person in this space.

What does it feel like?
What does your nervous system tell you?

The Unified Field: Including Yourself in the Whole Picture

Alexander Technique researcher Frank Pierce Jones called this the Unified Field of Attention:

“Awareness that includes both yourself and your environment in a single field.”

Instead of focusing only on your voice, you include:

• Your feet
• Your breath
• The space around you
• The room behind you

One singer described the shift this way:

“It was like I remembered… oh yeah, I’m three-dimensional. I could fill the room.”

This is when singing stops feeling forced.

And starts feeling supported.

Your Nervous System Changes Everything

We explored how different environments affected the nervous system.

Participants noticed immediate shifts.

One shared:

“In one space I wanted to shut down. In another, I felt open and free.”

Your nervous system is constantly asking:
Am I safe here?

When the answer is yes:
Breath flows.
Sound flows.
Expression flows.

When the answer is no:
Everything tightens.

Not because you’re broken. Because your system is protecting you.

How does this picture impact YOUR nervous system?

Singing Is Vulnerable Because It’s Personal

Singing isn’t just technique.

It’s expression.
Connection.
Identity.

“Sharing your voice is an extremely vulnerable act.”

This is why simply “trying harder” doesn’t work.

Safety creates freedom. Not force.

Expanded Awareness Creates Support

When you expand awareness, something remarkable happens.

You stop trying to hold yourself together.

And begin to feel held.

By:
The floor.
The space.
The environment.
Yourself.

Instead of shrinking…You expand.

Awareness Gives You Choice

This is the heart of the work.

“Our nervous system is always telling us something. The question becomes—how do we choose to respond?”

When you become aware, you gain options.
And options create freedom.

Try This Right Now

Pause.
Notice your breath.
Notice the space around you.
Notice the support beneath you.
Without fixing anything.

Just notice….

This is where freedom begins.

This Is What We Explore at Your Instrumental Body

Expanded awareness isn’t a concept, it’s a skill.

One that changes everything.

Your voice.
Your confidence.
Your freedom.
Your relationship with yourself.

Your body is instrumental to every note.

Whether it’s in group classes for tuition members taking voice lessons, in the Integration Lab through movement and activity exploration, in the Nervous System Reset Lab while laying down, or whether it’s exploring the Video Sessions in the Wholehearted Singer’s Vault… YOU CAN GET IN ON THIS TOO!