If you go to any musicians’ or singers’ LinkedIn threads, or community singers’ forums, you will always find when there is a discussion about what singers take to keep going, the mention of a ubiquitous throat lozenge, Fisherman’s Friends. Strange little flat oval tablets that are so strong they singe the hair off your nostrils when you breathe out and cauterise your throat so that you can carry on singing.
I was addicted to these, famously so, to the point where students and participants at my expression courses and retreats would find bigger and bigger boxes of these potent little things to give me. I used to suck them all the time. In fact, if I didn’t have them, I would feel quite a bit of mental discomfort, feel that my throat would clog up and get a bit raspy. I would have to clear my throat a lot, and generally singing wasn’t as enjoyable. In fact, when it comes down to it, I really felt that I needed these things to keep singing.
Then about 14 years ago, a very good friend gave me what I thought was some very strange advice… and that was just to try giving up gluten and dairy in my diet. Well, the first thing that happened was that I gained at least another half an octave of vocal range. Of course there was a bit of ‘letting go’ that had to happen as I had some smaller addictions (not as bad as the Fisherman’s Friends) like French baguettes, butter, and Brie cheese… preferably all together, in equal quantities.
Along the way, lots of other lifestyle choices opened up to me that I also had never considered – like not drinking alcohol any more, or smoking anything. This was all a very natural evolution. I started to feel more balanced and natural and found my own rhythmical way of living that actually supported my body and my music.
Along the way, I also took off 45kg of weight. I can barely lift 20kg nowadays – just imagine having a 45kg sack strapped to your back and carrying that on stage every time you had to sing and perform. So you could say that I have chosen to let go of a lot of stuff, so to speak, and the effect has been quite extraordinary. I am 64 now and I was singing at a festival recently, and really, really enjoying the feeling and sound of my voice. It felt effortless, unlimited; it felt like it could reach any note wherever I wanted to go, almost angelic in its quality, but with a strength and clarity. I was deeply appreciative of how it felt, and the journey that had got me there.
And guess what? I also realised that I had kicked the habit of Fisherman’s Friends, and that the best friend for my voice was simply me being truly me.
By Chris James, Singer/Musician/Voice teacher, McLeans Ridges, NSW, Australia
Further Reading:
How I Lost Weight: Sustaining a Weight Loss of 12 Stone & Counting…
The 6 best ways to lose weight authentically (hint: it doesn’t involve fad diets or gym memberships)
Addicted? Who? Me?
563 Comments
Interesting that in giving up something you gain so much more.
Amazing is it not to change, then feel, and then deepen, and feel, and then the changes become natural, as then flow into every area of our lives, and before we know it those who were considered friends have dropped out of sight, as you have shared Chris.
The difference in my voice is quite astounding when I am speaking from my head or my body, when I speak from the body I know my place in my universe, when I speak from head I can at best guess I am ok.
‘I also realised that I had kicked the habit of Fisherman’s Friends, and that the best friend for my voice was simply me being truly me.’ The best friend, not just for your voice and yourself, but for all those you can now support with such gentle, humorous and beholding authority because of your deepening appreciation of yourself, who you are and what you so gorgeously innately bring by being who you are.
Thank you Chris, a much needed conversation!, and adding to what you have shared, so much is gained by letting go, and I would imagine if we were to start again from scratch and dropped everything we were eating for a few months, then start again a-fresh, with an understanding that our body will share what works for us then our way of eating would not be a diet but what serves our bodies. This then raises another question! would we need super markets in their current configuration?
“……. the best friend for my voice was simply me being truly me” and not only for one’s voice but for one’s whole being and way of living.
That is an amazing improvement and at an age where many people just try to manage their decline. Clearly decline isn’t necessary from your experience, Chris.
So true Christoph, our evolution never stops ,and it is up to us all to step up and live in a True way to maximise our age.
Our Voice is a great indicator to how connected we are or not and to what effects our life choices. The workshops Chris presents gives the participants a personal experience of this.
Interesting you would have mental discomfort when you did not have your Fisherman’s Friends fix and not bodily discomfort. Indeed our additions may be very physical but they are entirely in our mind and never the truth of our body.
My voice continues to change, it deepens, lightens, the vibrational quality of it, feels more humorous, loving, expansive…some years ago I had a tight, shrill voice, but no more…I can go into that every now and then, but I feel greatly reduced when I chose it. This voice that is growing and changing is coming from how I live, and how I am with myself, it is deeply healing to feel the power of learning to express who we are in truth and not hiding.
How we are, and how we live affects our voice, and all of our body, our well-being, as you discovered Samantha.
Amazing that by cutting out certain foods from your diet had such an impact on your vocal range Chris. What we eat and how our voice sounds either speaking or singing is not something we would usually associate together, but evidently this is something that we could all consider. Perhaps our true voice is still hiding deep within us, not yet heard, but surely there deep within, waiting to be discovered.
How addictions can sit in the way of us shining bright.
It’s beautiful how being more aware of how one thing had been affecting you and the difference you felt from letting it go naturally opened up more potential supportive lifestyle choices.
If we can feel the quality of how we live when we sing then for those who say they can’t sing or hate their voice. Is that true or is it the life led they don’t want to feel? Like our relationship to having our picture taken.
There are a lot of things that can hold us back from singing – whether we have a beautiful voice or not and working through these can be very freeing.
It is interesting to be honest and open to the things we use to get through our days, be it fishermen friends coffee, alcohol, emotional drama, sugar etc… instead of just assuming that we need them to get through our days. Questioning our habits is essential.
We clog ourselves up so much – more than we actually realise. And it is only when we start to unclog that we discover our true selves underneath it all.
Sarah ‘clogged up’ is a great description of what we are, we are so totally clogged up with everything we are not that we have lost sight of who we all are. Thank goodness who we all are can never be erased but only temporarily obscured from view.
Our voice can change through what we consume…..it is not something many of us thing about, I know singers are aware of dairy, but usually I have heard hold back for a couple of days before a performance, but this looks at it form a deeper more meaningful angle, I love it.
A beautiful lesson in discerning a true friend – or not.
Amazing Chris! This is a beautiful example of what self-love and committing to being who you are led to deep healing. You are an inspiration for us all and your ability to give up your addiction sounds like it was effortless due to your commitment to love.
Its often those first steps that are the hardest when attempting to give something up. But once we start to feel the effects of a certain food or drink on our body, it becomes very simple to cut it out of the diet, as the body is very quick to send a message about how the discomfort it feels.
And Chris your playfulness has become even more play full, no one can deny the joy in your eyes and face. It is simply the truth of living the real you they/we get.
Oh I love that Chris, I remember trying one once and yes, it singed my nostril hairs and I never went back – to consider this was all part and parcel of being able to sing better – it just goes to show what lengths we will go to for what we want.
Chris you are a stunning example of what it is to sing with connection and the fact that the greater the connection to our essence, our Soul the greater the power and grace is so effortlessly and naturally expressed through our voice.
One loving step leads to another and then another, until all that is not loving falls naturally away, leaving us with the love and truth of who we really are.
Very beautiful Jill and nothing beats feeling and living all of who we are. The more we embrace the love we are, the more we have to share with the world. It is our responsibility to live love not only for ourselves but for the rest of humanity as well because everything we choose impacts on the rest of the universe.
Living and embracing the love we are allows all that is not love to naturally fall away, I love the simplicity of this Jill, ‘all that is not loving falls naturally away, leaving us with the love and truth of who we really are.’
Our voice box either amplifies ‘all that we are’, or it ‘amplifies all that we are not’, depending on the choice of energy we are aligned to: Soul or spirit. The former, being our true self, is a silky expression that falls out of us with no effort. The latter is a strain to maintain.
Yes..we feel the difference in our own bodies – a surrendered silkiness, or force and strain – and also notice it in others, through pitch, tone, body movements.
“I was deeply appreciative of how it felt, and the journey that had got me there.” – I think this is really important, allowing ourselves to value and appreciate when something feels truly good, like we’re genuinely being ourselves and expressing that and appreciating how we got there, and by appreciating it can help to make it a new standard in our way of living…
I love this and I take the advice, acceptance and appreciation are key and often lacking, we can make such amazing changes in our lives, but the foundation of these choices are found in accepting and appreciating all that we are and all that we choose.
I realise many people would not understand what it means to be themselves, and honestly we shouldn’t until we can feel that in our bodies, and with the supportive and clear environment we can absolutely feel much more.
This is a (rather sad) fact Adele, that most do not understand what it means to be themselves. Of those who come to realise they are not themselves many will go searching for ‘who they are’. The only way to discover this though is to connect deeply into our body and from there start to discard all that we can nominate as being not us. A vast difference to looking outside of ourselves to determine new parameters to identify ourselves with.
What a great reflection you are to others Chris, when we see someone living so simply and so naturally healthy – one can not help but be inspired.
Chris this is testament to the fact that we can take one small step towards true love and our whole world changes.