Habits & Self Care for a Healthy Voice

Diet, health, and exercise weren’t huge topics of discussion in my household growing up. I am privileged to say we ate just about everything whenever we were hungry. Lots of home-cooked meals (smothered pork-chops was my favorite dish as a teen), drive-thrus, cookies and cinnamon rolls.

It wasn’t until I took music seriously when I changed my diet drastically. I vividly remember going into my first voice lesson at Guitar Center Studios in California and having a difficult time singing through my allergies. My teacher recommended I look into cutting dairy out of my diet to see how that would impact my singing. I remember going home and thinking “how do people live without dairy?! No alfredo sauce? No cheese? No clam chowder? No ranch?!” There was just no way that would be possible with my diet. I then continued my studies and went to practice and my allergy-related frustrations only intensified. So, I took the drastic route and went cold, no dairy. Not only did my singing resonance improve, my skin cleared and I finally felt like singing was something I could conquer. I’m at a point in life where this is a constant battle but I make conscious choices to limit my dairy intake to have optimal vocal fold health. This is just one experience and I’d like to share my habits and self-care tips for a healthy voice.

You are what you consume As thin as your vocal folds are, they can directly be influenced by your food and beverage intake. My first piece of food advice is to find what foods you are allergic to. Certain foods can cause bodily reactions that negatively affect your vocal folds. Reactions include acid reflux, inflammation, dryness, and excess mucus production to name a few. See a specialist to see if you are allergic to the 5 main food categories: gluten, eggs, dairy, nuts, and shellfish. It is equally important to take your environment into consideration. Pollution, certain plant species, smog, and agriculture can have an impact on your vocal folds. When I moved to the Bay Area I was having such a tough time singing through my allergies. I finally went to see an allergist. The results came back and I was allergic to the majority of the plant species native to the Bay Areas, cockroaches, and duck feathers. Despite having two odds against me: negative reactions to dairy and a plethora of plant species, I took matters into my own hands to find solutions.

Practice smarter not harder

If I would have known from the beginning that singing is roughly 80% mental and 20% physical for me and my body, I would have saved myself a good amount of stress. My practice routine has changed over the course of my singing journey and I feel confident that I have found my happy place. The key to my successful practice sessions is compartmentalization. Singing is a complex thing that can take decades to master. Mastery includes the knowledge of anatomy, linguistics, implementing cognitive behaviors in fictional characters and in experiences you may not have lived through, the recognition of pairing a sensation with the result of optimal resonance, and much more. The idea to incorporate all of these things into every moment of a practice session is overwhelming. An alternative is to divide the responsibilities necessary to master singing in different practice sessions in order to fully comprehend each topic. Finally, the most fun - and sometimes most frustrating - practice sessions are when we attempt to incorporate a combination of these topics. These practice sessions unlock a level of artistry no other single-topic practice session can achieve. They should be taken seriously and only when a singer is able to comprehend the dynamics in the division of topics. Now, of course, there is the phenomenon of prodigy and genius. Essentially, they are able to skip or spend significantly less time on the mental labor of grasping each individual topic first, and instead, get to flourish in the artistic development stage of putting all of the responsibilities of an artist together in one session. Hence, why we refer to their mental and physical capabilities as a phenomenon. Outsmart your stress Let’s be honest. Stress will be a part of everyone’s lives. Through maturity and self-awareness, we hope to learn how to manage stress and outweigh it with positivity and clarity. It is important to prioritize this balance at an early stage to develop healthy habits. Stress has an immense impact on your body including your vocal folds. Techniques I have adopted in stressful moments include the Wim Hof breathing method, yoga, meditation, going outside, writing poetry, and singing for fun. My first goal was to be able to identify high-stress situations and my second goal is to continue learning how to manage those moments to keep them at a minimum. It is an ever-learning process that deserves more acknowledgment and conversation.

Anatomy and Water Consumption

My “aha” moment associated with vocal fold health came when I learned about the anatomy and functions of the vocal folds and how the body responds to water intake. The health of the vocal folds is directly correlated with water but possibly in a way that is not understood by many. It may be commonly misunderstood that vocal folds remain healthy and are nourished through direct contact with water. However, because the vocal folds are located in the trachea - the direct pathway to the lungs - it is vital that water and food do not come into contact with the vocal folds. In fact, your body has developed an incredible mechanism to keep this from occurring through the role of the epiglottis. The epiglottis is a small flap of tissue whose purpose is to cover the trachea during swallowing to prevent food/beverage from entering the lungs. As a result, the vocal folds can never be nourished from direct and immediate water contact. So then we must ask, how is water distributed in the body? When we intake water, it is first absorbed by our intestines to then be distributed through bodily fluids such as cells to carry oxygen throughout our body so organs can function at their optimal levels. Therefore, it is vital that we consume the correct amount of water for our vocal folds to reap the benefits during the water distribution process.

Self Awareness

Self-awareness is the mental exercise for singing that builds strength. It is imperative to find a teacher who understands the feelings you are experiencing in the moments you are singing. Being self-aware of these feelings will unlock a level of maturity to seek these qualities in a teacher. There are many students and many teachers and finding the correct pair is the key to success. A reason why many students cannot progress is because their potential is not handled properly. Knowing that the journey of finding a successful pairing can be difficult and is a natural part of the singer’s artistic path is a win in itself. One can use this power to hone in on their skill-sets to then narrow the number of teachers who can best help their needs. By communicating clearly what you’d like to focus on and improve on from the beginning of a teacher-student relationship, the student can then hold the teacher accountable for whether those needs are being met providing the student is holding up their responsibilities.

Closing remarks

These tips hopefully highlight how much of an impact diet, health, and exercise (mental and physical) has on the vocal folds. By reading my story and learning through my journey, it is my hope that awareness in any of the above categories is ignited.