Wanna Be BRAZY (Brave + Crazy)?

Try a 5-min. practice to release (or refine) your Brave Creative Voice

It’s Flourishing Friday, friends. We’re here to free our true, wild voices. But if you’ve ever spilled way too much, or kept the key details all to yourself, today’s 5-minute exercise (below) is for us. But first, this video features the fully expressed Native dancers at the Chief Seattle Days powwow hosted by the Suquamish Nation. If your voice could dance, how would it feel?

A Mostly Brave Ask

Let’s melt the Monkeys of Fear, together. 🙉🙊🙈 Mostly Brave offers weekly tools & tips on how to show up with more courage, creativity, and compassion. We’ll share more bravely in a private, paid space. Access new workshops this fall. Join us!

Motormouth or tight-lipped?

Do your stories, poems, or visions want to break free? Is your heartsong aching to be heard behind a concrete dam? If your voice feels clamped, you may have years of bottled-up emotions and creative juice ready to run wild as a raging river. 

We all know someone whose stories go on and on (and on and on) with every tiny detail. For some, our memories are so connected to these details that we don’t know where to start. Or end. We don’t know how to get to the heart of the matter.

Some feel disempowered. Our hunger to be heard is louder than our discernment.

Some are verbal processors. We speak to hear ourselves think (talk to yourself much?)

Some are intensely private. It’s hard to share details about your life. Secret = Sacred.

Vocal expression is a spectrum.

Wherever you are is truly, madly, deeply OK. Repeat this out loud:

“I’m totally ok with who I am today. My voice matters. And I’m growing.”

As I freed my voice (a work in progress), I became more and more Brave in sharing my true heart. And I made several Big, Bold, Mistakes.

Queen Poopicina, my Brazy alter ego, ‘poo-forms’ for 500 at Ignite Seattle

I longed to sing outside of my car or shower, but where? As a 50-something, I’d never be the next TayTay or Queen Bey. Singing in choirs or bars doesn’t light me up. Plus, my jazz-gospel voice loves to sing improv. Spontaneous, wild, and weird voices matter.

Tip! Avoid these tactical errors as you find your ‘just-right’ voice:

Mistake #1. Don’t sing for a shy friend. I bust out the “Ave Maria” as an impromptu birthday gift for a girlfriend. Her horrified face said it all. Not a gift; an intrusion.

Mistake #2. Don’t steal the mic. My son’s band played Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin' Somethin,'“ at a street dance. As I belted out the chorus, friends said, “Get up there and sing it, sister!” Being Brave isn’t stealing the show from your son, mortified.

Mistake #3. Don’t smoke weed before an Open Mic. After we performed a skit, friends passed me a pipe just before I went back on stage to sing. I forgot my heart's intention and blabbed at the audience until the MC yanked me offstage with an actual HOOK. And a kiss. Yikes.

Are you a little bit BRAZY?

Brave + Crazy = Brazy. When you share your true voice, you can feel like a toddler taking her first steps. It’s risky. A bit crazy. You may fall down, as I did. Then pick yourself back up. These lyrics from “Losing My Religion” by REM say it well:¹

Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try…

How much is too much? Too little?

I’m grateful to be willing to dive into uncertainty. I wish the same for you. See you in the comments 💗

Today’s 5-minute exercise: The Zipper

From my deck, HeartsQuest: Creative Tools to Navigate Change

May this 5-minute practice awaken discernment about your voice. This video features my ridiculous alter-ego Queen Poopicina sharing the potty-mouth, ‘Holy Sh*t’ 💩 version of the tool, with a spontaneous song. Or follow the steps below.

The Zipper: How much should I say or show?

• BREATHE deeply and consider how you communicate your thoughts and feelings.

• IMAGINE a zipper that starts above your mouth and extends to your lower torso. The Zipper controls how much you say or reveal.

• ENVISION clasping the handle of the zipper. How far down is it, from top to bottom?

• NOTICE: do you tend to zip up your lips, and hold things in? Or is your zipper wide open, spilling your guts to anyone who’ll listen? Or, is it somewhere in between?

• REFLECT: does your zipper need to be adjusted up or down? “I notice that I share...”

Creative Prompts to explore when to open or shut it

• EXPLORE: Write or tell someone about your experience with your Zipper.

• CREATE: Put on a real zipper jacket. Zip it up, then open it, exploring how it feels to be open vs. closed.

• MANIFEST: This week, notice: do you hold back your true feelings? Or, do you say more than you need to? Adjust the zipper. Share what’s plain and true.

🗣️ Your Turn. Vocal = Vulnerable = Brave.

1. How’s your voice right now? Clamped, courageous, or chomping at the bit?

2. Ever done something BRAZY? Any backfires?

3. Got a Brave Creative hankering in your heart? Leaning in or taking a leap?

Thanks for exploring the spectrum of your Brave Voice 💝 and for liking, commenting, or sending this post to someone whose voice is ready to be heard.

More to come,

1. Losing My Religion by R.E.M. full lyrics