Latest / The Vocal Hack Podcast / #08 How does a fast life influence your voice?
Transcript
- Assumpta: Hi everybody, my name is Asumta. Joana Lisboa: Hi, and I'm Joanna. Assumpta: And welcome back to another episode of the Vocal Hack Podcast, where we explore voice communication, presence, and the connection between the way we live and the way we sound. And today's topic is something that affects almost everyone, whether we realize it or not. The fast pace of modern life. We live in a culture that rewards speed. Fast replies, fast decisions, fast content, fast productivity. Everything is moving quickly all the time. And many people are functioning in a constant state of urgency. The phone has to be always on. We can not rest even when it's a weekend. We have to produce content, all of these things. But what we don't often talk about is how this rhythm slowly starts shaping our voice, our breathing, our communication, and even the quality of our relationships. Joana Lisboa: Yes, absolutely. And I think one of the clearest signs of this fast lifestyle that we are all living is that people are no longer truly arriving in conversations. They are physically present, but mentally and emotionally at some extent, they're not there. Because they are already thinking about the next task. The next notification. The next meeting. The next problem to solve. And when the nervous system is constantly overstimulated... The voice reflects that immediately. Speech becomes rushed, breathing becomes shallow, people interrupt more, listen less and often communicate from tension instead of calmness. The voice stops flowing naturally because the body itself never really slows down. Assumpta: Very beautifully put. As vocal coaches we hear this all the time. A person may say they're fine, but their voice tells a complete different story. You can hear pressure in their throat, tension in the jaw, shortness of breath, vocal fatigue, or a constant rushing energy behind the words. And many people don't connect this directly to lifestyle. They think the issue is purely vocal. When actually the voice is responding to chronic stress, lack of rest, overstimulation and an emotional overload. The body is trying to keep up with a rhythm that was never designed to be sustained for so long. Joana Lisboa: And the interesting thing is that the voice is incredibly honest. You can rehearse words, prepare presentations or try to sound calm, but your nervous system will never lie. It would leave clues in the sound of your voice. Your body is in the survival mode. Your communication changes automatically. Your pace increases. Your tone becomes sharper. Your breathing gets restricted. And even emotionally, it becomes harder to create real connection because there's no space inside of you to fully listen and respond with intention. Fast living creates fast communication, but not necessarily meaningful communication. Assumpta: I think one of the biggest things disappearing from modern communication is the pause. Silence has almost become uncomfortable for people. I wouldn't even say almost it has become uncomfortable for people. The moment there is a pause in a conversation, someone rushes to fill it. But pauses are incredibly important for the voice and for human connection. Pauses, a low breathing. Reflection, emotional processing and presence. They give weight to words. And when we remove pauses from communication, conversations can start feeling mechanical and emotionally flat. Even when people are saying all the right things. Joana Lisboa: pauses also communicate confidence. People who are comfortable pausing usually appear more grounded and more connected to what they're saying. But in fast-paced environments, many people become afraid of silence, like you said, because they associate speed with competence. and they think speaking quickly means being intelligent, productive, impressive. But often the opposite happens. When someone speaks too fast, listeners struggle to absorb the message emotionally. Communication becomes harder to feel and sometimes the most impactful speakers are not the fastest ones, they're the ones who know how to create space inside of their communication. Assumpta: I definitely think that also modern social media had his influence into this because we moved away from long form content so much to shorter and shorter content. So taking a pause in a 30 second video is almost impossible to then still get your content across that you want to say. So that In my opinion, changed a lot how people communicate as well, because they're so used to quickly getting to the point, but it has no emotion behind. And Joana Lisboa: Yes. Assumpta: I also think this doesn't only affect professional communication, it deeply affects personal relationships too. When life becomes too fast, conversations can become functional instead of meaningful. And people start communicating only to solve problems, organize schedules, or respond quickly, but they stop truly checking in emotionally with each other. And over time that creates distance because connection requires attention and attention requires slowing down enough to actually notice another person. Joana Lisboa: Yes, and we all notice in ourselves, even if we like to read and to do more mindfulness activities, we find ourselves to be so impatient with stuff. And I think that's also connected with the social media and the fast-paced societies that we are living. I was telling you before offline, that when I was a teenager I could just see a long movie, like a European long movie and it had a lot of pauses and silences and all this kind of stuff and I would see it until the end and I would go outside and I enjoyed it very much. And now when I start to try, just try to see a movie like that, I get impatient, I start to look at my phone, I get this feeling of like a little squirrel, like, I'm so, Assumpta: Yeah. Joana Lisboa: yes, it's so tedious for me. And I think we should return a little bit backwards and connect more with the mindfulness activities like meditating or just doing nothing because doing nothing is an activity. Assumpta: a very important activity, yes. Joana Lisboa: Yes! And sleep more and give yourself the permission to sleep and to be more connected with yourself and hear yourself in your body because a lot of times we don't hear the body talking. But it's always trying to send some signals when we get sick, when we feel tired and all these things that are... connected with this life that we are living. And I also think that many people are emotionally exhausted without even realizing it. When we are depleted, we become more reactive, less patient, like I said before, less available emotionally. Even our tone changes. damages relationships is not the lack of love or care, it's accumulated exhaustion and nervous system overload. That's why rest, breathing, silence and slower moments are not luxuries. No, They directly influence the quality of your voice and the quality of your interactions with other human beings. Assumpta: So maybe today's episode is simply an invitation to notice your rhythm. Notice how fast you speak, how often you breathe fully during conversations. How comfortable are you with silence? How present you feel when someone else is talking? Because sometimes changing your communication doesn't begin with vocal exercise. It begins with slowing your life down enough for your voice to reconnect with your body again. Joana Lisboa: That is well put. Relaxing enough, I'm going to repeat it. So if you didn't hear Assumpta: Ha ha. Joana Lisboa: it, relax enough for your voice to reconnect with your body again. Lovely. And maybe your voice doesn't need more force right now. Maybe it needs more space, more breathing room, more calmness. More moments where you're not rushing to prove, to perform, respond or just to keep up with other people and the society. Because when the body slows down, the voice often becomes clearer, warmer, steadier and more connected naturally. Not because you forced it into change, but because you finally gave it space to breathe. Assumpta: breathing, yes, one of our favorite words here. Joana Lisboa: Yeah, we just say it 10,000 times per episode. Yes, just that. Assumpta: Yes. You will hear it another ten thousand times with us, but thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Vocal Hack Podcast. We love having you here with us. Joana Lisboa: Yes. I hope to see you next week and if you like this episode don't forget to share. That's also a good word. Share with your people, your friends, your family, everyone at work. Yes, they also need that. So don't forget to Assumpta: Yes. Joana Lisboa: return also. Next week we have a new episode. Assumpta: Yes. Come back and bring a friend. Okay. See you next week. Joana Lisboa: See you!