Let Yourself Shine!

This is the fifth in a series of five blog posts that detail the process of becoming enlivened in your personal and professional life. This way of being results from self-study and work in the areas of voice, movement, communication, and spirit. This particular post is focused on the step Illumination.

Have you ever committed to a self-betterment discipline and reaped the benefits of your transformation? Perhaps you learned a new language and, despite many frustrating hours practicing reading, writing, and speaking with a clumsy tongue, you now communicate confidently with native speakers. Or perhaps you committed to an exercise program and, despite sore muscles and carving out time from your schedule to exercise regularly, you now feel vibrant in your body with increased energy levels in your daily life. You can’t imagine living any other way. This is Illumination and it occurs as the final stage in the five-step process of becoming an enlivened communicator.

My previous post spoke of the fourth stage in the process: Investment. This is when the going gets REAL and you have to dedicate full awareness and discipline to the skills you have been devoting your time, awareness, and energy to for them to truly integrate into your body and become an optimal and true way of expression. In the process of enriching your communication style, you will have explored how you breathe, move, and speak. You will have learned how to articulately and efficiently feel consonant sounds, how to develop vocal power that carries across a room without vocal pushing or strain. You will have explored open vowels that release tension in your jaw, tongue, lips, and cheeks, while also creating a flexible vocal pitch range. You have explored how to feel connected to your body as you speak so you are fluid in your movements.

You now feel how all of these skills interplay in communication. You committed yourself to communicate with the self-awareness to ensure these skills become a healthy way of being. You have now entered the fifth stage: Illumination.

Illumination is when you inhabit your true self. You found a communication style that supports honest and full engagement with others professionally and personally. You feel vibrant in daily life and feel engaged while talking with others. You no longer feel burdened by excess baggage of who you thought you had to be or how to present yourself in the past to get by. Rather, you are true to yourself and adapt to circumstances in your life with integrity, personal strength, flexibility of mind, and balance of energy. If you previously turned red in the face when giving group presentations, you now feel how your breath supports your voice and connection with your material and your audience. You feel dynamic when you speak and can pause to answer questions at any time because you are comfortable in front of the group and know your material well. And, what’s really amazing, is that you know your material well because you have physically felt the sensation of your voice as you have rehearsed your presentation and, thus, developed a rich connection with the material.

Do not hide your inner shine as you enter this stage! Sometimes it can feel overwhelming to feel amazing and connected if you have been used to being a wallflower. Or others may not be used to seeing you enlivened and don’t know how to adapt to your energy and vibrancy. Be yourself! Here is where you live with integrity while honoring your right to be seen and heard in the world. You have been cultivating kindness for yourself as you invested in your self-betterment practice because you arrested self-judgment and criticism to open the pathway to learning. Let this kindness carry over into your professional and personal life while also balancing how to be honest about who you truly are. The more you live a life of integrity, the better you honor your true self as an enlivened communicator throughout your life.