Right Tone (of Voice)
by Donna Rose Stewart

If I may speak from the standpoint of one who is highly sensitive to tone and to how people feel and react: I am a highly sensitive person with empath energies, who is also a singer and a voice teacher. I have spent most of my life trying to say just the right thing at the right time - trying so very hard not to hurt anyone's feelings or sensibilities. And from someone who used to feel that I couldn't handle criticism, I discovered one day that what I hadn't been able to handle was the energy behind the criticism. When the criticism was Truth and coming from Love, it didn't hurt at all - it was a welcome relief! And with this in mind, I feel that the right tone works on every occasion, because there is a right tone for everything: be it love, anger - righteous anger, of course :-), healing, transformation, etc. There is a right tone for Truth, for cutting through.

In teaching, I have learned that I need to be able to say the same thing in a hundred different ways to a hundred different people, and that it is not something that I can plan or think about ahead of time. This process has taught me to trust myself more.

I have learned over the years, that no one had a problem to what I said if I didn't have a problem with it. When I expressed something that I was nervous or unsure about, people would react negatively. I could say the very same thing at a later time when I was resolved within myself and no one would have a problem with it. It was most amazing to me at first.

What we must do is be perceptive of whether or not a person wants to hear what we have to say and, if they do, how much of it they can handle. I've learned that I can be talking to someone and they may have asked about what I am saying, and then all of a sudden, they seem "to check out" or "leave their bodies" - they just can't take any more in; and it's time for me to stop talking.