Strength and Softness
Feeding into your voice🎙️
What you will find when you look after your posture is that standing well gives you a new kind of strength combined with softness. It’s a strength that is fluid and flexible because it’s of the body and breath, rather than the fixed brittle sense of our selves that comes from our conceptual thinking when we are stuck in our heads.
The strong back of your embodied presence allows a soft front of connection. And this feeds into your voice.
A recent study explored how people responded to different voices saying ‘Hello’ and found that those with a mixture of trust, strength and likeability were the most highly rated. They found that listeners rated the utterances consistently and that trust and likeability (softness) combined with dominance (strength) were key features.
Try This Strong Back, Soft Front Meditation⬇️
This meditation, from the work of Joan Halifax, is a great way to come back to both your strength and softness. It gently reminds you of the power of posture and its impact on your confidence. You can do this exercise whenever you want, but it might be particularly useful to do at home before a big day or right before you speak.
1. Bring your awareness into your spine. Breathe into it. Appreciate how strong and aligned it is.
2. Close your eyes and imagine the full length of your spine. Feel your body’s flow of energy up and down the spine.
3. Rock gently, from side to side, as you settle your posture.
4. Notice your breathing. Think of the breath cycle: breathe in as air flows down your spine and breathe out as the air flows up your front, gently zipping up. Now let your awareness go to your belly. Breathe into your belly. Let your breath be deep and strong as your belly rises and falls.
5. The strength of your spine allows you to uphold your self in the middle of any situation. You can remind yourself of this strength by silently saying ‘Strong back’.
6. Your mind and your back are connected. Feel the sense of uprightness and flexibility in your mind.
7. Feel your natural courage and openness as you breathe deeply into your belly. Shifting your awareness to your chest, touch the tender, open feeling of this space.
8. Feel the strength of your resolve rising up from your belly. Let your heart be open and permeable.
9. Release any tightness as you allow your breath to pass through your heart. Remind yourself of your own tenderness by saying ‘Soft front.’
So perhaps take some time today to try this exercise and let me know how you do!
Have a great week 🌻
Caroline x
PS: Here are some extra resources for you…
Master Your Meetings - Ditch the nerves and show up with calm, clarity, and confidence. Learn my step-by-step system to prep fast, speak powerfully, and lead high-impact meetings or interviews without overthinking every word.
Master Your Speaking - Use the same 1-hour method I used to land over 10 million views on my TEDx Talk. Craft a message that moves people, trust you're ready, and walk on stage (or into the Zoom room) knowing you’ll nail it.
The Gravitas Mini Course - Get instant access to this 20-minute video training and discover the simple tools to speak with presence, calm, and confidence so you can stand out, without pretending to be someone you’re not.
Confidence Booster Audio Course - In just 10 minutes, get my go-to mindset and voice strategies to stay grounded, sound credible, and feel calm under pressure whether you're speaking in a meeting, interview, or on stage.
Deep-Drive Audio Courses - Want to master interviews, presentations, or pitches? These audio courses walk you through everything you need to speak with power and land your message on the go, at your pace.
Mini Audios (Under £2 each) - Short on time but still want to grow? Grab these bite-size audio boosts to learn, relax, or reset in minutes perfect for busy minds and full days.