Give your voice time off!

In my experience, the number one mistake singers make regarding vocal health is overuse. We often forget that our voices are part of a living organism, which, like all living organisms, needs rest. Here are three impactful ways to provide rest for your voice: 1) Spend time with your Nebulizer. Most of us don't talk while nebulizing. Make nebulizing part of your beginning and end of the day rituals. 2) Commit to not speaking in spaces with a lot of ambient noise. This includes the car, planes, lobbies, etc.. Not speaking in those places can add up time-wise and really lessen your vocal load. 3) Take vocal naps. (Credit to Marci Rosenberg for this concept). After singing and cooling down, stop all vocalization, including talking for 10-15 minutes. This leads to faster vocal recovery. 4) Wear headphones to avoid talking to others. This might be my favorite trick! Headphones give a clear indication to others that we are not available to talk. You don't even need to be listening to anything through them. Pro-tip: earn “double points”: use them backstage to avoid the Nervous Nellies who dump their nervous energy all over you... 5) Set sleep hours. Sleep is "worth triple points" because you are resting your whole body as well as your voice, AND because there is evidence shows that you are actually 'cleaning' your brain during sleep which allows you to better pay attention when you are awake (Helding, 2020).