I felt a bit ill on Saturday, I was on the phone for a short call with a client and realised it was hurting to talk and since then its gone down hill.
I use my voice every day and when I’m doing an assessment feedback session with clients I have to talk quite a bit. What’s happened this week is I’ve had to cancel any phone sessions, I whispered through one in person session and then realised how much that had hurt my voice so have cancelled the rest of my sessions this week.
Perhaps it’s my body’s way of telling me to rest – I do work very hard but I love my work and don’t think of it as work.
I visited the chemist, and have now been to the health food shop so with gargling with soluble asprin, antispetic spray and manuka honey I hope to improve soon
I got lots of advice; all was really helpful and made a great deal of sense.
Advice I received included
- To rest the voice with absolutely NO talking for as long as you can manage it (keep completely silent for at least 1-2 days, you can feel your voice starting to get stronger), or if you do have to talk at times make it as minimal or quiet/low as is possible.
- Avoid whispering
- Drink lots of water or camomile tea or hot lemon and honey, possibly with glycerine, or fresh pineapple juice and honey or sage tea
- Breathe steam for 10 minutes (head over a bowl of hot water)
- Take ginger chews from the health food shop
- Take vegetable soup
- Suck Zinc lozenges
- Eat spoonfuls of manuka honey
- Cut a slice of onion (a thick slice right through the middle so you have a round circle), place on a saucer and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Leave to stand so all the juice runs out and then gargle with the juice. I did try this and it wasn’t as bad as it sounds!
- Stay away from dairy food, coffee and alcohol
- Relax – that’s the hard one!, hot bath and a good nights sleep
- Visualise my throat getting better and do deep breathing
- Wear blue around my throat, e.g. turquoise stone or scarf
- Focus on my breathing, to start from the diaphragm not the throat
- Think about the reasons why I don’t want to talk – what am I not saying to someone
