Beyond Performance:From Applause to Awareness

Today I sat with two performers—two women who have chosen to turn toward something meaningful, and away from what feels hollow.

They began performing as children, raised in a world of applause and judgment, perfection and criticism.

When we don’t yet know the difference between performing and sharing—when inner acceptance is missing—we unconsciously hand the audience the impossible task of accepting us.

I know this well.

I began singing at a young age. At first, it was innocent—natural, nourishing, alive. Singing filled me with the energy I needed.

And then one day, it didn’t.

I began looking for myself in my audience, waiting for their approval. And my voice, my body, paid the price.

The two women in my studio today are beginning the journey inward—so that their voices arise not from striving, but from self-love. From clarity, strength, beauty, and truth.

When the voice is grounded in sensation—vibration, openness, feeling—it becomes alive with connection. Each sensation is given attention, allowed to be loved, accepted, supported. And resonance grows. Clarity grows. Beauty as well as richness deepens and grows inside of our bodies.

From here, we can move outward without losing the inward. From here, connection with the audience becomes possible—because the audience is no longer separate from who we are.

The women were surprised when I told them: Don’t try to connect to the audience. We are taught we must. But often, that effort only breaks our connection to the Self.

Instead, when something within naturally turns outward—not to seek approval, but to know itself more fully—connection happens on its own. The whole room is joined, without effort.

And the judgments we feel from the audience? They are reflections of our own inner critic, cast outward.

True connection is not something we create—it arises when we tend to the conditions within. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.

Perhaps this is not limited to singing at all, but to the way we live, the way we listen and the way we open, or close, to one another.