At sunrise, on a beach south of Sydney, a teacher who publishes as IndiaJiva invites listeners to do something most adults have stopped doing on purpose: make a sound slowly, with no goal except hearing what comes out. Her six-and-a-half-minute recording, titled "Your Voice Can Heal You | Vocal Yoga Beside the Ocean," is built around OM, sung as a long open O that closes into an M, with bell strikes and silences set between the rounds. There is no lesson in pitch and no performance to judge. What the session offers is a simple template for chanting as a way to settle the body, along with the teacher's own reasoning for why the M sound does that work. Read on for how the practice is structured, what she says about it in her own words, and how to try it without any singing background.
The recording opens with the light still coming up. The teacher greets viewers and notes that the sun is "just beginning to rise, so it's a beautiful time to be singing." Before anything else she acknowledges the traditional owners and ancestors of the land, then places the session "south of Sydney in what is now called Sutherland Shire." That acknowledgment is worth noticing as a choice. It frames the chanting as something done in a particular place, on particular ground, rather than in an abstract studio.
The soundscape is minimal. You hear the teacher's voice, a few small throat-clears, and a handful of bells. The ocean is the room. Because nothing is layered over the voice, the practice feels like it belongs to the beach, and it asks you to listen to your own voice in that open air.
The first thing she asks for is breath, not sound. "Three beautiful deep breaths with a sigh, letting go of anything we might be holding on to," she says at the start (at 0:30). Then she guides the release with short cues: "Letting go. Letting go. Relax those shoulders. Relax." (at 0:49).
The order matters. Her description of the practice says the aim is to allow each sound "to flow naturally with the breath," and that only works if the body is already unclenched. A sigh drops the exhale, shoulders soften, and the voice has room to come out without being forced. Many people who try to chant start by pushing a sound out from the chest or throat. Starting from a sigh turns the exhale into the instrument, and the sound follows the breath instead of fighting it.
At about 1:14 the teacher names the sound she is about to lead: "the primordial sound of M, the most powerful sound in the universe." She then says the group will use "the O and the M sound," and asks listeners to "feel this throughout your body, throughout your system."
"And I will be very calming and relaxing for the parasympathetic nervous system, which is something we all need in this very, very busy modern world."
It is important to read that claim as the teacher's framing. The video does not offer research or measurements to back it up, and the title's promise that your voice "can heal you" is likewise a claim she makes rather than something the recording demonstrates. What the video does show is the structure of a practice that many contemplative teachers use: a slow, low, humming exhale followed by a pause. Whatever the physiology, the experience she is describing is one of settling. You hum, the vibration moves through the chest and head, and then the sound stops and you wait.
That waiting is the part the description emphasises. It asks you to "notice the moment of stillness that follows before taking your next breath." In a session like this, the silence is not dead air. It is where the practice happens.
The teacher is explicit that you do not need training. Her guidance is short and kind. "Don't worry about sounding perfect," she tells listeners. "This is all about you and your beautiful voice and whatever comes out." The description adds the practical advice: choose a comfortable pitch, breathe naturally, and let the voice become part of the meditation.
Here is how to follow the session on your own:
- Sit comfortably and take three slow breaths, letting the exhale come out as a sigh.
- Drop the jaw and soften the shoulders. Do not reach for a note. Pick whatever pitch sits easily in your voice.
- Begin with a sustained M, lips closed, and feel where the hum lands. Chest, face, the top of the head are common places people notice it.
- Let the M open into an O on the exhale, keeping the sound unhurried.
- When the breath runs out, stop, and notice the stillness before you inhale again.
- Repeat at a pace that feels unforced. The teacher's recording moves in rounds rather than a fixed count.
If you are used to musical performance, this can feel strange at first. Pitch will drift, the sound may crack, and you may want to correct it. The instruction is to let that go. The recording itself includes a few audible throat-clears, and the teacher does not stop to fix them. The session simply keeps going.
The bells are the clearest structural markers in the video. The first sounds at about 2:44, and others follow around 2:56, 3:17, and again near the end, around 5:57. Between them, the teacher's voice and the listener's voice move in long, low rounds of O and M, with pauses that let the last sound fade into the surf.
The bell does a job that a count would do in a musical setting. It tells the room that a round is complete and that the next one can start without hurry. Playing the session, you may find yourself using the bell as a cue to exhale fully, drop the shoulders, and reset. That is the structure she is offering: sound, release, bell, stillness, breath.
The video is labelled as part of a "Voice Yoga series," which suggests this is one entry in a larger body of recorded practice rather than a standalone event. In her closing (at about 6:04), she thanks viewers for joining "this beautiful morning," says that she and her collaborators have a range of meditation and mantra music available through a meditation app she names in passing, and wishes everyone a day that carries "this beautiful relaxation and calm" with them. The closing is brief and functional, which fits the tone of the whole recording: a teacher, a beach, a voice, and an invitation to keep the calm going.
If you want to take this practice into your own days, start small. Pick a five-minute window, ideally when the air is still and no one needs you. Use the three-breath sigh as your opening, then hum M and let it open into O for a few rounds. Pause after each one. Do not judge the sound. The point, as the teacher frames it, is to let your voice become part of the meditation rather than a performance of it.
Watch the full recording once for the rhythm of the bells and the pauses, then try it without the video. If you find the practice settling, the rest of the Voice Yoga series is the natural next step. Whatever the physiology turns out to be, the experience is simple and immediate: a long exhale, a sound that carries itself, and a moment of stillness at the end of each round.
