Energy Circles

How human energy moves: exploring Patsy Rodenburg's work on the speaking voice, singing and writing

Over the three-and-a-half year life of this newsletter, the content of posts emerges from the pacing and flow of my life. Once again, this post is two weeks late, but I needed this time to recover from covid (six weeks today, I’m still not quite back), and to process the new discoveries I have made since. This newsletter is organically becoming a space to share what I learn, to hear back from you, readers, and learn from your experiences.

This post (no 38) is no exception: my regular readers know that over the last year and a half I have been exploring the singing voice and written about it here and here. But while singing remains an ongoing focus, I recently ventured into exploring the speaking voice too - after all, it’s the same instrument, used all the time and, as it turned out for me, mostly in the wrong way. No wonder that during my teaching and lecturing days my voice often went AWOL.

So back at the City Lit , I took the 5-week Improve your Speaking Voice course with the inspirational Lloyd Wylde. Apart from the opportunity to explore aspects of voice production such as posture and breath, the main takeaway has been learning about the Three Circles of Energy, a concept developed by Patsy Rodenburg. As a newcomer to voice work, I had never heard of this concept, and a preliminary search brought up this short introduction, this longer clip on the 2nd Circle, and one of Patsy Rodenburg’s books, Presence, which I’ve just finished reading and warmly recommend.

The book is full of illuminating insights and ‘aha’ moments: it felt like shining a torch on something I knew was there, but only emerged in its totality once the beam illuminated its contours. Recollections of interactions and experiences were retrieved from my memory repository, some rewarding and heartwarming, others not so much. I had intuitively known that something - a magic ingredient? - was missing, but I could not put my finger on what it was. As I continued reading, I began making sense of why I immediately clicked with a new colleague at the university in Tehran, and why we went on to have many intimate conversations, while the same has not happened with others I have known for decades and continue to interact regularly.

To consolidate my understanding I drew the diagram above (well, OK, I enjoyed playing with ink and colouring pencils too). The following notes, reformulating and summarising the content also helped.

The Three Circles of Energy

The Three Circles of Energy describe the three basic ways human energy moves. The movement of energy is all through your body, breath, voice, and how you listen, think and feel. You feel this energy as do others do around you […It ] is completely tangible.

(Presence, p 16)

1st Circle Energy is focused inwards. The self takes in but doesn’t give out energy. The self experiences itself as inferior and lacking in knowledge/experience, and views others as superior or more knowledgeable, thus making no real connection with others and the world. 1st Circle Energy is focused on the PAST.

The other extreme, 3rd Circle Energy is focused outwards in a generic way. The self gives out strong but often unfocused energy, and can be seen as overpowering by others, as if sucking out the oxygen from a room. The self experiences itself as superior or more knowledgeable, and views others as inferior or lacking in knowledge and/or experience, thus making no real connection with others and the world. 3rd Circle Energy is focused on the FUTURE.

At the golden middle, 2nd Circle Energy is focused on an interlocutor, a specific group or audience; the self gives out and takes in energy equally and equitably; it establishes meaningful and strong connections. The self experiences itself as equal to the other(s) and is prepared to share with and learn from them. 2nd Circle Energy is focused on the PRESENT.

It is important to stress that the reality is of much more nuanced than I can do justice in these brief notes. these points:

• Everyone needs to be able to access all Three Circles depending on the situation (p 16). For example, if you find yourself in a potentially threatening situation, withdrawing into 1st to deflect attention may be safer.

• Everyone has a habitual circle, and this favourite energy is blocking the person’s presence (p 17). I sensed that 1st Circle energy is my habitual mode, so I set out to investigate.

I went back to the feedback I was given during the 5-week course. It was a haphazard collection of dos and don’ts that I was vaguely aware of, but found very useful to have pointed out by a class partner.

Takeaways from the 5-week workshop

After learning more about the Three Circles of Energy, I classified the feedback I received under each circle.

1st: I tend to look away or gaze upwards or into the distance; my hands often move in front of my mouth (I do these A LOT); I fidget with hands or pen; near the end of an utterance the volume, speed and energy of the voice trails off instead of being sustained until the last syllable.

2nd: I make eye contact but do not maintain it. I move my head a lot and give too many backchannel cues, like ‘mmm’, ‘yes’, ‘of course,’ ‘that’s nice,’ as if I’m trying to reassure the other person I am listening.

3rd: I often interrupt or finish others’ sentences, possibly because I find it hard to come into a conversation. A hint I was given: when excited, take deep breaths, exhale slowly, articulate carefully and lower delivery speed.

It seems that I habitually retreat into 1st Circle, I occasionally I break out into 3rd, mostly by interrupting, but I find it difficult to come into or remain in 2nd. At the point I am now, I need to develop stronger awareness in the moment when these habits kick in and gently bring myself back to 2nd Circle presence.

Three Circles of Energy in writing

The more I thought about the Three Circles framework, the more I realised that my other two main creative practices, writing and singing, are also out of balance.

I tend to spend an inordinate amount of time on introspection, journaling, reading and thinking about writing: all 1st circle activities. At times I spend some time on planning my writing practice, but very little on freewriting, and even less on the actual drafting and crafting of writing, which is the interface of communication with the reader and the whole point of writing as expression. Again, it seems that I avoid coming into and remaining in the 2nd Circle. As for 3rd Circle, I don’t think I do any unfocused, rambling writing (if these posts count as such, I hope someone will tell me!), possibly because I am too self-conscious to allow myself to do it.

Have you come across this framework before? How does it relate to your everyday life? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The Three Circles of Energy in singing

On exhalation, you should not feel that the outward breath support fades away and gives up. This, of, course, is First exhalation. Third exhalation is too determined to push through the release. In these ways First Circle has little or no support and Third Circle has too much support. (Presence, p 76-77)

Back in January I wrote that my work on the singing voice was learning to tread the fine line between two extremes. In the light of the Three Circles of Energy framework, the aim of singing is to come and remain in 2nd Circle, channeling enough energy and direction to achieve unimpeded flow of voice and, ultimately, effective expression and communication with an audience. When I started working with Meta over a year ago, my voice was constantly off-piste, either pushed or driven (3rd Circle) or listless and unenergetic, as I back off and let the voice fall back into my body (1st Circle). The effort to tread securely along the golden middle of optimal breath support, efficiency and resonance is ongoing, resulting in slow but gradual progress, again not only in singing: if I can do it in singing, I can do it in interpersonal relationships and in writing.

You are now starting a journey back to the beginning of your presence that can take you to the end. You are much more alive and brilliant than you allow yourself to be. (Presence, p 277)

(NOTE: The City Lit offers another opportunity to explore Patsy Rodenburg’s work as a two-evening workshop in the autumn. And to clarify, no links in this newsletter are affiliate: I just love sharing what I come across, in case any readers find them useful.)

If you’d like to share any thoughts, I look forward to hearing them. Thank you for reading!

The heart meets the (left) hand in an embrace of imperfection