Greetings,
I had a lot of fun in Toronto last weekend, met some interesting people and found that the one common element for each person in attendance was breathing, or actually, lack of it.
Whatever your problem in public speaking, there is no better advice then learning to breathe with the support of your diaphragm and allowing your chest to do your talking. While I certainly heard some other ideas last weekend, and some of those ideas were not without good foundation, if you consider that shallow breathing, which is known to increase tension and panic, is symptomatic of 99% of the population and if you know that, at the lectern, you are not breathing or you are waiting too long to inhale, then why wouldn't breathing be the most important thing you could physically do to control that nervousness, to alleviate the breathlessness, to end the strident or loud voice? Concentrating on your breathing and making it a habit is the answer. First and foremost.
Some people find that they start to speak faster and faster at the lectern, that the pitch of their voice rises, that the voice may quiver, or that their volume gets softer as they struggle to finish their sentences. Guess what? Breathing with the support of the diaphragm solves all those issues. It is truly the answer for the majority of problems for which people email me.
VOCAL ABUSE -- Support the voice by breathing and vocal abuse is no more.
SOFTSPOKENNESS -- Support the voice by breathing and the volume increases naturally.
LOUDNESS -- Support the voice by breathing and the loud voice softens up, thereby taking the edge or the angles off of the voice.
NERVOUSNESS -- Support the voice by breathing and you are then controlling the nervousness. Remember, I like nervousness. But I want you in control of it.
HOARSENESS -- Support the voice by breathing and hoarseness is no more.
WISPINESS -- Support the voice by breathing and the whispery quality (or salad as I liken it) is gone. SPEAKING WITH MORE VOLUME -- Support the voice by breathing and you can then project your voice from your chest instead of your throat which means you will no longer yell or shout.
TOO FAST -- Support the voice by breathing and you will gain control of your speed.
BREATHLESSNESS -- Support the voice by breathing, keep your 'balloon' inflated while speaking, and breathlessness will be no more.
These are just some of the reasons people email me and while breathing with support doesn't solve all types of nasality and it can't take the monotoned voice and make it colorful, it truly does solve most of one's vocal problems and allows for control of those nervous jitters in public speaking. And, if that weren't enough, imagine increasing your lifespan by 4-1/2 years if you breathe with the support of your diaphragm! Amazing, learn to breathe for your voice and for your public speaking, and you will discover a host of benefits that have nothing to do with the voice or presentation skills! That's a WIN-WIN situation.
To learn more about breathing and the voice, click here: |