Dr. Jim Anderson investigates how a speaker’s posture can impact their breathing and speaking speed.
Dr. Anderson reveals how speakers can take control of how they breath while giving a speech in order to impact their speaking speed and prevent themselves from running out of breath half-way through their speech.
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A Speaker's Power Comes From Within
If you really want to connect with your audience and make an impact in their lives, then you’re going to have to discover out how to speak with power. The trick is that power is a tricky thing – you can’t touch it, you can’t buy it, you’ve got to find it and hold on to it. The good news is that I know how you can do this…
In the quest for speaking power, all too often speakers attempt to create the very best PowerPoint slides in the vain hope that if they have powerful slides, then their speech will also have power. Sorry, it doesn’t work this way.
George Torok is a professional speaker who has spent time studying how speakers use PowerPoint slides. He’s come up with the three following observations:
It turns out that the power that you need in order to deliver an effective presentation comes from within you. If you believe in yourself and the message that you are delivering, then you’ll have the power that you need to give an effective presentation. Once you believe in yourself, your next job is to convey power to your audience.
In order to communicate your power to your audience, you’ll need to do the following four things:
Audiences want to be told what to do or what to believe. However, in order for a speaker to be able to accomplish this you need to be able find and use your power. Realizing that this power does not come from PowerPoint slides is the first step.
In order to release the power that you have within yourself you need to use your appearance, your voice, and your words to convey power to your audience. Learn to do this well and you’ll be able to intimately connect with your audience and make an lasting impact in their lives.
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When you think of the perfect speech in your mind, what do you see? Do you see yourself up on a stage giving a speech, reaching the end, and then having everyone stand up and applaud until their hands grow tired? Nice picture. However, all too often that doesn’t happen…
Good Posture Helps Breathing And Allows You To Give A Great Speech
So when was the last time that you spent any time thinking about how you breath? I’m going to guess that it was sometime when you couldn’t get air – underwater, someone sitting on your chest, bag over your head, etc. Since you are reading these words, I’m going to guess that somehow you were able to get that next precious gasp of air and that you’ve probably not paid any attention to the whole breathing thing since then. However, maybe it’s time that you did…
We’ve all been in the audience when someone gives a speech for the first time. Generally, it doesn’t go very well. One big reason for the disappointing results is that they are generally quite nervous and end up talking VERY fast as they race to get it over and be allowed to sit down again. As you can probably guess, this is exactly the wrong way to deliver a speech and their breathing has a lot to do with it.
So what’s really going on here? Speakers don’t show up thinking “Hmm, I bet that if I talk really, really fast things will go well for me.” Instead, they are victims of their own bodies. It all starts with feeling nervous, this releases chemicals into your system that makes your heart start to beat faster. Your breath then follows suit by becoming shallow and fast. Because you are nervous, you start to bring oxygen only into the upper part of your lungs. This means that your body starts to react to not having enough oxygen despite your rapid breathing rate! Things start to go downhill after this as far as your muscles, nervous system, brain, and even your voice are concerned.
What’s a speaker to do? Being aware that everyone gets nervous when they are called upon to talk in public is the first step. The next is to consciously take control of your breath. If you spend some time thinking about how you are breathing, then you’ll be able to counteract the negative effects that poor breathing can cause.
How do I control my breathing? There are six steps that you need to think your way through. Your body is automatically doing the same thing; however, you need to take control and make sure that your body is working the way that YOU want it to work. Here’s your proper breathing checklist:
How is your breathing when you give speeches? Have you ever thought about how you breath during a speech? Do you always seem to finish very quickly? What kind of feedback do people give you – does anyone tell you to slow down next time? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
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