Public Speaking: What Many Novice Speakers Never Think To Do

The one thing that many new speakers don’t think about and never have enough of is something that has a negative impact on their delivery skills. It is actually very simple, basic, and a necessity. Without it, there are no words; thus, no message. It is called breathing.

Because of nervousness, many speakers experience breathlessness which is even more exaggerated because of their nervous state: they don’t think about supplementing their air supply. When they finally realize that they are spent, they gasp for a huge breath of air which fills only the upper portion of their chest. Because of this type of shallow or lazy breathing, that gasp of air actually increases their tension.

1. Remember to breathe before you begin your speech or presentation.
2. Supplement your air supply – inhale before you run out of air. The idea is to keep your balloon of air inflated and not deflated.
3. Learn to breathe with the support of your diaphragm. If you learn to take your air all the way down to your diaphragm (a muscular partition separating your chest from your abdomen), you will discover the best means of controlling your nervousness in any form of public speaking

Diaphragmatic breathing, which most people do not do, allows your body to rid itself of the toxins in your blood. This is why it is one of the fundamentals of both yoga and meditation as well as the first thing you should do in a panic attack. Shallow breathing, on the other hand, increases your stress because it does not allow for the elimination of those toxins and actually increases your level of stress or your state of nervousness.

What is important to understand is that without air, you have no voice. Therefore, the best thing you can do when speaking is to interrupt your speech or presentation, pause, and inhale just a bit of air to keep your balloon filled. Most people do this in normal conversation without giving it a second thought. If you can treat your audience in this fashion – just as if you were talking to them in your living room, for example – you will be amazed at how much better you feel and how much easier it is to deliver your speech or presentation.

Waiting until you are totally spent of oxygen is definitely not the answer. Learn to breathe before you run out of air and not after and I guarantee your breathlessness will be gone.