I am regularly asked how I remain relaxed when I am doing presentations and public speaking. Believe me, it is an act sometimes! But I have learnt to stand and breathe in a way that maintains my energy levels, and prevents me becoming tense. IF, for any reason I do get tense – and of course, there are occasions when this happens: I’m human! I check by reviewing my posture and take a deep breath. In the latest Superstar Communicator podcast, I share some tips on how to breath more deeply, to relax and energise you – and also an old Thesbian favourite – the power breath!
Listen to the podcast here. As a summary, this is what I share in the podcast:
1. The importance to breathe deeply from the abdomen, rather than shallowly. This helps you to relax and slow down your speech.
2. Be aware of where you hold your tension: the jaw, neck and shoulder areas, if tense could restrict your breathing. If you are tense in these areas there can be a tendency to breathe more shallowly, so not only do you begin to tense up even more, you could hyperventilate and become dizzy and anxious – we don’t want that!
3. Taking a couple of deep breaths before you go on stage, do a Skype call, walk into a room, help calm you down, get into the right mindset and give you some energy.
4. Finally: when you breathe in deeply, make sure you keep your shoulders down. When most people breathe deeply, they raise their shoulders – and this leads to tension. You don’t want that!
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