Bright Consultancy

Comms Tip #4: Breathe Correctly

Breathing correctly is the easiest way to dramatically improve your speaking ability and your enjoyment of speaking.  Getting this right will help you appear more confident, communicate more effectively, and feel calm and controlled as you do it.  The key here is to breathe deeply in your belly. Here are two great exercises.

Exercise 1

• Put one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.
• Think of something or somewhere that makes you feel relaxed and happy (I imagine a glass of wine on holiday).
• Notice how you naturally breathe easily from your stomach?
• Now, think of something stressful or upsetting that happened recently.
• Where are you breathing from?  Probably, high up in your chest, and possibly faster too.  This is why nervous speakers typically breathe high in their chests.

What’s key to notice here is that your thoughts changed your breathing easily and effortlessly.  The reverse is also true; change your breathing and you will change your thoughts:

Belly breathing = calm happy thoughts

Chest breathing = stressed thoughts

During your presentation

• When you are getting ready to speak, concentrate on keeping your breathing nice and easy in your belly.
• If you are sitting down prior to presenting, then you may find it helpful to put your arm across your lap so that you can use your forearm to check if your belly is moving with your breath.
• If you are able to talk and think at the same time (!) when presenting, then keep part of your mind on your breathing while you are speaking, continuing to keep it low in your belly.
• A great success measure for your development as a speaker is to aim to increase the percentage of time you spend breathing from your belly each time you present.

Getting your breathing right will also affect your voice tone in a positive way.  Try this for yourself.

Exercise 2

• Breathe high in your chest and then speak for a bit.
• Now move your breathing into your belly and speak again.
• When breathing from your belly, your voice tone will be more resonant and fully supported by your breath.
• Your breathing and voice tone is also substantially affected by your posture, so be sure to sit/stand up straight, getting plenty of air into your lungs.

Tags: breathing exercises, Communication skills, leadership, Preparing a great presentation, Presentation skills, Presentation Tips, public speaking, self improvement, Tips for presenting

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