​



​Does your breathing change throughout the day?
Perhaps it does if you were suddenly surprised, or anxiously waiting for an answer to your hopes or concerns. Most of us have not considered what our normal breathing pattern is until something jolts us with sensations of rapid breathing.

To determine if you are using diaphragmatic breathing or upper clavicular breathing (mainly in your neck and shoulder area), simply stand in front of a mirror and take a deep breath. If your shoulders rise, then you are not breathing with the diaphragm.


Face your mirror again:

• Gently, place one hand on your stomach area just below your lower rib cage, and place one hand on your upper chest area just below your chin
• Take a deep breath and watch which hand moves out when you inhale, then returns when you exhale

If your stomach hand moves and your shoulders do not rise, then you are breathing with the diaphragm!
Your diaphragm allows you to take in more breath whenever necessary whereas your clavicular breathing area is shallow, limited to your space between your shoulder and collar bone area. Anxious quick breaths in the upper chest area can spiral out of control leading to severe emotional panic attacks

There are advantages if your everyday breathing method is using your diaphragm!
Although clavicular breathing is often used to catch a quick breath; your diaphragmatic breathing method has flexible multi-tasking of your overall deep breathing to help you:

• Prevent breathlessness
• Reduce stress levels and relax
• Stop panic attacks
• Eliminate toxins in the body
• Support a fuller tone while speaking
• Give you more energy

Achieve deep breathing success by using your diaphragmatic breathing daily:

• Each morning smile, stretch, and take in several diaphragmatic breaths
• Throughout the week consciously breathe with your diaphragm
• Take three deep diaphragmatic breaths slowly to immediately calm yourself
• Inhale using the diaphragm, exhale as if blowing out several birthday candles
• Repeat until you can breathe throughout the day using your diaphragm always

The way you breathe could be life changing!
If you are interested in more deep breathing exercises, please take a look in my published book: “Breathe...Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches.”   I’m here to help you achieve your best breathing method.

​How do you impact your audience, so they are engaged with your message and feel your passion in order to get the results you wished for? Perhaps your presentation or performance lacks punch or energy. Speaking without enough volume, without speech variation, or without measured pace and emphasis will cause your listeners not to engage.

To achieve engagement, rapport, and enjoyment from your presentations prepare yourself with your breathing skills and your strategic use of emphasis in your delivery. Your ability to have vocal readiness to build your audience emotionally with your story or examples is effective when you know where to pause to give added emphasis and where to change your tone nuances.

Here are a few key exercises to organize your content and warmup your voice.
#1. Vocal Warmup

• Drink water to keep your vocal folds moist
• Relax your body and mind to focus – take 3 deep breaths with the diaphragm
• Release any tension in your body with movement – stretches, dancing, shaking your limbs
• Mobilize you mouth and face with lip and tongue stretches, pouts, smiles, wiggles, open and close your mouth to loosen your jaw widely
• Hum slowly with closed lips, then open your mouth to utter smooth sound at varying pitch levels and volume: -Hmmmn – Ahhhhh- Aaawe - Ooooo, Eeee
• End with positive self-talk and energy – Yes! Yes! Yes!

 
#2. Mark your content with cues for your breathing, tone, and pauses

• Use a slant (/) in your rehearsal script where you need to take in a deep breath, so you with not run out air
• Underline a few key adjectives or verbs that you can emphasize with your vocal nuance to make your message clearly understood and varied
• Use a slant, or a cue to “Pause Here” before a significant word in your sentence. This draws in your audience to feel the emotional effect.
• Practise this technique with the following sentence: “John is coming home today.” Insert a pause before speaking any one of the words in the sentence.
  • John / is coming home today.
  • John is / coming home today.
  • John is coming / home today.
  • John is coming home / today.

Notice how your meaning will change depending on where you choose to insert the pause and the word that is emphasized. This strategy is most effective in storytelling when you are leading to a climax, or poetic imagery.

#3. Do a Drama Improv Warm-up to set up your creative energy.

• Point or pick up objects around your room, name each one as something else – for example, point to lamp and call it a dog, then talk to your dog; or pick up a pen and call it a toothbrush, then mime brushing your teeth with it. Do not plan, simply be spontaneous with whatever first comes into your mind, and have fun doing this exercise.
• Prepare the activities and exercises that will help you be confident and familiar with your next presentation. Review and mark your content where you will ask the audience a question, or have them do an activity as a group or in teams; or play a game, quiz, or take a poll; or have someone come up to be a helper or a participant. When you are relaxed and having fun presenting the activity; then so will your audience be engaged.

Throughout this series of 7 blog posts on How Diaphragmatic Breathing is Linked to your Voice, I created with my one-word anagram reminder for you:
BREATHE.

• B – Breathe with the diaphragm as your core strategy for all the letters

• R – Relax
• E – Energize
• A – Articulate
• T – Tone
• H – Humanize
• E - Engage

Diaphragmatic breathing is the deep breathing key that you want to master as an everlasting link to vitalizing your speech and rehearsing your crucial moments of your presentation.

If you would like more exercises to engage your audience with emphasis techniques, take a look at Chapter Seven on Engage With Emphasis in “Breathing…Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches” by Speech Coach, Brenda C. Smith.
Have you read the previous Blog# 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in this Series on How Diaphragmatic Breathing Is Linked to Your Voice?

When you speak from your heart you create a believable message and set up your listener to trust you. It must feel genuine to you and to your listeners. If your voice does not reflect that then it diverts gaining rapport with your audience.
The challenges of speaking in a monotone, speaking too quickly, or lacking dramatic skills will not promote speaking with passion. Have you ever watched a movie, play, or television show and thought that the actors sounded like they were reading lines or in some way just didn’t grab you emotionally?

Unlock your emotion to release connection to your audience.
Good Actors have been trained to zone into their natural instincts and are not afraid of sharing their deepest emotions on stage or film in the role of someone else. It’s that moment that makes you pause to soak in what you experience together.
​Try these exercises to build your skills:

• Start reading stories aloud to rehearse applying your vocal nuances to fit the events, the picture, and the emotions of the story
• Allow yourself to be absorbed in a dramatic improvisation where you are being questioned by a detective who thinks you are guilty of a crime. Act it out to convince the detective of your innocence!
• Target your presentation script by underlining key words that you want to emphasize, or pause around, or emotionally get excited or weep. Rehearse to make it internalize within your mind and vocal range, so you truly feel your message.

The link to your voice through Diaphragmatic Breathing is to speak with emotion and passion.
Your strength is in the variety that you deliver in your tone and the matching inflection and timing to fit your story or message. All of this requires reaching within your mind for the picture you see and the tools of your diaphragmatic breathing you use to colour the emotional impact.
You can achieve human connection with your presentations when you give real life examples that show you are just like the rest of mankind with struggles, hopes, and successes.

How do you learn these dramatic tools, so they gel with your performance?
It starts with learning how to use your diaphragmatic breathing as your partner that you can tap into any moment.

• Practise diaphragmatic breathing to gain capacity of breath and management of emotional expression

 You are the only one to bring the emotion out in your story with your personality and special vocal and physical nuances that will connect with your listener. Being truthful emotionally to telling your story and not simply reading a story will automatically generate the natural highs and low of your speech rhythm as your breathing adjusts.
​
 Remember, diaphragmatic breathing is your best tool to having the capacity to relax, to energize and to build your story, while including the pauses, building volume or becoming quiet. All this bursts forth with your charisma and passion.
 
If you would like some exercises to discover your emotional release to enhance your content, take a look at Chapter Six on Humanize With Heart in “Breathing…Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches” by Speech Coach, Brenda C. Smith.
Have you read the previous Blog# 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in this Series on How Diaphragmatic Breathing Is Linked to Your Voice?

​Do you like the sound of your voice?
It’s the tone of voice that will get your listener to pay attention whether it enraptures your audience members or annoys them?

Disruption of sound occurs when it doesn’t match with what your listeners are expecting because they hear a different pitch, pace, inflection, range, or rhythm which creates noise to their ears. This annoyance could be because your tone of sounds hoarse, whiny, breathy, loud, boring, or any other pattern that is out of sync with the natural sound patterns your listeners are familiar with.

However, sometimes a speaker wants to create a noise for a specific reaction in the delivery of a story for a dramatic effect, which would heighten the climax or emotional reaction.

Vocal Tone is the combination of your vocal pitch level and how it is resonated in your chest, nasal, and oral cavities as it passes out of your mouth and heard by the listener.

Two things that will help you to improve your tone:

1. Locate where your best pitch level is to fit your best voice. This is not always where you have been normally speaking all your life.
   • Say the “a” or “o” vowel from your lowest pitch level to your highest by going up the scale.  Then reverse it by going down. Next combine saying your sound scaling up and down. Repeat this routine a few times; then end at the mid tone level of your vocal pitch.
   • Next, drop this mid tone down a notch. Repeat a continual sound at this mid level by adjusting it slightly with any nuance that you find sounds right.

 

1. Recognize the difference between nasal, oral, and full chest resonance so you avoid hearing any excessive nasality where it’s not needed. You can do this by recording yourself and listening, and by feeling the vibration in either your nose, throat, or lower chest.
   • Feel the full vibration of your sound by placing your hand on you lower chest. It helps you concentrate if you close your eyes to feel the sound vibrating.
   • Compare your chest vibration with any nasality by placing one hand on your chest and the other with your fingers touching both sides of your nose.
   
   
   

The link to your voice through Diaphragmatic Breathing is to support your volume and strength of tone with adequate breath power. In addition to the fact that that your breath pressure opens your pharynx in the mouth and through your lips, it provides a fuller resonant tone in your chest cavity. Of course, diaphragmatic breathing regulates the amount of air you can manage better for pace, timing, ongoing inflection and your pitch levels.
​
If you’re ready to enhance your vocal presence when you speak immediately then apply the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing. A fuller resonance in your chest instead of your head area will give you the variety of tone, your optimal pitch level, and your flexible range.
 
If you would like some exercises to discover your best tone take a look at Chapter Five on Tune Your Tone in “Breathing…Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches” by Speech Coach, Brenda C. Smith.
Have you read the previous Blog# 1, 2, 3, and 4 in this Series on How Diaphragmatic Breathing Is Linked to Your Voice?

The communication process of your ideas is done through clear articulation of your speech. This requires the physical movement of the tongue, lips, jaw, in contact within your mouth, your teeth, and palate (roof of your mouth) to create distinct enunciation of your words. The connection of these speech organs depends on the air-stream through your throat, mouth and teeth for your message to be heard accurately.

The sound waves are altered by your speech muscles stopping or shaping the sound you hear, as either consonants or vowels.
For English consonants it’s your tongue tip touching your alveolar ridge (gum ridge behind your front teeth) to produce t, d, n; or the air streaming over your tongue to produce s, z sounds, or the many other consonant-combinations. The consonants give the edge to your words. Without this edge your sound comes out as if you are mumbling because you don’t open your mouth widely, or move your lips to define words with distinct m, p, b; or with lips and teeth contact, such as f and v.

The English vowels give resonance to your words and the consonants give them clarity. Listeners may hear what you say but they may not understand what you say if there is no clear combination of breath, consonants, and vowels.
Your breathing is a partner re-shaping to where you place your tongue in your mouth at the upper front, middle, back, arching it up, or dropping it down. The air is rushing to accommodate around your positioning to create your sound, words, phrases, and sentences.

The Link of Diaphragmatic Breathing process to your articulators is that it provides more flexibility and volume of air space and air pressure as it changes and travels through your lungs, chest, larynx (voice box), trachea, nasal and oral cavities to exit as clearly understood words.

Improve your diction to create presence when you speak, by avoiding to speaking too quickly, having a tight jaw or little mouth movement, and you’ll improve your speaking confidence.

If you would like some exercises including a few tongue twisters so you can train your articulators as if they doing gymnastics, take a look at Chapter Four on Articulate to Attract in “Breathing…Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches” by Speech Coach, Brenda C. Smith.
Have you read the previous Blog# 1, 2 and 3 in this Series  on How Diaphragmatic Breathing Is Linked to Your Voice?
​

​Why do actors spend so much time devoted to voice and speech training; yet, so many public speakers and business entrepreneurs think it is not needed? The answer is quite simple: actors recognize that they are in the business using their voice and speech skills to generate income and art.
 
Most public speakers have not considered how valuable this training is; however, now is your time of enlightenment! You are about to discover how a well-trained voice will massively benefit your business.
 
The bottom line of your business is how effectively you use your voice. If you take the time to receive accurate training and coaching to improve your vocal quality, you will master the three key fundamentals: breath control, quality tones, and crystal enunciation. Your audience will be so attracted to your voice that they will clamber to hire you and your products.
 
The first actor's training fundamental is breath movement with your ribs. What a treat it is when you develop your diaphragmatic breathing method so that you have firm control of how to manipulate your breath and create sensitivity in your message. You will have the power of movement of every muscle working for your expression, and projection without ever having any shortness of breath or strain of delivery.
 
Secondly, your body is your instrument that needs care and tuning in order to emit the sounds that are the extension of what you want to achieve. Training shows you what to tune and how to tune it. A squeaky instrument turns a listener away, while a fully tuned one invites the audience to you while keeping them enraptured. 
 
An actor learns how to manipulate his resonator cavities of the chest, pharynx, mouth, and nose to be flexible and produce well-rounded tones. Knowing these skills will give you the confidence to avoid muffled, throaty, or too nasal a sound. The individual configuration of size and shape of your resonators will affect your pitch, and musicality of tone. You will go from boring to dynamic with this training.
 
The third fundamental actor's voice training includes perfecting enunciation of consonants and vowels so every word has clarity of sound and meaning. Combine this with the correct pace and knowledge of where, when, and why to pause brings a hypnotic empathy to capture the audience's mind, heart, and spirit. The actor's training of voice for the public and business speaker is a combination of techniques that emote a compelling speech to create a connection and movement between you and your listener as you experience the energy together.
 
Don't become routine and lifeless; hone your voice and speech skills just as the actor does by taking the time to understand how your voice nuances work individually. Then practice until it becomes second nature. 
 
This is not a quick-fix investment; but definitely well worth the effort and time, because you will encompass this knowledge and training skills for the rest of your life. If you are willing to invest in your business, then you need to invest in yourself; after all, your voice is your business.
 
Did you find this blog post helpful? 
Our book "Breathe,,,Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches" gives you "7 Steps to Putting Your Best Voice Forward: Discover the Techniques of Voice-Over Speakers, Actors, and Professional Presenters"  This book is like having a voice-coach with you. 
 Your voice is your business; so let us show you how to leverage it today.
Contact Us Today
​

How can I relax when I'm so nervous about speaking in front of a group? This is a question that I'm always asked. The solution begins with your realization that you must be relaxed physically and mentally focused to be in control of "un-stressing" yourself.
 
Muscle relaxation of the throat and neck frees the voice from tension and produces a fully resonant vocal tone. Whole body muscle relaxation will also support your physical alignment with your vocal sound.
Replacing your nerve-wracking thoughts to positive ones will reinforce your energy and competency quality in front of an audience.
 
Now that you know you must start with relaxation techniques, here are a few exercises that you can implement today so that it becomes automatic, and you don't have to worry about it anymore.

1.  Stand and do long stretches in all directions using your arms and legs; up, down, behind, low, mid, and high.
2. Shake your whole body just like you are a swimmer coming out of the water and need to shake the water off your body. Be loose and free.
3. Take a HUGE yawn and feel that air hit the back of your throat.
4. Take 3 slow deep breaths using your diaphragm (barrel under ribs and chest area); but definitely not your upper shoulder or upper chest area. Your shoulders should not rise; but your stomach should expand. Practise this until it becomes natural to you. Exhale on a big sigh.
5. Mentally check that there are no lingering tense muscles in your body; if so, shake it out.
6. Think of a relaxing place on the beach to transform your body, mind, and spirit into a calming power force.
7. Mentally clear your head of clutter and fill it with energy and thoughts of "I've got this!"
8. Practise your opening lines as an expert looking directly at your audience members as if you are there to help your listener with advice.
9. Smile and enjoy the moment as a confident speaking guru of the ages.
10. Repeat the above steps regularly and absorb it all.

 
Take control to rid your stress level by following the above steps until you can pass it forward to help someone else who may be stressed like you used to be.
Way to go!
 
Brenda C. Smith, Founder of Voice Power Training Services [retired] and Author, is a personal speech coach who brings her expertise and experience as a lifelong drama director and teacher to guide your transformation into becoming a presenter with vocal power and presence. http://www.brendacsmith.com 

How long does it usually take to achieve improvement in voice quality?
This question was asked to me, so I thought I would post my answer for anyone else who may want to know.

Of course, the first answer is that it will depend on how much improvement is needed or wanted to begin with. If it is something that requires focusing to apply your breath support from the diaphragm, that can change the same day you begin to use it, and you can maintain that forever if you consciously apply it. This is similar to other problems of mumbling or speaking too quickly.

However, if a person has a nasal tone for example, originating from childhood, this is a habit that has to be re-trained so it will take longer to replace the former tone- an average of three months will usually make it ingrained as the new habit.

If the person has an actual physical or medical cause for the voice or speech sounds then a medical professional specializing in that, a speech pathologist would need to be consulted. Next, a speech coach can then work with that person.

The quality of sound and tone can have different applications whether it is speaking with a microphone or speaking live, in front of small or large groups. The quality of tone can also be perceived differently by a number of people – what you or I might think is a great tone, someone else may prefer something fuller, softer, lower; as there is no perfect voice.

The key to all of the above is to do a good initial assessment of the person wanting to improve and then address those issues effectively. 

The quick answer is that improving the sound of the voice can be achieved by applying targeted vocal exercises, and keeping the voice fit and healthy, and using warm-ups regularly. This can be maintained over your lifetime.
There is a personal self-assessment checklist in "Breathe..Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches" before you start the exercises that would address your needs. 
Do you have a question? Leave it in the comments section below or contact me directly.

Has this ever happened to you?
You’ve prepared your speech, power point, and your presentation or your webinar, and you’re all set to go; but suddenly as you open your mouth to speak, you hear your voice crack; then you need to cough to try to regain some sort of composure and vocal strength. This totally throws you off and you spend most of the presentation sipping on water, racing through your speech, losing your breath and focus, while struggling through to finish.

The most likely reason for this happening is because you chose not to spend very much attention to the health and maintenance of your voice, which just happens to be the single most important instrument that you are using to convey your message or to make your business sale. The next time you prepare and rehearse your speech, also take time to warm-up your voice, and do it again just before you are about to speak.
 
Begin your warm-up with a relaxation exercise to release any muscle tension in your body. Stretch in all directions and loosen your shoulder, neck, and jaw muscles. Start at the top of the head and mentally work down to your toes to focus your mind on releasing any tightness that you feel.
 
Next, consciously let yourself use your diaphragm to control your breathing force. Warm-up your tone by humming so that the sound is resonated in your chest, pharynx, and mouth areas. Try letting the sounds, such as “AH” escape through an open mouth. Find your most comfortable pitch level, so you can control your pitch to avoid unexpected squeaks or tension creeping up on your sound.
 
Keeping voice fit includes avoiding drinks with caffeine, dairy products, or alcohol to avoid your vocal folds from drying out. They will adjust to how you as a speaker treat them. If you abuse them with unhealthy foods or with physical abuse, such as, yelling, shouting, and smoking; then they respond by protecting themselves and shutting down. The cure to revive them is complete rest and lots of water.
 
For the few minutes that it takes to do a vocal warm-up, it is certainly worth keeping your own health, and avoiding embarrassment when you do your next speech.
For a Vocal Warmup CLICK HERE

Has this ever happened to you? 
​No matter what age group you are in when you try to communicate your ideas orally no one seems to be listening to you. Here are three common scenarios.
​

• Scenario #1: You’re at the doctors for a routine checkup or perhaps something more serious; and while you’re trying to explain to the doctor, nurse, technician, or even the receptionist, they all ask you to speak up or repeat yourself? Let’s take another example.
• Scenario #2: You’re trying to be social with your colleagues or friends talking about sports, kids, or TV shows. However, when you speak, they look at you puzzled, or politely ask you to say that again but a bit slower, or more clearly.

Then of course you may have run into this one.

• Scenario #3: You’re in charge of a group event: party, sports team, work project, tour, or fundraiser; and it’s important to get everyone’s attention. What really happens is that it may take at least ten minutes before anyone even notices you, and then much more to hear what you have to say.

There are reasons why people are not listening to you. 
     You could be speaking at a low volume, mumbling while talking, speaking too rapidly, not projecting energetically enough, or sounding bored or tired. There is the off chance that they may not be interested in what you have to say.

Give yourself a quick Speech Checkup: stand in front of a mirror and speak to yourself as if you are talking to a friend about your day so far. While you are describing your details look at your mouth to determine if it is open as wide as the width of your thumb, and if your lips are barely moving or are they animated. That would be the first clue to the cause of people not being able to hear you. 

Flexible mouth muscles will allow you to articulate your words clearly. Lazy mouth muscles: lips, tongue, teeth, and jaw cloud the sound and block it from exiting your mouth. Practice a few tongue twisters, such as, “The wagon wobbled wildly and widely,” to loosen up your speech muscles. Face the mirror while saying it so you can stretch your lips and drop your jaw. Do this exercise three times every morning and again throughout your day. Transition to exaggerating your mouth movements with a wider mouth as you speak normally.
 
As far as speaking too quickly, you can start resetting your pace to be slower by consciously being aware to take your time, so your words are not all rushed together; and your listener misses most of what you are saying.
 
If you use diaphragmatic breathing as your engine to your voice sound, then you can have more energy, and project or aim your sound beyond your listeners’ ears so that everyone hears you immediately and pays attention. No other breathing technique works as well for voice projection and variety in tone.
 
With a few speech and voice techniques you can overcome any scenario that tunes out your listeners. Instead, your next encounter will be heard with crystal clarity and interest. You will no longer feel left-out or feel like screaming!
Your message will be understood as you speak calmly and confidently. Give your speech muscles a workout to achieve a voice power makeover.
 
You’ll find more speech techniques, exercises, and warm-ups in our recommended book: “Breathe…Just Steps to Breathtaking Steps” on Amazon and FriesenPress written by Author, Brenda C. Smith, Speech and Drama Coach

Ask Alexa Skill  " Alexa Open Speak Clearly Warmups".

​An energetic voice tops any dreary monotone delivery. In your preparation phase of speaking with expressive communication it’s vital to have vocal projection, focus of mind, and variety of tone. Supporting your speech with more breath and your mind with more energetic images will excite your listeners to your content. 

The Diaphragmatic Breathing process is the link to flex your energy levels as you weave through your presentation with points of passion connecting with your audience in a believable way.
First, follow through with diaphragmatic breathing exercises to project your vocal sound without shouting or further harming of your voice. By increasing your breath amount and directing it out to the farthest point of your listeners, you will be heard by all. It’s your diaphragmatic muscle that becomes your engine to amplify and to take the strain away from your throat.
Try this Call-your-Dog Exercise: Say, “Spike, come here!” as if he’s only a short distance from you.
Next, repeat “Spike, come here!” but this time Spike is outside, and you want him to come to you at the door. You need to take a bigger breath and aim your sound farther away.
However, Spike has run across the street so now you must take in more breath and manage to send your supporting air farther across the street. It’s your diaphragm not your throat to finally get him to come home. With practice, this technique becomes your automatic habit to projecting your voice.

Second, take control of your mind. Breathing with the diaphragm relaxes you more fully and signals your brain to pause and take control. As a strategy replace a negative thought with a positive one. Reinforce your thoughts with images of excitement, fun, or adventure. It’s like winning a huge lottery or getting that new promotion you wanted. Create a code word for yourself to trigger your mind to push your energy button on. Then energize your voice to match your mind and your body as you speak with vitality. Find the right balance of energy to produce your passion when needed.

You diaphragmatic breathing link will help clear your mind, relieve your tension, and allow for more energy to flow through your body and achieve a dynamic-sounding voice.
Replace your tired sound with an energetic one throughout your week as you speak to everyone.

For more exercises and benefits of Diaphragmatic Breathing process take a look at Chapter Three on Energize to Express in “Breathing…Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches” by Speech Coach, Brenda C. Smith. She has written an easy-to-follow book with targeted exercises from beginners to advanced levels including stories of successful participants.
Brenda leads you through how to breath with the diaphragm and project your voice in Chapter 1; and how to manage breathing to relax, and to achieve mind focus in Chapter 2; with how to energize your voice in Chapter 3 as a preparation technique to keeping expressive energy at the ready. 
Have you read the previous Blog Series on How Diaphragmatic Breathing Is Linked to Your Voice?

Anxiety is a troubling feeling that most of us have experienced. One of the go-to-remedies is to take a few deep breaths so you can calm yourself and lessen your fear.  Speaking is among the worst fears that people have. The link to your voice with fear and nervousness causes you to feel and sound not at your best.  Breathing is a great tool to use. 

However, did you know that shallow breathing in your upper chest area in which your shoulders rise quickly with each new breath, increases your anxiety and leads into a panic attack? Diaphragmatic breathing, on the other hand, allows for you to have more control to manage your nerves before and during your speaking activities.

The link to your voice through Diaphragmatic Breathing releases tension in your body muscles and your mind so you will not look or sound nervous but speak with confidence. If your body has tense muscles the pitch level of your voice goes higher and you have less volume to project your voice to be heard easily. Relaxed body muscles will slow and calm the breathing process together with relieving stress from your mind.

The benefits of diaphragmatic breathing will help you to keep a mental focus to balance relaxation and breathing to manage the flow of your speech. You will have a fuller and lower tone quality. Your voice mirrors your stress level. Make relaxation as your key priority and diaphragmatic breathing as your best strategy.
Try this easy warm-up to give yourself a head start to empower your speech with body, mind, and voice relaxation:

• Stand and Stretch your arms, legs, and torso in all directions to release any tight muscles. Shake your entire body.
• Stand relaxed and loose, and give out a huge sigh and then a huge yawn
• Slowly take three deep diaphragmatic breaths
• Close your eyes and imagine a quiet place in your mind as you calmly breathe and relax
• Smile and breathe slowly 

Now go ahead and speak confidently throughout your day!
​
For more exercises and benefits of Diaphragmatic Breathing process take a look at Chapter Two on Relaxation in “Breathing…Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches” by Speech Coach, Brenda C. Smith.
Brenda leads you through taking the tension out of your muscles, visualizing your calming place, breathing with the diaphragm, and having a secret cue to avoid panic attacks and control your nerves. She has written an easy-to-follow book with targeted exercises from beginners to advanced levels including stories of successful participants.
Have you read the previous Blog Series on How Diaphragmatic Breathing Is Linked to Your Voice?

The Diaphragmatic Breathing process helps you relax, focus, boost your energy, improve your speech tone and clarity. This breathing method is applied when you inhale a breath while your diaphragmatic muscle expands your lower ribs and stomach area. Then as you exhale your breath passes through the vocal folds to allow for vibration for your speech. The diaphragm returns to its former position on exhalation until you take your next breath. Obviously, you will automatically continue breathing on your next inhalation with the same cyclical process in order to stay alive.

The benefit of this process is that you will get more air space to manage than if you used only your upper shoulder neck area to breath with. The link to your voice is that you will have enough air to speak without being short of breath whether you are a professional speaker or just getting through your normal daily life.
The ability to control the amount of air you might need so you have enough air at the end of your sentence is a bonus to allow for more expression of tone to make your story or message be heard and felt by your listeners.

You can retrain your breathing style to diaphragmatic breathing with a simple exercise of practising to breathe in for four seconds, hold it for three seconds, then exhale for four seconds. Place your hands on your stomach or your sides to feel the expansion in your lower ribs as you inhale. Each day increase the amount of time your exhale your breath eventually getting comfortable to a count of ten or more.

Diaphragmatic breathing has the power to fully relax your body, mind, and the sound of your voice. This becomes a valuable tool to avoid panic attacks or feel nervous; it sets up your mind to focus more clearly; and it links to your voice becoming more flexible in expressing your ideas with a variety of tone.

If you want your voice to be energetic, vibrant and clear, consider adapting to the diaphragmatic breathing method as your core base in preparation to speaking with presence. This is your default backup system to discovering your best voice.
For more exercises and benefits of diaphragmatic breathing process take a look at Chapter one in ​“Breathing…Just Steps to Breathtaking Speeches” by speech coach, Brenda C. Smith. She has written an easy-to-follow book with targeted exercises from beginners to advanced levels including stories of successful participants.  

This blog is the first one in her series of seven steps outlining how you can go from preparation to creating presence and engaging performance. The entire series shows what is already available within you to speak with comfortable with confidence. If you found this information helpful, then please continue to read this series of more benefits that link to diaphragmatic breathing.