Twelve years ago, when I was working as an IT engineer in a bank’s headquarters, my boss, Declan, “volunteered” me to deliver a presentation to the entire staff. Yikes! I had to speak to over 100 people! IT engineers are not renowned for their public speaking skills. Declan knew this, which is why he pushed me into the presentation. It’s a little bit like the proverbial parent who teaches their child to swim by chucking them in the deep end of the nearest pool. I can tell, you it certainly felt like I was drowning that day…
As I struggled and stammered my way through my speech I suffered from one particularly irritating and frightening phenomenon: the quivery voice. From the moment I opened my mouth, my voice had a noticeable wobble, and I couldn’t make it stop. As time went on, it grew more pronounced. My anxiety had snowballed. Why? Because (ironically) I could hear my voice quivering and I couldn’t make it stop.
On that fateful day, I decided I was going to conquer my fears of public speaking. On my journey toward professional coaching (and competing internationally) I discovered the source, and the cure, for my infamous wobbly voice.
The root lies in the breath. Believe it or not, the quivery voice should not exist, were it not for the fact that most people do not know how to breathe correctly. I learned this fact when I started taking yoga classes. One of the first lessons I learned was how to breathe from the so-called “core”. Interestingly, when I took up Latin dancing and kick boxing, this “core” came up again and again as being an essential area not only for proper breathing, but for overall presence and focus.
So, what and where is this core that leads to great success in such disparate skills as dancing, kick-boxing and public speaking?
In general, people tend to breathe by expanding and contracting three areas of the body; behind the belly, in the chest, and from the shoulders. Breathing from the shoulders is quite rare, and only occurs when a person is under extreme stress or trauma. As you might imagine, you don’t get a lot of air that way, and it’s definitely not sustainable.
The other extreme is to breathe from behind the belly (this is where the core is!). To do this properly, there should be no rising of the chest or shoulders. Imagine there is a balloon behind your belly button. Every time you breathe in, the balloon inflates. Every time you exhale, the balloon deflates. When you breathe in this way, you are breathing from your “core”. You are also taking in the most lungful of air.
Breathing from the core (or behind the belly) allows you to be “grounded”. What that means is that, any time you feel strong negative emotions (e.g. nervousness) these feelings will pass through you naturally. The energy dissipates, like electricity passing into the Earth. When you breathe from your core, technically speaking you are meditating. Strong emotions will always regulate themselves, smoothly evaporating into calmness. The feeling of nervousness (the physiological aspect of fear) is not designed to build up and stick around in the body.
By the way, if you are still not sure how to breathe properly (you can’t find your belly button?) check out the experts; new born babies. They know how to belly breathe. As we grow up, bad breathing habits creep in and take hold. Why? Most people (especially children) do not like the feeling of fear. At a young age we teach ourselves to resist negative emotions by breathing from higher up along the spine. Welcome to breathing from the chest!
Breathing from the chest is known to be an adapted form of breathing; a learned reaction to stress. The problem with breathing from the chest is that, not only are you taking in less of a lungful of air, you are also not grounded. Any nerves you feel will tend to stick around and build up in your chest, trapped by your breathing. When you speak, the trapped nerves will colour your voice. In other words, you get the quivery voice. And unless you switch to breathing from your belly, the problem will get worsen. A wobbly voice coupled with a shortness of breath is not a pleasant state of being when you are speaking in public.
If you tend to suffer from a wobbly voice and/or a shortness of breath when you present to audiences, from now on I want you to reboot your breath. In other words, take a short pause, then breathe only from your belly. To help you, visualise a balloon behind your belly inflating and deflating as you breathe.
You can also visualise your voice coming from your belly button, as you speak. It may feel strange to think of your voice coming from anywhere other than your mouth, but it’s only a visualisation exercise designed to focus your awareness back into your core. From now on, become aware of where you are breathing from, not only when you are presenting. Whenever you are breathing from higher up than your belly, smoothly and easily reboot your breath.
Practice the belly balloon technique as often as possible in your spare time, and of course, when you are speaking. When you breathe from the belly you will find that you naturally speak slower, with more emphasis, depth, and gravitas. Your vocal projection will increase, and you will never feel short of breath. And most exciting of all, you can say good riddance to the quivery voice forever. A wobbly voice can never take over when you breathe from your core.
As Byron Nelson once said, “One way to break up any kind tension is good deep breathing.”
And speak from your core. It’s make sense on every level.
As I struggled and stammered my way through my speech I suffered from one particularly irritating and frightening phenomenon: the quivery voice. From the moment I opened my mouth, my voice had a noticeable wobble, and I couldn’t make it stop. As time went on, it grew more pronounced. My anxiety had snowballed. Why? Because (ironically) I could hear my voice quivering and I couldn’t make it stop.
On that fateful day, I decided I was going to conquer my fears of public speaking. On my journey toward professional coaching (and competing internationally) I discovered the source, and the cure, for my infamous wobbly voice.
The root lies in the breath. Believe it or not, the quivery voice should not exist, were it not for the fact that most people do not know how to breathe correctly. I learned this fact when I started taking yoga classes. One of the first lessons I learned was how to breathe from the so-called “core”. Interestingly, when I took up Latin dancing and kick boxing, this “core” came up again and again as being an essential area not only for proper breathing, but for overall presence and focus.
So, what and where is this core that leads to great success in such disparate skills as dancing, kick-boxing and public speaking?
In general, people tend to breathe by expanding and contracting three areas of the body; behind the belly, in the chest, and from the shoulders. Breathing from the shoulders is quite rare, and only occurs when a person is under extreme stress or trauma. As you might imagine, you don’t get a lot of air that way, and it’s definitely not sustainable.
The other extreme is to breathe from behind the belly (this is where the core is!). To do this properly, there should be no rising of the chest or shoulders. Imagine there is a balloon behind your belly button. Every time you breathe in, the balloon inflates. Every time you exhale, the balloon deflates. When you breathe in this way, you are breathing from your “core”. You are also taking in the most lungful of air.
Breathing from the core (or behind the belly) allows you to be “grounded”. What that means is that, any time you feel strong negative emotions (e.g. nervousness) these feelings will pass through you naturally. The energy dissipates, like electricity passing into the Earth. When you breathe from your core, technically speaking you are meditating. Strong emotions will always regulate themselves, smoothly evaporating into calmness. The feeling of nervousness (the physiological aspect of fear) is not designed to build up and stick around in the body.
By the way, if you are still not sure how to breathe properly (you can’t find your belly button?) check out the experts; new born babies. They know how to belly breathe. As we grow up, bad breathing habits creep in and take hold. Why? Most people (especially children) do not like the feeling of fear. At a young age we teach ourselves to resist negative emotions by breathing from higher up along the spine. Welcome to breathing from the chest!
Breathing from the chest is known to be an adapted form of breathing; a learned reaction to stress. The problem with breathing from the chest is that, not only are you taking in less of a lungful of air, you are also not grounded. Any nerves you feel will tend to stick around and build up in your chest, trapped by your breathing. When you speak, the trapped nerves will colour your voice. In other words, you get the quivery voice. And unless you switch to breathing from your belly, the problem will get worsen. A wobbly voice coupled with a shortness of breath is not a pleasant state of being when you are speaking in public.
If you tend to suffer from a wobbly voice and/or a shortness of breath when you present to audiences, from now on I want you to reboot your breath. In other words, take a short pause, then breathe only from your belly. To help you, visualise a balloon behind your belly inflating and deflating as you breathe.
You can also visualise your voice coming from your belly button, as you speak. It may feel strange to think of your voice coming from anywhere other than your mouth, but it’s only a visualisation exercise designed to focus your awareness back into your core. From now on, become aware of where you are breathing from, not only when you are presenting. Whenever you are breathing from higher up than your belly, smoothly and easily reboot your breath.
Practice the belly balloon technique as often as possible in your spare time, and of course, when you are speaking. When you breathe from the belly you will find that you naturally speak slower, with more emphasis, depth, and gravitas. Your vocal projection will increase, and you will never feel short of breath. And most exciting of all, you can say good riddance to the quivery voice forever. A wobbly voice can never take over when you breathe from your core.
As Byron Nelson once said, “One way to break up any kind tension is good deep breathing.”
And speak from your core. It’s make sense on every level.
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