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Rapid speech in front of an audience is a very common problem for many of the clients who come to the Talkpower workshops. This happens because when you are sitting in your chair waiting for your turn to speak and you are afraid that you are not going to perform well your entire body goes into a “fight or flight" mode. The “Fight or Flight Response" is a primitive survival mechanism that originates in the autonomic nervous system. This response is accompanied by a racing heart and a general feeling of inner acceleration governed by your reptilian brain the automatic nervous system is composed of two separate systems. The Sympathetic nervous system, which regulates bodily arousal including rapid heartbeat and quick chest breathing experienced under stress produces the Fight or Flight response. The Parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates inhibitory functions, slows down the rate of arousal, causing your heart to beat more slowly producing the Relaxation Response. If you have a fear of speaking in public, the longer you are kept waiting the more accelerated and painful the experience becomes. As a result you want to get over with this as soon as possible so the words pour out so quickly that at times it is difficult for the audience to understand what you are saying.
Rapid speech in front of an audience is a very common problem for many of the clients who come to the Talkpower workshops. This happens because when you are sitting in your chair waiting for your turn to speak and you are afraid that you are not going to perform well your entire body goes into a “fight or flight" mode. The “Fight or Flight Response" is a primitive survival mechanism that originates in the autonomic nervous system. This response is accompanied by a racing heart and a general feeling of inner acceleration governed by your reptilian brain the automatic nervous system is composed of two separate systems. The Sympathetic nervous system, which regulates bodily arousal including rapid heartbeat and quick chest breathing experienced under stress produces the Fight or Flight response. The Parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates inhibitory functions, slows down the rate of arousal, causing your heart to beat more slowly producing the Relaxation Response. If you have a fear of speaking in public, the longer you are kept waiting the more accelerated and painful the experience becomes. As a result you want to get over with this as soon as possible so the words pour out so quickly that at times it is difficult for the audience to understand what you are saying.
Rapid speech in front of an audience, a habitual response to Public Speaking
anxiety cannot be corrected with
will power, determination, positive
thinking, visualization, advise or
tips and will not respond to conscious
commands.
Since rapid speech is a symptom of a body that is truly out of
control, this loss of control must be
addressed before you begin to speak. That
is, when you are sitting in your chair waiting for your turn to speak. And so the first thing that you must do is to try to calm
down as you sit in your chair with slow, shallow,
gentle, belly breaths. Deep breathing at
this time will only make matters worse.
See my previous blog on instructions for Belly Breathing or see chapter four: Breath is Life in "The New Talkpower The Mind Body
Way To Speak Without Fear" Amazon and on Kindle "Talkpower A Panic
Clinic For Public Speaking."
The good news however is that with a systematic behavioral plan you can TRAIN yourself to speak more slowly.
Here are the instructions for training yourself to slow down
rapid speech. This of course, is a muscle memory training exercise
that takes time and
patience and should be done privately and not in front of an audience.
SLOWING DOWN RAPID SPEECH RESPONSE
1. Look for a short article in a newspaper that
you find interesting or a short chapter or part of a chapter (no more than 2 pages ) from
a book you like.
2. Sit down and read
one line OUT LOUD (no whispering please) from the article or the book. When you come to a period
at the end of a sentence squeeze your
toes for one long squeeze) count 1, 2, 3, and release
slowly. Read the next line out loud and squeeze your toes and release again.
3. Repeat this simple
procedure of squeezing your toes at each period
over and over again until you have read the entire article or chapter.
(You can pick a
different article to work with whenever
you wish.)
Do this once a day
for 2 weeks.
4. On the third week
stand up and do the same thing. Be sure that you are not swaying from side to
side when you read sanding up.
5. Now you are ready to use this technique, when you rehearse your presentation.
At the end of
each sentence squeeze your toes one time. When you come to a very long
sentence you may feel that you are beginning to talk very fast. Just squeeze your toes one time
after a comma in the middle of the sentence; this small gesture is enough to give you control once more.
There is no magic pill that will give you control over your automatic reactions, but if you are willing to take the
time to commit yourself to a step by step training practice either in a Talkpower Workshop or by yourself, eventually you will become an
excellent speaker, comfortable, confident, winning praise from your colleagues and feeling so good about yourself.
