(The three people described below are each composites of a number of clients who have come through my public speaking programs and services.) Jane was bright, experienced, and the only female on her work team. Frustrated, she felt that nothing she said at team meetings was taken seriously and her participation was frequently discounted or More…
Tag: speaking
Returning to the familiar
Having just returned from a holiday visit with family, I’m well aware of how unsettling it can be to break out of the routines that are part of the normal patterns of our day-to-day life. To help manage these kinds of disruptions, my yoga teacher this morning reminded us of the benefits of returning to More…
Openings… The biggest stumbling block
“The first few moments of a presentation always terrify me.” “I know my subject really well and know what I want to say, I just don’t know how to get started.” “If the first few minutes go well, then I relax for the rest of the talk.” Statements like these are almost universal. It seems More…
The yoga of public speaking
I’ve been a yoga practitioner for more than 20 years. At one time I taught yoga. I now take every opportunity I can to study with different yoga teachers from different traditions. I do so to expand my experience of myself and to extend my ability to return to a state of inner quiet while More…
“What do I do with my hands when I speak?”
I was having an important conversation with my daughter this week when I became very aware that I was not connecting at all with her. We were standing by a car and I couldn’t find a relaxed, comfortable position. So instead of really listening to what she was saying, I was focused on where I More…
Fear of the first few minutes in public speaking
I swim for exercise. I swim in pools that are kept relatively cool so that lap swimmers don’t overheat when they work up a “sweat”. This means that it’s always hard to get into the pool at the beginning of my swim. Once I’ve been in the water for even one lap, the chill wears More…
The “less is more” approach to public speaking
I am moving! My new home is about one quarter the size of my current home. This is a conscious choice for me as I have begun to realize that the only way we can truly impact our ever growing environmental crisis is to make a much smaller footprint on the planet. And, I have More…
Contemplative practices reduce anxiety
Several weeks ago, I gave a talk with Dr. Sara Lazar, neuroscientist and researcher at Mass General Hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital. Sara’s research is centered on changes in brain structures that result from meditation and yoga. Her results are very interesting! Basically they show that regular awareness (or contemplative) practices like yoga and meditation More…
Space… The final frontier!
Last summer I received an email in response to one I had sent out. Something weird happened in the transmission. All the space between words had been stripped away and the email I received looked something like this: LastsummerIreceivedanemailinresponsetooneIhadsentout. Somethingweirdhappenedinthetransmission.Allthespace betweenwordshadbeenstrippedawayandtheemailI receivedlookedsomethinglikethis: While I eventually was able to figure out what it said, it was More…