With the end of week 2 of the lock-down, you might find yourself still feeling torn between becoming used to this situation and feeling stressed about what the future will hold.

Today, I will guide you through another stretching exercise as well as the next deep breathing techniques to help you manage feelings of stress.

As before, the breathing exercises also prepare you for a better speaking voice.

Here is stretching exercise for your shoulders: 

 

With the current global events and uncertainties it is quite normal to feel an increase of tension and anxiety. You might find yourself feeling the same way that you feel before your speech or presentation. Stretching your muscles and deep breathing techniques go a long way to ease these feelings of stress.

Over the couple of weeks, I will share a few exercises that will help you ease the tension. At the same time, breathing exercises prepare you for a better speaking voice.

Overcoming common speaking mistakes

In the previous blog article I introduced the concept of speech bumps - mistakes or habits that adversely affect the effectiveness of our speaking.

We also discussed that these occur during conversations,  discussions and meetings and can have a negative effect on our communication.

in this blog I will discuss the next three speech bumps.

As before, I have added another two quick-reference exercises for you at the end of the article.

Overcoming common speaking mistakes

Just as speed bumps slow down traffic, as public speakers we also sometimes tend to have “bumps” along the way –those unmindful mistakes or habits that adversely affect the effectiveness of our speaking.

Speech bumps is a term I use to refer to common mistakes we make when we speak to an audience. Of course, speech bumps can also occur during everyday conversations and discussions around the boardroom table.

Some speech bumps happen because of the way we use our voices and speaking organs, and others have to do with the way we breathe and manage our breath.

Fortunately, there are exercises you do can do that will address these.

I will discuss the first three of the speech bumps in this blog and the last three in the next blog.

I have added two quick-reference exercises for you at the end of the article.