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How to combat breathing problems when speaking?

I am struggling with breathing when speaking in a work/meeting capacity. I've never been a natural/confident presenter, but this had never happened before until recently and is now dominating every routine meeting (apart from on a 1-on-1 basis, where I'm fine). I can barely get a sentence out, whereas I used to be ok at delivering long updates and chairing meetings both virtually and in-person as part of my job.

This is clearly a bit of a mental block rather than it being specific to breathing, as in almost all of these instances this isn't nerves-related (these aren't big presentations), and I have tried all of the recommended breathing exercises to no avail.

Asked by TJD

Anxiety

Answered

10/26/2022

Sometimes we may wonder why some people can talk about the same thing in the same situation/meeting etc, but only one of them gets any credit for it. It can be said it could be the way we sound which makes the difference of being heard. When we sound nervous or have trouble breathing, it can come across as very quiet or not heard.

So breathing is very important: by harnessing your breath, it can be one of the most important things when speaking in public. You could start by having the correct posture, standing with shoulder-width apart, make sure you weight is distributed correctly, then raise your arms above your head. Then you could start by deep breaths, start to exhale, slowly put your arms by your sides keeping your ribcage where it is, making sure your shoulders are still back, making sure they are not hunched. Standing very tall, this posture is known as the power pose. Breath deeply keep your hand on your belly button and one on your chest. When breathing, notice which hand moves, keep your chest steady while concentrating to breathe into your stomach, exhale slowly like letting the air out of a balloon. Speak out on your breath.

You could also look at what thoughts you are experiencing before your meetings. How many talks have you presented and they have ended well? Examining your findings may help to start to overcome your thought process. Negative thoughts about a situation can increase anxiety felt in our bodies, normally feeling light headed, panic, heart racing. If you can try and stop the overthinking about the situation you may be able to decrease your anxious feelings. The way I explain the STOP process is, if you are driving in your car and approached traffic lights and they turn red, automatically we break and stop - if we don't, we can have an accident. If you apply this to your thoughts, stopping these thoughts in the process can help reduce feelings of anxiety and panic.

I hope this has been of some help to you TJD. You can find many worksheets explaining overthinking, anxiety and panic, our thoughts can have a big impact on out behavior.

Janice.

Mrs. Janice Sandford