Overcoming public speaking anxiety breathing exercises

Under stress we tighten our muscles and HOLD the tension we're feeling.

It locks itself into our bodies. The cumulative effect of long term unreleased tension can be varying forms of debilitating and often serious illnesses.

One of the first places tension shows is in our breathing patterns.

1. Stand with your feet a comfortable shoulder width apart.
   
2. Support the weight of your body through your hips and legs rather than locking your knees.
   
3. Consciously release and relax your shoulders.
   
4. If you're holding your stomach in, let it go.
   
5. Place your hands on your stomach.
   
6. Breathe in through your nose to the count of four. Count slowly. As you inhale feel your diaphragm rising.
7. Breathe out through your mouth to the count of four and now feel your diaphragm expanding.
8. Do three rounds of inhale and exhale to a four count while making sure you keep your shoulders, stomach and legs relaxed.
   
9. Once you have mastered the four count, increase it. Through regular practice you will soon be able to extend it for an eight or even ten count.
   

Variations on exercise one

1. Lie on the floor or sit in a chair.
(Either way, make sure your legs are uncrossed.)

2. Use the out breath to hum quietly.
Increase the intensity and volume as you go through each rounds.

3. Use the out breath to sound each of the vowel sounds in turn.
Let each go without force, flowing smoothly from your relaxed throat.

For example:

'A' is going to become ahhhhhhh... as in 'are'
'E' is Eeeeeeeeeeeee ... as in 'easy'
'I' is Iiiiiiii ...as in 'eye'
'O' is Ooooooo ...as in 'Oh'
'U' is Uuuuuuuu ...as in 'you'

Feel the shape of the sound in your mouth and enjoy its resonance.

4. Use imagery by adding color.
Imagine your in breath as a light, energy intensive color washing through all the cells in your body from the top of your head to your toes.
Imagine your out breath as clearing away all the debris and dross.

5. Imagine the in breath coming from deep within the earth.
Send it traveling through all your limbs and organs to the top of your head carrying its life giving and grounding forces with it.

6. Use imagery by adding pictures of yourself achieving all that you want to in your speech.
See yourself competent, smiling and confident. See the audience enjoying your talk.

Exercise two

1. Stand with your feet a comfortable shoulder width apart.
   
2. Support the weight of your body through your hips and legs rather than locking your knees.
   
3. Consciously release and relax your shoulders.
   
4. If you're holding your stomach in, let it go.
   
5. Bring your palms together in the center of your chest.
   
6. As you slowly inhale through your nose, keeping the palms of your hands together, raise your arms as high as you can above your head. At the same time raise yourself on to your toes.
   
7. Hold your breath briefly at the top of your inhale keeping yourself fully
   stretched and pushing without strain toward to the sky.
   
8. Exhale slowly through your mouth and while keeping your arms fully extended, bring them slowly down and round back up to your chest, palms together in the starting position.
9. At the same time slowly lower your feet.
   
10. Repeat for ten rounds.
    

You can use this exercise for breath counting as well. It has the same positive effects as the first exercise with the addition of gentle full body stretching.

For variation, use any of the imagery or sounding suggestions from Exercise one.

Just so you know:-
I've used this exercise with drama classes during rehearsal and prior to performances. It's made an enormous difference to the overall quality of work as it centers, concentrates and calms.

I also use it for myself whenever I catch myself getting tense. It takes
very little time and can be shortened to a mere two rounds if need be.

Exercise benefits

The benefits of both these breathing exercises are immediate: psychologically and physically.

Physiologically you are using all of your lungs rather than the top third and have more oxygen in your system. That underpins you feeling better, more able to cope, to think clearly.

An additional benefit is you are strengthening your physical capacity to speak for a longer time, to deal with more complex patterns of language effectively and you won't need to break for breath as frequently.

Especially for children

If you've arrived here at 'overcoming public speaking anxiety breathing exercises' looking for ways to help a child, please take a look at my page on 'how to build confidence in a child'.  

You'll find suggestions and activities to enhance and foster self esteem suitable for children from kindergarten to approximately 8-9 years old.
(They're able to be easily adapted for children outside those age ranges too.) Although not a quick-fix, they will, with practice, over time really benefit your child.

Be sure to teach these breathing exercises too. They will understand, particularly if you show and do them with them. I know because I've used them with children. They are effective, even with very young ones.

If you would like more than these overcoming public speaking anxiety exercises to help either yourself, a child or a friend, please look at the page on acute anxiety help or this one on dealing with public speaking nerves You'll find many more positive suggestions there.

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