Episode #31: What Is The Correct Breathing Method When Presenting

Breathing is such a natural act and normally, we don’t pay it much attention. Some how though, when we are giving a presentation, our breath control becomes a factor of success. One component is our nerves, which are driving the chemical surge through the body, making our heart rate skyrocket, which speeds up our breathing pattern.

If we are not breathing properly, we can have mental white outs of the brain, because we are not getting enough oxygen. We can’t remember what it is we are supposed to say. We get lost, become panicky and come across as disorganized, unconfident and flakey.

Voice is driven on the winds of breath exhalation and lack of breath power impacts audibility. If we don’t have good breath control, we can find ourselves squeaking out to the audience in this little voice that says, “I am not confident. I am not confident, I am not confident!”.

We might find that our lack of breath control results in our final words of our sentences just dropping away to nothing. We often see speakers kill their key messages, by not supporting the key points with their words voiced with power and conviction. There is no opportunity to punch out a strong message, because we are just vocally doing a disappearing act in front of the audience.

It could also be that we are becoming very breathy when we speak. It sounds similar to people who have respiratory illnesses. They always seem to be gasping for breath. Actually they are and so are speakers with no breath control. They simply can’t pull in enough oxygen.

The lack of breath control gets transmitted to our cadence of when we speak. A lack of air means we are confined to short breathy sentences and the lungs are only being filled in a very shallow fashion just from the top portion.

So how do we stop this and better instruct our instrument – our wonderful speaking voice? I am going to pass on what I have learnt from nearly 50 years of karate training, where breath control is absolutely vital. It is the same method used by singers.

Controlling our nerves is a key part of breath control, because if we don’t, we are working at cross purposes with ourselves. One of the techniques for controlling our nervousness is to go through some deep breathing exercises, before we go on stage in front of the audience. We can do these seated or standing and they don’t take very long.

Place both hands on your tummy and just touch lightly. As you breath in, imagine you need to fill the lungs from the bottom most part of the diaphragm. To help us do this we breath slowly and deeply and we can see if we are succeeding, because the hands on our tummy are starting to move forward. This pushing out of the tummy is a good sign, it means we are doing the deep breath sequence correctly. We reverse the process and slowly exhale and the hands are slowly drawn back in. We need to do this slowly, because a bit too much force and speed here and we can become dizzy, as the flood of oxygen to the brain makes us feel lightheaded.

This diaphragm breathing is actually how we should be breathing all of the time and I recommend you start the practice and make it your default habit. When we are in front of the audience, they cannot see the breathing rhythm, so there is no need to feel self-conscious. Every breath we take starts at the lowest point of the diaphragm and we sense our tummy being pushed out and then being pulled back in. This is how we should be breathing while we are on stage.

Interestingly enough, if we lose the flow and suddenly, the breath begins from the very top of the chest, we will feel our pulse rate pick up, our chest tighten and our shoulders start to rise. This might happen at first, before we can master this deep diaphragm breath control, but don’t worry. Just slow the breath down and concentrate on the lower diaphragm and trying to push your tummy out with each inhalation. Once you do this, the cycle will re-institute itself and you will be getting plenty of air. The key is to pick this up in rehearsal.

Correct breath control gives us the ability to make the tonal variations which keep command of our audience. We can bring power to words and build to crescendos, when we want to emphasis particular key points. It also helps us to relax and look super composed when we are standing in front of people. That confidence is contagious and our audience buys what we are saying. And that is what we want isn’t it.

Action Steps:

Get to the venue early and find a quiet, private place to do some breathing exercises
Place the hands over the tummy and check if we are breathing from the lower diaphragm or not
Make this method your default method of breathing from now on
If you start to feel yourself lacking air, then re-set and concentrate on breathing from the lower diaphragm.

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About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.