More and more clients are telling me that they really don’t know how to breathe effectively for good speech or singing. What’s more, they don’t know WHEN to breathe while they’re talking. Knowing when to breathe while singing a song is a bit more obvious: there are commas and periods on the lyric sheet…obvious pause-spots in a song. But, you might lament, speaking doesn’t come with punctuation marks…or does it?
Hmmm…let’s think about this. Most people don’t observe any kind of punctuation marks in their speech, especially where I come from: Long Island, New York. In New York City and the surrounding suburbs, many people are fast talkers who don’t pause. They run all their ideas together in one big mega-sentence that seems to go on forever. I’m sure we’ve all heard examples of the “motor-mouth”. Tough to get a word in edgewise, I might add.
So this motor-mouth type comes into my office and says, “I know I’m supposed to stop and breathe occasionally, since talking without air really strains my voice. And everyone’s always asking me to slow down and come up for air. But I don’t know when to pause and breathe.”
The answer is so simple, but not obvious to many people: BREATHE the way you THINK! When the thought ends, take a mini-pause just to replenish your air. This doesn’t necessarily mean to just breathe at the end of a sentence. After all, a sentence can have many sub-thoughts. Here’s an example: “I’d love to bake pumpkin bread, but I’m out of pumpkin, so I’ll make banana bread instead.” One sentence, but I’m going to breathe before I start, and at each comma, for a total of three breaths. Remember, even when you’re speaking extemporaneously, there are still “commas”: they’re mental commas. They’re the places where a thought or a sub-thought ends. You can see a really nice example of breathing the way you think in our YouTube short video here:
Now for practice, you try this sentence: “I have so much to do over the long weekend I don’t know how I’m going to get it all done so I think I’ll just take a nap in the hammock”. Where would you breathe? Are there logical places to pause and breathe? Where would the commas go? If you said after “weekend” and “done”, you’d be right! When you pause to replenish your air, it takes the pressure and strain off your vocal mechanism. And some bonus advantages: it makes it easier for your listener to process what you just said. They can process while you pause. And in that pause, you can also plan what you’re going to say next. It’s a great public speaking tool too!
This new skill of breathing the way you think probably won’t come automatically at first. Leave yourself some sticky notes, alarms, or a reminder that pops up on your phone that says, “Come up for air” or “Breathe the way you think”. After awhile, you’ll build this brand-new habit. Your voice, and your listeners, will thank you!
For more information about specific breathing techniques, check out our video, “Diaphragmatic Breathing De-Mystified: It’s Not a Lot of B.S.!”
Also, check out our new video short, Better Breath Support: 1 Quick Trick!
So now you know: breathe the way you think! Try pausing to breathe each time a thought ends, and become a better communicator with less vocal strain.
