Just Breathe
The trick to confidence and control in your presentations
Breathing is natural, right?
Do you struggle with breathing when you deliver a presentation or speech? If you do you’re certainly not alone. Public speaking is one of the most common fears in the world and when those nerves flare-up, breathing seems to be the first thing that gets out of whack.
Why is that? Breathing is obviously natural and we do it without thinking. We even breathe when we’re asleep, no problem! It’s like flying for birds; we do it instinctively and we’re super good at it, right?
Unfortunately, most people don’t breathe correctly in the first place, let alone when they’re presenting. According to Belisa Vranich, a psychologist and breathing expert,
“nine out of ten people breathe out of synch with their body.”
We overuse our neck and shoulder muscles and we only use the top part of our lungs. Dr. Vranich calls it vertical breathing. The largest part of our lungs is the bottom third. That means in order to fill our lungs they should expand horizontally as more air reaches the bottom third. When we breathe vertically, we don’t fill our lungs and have to take several smaller breaths to get enough oxygen.
