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Why Your Breath Is the Real Engine of Your Voice | S1E006 · The Inspired Speaker Network

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  Danielle Benzon: If you're tired of hiding your brilliance behind
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  stage fright scripts or playing it safe, then you are in the
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  perfect place. This is the inspired speaker podcast, and I
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  am your host, Danielle Benson, professional rebel voice coach,
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  and your guide to speaking with confidence, charisma and zero BS
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  around here, we don't chase perfection. We choose
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  connection. So grab a hot beverage, warm up those vocal
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  cords and get ready to fall wildly in love with the sound of
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  your voice. Let's get inspired.
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  Welcome back. This is the final episode of this season. This is
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  episode six, and I am so excited that you have come along with me
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  for this journey. There is still so much more to come. I'm really
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  excited about further seasons we're going to do. I'm going to
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  do some interviews with industry experts. I'm going to do a whole
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  deep dive on vocal tips and how to look after your voice, you
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  know, like vocal stamina, vocal health, but also how to build
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  vocal variety and storytelling and all that fun stuff. We're
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  going to do a whole deep dive on that, and I'm going to do
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  interviews. There is going to be so much fun stuff coming. But
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  for now, this is the end of the first season, and I just want to
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  say thank you, thank you for coming along with me. This has
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  been amazing. And I want to leave you with one last really
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  powerful idea, or at least I think it's powerful, and it has
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  really helped me in my practice, in speaking, but also just in
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  life. Because as you may have noticed, this is not just about
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  public speaking. This isn't just about sales. This isn't just
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  about standing up and making a good impression in front of your
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  office co workers. This is about human communication. It's a
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  practice, and it is everything that we do is so physical,
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  there's obviously a psychological element to it, but
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  the physicality is the part that we ignore the most, the part
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  that we often just gloss over. And it can be so powerful. So I
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  want you to think of this, the exercises that I share and
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  concepts that I share. I want you to think of them as a
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  practice. Because if we can just build these micro habits,
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  they're often habits that your body really enjoys. So if you
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  could just kind of get it started, your body will keep
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  going without you. You do a voice warm up in the morning,
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  and your body's like, Hey, I like this, and you will stay
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  open and resonant for most of the day. It's amazing how it
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  works. So I do want to just encourage you think of this as a
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  practice. It's not something you need to go all in on. You can
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  just do a little bit, little bit every day. Five minutes of
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  focused breathing or speaking or stretching and breathing even
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  will help you so much as you move in your journey. So the
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  thing that I want to talk to you about today is breath. Now,
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  breath is a large this is a large area of exercise, of
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  concepts. I mean, really, your breath is the engine of your
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  voice. If I were to compare my speaking voice to a car,
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  the breath is the gasoline, the petrol that I put in the car,
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  the car is the voice. The car goes wherever it's supposed to
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  go. But if I don't have enough breath, it doesn't go where it's
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  supposed to go. You know, you got to put it in first. And
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  that's what I want to talk about today, because we are so focused
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  on the out breath, on the product, on how fast we can
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  speak, how much we can get in there, all of that stuff is only
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  possible because of the in breath. The in breath is
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  actually where the magic happens, but the out breath is
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  where we notice the magic, and so that's where we tend to
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  focus. So instead, I invite you to shift your focus to the in
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  breath to what you're putting in your body. Every time you
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  breathe in, you're breathing life. You are nourishing
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  yourself. You are bringing new energy to whatever concept or
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  idea you're about to share. The in breath is where all the work
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  happens, where all the muscular work happens. Your intercostal
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  muscles between your rib case, contract and lift your ribs so
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  that there is more space for the air to come and fill your lungs.
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  Your diaphragm contracts and goes down and pushes your
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  intestines down so that there is more space in your lungs for the
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  air to come in. All the work happens on the in breath, which
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  is why it's so much faster. The out breath is a lovely release
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  of whatever it is you put in, but you can't release what you
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  don't let in. So notice for yourself, when do you hold your
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  breath, which is your death. Don't want to do that. We want
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  to be in flow, even when we're silent. We're breathing. We're
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  breathing all the time. We we're not robots. We should be
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  breathing that ebb and flow. It's like the it's like the
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  waves in the ocean. It should be a constant in and out, except
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  for that moment, you know, we've got the pendulum. We go all the
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  way in, and there's a moment where we don't do anything, and
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  then we release, and then all the way out. And then there's a
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  moment where we don't need breath, and then your body calls
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  for breath, and then there's all the way in. You think of it that
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  way. We always want to be in flow, but we want to focus on
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  the in breath. If I breathe once for a sentence, and then I talk
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  and talk and talk. And only when I'm finished the sentence then
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  do I let myself breathe out the rest of it, and then breathe in
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  again. My sentence becomes quite monotone. Immediately, there's
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  more monotone. It's like, it's like not enough butter over too
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  much bread. Your Your breath is what gives your your voice
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  energy. It's what gives your voice life. Breath is life
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  literally, but also metaphorically. Breath is what
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  brings energy into your voice. So every time you breathe,
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  that's a new energy. There's more butter for your bread. More
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  bread. No more butter. More bread. Add more butter. Yes. So
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  instead of breathing once per sentence, can we breathe once
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  per idea and really focus on the in breath? Let myself think of
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  what I want to say on the in breath. When I master this,
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  there are so many things that just disappear, so many bad
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  habits that just go away, ums and ahs disappear, pacing issues
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  disappear, not knowing what to say next disappears. Breathing
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  intentionally, often deep will solve so many of your problems.
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  So I want you to think of breathing every three to five
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  words, which is going to feel intense and your body's not used
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  to it, it's going to feel strange. But for example, I can
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  say one sentence, a longish sentence on one breath. I went
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  to the grocery store, I bought avocados, potatoes and tomatoes,
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  and I sold my friend Jane, and she just been on holiday to
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  Hawaii, and she said it was great. I can do all that on one
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  breath. It's not taxing for me, but it kind of all mushes
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  together. No, what if I breathed between every idea I went to the
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  grocery store today, I bought avocados, potatoes and tomatoes,
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  and I saw my friend Jane, and she's just been to Hawaii, and
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  she said it was great. Can you hear the difference? It's just,
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  it's parsing. It's like grammar. It's the physical,
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  physicalization of grammar. It's really cool. Play with this.
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  Play with breathing more often, if you like poetry, that is a
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  perfect place to play with this. Breathe, not at the end of every
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  line, but every few words, one of my favorite poems is called
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  by your own definition, by a South African poet gonna say
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  their name wrong, Shabir Banu by I think it's how you say it. I'm
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  not sure I've only ever seen it written, but it's one of my
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  favorite poems. And you can breathe so often in this poem,
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  and it changes the meaning too. It's this is the same with
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  Shakespeare. It's really fun listening to a very famous
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  monolog said by different people they breathe at different times.
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  Totally changes the meaning. My favorite poem by your own
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  definition, by your own definition, three words, I drink
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  too deeply, the blood of roses. I could say I drink too deeply,
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  the blood of roses that still works. That's about five words I
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  would count I drink too deeply, the blood of roses. Oh, seven,
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  eight, that's a lot. Lean on a leaf for comfort. Mistake,
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  mysteriously, a thorn for a star. That's a lot of breathing.
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  I could do it line by line by your own definition, I drink too
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  deeply the blood of roses lean on a leaf for comfort. Mistake,
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  mysteriously, a thorn for a star. It just doesn't feel the
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  same. You do a twinkle, twinkle, little star, Twinkle twinkle.
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  Little star, How I wonder what you are. One line, Twinkle,
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  twinkle, little star, How I wonder
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  what you are. Okay, that's, I'm forcing it because it's twinkle
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  twinkle, little star, you know this. Twinkle, Little Star. You
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  know, there's not a lot to it, but you know, you can, I'm over
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  belibering My point. The point is, play with breath. Play with
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  your in breath. And if your breathing is shallow, see how
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  deep you can get. It not going to go into the complexities of
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  breath. Support. Now we just don't have a time that'll be
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  multiple episodes. That might even be a whole season, just on
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  breath support. But think about how deep your breath goes, all
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  the way into your belly, all the way into your intestines, where
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  Kristin Linklater says the Pang comes from that need, that urge
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  to speak, that visceral feeling, breathe all the way down, even
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  if it's a little breath, make sure it goes all the way down to
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  the bottom, and allow your speech to come from that deeper
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  place, and allow yourself to breathe deeply, allow yourself
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  to breathe often, and then you can just release. And we don't
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  need to force we're not going to hurt our throat. We're never
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  going to lose our voice, because we're not pushing from the
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  throat. Because when we don't have enough breath, that's
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  exactly what we do. It's all about the inspiration. And when
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  you breathe more often, you have more time to think about what
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  you want to say, which means you're not going to say I'm in
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  awe nearly as much. It means you're not going to waffle on
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  about stuff that isn't important or over explain, because you're
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  allowing yourself to think as you breathe in, because to
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  breathe in, another word to breathe in is to inspire.
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  Inspire. On the inhalation, inhale your intention. When we
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  inspire, we breathe in. We get an idea. We go, I have an idea.
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  Let yourself breathe in. Nourish yourself. Fill your cup first,
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  because here we are inspired speakers. We allow the breath to
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  fill us up with all that gooey, wonderful aliveness and magic,
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  and mix all of our emotions around so that we can be more
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  alive when we release what we have. And so that is what I want
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  to leave with you today. I will see you soon in further episodes
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  and further seasons, but for now, my wish for you is for you
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  to be inspired. Focus on your in breath. Focus on nourishing
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  yourself, focus on filling yourself up with life, and then
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  you will have so much to give. I hope that helps you. I look
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  forward to seeing you in further episodes.