Why Your Breath Is the Real Engine of Your Voice | 006

If you're tired of hiding your brilliance behind

stage fright scripts or playing it safe, then you are in the

perfect place. This is the inspired speaker podcast, and I

am your host, Danielle Benson, professional rebel voice coach,

and your guide to speaking with confidence, charisma and zero BS

around here, we don't chase perfection. We choose

connection. So grab a hot beverage, warm up those vocal

cords and get ready to fall wildly in love with the sound of

your voice. Let's get inspired.

Welcome back. This is the final episode of this season. This is

episode six, and I am so excited that you have come along with me

for this journey. There is still so much more to come. I'm really

excited about further seasons we're going to do. I'm going to

do some interviews with industry experts. I'm going to do a whole

deep dive on vocal tips and how to look after your voice, you

know, like vocal stamina, vocal health, but also how to build

vocal variety and storytelling and all that fun stuff. We're

going to do a whole deep dive on that, and I'm going to do

interviews. There is going to be so much fun stuff coming. But

for now, this is the end of the first season, and I just want to

say thank you, thank you for coming along with me. This has

been amazing. And I want to leave you with one last really

powerful idea, or at least I think it's powerful, and it has

really helped me in my practice, in speaking, but also just in

life. Because as you may have noticed, this is not just about

public speaking. This isn't just about sales. This isn't just

about standing up and making a good impression in front of your

office co workers. This is about human communication. It's a

practice, and it is everything that we do is so physical,

there's obviously a psychological element to it, but

the physicality is the part that we ignore the most, the part

that we often just gloss over. And it can be so powerful. So I

want you to think of this, the exercises that I share and

concepts that I share. I want you to think of them as a

practice. Because if we can just build these micro habits,

they're often habits that your body really enjoys. So if you

could just kind of get it started, your body will keep

going without you. You do a voice warm up in the morning,

and your body's like, Hey, I like this, and you will stay

open and resonant for most of the day. It's amazing how it

works. So I do want to just encourage you think of this as a

practice. It's not something you need to go all in on. You can

just do a little bit, little bit every day. Five minutes of

focused breathing or speaking or stretching and breathing even

will help you so much as you move in your journey. So the

thing that I want to talk to you about today is breath. Now,

breath is a large this is a large area of exercise, of

concepts. I mean, really, your breath is the engine of your

voice. If I were to compare my speaking voice to a car,

the breath is the gasoline, the petrol that I put in the car,

the car is the voice. The car goes wherever it's supposed to

go. But if I don't have enough breath, it doesn't go where it's

supposed to go. You know, you got to put it in first. And

that's what I want to talk about today, because we are so focused

on the out breath, on the product, on how fast we can

speak, how much we can get in there, all of that stuff is only

possible because of the in breath. The in breath is

actually where the magic happens, but the out breath is

where we notice the magic, and so that's where we tend to

focus. So instead, I invite you to shift your focus to the in

breath to what you're putting in your body. Every time you

breathe in, you're breathing life. You are nourishing

yourself. You are bringing new energy to whatever concept or

idea you're about to share. The in breath is where all the work

happens, where all the muscular work happens. Your intercostal

muscles between your rib case, contract and lift your ribs so

that there is more space for the air to come and fill your lungs.

Your diaphragm contracts and goes down and pushes your

intestines down so that there is more space in your lungs for the

air to come in. All the work happens on the in breath, which

is why it's so much faster. The out breath is a lovely release

of whatever it is you put in, but you can't release what you

don't let in. So notice for yourself, when do you hold your

breath, which is your death. Don't want to do that. We want

to be in flow, even when we're silent. We're breathing. We're

breathing all the time. We we're not robots. We should be

breathing that ebb and flow. It's like the it's like the

waves in the ocean. It should be a constant in and out, except

for that moment, you know, we've got the pendulum. We go all the

way in, and there's a moment where we don't do anything, and

then we release, and then all the way out. And then there's a

moment where we don't need breath, and then your body calls

for breath, and then there's all the way in. You think of it that

way. We always want to be in flow, but we want to focus on

the in breath. If I breathe once for a sentence, and then I talk

and talk and talk. And only when I'm finished the sentence then

do I let myself breathe out the rest of it, and then breathe in

again. My sentence becomes quite monotone. Immediately, there's

more monotone. It's like, it's like not enough butter over too

much bread. Your Your breath is what gives your your voice

energy. It's what gives your voice life. Breath is life

literally, but also metaphorically. Breath is what

brings energy into your voice. So every time you breathe,

that's a new energy. There's more butter for your bread. More

bread. No more butter. More bread. Add more butter. Yes. So

instead of breathing once per sentence, can we breathe once

per idea and really focus on the in breath? Let myself think of

what I want to say on the in breath. When I master this,

there are so many things that just disappear, so many bad

habits that just go away, ums and ahs disappear, pacing issues

disappear, not knowing what to say next disappears. Breathing

intentionally, often deep will solve so many of your problems.

So I want you to think of breathing every three to five

words, which is going to feel intense and your body's not used

to it, it's going to feel strange. But for example, I can

say one sentence, a longish sentence on one breath. I went

to the grocery store, I bought avocados, potatoes and tomatoes,

and I sold my friend Jane, and she just been on holiday to

Hawaii, and she said it was great. I can do all that on one

breath. It's not taxing for me, but it kind of all mushes

together. No, what if I breathed between every idea I went to the

grocery store today, I bought avocados, potatoes and tomatoes,

and I saw my friend Jane, and she's just been to Hawaii, and

she said it was great. Can you hear the difference? It's just,

it's parsing. It's like grammar. It's the physical,

physicalization of grammar. It's really cool. Play with this.

Play with breathing more often, if you like poetry, that is a

perfect place to play with this. Breathe, not at the end of every

line, but every few words, one of my favorite poems is called

by your own definition, by a South African poet gonna say

their name wrong, Shabir Banu by I think it's how you say it. I'm

not sure I've only ever seen it written, but it's one of my

favorite poems. And you can breathe so often in this poem,

and it changes the meaning too. It's this is the same with

Shakespeare. It's really fun listening to a very famous

monolog said by different people they breathe at different times.

Totally changes the meaning. My favorite poem by your own

definition, by your own definition, three words, I drink

too deeply, the blood of roses. I could say I drink too deeply,

the blood of roses that still works. That's about five words I

would count I drink too deeply, the blood of roses. Oh, seven,

eight, that's a lot. Lean on a leaf for comfort. Mistake,

mysteriously, a thorn for a star. That's a lot of breathing.

I could do it line by line by your own definition, I drink too

deeply the blood of roses lean on a leaf for comfort. Mistake,

mysteriously, a thorn for a star. It just doesn't feel the

same. You do a twinkle, twinkle, little star, Twinkle twinkle.

Little star, How I wonder what you are. One line, Twinkle,

twinkle, little star, How I wonder

what you are. Okay, that's, I'm forcing it because it's twinkle

twinkle, little star, you know this. Twinkle, Little Star. You

know, there's not a lot to it, but you know, you can, I'm over

belibering My point. The point is, play with breath. Play with

your in breath. And if your breathing is shallow, see how

deep you can get. It not going to go into the complexities of

breath. Support. Now we just don't have a time that'll be

multiple episodes. That might even be a whole season, just on

breath support. But think about how deep your breath goes, all

the way into your belly, all the way into your intestines, where

Kristin Linklater says the Pang comes from that need, that urge

to speak, that visceral feeling, breathe all the way down, even

if it's a little breath, make sure it goes all the way down to

the bottom, and allow your speech to come from that deeper

place, and allow yourself to breathe deeply, allow yourself

to breathe often, and then you can just release. And we don't

need to force we're not going to hurt our throat. We're never

going to lose our voice, because we're not pushing from the

throat. Because when we don't have enough breath, that's

exactly what we do. It's all about the inspiration. And when

you breathe more often, you have more time to think about what

you want to say, which means you're not going to say I'm in

awe nearly as much. It means you're not going to waffle on

about stuff that isn't important or over explain, because you're

allowing yourself to think as you breathe in, because to

breathe in, another word to breathe in is to inspire.

Inspire. On the inhalation, inhale your intention. When we

inspire, we breathe in. We get an idea. We go, I have an idea.

Let yourself breathe in. Nourish yourself. Fill your cup first,

because here we are inspired speakers. We allow the breath to

fill us up with all that gooey, wonderful aliveness and magic,

and mix all of our emotions around so that we can be more

alive when we release what we have. And so that is what I want

to leave with you today. I will see you soon in further episodes

and further seasons, but for now, my wish for you is for you

to be inspired. Focus on your in breath. Focus on nourishing

yourself, focus on filling yourself up with life, and then

you will have so much to give. I hope that helps you. I look

forward to seeing you in further episodes.