At this time of year we can get so wrapped up in our doings and goings that we lose sight of the essential. We rush from one appointment to another, one email to another, one call to another, one gift to another, trying to fit it all in, get it all done, satisfy all of the demands.
The same thing happens when we are making presentations. Wanting to get it right, get all of the info into it, we rush from one idea to another, making so many points, providing so much data, we drown our audiences in content, knock them over with our bulldozing energy, and then suddenly end before they know what happened to them.
Grace is a quality that is worth cultivating in both situations:
Grace means having a close relationship with your breath, breathing from your diaphragm rather than from your collarbone.
Grace means crisp beginnings and endings.
Grace means coming from stillness, starting from silence and calmness.
Grace means not rushing through emotional changes, rather taking the time to feel the feeling in your body and thereby allowing the audience to feel it as well.
Grace means listening deeply.
Grace means noticing when you sigh, that it is the deepest part of you that sighs, a true song of the soul.
Grace means knowing that presenting gives you the opportunity to connect with people on a very deep level.
Grace means the courage to step into it, rather than avoiding it by rushing.
Grace means feeling gratitude for the special opportunity to connect with others in this way.
I am so very grateful for your attention, your connection with me and all you have shared with me during the last year. I am truly looking forward to our New Year together.
New Speaking with Ease workshop on January 29th (1-6) Seattle. For more info or to register
Posts
