Grace


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

TRANSPARENCY

That is what we crave when we are communicating with people, isn't it?

Not the propped up, slick, guarded, same old blah, blah, blah.

When we are meeting new people, don't we love it when they are transparent, able to make a real connection with us, truly listening and have the capacity to drop their agenda and hang with us, let us see them?

As presenters, when we are hit with the normal adrenalin rush that comes naturally in anticipation of being up in front of a group, or having intense attention paid to us when we speak in a meeting, it can be challenging to be transparent.  Our brain function shifts and without our full neo-cortex capacity, we are left with our survival response to fight or flee.  In that moment we see our audiences as predators and we begin to act as prey.  If not trained as warriors, we drift toward flight, obfuscating and rushing, flustered and covering our vulnerable selves with puffery.  We are not really present, just a blur, hurtling toward the end of our presentation, filled with dread, shame  and remorse.

We really do not have to suffer this way.  It is possible for us to keep our sense of ourselves and our core message, and our mission for our presentation.  We can be present to our audiences, develop relationships with them during our presentations, inspiring them to action, encouraging them to participate and contribute their good ideas and energies to the conversation.  In order to do this we must first learn to speak from the heart, to breathe, to converse with one person at a time, to allow ourselves to be transparent and openhearted.

Learning to do this is like learning a new move, a dance step or athletic exercise.  It requires guidance and practice.  Begin with the breath - since our brains run on oxygen, we must learn to use the breath to relax and fuel up so we can be smart in the moment.  Controlling our gaze is another key element, so we may "trick" our brains to return our clear-thinking and engaging capacities.  And of course, practice is the third element to master transparency.

If you would like to become transparent as a presenter, come to our Speaking from the Heart. workshop in Seattle on Friday, December 4th, 1-6.  Small supportive group, lots of practice, video feedback, coaching.  Find out about this workshop and others here