Chapter 69 keep a good posture

The speaker should not sit facing the audience before giving a speech, you should arrive at the venue with a new attitude, isn't this better than the audience seeing your dignity before you give a speech? But if we have to sit down first, we also need to be very mindful of our posture.You must have seen people looking around for an empty seat, isn't that like a hound looking for a place to lie down for the night?They looked around first, and when they found a chair, they quickened their pace and ran forward, and then slammed their bodies on the chair like placing a big sandbag. A person who knows the art of sitting usually touches the chair with the back of his feet first, and under the full control of his heart, keeps the whole body in a relaxed upright posture from head to buttocks, and then sits down slowly.

When you're about to stand up and address the audience, it's common for amateur speakers to rush into your mouth.You should first take a deep breath and look at your audience for about 1 minute. If there is any noise or commotion in the auditorium, stop and wait until everything is calm. Hold your chest out.This posture helps you speak with confidence and gives your audience a sense of strength from you.Of course, this kind of behavior does not mean that you can stand straight when you stand in front of the audience. You must practice this every day. Only in this way, when you stand in front of the audience, you will naturally stand up.

Luther Crick said in his book "The Productive Life": "In every ten people, we can't find one person who can keep himself in the best posture... You must keep the neck Hold on tight to your collar." He recommends that people engage in the following exercise every day: Breathe in slowly, but as hard as you can.At the same time, press your neck tightly against your collar.Even if this set of movements is exaggerated, it will only benefit you and not harm you.The purpose of this is to straighten the back between the shoulders and to thicken the chest. Your hands are ideal if they hang naturally at your sides.If you feel like they're a bunch of bananas, don't assume that no one is paying attention to them, or that no one is interested in them.It’s best if they hang easily down the sides of your body so they don’t draw attention to themselves.Not even the most critical person can criticize you for this pose.Of course, you can also make various emphatic gestures naturally if you want.But what if you're nervous and you find that putting them on your back, in your pocket, or on your desk makes you less nervous?Use your common sense to judge.I have heard speeches given by many of the leading speakers of our time.Many of them occasionally put their hands in their pockets while giving a speech.Brian did it, Depp did it, President Roosevelt did it.Even a gentleman as respectful of manners as the English statesman Disraeli sometimes succumbed to this temptation.But the sky is not falling, and according to the weather forecast, if my memory serves me correctly, the sun will still rise on time tomorrow morning.How a man handles his hands or feet is of course a trivial matter if what a man prepares for a speech is valuable and he can say it convincingly.Most of these minor details can take care of themselves, so long as his head is full and his heart is full of enthusiasm.After all, the most important part of giving a speech is the content, not the position of the hands or feet.

This naturally leads us to the often misused posture problem.The subject of my first speech class was posture.Sadly, for me this class was not only useless, but misconceived and absolutely harmful.My teacher taught me that I should let my arms hang loosely at my sides, palms facing back, fingers half-bent, thumbs touching my thighs.He also trained me to lift my arm in a graceful curve, make a classical turn of the wrist, and spread out first the index finger, then the middle finger, then the little finger.After this aesthetic and decorative lesson, I was asked to lower my arms along the same graceful but unnatural curve, and to rest on the outside of my thighs again.The whole performance is terribly deadpan and artificial, utterly unreasonable and terribly unreal.It is ridiculous that deep down in his heart he still feels that what he is teaching cannot be learned elsewhere.

However, he did not teach me to create a unique set of movements; he did not encourage me to develop a sense of gesture; Relax, learn to be spontaneous, break out of my conservative shell, talk and act like a normal person.The whole performance is regrettable, as lifeless as a typewriter, as lifeless as a bird's nest built last year, and as absurd as a TV farce. It is hard to believe that such absurd remarks can still be heard from professors in the 20th century.Just a few years ago, I had a book on speaking postures on my bookshelf—the whole thing was an attempt to make man a machine.It actually tells the reader what gesture to make when speaking this sentence, what gesture to make when speaking that sentence, which situation to use with one hand, which situation to use both hands, which situation to raise your hands High, which one should be raised to a medium height, which one should be lowered, how to bend this finger, and how to bend that finger.Once I saw 20 students standing in front of a class of students, reading the same sentence from this book at the same time, and making the exact same gestures on the exact same sentence. Very ridiculous, contrived, time-wasting, robotic and unhealthy.This mechanized speech concept has given many people a very bad impression of speech teaching.The dean of a large college in Massachusetts recently said that his school does not teach speeches because he has not seen a practical method of teaching students to give reasonable speeches.I agree 100% with this dean.

Nine out of ten books on speaking posture are a waste pile, and not only are they a waste of good paper and good ink, but any posture that the student learns from these books is likely to be a huge waste.If you want to learn useful postures, you can only try to figure it out yourself, cultivate it from your own heart, from your own thoughts, and from your own interest in this aspect.The only gestures of value are the ones you're born with. An ounce of instinct is worth more than a ton of rules. Gestures are nothing like dinner jackets, which can be put on and taken off at will.The latter is just an outward manifestation of a person, like kisses, colic, laughter, and seasickness.And a person's gestures, like his toothbrush, should be something exclusively for his personal use.And, just as everyone is different, so should everyone's hand gestures be different if they just go with the flow.

Two people with different characteristics should not be trained to have exactly the same gestures.You can imagine how absurd it would be if the tall, clumsy, slow-thinking Lincoln used the exact same gestures as the fast-talking, irascible, debonair Douglas! According to Hornden, who once practiced law with Lincoln and wrote his biography: "Lincoln did not use his hands to gesture as much as he did with his head. He used his brain a lot, that is, in the strengthening part. He would shake his head vigorously. This movement was especially meaningful when he was trying to emphasize something of his. Sometimes the movement would stop suddenly, as if sending a spark to a flammable object. He was never like Other speakers gesticulate like that, as if cutting air and space to pieces. He never moves with stage effect... As the speech progresses, his movements become more and more free and comfortable , finally to the point of grace. He possesses complete spontaneity, strong character, so that he appears dignified and very noble. He despises vanity, ostentation, artifice, and hypocrisy. . Sometimes, the elongated fingers of his right hand contain a world of great significance and emphasis. Sometimes, to express joy and joy, he will raise his hands at an angle of about 50 degrees, palms upward, as if eager to hug The spirit he loved. If it was loathing he was trying to express—say, denouncing slavery—he would raise his arms, clenched his fists, and wave it in the air with a truly sublime loathing. It was One of his most effective gestures expresses one of his most vivid determinations to show that what he hates is next to be trampled in the dust. He always stands squarely, two feet that is, he never puts one foot in front of the other. He never holds onto or leans on anything for support. Throughout the speech, he only Make slight variations on his posture and attitude. He never yells or walks up and down the podium. To ease his arms, he sometimes grabs the collar of his coat with his left hand , thumb up, and the remaining right hand is free to make various gestures."

The famous sculptor Saint-Gaudens once carved him into a statue of this posture, which stands in Lincoln Park in Chicago. Roosevelt was more energetic, passionate, and active than Lincoln.His face was alive with expressions.He clenched his fists, and his whole body became a tool for him to express his feelings.Politician Blyth often holds out one hand, palm open, when he makes speeches.Greystone would often slap the table with his palm or stomp his foot on the floor, making loud noises.Rosebery had a habit of raising his right arm high and then swung it down with endless force.Of course, not everyone possesses this kind of power. Only the speaker's thoughts and beliefs have considerable power. Only in this way can the speaker's posture be strong and natural.

Natural and dynamic, they are the ultimate expression of action.British politician Burke's gestures are very clumsy and extremely unnatural.The famous British orator Peter, waving his hands in the air, "like a clumsy clown".Sir Henry Kelvin was limping and acting strangely.Sir McCauley's behavior on the podium was unflattering.Gladden is the same.Same goes for Barnier.The late Sir Curzon said at the University of Cambridge: "The answer obviously lies in the fact that great orators have their own unique gestures. Although great orators must have beautiful appearance and graceful posture, if the speaker is unlucky It's ugly and clumsy, and that doesn't matter much."

Many years ago, I heard the preaching of the famous Gypsy Smith.His speeches have made thousands of people believe in Jesus, and I admire his wonderful speeches very much.He also uses gestures - and quite a lot - but without giving any impression of unnaturalness.This is the most ideal way.As you practice and apply these principles, you will find yourself making your gestures in this way.I cannot give you any law of posture, for everything depends on the temperament of the speaker, on his preparation, his zeal, his personality, the subject of the speaker, the audience, and the conditions of the room.

However, I still have a limited number of suggestions here, which may also be of use to you.Don't repeat a gesture, or it will be boring and monotonous; don't use the elbow to make short, jerky movements; movements from the shoulders look much better on the podium; gestures don't end too quickly ; if you use your index finger to emphasize your thoughts, be sure to maintain that gesture throughout the sentence.Most people ignore this.This is a common but serious error.This mistake weakens what you are emphasizing, and some unimportant things can seem important by comparison, making the real point seem unimportant. When you're speaking in front of an audience, use only those gestures that come naturally.As you practice, force yourself to gesture if necessary.Because offstage, when you force yourself to do it, it's so lucid and stimulating, and before long, your gestures will come naturally. Close the book, you can't learn gestures from a book.When you are giving a lecture, your own impulses and desires are the ones you can trust most, more valuable than any instruction any professor can give you. If you forget everything we said about gestures, and you're about to give a speech, remember this: If a person is so absorbed in thinking about what he has to say, and so eager to express his opinion, that he If he forgets his own existence and talks and behaves naturally, then his gestures and expressions will not be criticized.If you doubt this, you can walk up to someone and knock him out with a punch.You will find that when the person stands up, he will give you an almost flawless conversation. The following three sentences are the best description of the typhoon in the speech: (1) FILL BAGS. (2) Knock off the plug. (3) Let nature take the leap.