Look After Your Voice

　　Often speakers at a meeting experience dry mouths and ask for a glass of water. You can solve the problem by activating the saliva in you mouth. First gently bite the edges of your tongue with your teeth. Or, press your entire tongue to the bottom of your mouth and hold it there until the saliva flow. Or you can imagine that you are slicing a big juicy lemon and sucking the juice.

　　Before you begin your talk, be kind to your voice, Avoid milk or creamy drinks which coat your throat. Keen your throat wet by drinking a little sweetened warm tea or diluted fruit juice.

　　If you sense that your are losing your voice, stop talking completely. Save your voice for your speech. You may feel foolish using paper to write notes, but the best thing you can do is to rest your voice. If you need to see a doctor, perhaps you can get some advice from a professional singer. In the meantime, do not even talk in a low voice.

　　What about drinking alcohol to wet your throat? I advice you not to touch alcohol before speaking. The problem with alcohol is that one drink gives you a little confidence. The second drink gives you even more confidence. Finally you will feel all-powerful and you will feel you can do everything, but in fact your brain and your mouth do not work together properly. Save the alcohol until after you finish speaking.

　　Perhaps you want to accept the advice, but you may wonder if you can ever change the habits of a lifetime. Of course you can. Goethe, who lived before indoor skating rinks or swimming pools, said, "We learn to skate in the summer and swim in the winter". Take this message to heart and give yourself time to develop your new habits. If you are wiling to change, you will soon be able to say that you will never forget these techniques because they became a part of your body.