5 Ways Mindfulness Make you a Better Public Speaker

• The way that the general public perceives public speaking is that mostly extroverts excel at it. You have to be bold, elaborate and loud to affect the audience. Those are just skills that only some people possess. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is mostly associated with more reserved and contemplative people.
• What you need to understand is that mindfulness and public speaking are often connected. In fact, some would say that mindfulness is the skill that mostly impacts the success of your speech. Mindfulness does play a vital role in public speaking. Here are the ways it affects you:
• You meet your true self — you will often find yourself in a complicated whirlpool of tasks and deadlines to meet. As a result, you may not stop to think about the way you feel or think. Consider what great presentation you can make when you fully connect with yourself. Influencing the behaviours, feelings and thoughts of others without awareness of your own is hardly the best way to go about presentations. As a mindful presenter, you should invest some time to think how you feel, how you sound and the way each of your actions is perceived. That is how you will pick up any loose ends. Or perhaps the real loose end has been you all along?
• You know your audience better — when you are more aware of yourself, you will more easily and more deeply connect with your audience. It doesn’t mean you should scrutinise yourself to the point of obsession. However, personal growth and awareness can change the way you see others and connect with them.
• You make wise choices — when your life has reached the point where it involves doing the same routines over and over, you may start making less and less conscious decisions. Such a repetitive behaviour is never a good thing in regards to public speaking. When you practice mindfulness, you will become much more aware and open to insight. That way you will be able to access your wisdom and creativity, thus making better choices about your presentations and the way you say things.
• You connect more easily and effectively — you want people to hear and understand you and more importantly, connect with you. Public speaking does provide the opportunity for this to happen. However, this bond with the audience doesn’t come with raw information and data. You also need humour, meaningful questions, metaphors, stories, anecdotes and above all else: passion.
• You stop lying to yourself — even the most experienced public speakers feel some level of anxiety before giving a presentation. It goes a long way to acknowledge the way you feel, accept it and work to improve it. When you cut the pretence and start working on yourself, you will find many ways to grow and become a better presenter.

When it comes to improving your public speaking prowess, mindfulness goes a very long way. If you want to find out more about how to become more mindful, this infographic can aid you.

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