Caroline Goyder

And when you breathe in, the diaphragm descends.

And when you breathe out, the diaphragm rises.

So if you just put your hands on your tummy, then you feel that as you breathe in, your tummy moves away from your spine.

And as you breathe out, your tummy moves back to your spine.

Now, when you pause, you want the tummy to move away from the spine.

That's a pause and then you speak.

And it's just like when you sing happy birthday to someone.

If we all think about the feeling of singing, you're going to sing.

So you breathe into your tummy and then you sing.

Speaking should feel the same.

When you do that, some really good things happen.

Your voice has power.

Because you're giving it air power, voice is supported by air.

You feel relaxed because your system is breathing in a relaxed way.

Your audience get time to think because you're not rushing.

And the whole thing starts to feel relaxed, you know, George Clooney-esque rather than rushed and stressed and, I don't know, the horse racing speed.

So the breath is the secret, the master key to good speaking.

Because without it, you wouldn't be able to speak full stop.

Absolutely.

I mean, good actors will always before a show, certainly in the West End in London, I suspect in theatres in the US, they have a half.