Do you automagically talk like you’re from New Jersey?
If so, STOP IT!
Seriously. I mean it.
Okay, for those of you whose feelings I didn’t hurt and are still reading, here’s a little exercise from NLP Monthly that will shift your voice location in 23 seconds flat, and give you more options than just talking through your nose.
Start by putting two fingers on your nose (on, not in!) then intentionally speaking through your nose say “this is my nose.” When it’s actually coming from your nose you’ll feel it buzz under your fingers.
Move your fingers down to your cheek near your mouth and say “this is my mouth” noticing when you are getting the resonance out of your nose and into your mouth. (If you got confused on the previous step, you’ll want to get a kleenex first.)
Now move your fingers down to your throat and say “this is my throat” and notice the difference as you move into your throat.
Next, move your hand down to your chest and say “this is my chest” until you feel it rumbling from your lungs.
If you want to be a star pupil, move your hand down your abdomen to somewhere between solar plexus and navel while saying “this is my diaphragm” (or “this is my belly” if you were embarrassed by the ambiguity of saying “my diaphragm” out loud). You can give your voice a gentle nudge downward with a quickly descending “ahhhhhh” from nose, mouth, throat, down to chest and continuing to relax to your center further and further.
So, once you’ve got the pattern, it should take about 23 seconds to point five times and say “this is my …” five times. Bingo, Fran to Barry faster than my old Geo Metro went 0-60 MPH.
(Bonus points if you noticed that once you’ve practiced it a bit, you can do the 3 second version of just using a soothing “ahhhhh” to drop down to your core.)
For the audio walk-through and many other fun tidbits like this get started with NLP Monthly almost as fast as you can go nasal to bass!