Best Practices: Speak clearly and articulate to be comprehensible and confident

Speaking articulately and clearly helps people understand you. When you articulate, you are more comprehensible and confident when you speak. 

During a meeting, conference call, or presentation, it is easy to feel nervous and tense. When you are nervous and tense, you can speak fast and lose people's attention and comprehension of important messages you want to communicate.

Here are five techniques to practice and use to help you speak clearly:

- Relax your mouth: Before you speak and during a conversation, move your tongue around your mouth and transform your mouth into a balloon. The idea is to create an "elastic" effect in your mouth so you can articulate and speak clearly. When you are stressed and tense,
your mouth is not elastic and it is difficult to move your mouth.

- Move your mouth and dance your tongue: When you move your mouth, you articulate. If you speak with a closed or tense mouth, your words stay in your mouth. Moreover, people may have difficulty understanding you.

When your tongue dances, your mouth moves and you articulate. If your tongue does not move, you do not articulate your words. Be sure your tongue moves when you speak.

- Speak comfortably and at a constant and comprehensible speed: Focus on each word as you speak and "measure" your speed as you speak. The goal is not to speak fast. The best speakers articulate and speak at a comfortable rhythm.

- Punch your words: Imagine you are Rocky and you practice boxing when you speak. Punch your words. Punching your words helps you articulate each word. Always concentrate on punching words that end in -S and -T. It is important to punch your -S and -T all the time when you speak.

- Breathe from your belly: When you are relaxed, you speak better. If you breathe from your chest and not your belly (abdomen), you could be tense and stressed. However, when you breathe from your belly, you can relax your chest and move your mouth better. Imagine your belly is a balloon and you fill your belly with air. Fill and empty your belly with air as a balloon. You could also put your hand against your belly and breathe against it.

If you are aware of your mouth, tongue, speed, rhythm, and breathing, you will speak more clearly and articulately.

Practice speaking clearly and articulate to capture people's attention and increase people's comprehension of your important ideas and messages!