1. Gently close the right nostril and breathe in for a count of 4 seconds.

2. Gently pinch both nostrils closed and hold the breath for a count of 4 seconds.

3. Release the right nostril and breathe out for a count of 8 seconds.

4. Exhale all breath and remain still for a count of 4 seconds.

5. Repeat in reverse: Close left nostril to breathe in.

6. Close both nostrils, hold.

7. Release left nostril to exhale.

8. Release all breath.

Repeat as often as desired; twelve full cycles are considered a full round.

1. Exhale breath.

2. Inhale fully.

3. Release breath to a comfortable mid-point.

4. Sharply and quickly contract the diaphragm, forcing the air out of the nose; repeat. Between each contraction, only allow air to passively return to the lungs (i.e., do not breathe in actively).

5. After 10 contractions, release all breath, then breathe in fully and exhale fully.

Repeat, extending the number of contractions if desired.

1. Stand straight and tall.

2. Rock back and forth on your feet to understand your full range of movement.

3. Slowly reduce the size of each back-and-forth movement and speed up the pace. Continue until you are making very fast, small movements.

4. Eventually, you should come to a place where you cannot make any quicker or smaller movements.

This is the correct point of balance between the front and back of your feet.

Repeat the exercise but move your weight from the left side of your left foot to the right side of your right foot.

Repeat again, moving your weight in circles around the full range of movement (front left to front right to back right to back left).

Repeat, but create a spiral moving inwards until you reach a point of equilibrium where your weight is balanced evenly over your feet.

1. Raise your arms above your head, hands and fingers pointing straight up.

2. Completely relax your arms, hands, and fingers, letting them drop to your sides.

That resting place is where your hands should go when you are not using them to gesture or direct attention elsewhere.

For more on the subtle effects of stance and gesture, see Scott McCloud, Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels, specifically the section on body language, pages 102-115. Although he’s focused on drawing human figures and faces, the concepts he introduces reveal how our own body language speaks to the audience.

Based on the idea that poses and posture can evoke associated feelings, social psychologist Amy Cuddy promotes the use of “power stances” to increase confidence.

1. Pick one of the power stances

2. Stay in that pose for 2 minutes

The research behind this is in dispute, but see if it works for you. Try them out now and use them before a presentation, interview, or important meeting.

Presenter:

1. Create a short biography of you and your work using no more than four images of your own art and no images of yourself.

2. Present this biography to a small audience of friends and colleagues (or a tutor) without speaking or making any sounds.
   
   The presentation should last no more than 2 minutes.

Audience/tutor:

1. While the presenter is silently presenting their images, write down your responses, thoughts, feelings, etc. based on the images and the presenter’s silent behavior.

2. Discuss your responses and the match between the responses and the aims of the presenter.

This exercise is about showing emotions through facial expressions, voice, and body language—regardless of the content being spoken.

1. Rehearse your speech in front of a small audience of close friends or colleagues, emoting as much happiness as you can in your non-verbal cues: tone of voice, facial expression, gesture.

2. As soon as the audience sees and feels genuine happiness, they shout, “SAD!”

3. At this instruction, the speaker should switch the emotion of the talk (keeping the language and content the same) and emote as much sadness as possible.

4. When the audience sees authentic sadness, they shout “HAPPY!” and the speaker returns to a happy emotional output.
   
   Repeat this pattern throughout the speech.

This is an exercise in genuine response—listening and following another’s ideas, rather than just waiting your turn to talk. Plus, an added challenge:

• Engage in a conversation with each other, speaking only in questions.

• Questions must be real and not simply statements with “do you agree?” attached to the end.

• Questions must follow logically from the previous question and be relevant to both speaker and listener.

• It’s okay to pause for a beat or two, but try to keep up the pace of a normal conversation.

• Enjoy the humor of messing up. Then refocus and keep the conversation going longer the next round.

Tell a partner the story of your day so far, with a two-minute limit.

• Partner, share observations on what worked in the story.

• Maintain a positive, non-critical atmosphere.

Now tell the story again, but cast yourself as the hero of an epic journey and fantasize or exaggerate the story wildly.

• Partner, share observations again on storytelling, good practice, and what was lost and gained through the epic re-telling of the story.

Example:

Round 1: “I took the MBTA from Providence where I live, to Boston where I work”

Round 2: “She fearlessly tamed the wild steel beast of legend and, forcing it to her will, rode proudly on its back across the frozen wastes of South Attleboro and through the embattled tribes of Route 128 to reach her final destination where her true destiny awaited her: the fabled towers of South Station!”

Variation: Take turns telling the first version of the story and then recount each other’s story as it was told. This is a good lesson in what gets remembered. It can also be followed up by the epic retelling.

1. Draw circles on the inside of each cheek with the tip of the tongue. Aim to make the circles as perfect as possible.

2. Once you have completed 10 circles in one direction, draw 10 in the opposite direction.

3. Do the same for the other cheek.

• Imagine a large piece of chewing gum in your mouth.

• Mime chewing the gum, working all parts of the mouth in the process. Open your mouth wide during this process.

Practice your favorite tongue twister out loud several times. Exaggerate mouth movements to ensure you hit every consonant.

• She sells seashells by the seashore
  The shells she sells are seashells I’m sure

• What a to-do to die today
  At a minute or two to two
  A thing distinctly hard to do but harder still to say
  For they’ll beat a tattoo at a twenty to two
  With a rat-ta tat-tat ta ta-tat ta to-to
  And the dragon will come with the beat of the drum
  At a minute or two to two today
  At a minute or two to two.

• Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers
  A Peck of Pickled Peppers Peter Piper Picked
  If Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers
  Where’s the Peck of Pickled Peppers Peter Piper Picked

• To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock
  In a pestilential prison with a life long lock
  Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock
  From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block

• A big black bug bit a big black bear
  And the big black bear bled blue black blood.

Sound out the following sequences of vowels and consonants. Make sounds clearly, focus on breathing and ending sounds cleanly. Allow the sound to come from your diaphragm.

Unvoiced consonants:
Pa Ta Ka Pa
Ta Ka Pa Ta
Ka Pa Ta Ka

Voiced consonants:
Ba Da Ga
Da Ga Ba Da
Ga Ba Da Ga

Vowels — these sounds should be held for one long breath and closed off strongly, and not allowed to trail off with the end of the breath.
Ay
Ee
Ah
Oh
Oo

It can be easy to leave out certain consonant sounds while speaking, such as the middle “t” in words like “bitter” (certain accents will replace this sound with a “glottal stop”).

Sound out problem words and exaggerate the problem spots to strengthen your mouth and rehearse the better pronunciation.

• Practice beginning sounds, such as the “th” in “the” and “this”

• Middle sounds, such as “t” in “bitter”

• Ending sounds, such as “ing” in “coming” instead of “comin’.”

If you have difficulty with an “S” sound, try this tongue position:

1. Place the outside of your tongue lightly on the sides of your teeth, like the wings of a butterfly. This is similar to when you sustain the “I” sound in bin, fin, win, or the “ee” sound in me, knee, sea.

2. Keep the center of your tongue curved in a groove, letting the air flow over it.

3. Now try to make an “S” sound.
   
   Repeat until you see success.

High-rising terminals are spoken sentences that end with your voice going up. This makes a statement sound like a question or sound inconclusive, indecisive, or insecure.

Practice silently cursing to yourself at the end of each sentence. For example:

“Hello, my name is Jen [Damnit!]”

Hear how the intonation changes when ending with a curse? This leads to a more decisive sound, giving weight to the ends of sentences.

Practice like this to get comfortable using your voice this way, then drop the curses and practice speaking with the same confident intonation.