When you give a speech it is useful to show purposeful physical movement. In fact, it provides your audience with an indicator of your feelings and attitudes. In addition, moving effectively during a speech offers some more benefits. Let’s see what they are.
Capture audience’s attention
If you do not move during a speech people in the audience get bored. In fact, it is important to consider that people remember more messages that reach multiple senses. Basically, we remember more of what we see than what we hear. Nevertheless, we remember best when both our visual and auditory senses are involved.
As a speaker you can take advantage of these aspects by providing visual inputs, such as gestures, body movements and facial expressions that capture your audience’s attention. This will also help to enhance retention of your verbal messages.
Make your voice and body work together
When you give a speech, you can use a set of tools to show the audience what are the most important parts of your speech. Those can also help to add power and vitality to your words.
In fact, to reach this goal you can use your voice, gestures, body movements, and facial expressions. However, to achieve the greatest possible impact, you should coordinate your voice and body, making them work together.
Use body movements to control fear
Gestures and body movements can help you control your nervous energy and make it work for you instead of against you. Being nervous before a speech is, to a certain extent, healthy. It shows you care about doing well. At the same time, you need to pay attention to the fear that could ruin your speech.
When you speak in public your adrenal glands produce “stress hormones” including adrenaline. Since the body will do almost anything to relieve tension, you might unconsciously perform mannerisms that will distract your audience. You can best control the physical signs of fear and nervousness, through conscious use of gestures and body movements.
Keep in mind
Showing purposeful physical movement provides your audience with an indicator of your feelings. In addition, it also helps to capture the audience’s attention, to emphasize parts of your speech and, most importantly, to control fear.
