Breathing before a presentation or interview

The physical symptoms of performance nerves are mostly a breathing problem wearing a disguise. Understanding that makes them a little less alarming, and gives you something concrete to do.

Why your voice shakes

Your voice is powered by a controlled stream of air passing over the vocal folds. When you are nervous, breathing moves up into the chest and becomes fast and shallow, so that stream becomes short and uneven — and an uneven airstream is exactly what a shaky voice is.

The dry mouth, the tight throat and the sense that you cannot get a full breath all come from the same place. None of it means anything has gone wrong; it is a normal stress response arriving at an inconvenient moment.

The ten minutes before

1. Find somewhere you can sit. A corridor, a stairwell, a parked car.
2. Three to five rounds of four in, four holding, six out. Eyes open, sitting tall.
3. Between rounds, let your jaw hang slack for a moment — people clench without noticing, and a clenched jaw affects the voice.
4. Stop while you still feel alert. The aim is steady, not relaxed.

The sixty seconds before

Two or three physiological sighs — two breaths in, one long breath out. Then one deliberate exhale as you walk in, so you start on an out-breath rather than a gulp.

Speakers and singers do a version of this instinctively. Starting on a settled exhale gives your first sentence a steady airstream, which is when the shake would otherwise be most obvious.

What breathing will not do

It will not make you well prepared, and it will not remove the nerves. Some arousal is useful — completely calm speakers are usually flat ones. The aim is to bring an over-revved system down to a workable level, not to switch it off.

If performance anxiety is severe enough to affect your work or make you avoid opportunities, that is a treatable thing worth talking to someone about rather than breathing through indefinitely.