{"id":5013,"date":"2008-09-17T07:27:44","date_gmt":"2008-09-17T12:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/17\/hand-gestures-when-making-a-speech-a-good-thing-or-bad-thing\/"},"modified":"2008-09-17T07:27:44","modified_gmt":"2008-09-17T12:27:44","slug":"hand-gestures-when-making-a-speech-a-good-thing-or-bad-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/?p=5013","title":{"rendered":"Hand Gestures When Making a Speech – A Good Thing or Bad Thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Jane K Thomas<\/div>\n

Can you recall a time when you were standing in front of an audience, their full attention upon you and all you could feel was extremely exposed and self-conscious? All speakers feel this way at some time and the most overwhelming problem in this situation seems to be what to do with your hands. Nothing you do with them seems to feel natural or easy.<\/p>\n

Standing in front of a room full of people, all of whom are eagerly anticipating the start of your speech, just serves to magnify the problem of what to do with your hands.<\/p>\n

Is it acceptable to put your hands in your pockets? Or would it look odd just leaving them to hang limply by your sides? Or should you fling them wildly about in the belief that ‘grand gestures’ look natural from the audiences’ point of view?<\/p>\n

And the more conscious you become of what to do with your hands, the more your focus will be diverted away from your speech and the more your nerves will begin to get the better of you.<\/p>\n

Try making use of these tips and in no time at all you’ll have forgotten all about your hands and be able to get on with the real job of delivering a truly excellent and enjoyable speech.<\/p>\n

Learn to relax. It is a basic truth<\/a> that you only begin to worry about what to do with your hands when you are feeling stressed and up tight. In your normal, day-to-day life you don’t give a second thought as to what your hands are doing as you speak to you family, colleagues and friends, do you? And the reason is solely because you feel at ease and are not experiencing any nervousness at all.<\/p>\n

Try and notice whether you regularly use hand gestures to help illustrate what you are saying to people at other times. See if you can describe to a friend how to knot a tie or try and convey the shape of a spiral staircase and see just how you use your hands to help enhance your words.<\/p>\n

If you find that you are comfortable using hand gestures in general conversation, then continue to do so when delivering your speech. You’ll find that if you continue to do what comes naturally to you, it won’t feel artificial or forced.<\/p>\n

As a general rule, if you don’t feel comfortable using gestures, then don’t try to start! <\/p>\n

Always remember that if you feel nervous on stage, your emotion may be unconsciously demonstrated by what your hands are doing. Are you clutching the table or lectern tightly, clenching your fists or constantly fiddling with your pen?<\/p>\n

Realize that gestures such as desk banging, finger pointing and fist clenching will always appear to have hostile or negative overtones and may even be insulting to people belonging to certain cultures. Be certain to avoid these at all costs!<\/p>\n

Carefully limit your gestures during your speech or you will simply appear to be windmilling your way through your presentation.<\/p>\n

If you find that focussing on what to do with your hands during your speech makes you feel uncomfortable, spend some time practising relaxation techniques and trying out different hand gestures in front of a mirror in the privacy of your own home. Being able to see what the audience sees will soon allow you to relax and enjoy delivering your speech.<\/p>\n

Just as your words go towards making up your speech, so do your actions. Simply be aware that they just form another part of your communication with your audience and should be accepted as a natural part of your presentation.<\/p>\n

Once you begin to see how the use of your hands can support and enhance your words, you will begin to find that you no longer think and worry about what you are doing with them. Instead you will discover that you are using your gestures naturally and in a relaxed manner.<\/p>\n

When you can do this, you can congratulate yourself on graduating to the next level of expertise in public speaking!<\/p>\n

\n
About the Author:<\/div>\n
Be sure to get your free copy of Jane Thomas’s 7-part video eCourse that will show you exactly how to become a Superstar Speaker<\/a> . You’ll discover many more public speaking tips<\/a> simply by following the highlighted links.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you recall a time when you were standing in front of an audience, their full attention upon you and all you could feel was extremely exposed and self-conscious? All speakers feel this way at some time and the most overwhelming problem in this situation seems to be what to do with your hands. Nothing you do with them seems to feel natural or easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2012,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[140],"class_list":["post-5013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-speaking","tag-writing-speaking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}