Hadar Shemesh explains how tension in your jaw, lips, and tongue makes speaking English harder and less fluent. Tight muscles come from mental load and inefficient articulation. She recommends breathing exercises and a five-minute daily cool-down to release the tension.
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Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is episode number 293. Today we are going to talk about being effortless when speaking in English. Hey. Hey everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in for another episode of the Influency Podcast. And as you know, usually on the Tuesday podcast, what we do is I introduce the episode and then I share with you the audio of the video that I also share on YouTube or on my website. If you've been only listening to my podcast and you're like, what is he talking about? Then yes, usually all the episodes have also a video version. This one doesn't. And, and the reason is because the video that I shared with you on the day of publishing this episode cannot be used as audio only because it really is a five minute cool down exercise to help you release tension when you speak. So you basically just need to look at me and do what I do. And. And unfortunately, technology has not solved that yet, transmitting such vision on a podcast. So instead I wanted to share with you a few things of why I think it's so important to release that tension to build a case for why you should be using this video daily or whenever you need to release tension when it comes to your articulation organs or pronunciation. So here's the thing. A lot of times, and this is from my own personal experience, we feel like there's a lot of tension in our mouth when we speak a second language. Actually, it can happen in your first language as well. It really is all about how you use your muscles and how much tension you hold in general in your body when you carry yourself around, when you do any kind of work or when you speak. But it seems like the tension is higher when speaking a second language. Now, what do I mean by tension? I mean that you feel the muscles hurting after speaking and you feel like it takes you more energy to actually speak. It feels like you are moving against a substance instead of, you know, just moving around in air. It feels like you have weights inside your mouth or hanging off your jaw and pull your jaw down and makes everything a bit more painful. It's what causes you to avoid speaking for a long time or just to worry about feeling tired and exhausted after. And that is okay. It's totally natural. And a lot of it has to do with really just the tension of speaking a second language that a lot of people speak because it's the mental tension, you know, coming up with the right thoughts, organizing your thoughts, speaking clearly, sounding clear, all of that that happens takes up a lot of energy, especially if you don't use English on a regular basis. So that is one thing. And tension brings tension. And if you feel tense, the tension is going to be in your mouth and in your body. Another thing could be just how you normally carry yourself around, and that could be with tension anyway. And that tension is also carried into your voice and into your articulation organs. And by articulation organs, I mean your jaw, your lips, your tongue, your cheeks. Right? So if you feel pressure there or tension there, it could be because you have tension in your shoulders or your neck. But sometimes it could also happen because you are not using the most efficient pronunciation of sounds. When we learn a second language, we don't learn how to use our mouth to produce the sound. Most people, we learn how to speak by just simply listening to others. And sometimes we learn how to do it, but we are not aware that we're investing a lot more energy or engage many more muscles when producing a certain sound. And as a result, you might be using 200% or 150% more energy than you need to produce the sound. It is not your fault you have never learned it. And sometimes trying really hard to get it right is actually the opposite of what you need. I mean, it's good to invest a lot of energy when practicing, when doing the work. But that tension or extra energy and effort should not be there when you speak, because first it's going to make you tired really quickly. You're gonna create strain and extra tension in your voice. It's gonna be hard for you to shift from one sound to another, which might cause you to get stuck more. And you might ultimately just not feel this light version of yourself that you usually feel when speaking in your first language. So learning how to pronounce a sound in the most efficient way over only engaging the muscles that are necessary, is extremely important. And this is why I share a lot of content, a lot of free content on how to pronounce certain sounds and certain words. So apart from sounding clearer and feeling more confident, you will also have more ease and effortlessness when speaking. So that is one way to solve this challenge. Another way is to let go of tension consistently is to learn about those areas and places that you hold, that you grab, that you tense, and to learn to consciously let go of them while speaking and after speaking. Now, the drill that I have for you today on video that I'm not gonna share on the podcast offers you a five minute cool down exercise, tension release exercise for you to be able to let go of that tension on a regular basis. Now, it's not necessarily going to help you right away, but it's going to teach you about your mouth, and it's going to teach you about where you hold tension. And I highly recommend for you to do it on a daily basis at the end of the day, even if you don't use English, because we hold tension in our first language as well. So learning how to do that, just like you stretch after running or after working out, if your body deserves it, why not your mouth? Why not your voice? You use your voice more than you work out, so learn how to do it and treat your voice the way it deserves and treat your articulation organs, your muscles in your mouth the way they deserve, to find the balance between tension and between looseness. So, yes, I highly recommend for you to watch the pronunciation cool down and use that whenever you feel tension or on a daily basis. But another thing you can do, and that is awareness, is when you speak, ask yourself, am I holding tension here? Am I grabbing my muscles, straining them? Is my voice comfortable? Or do I feel like there's a lot of tension there? And sometimes all it takes is just to take a deep breath in and to breathe out to remind your body that it knows how to exist even without putting in a lot of effort. So taking a deep breath in and breathing out is something that can already calm you down. And when you're calm, you're less likely to hold tension. But that is not enough. Imagine yourself working in your computer, trying to reach a deadline, and you're really stressed out, and you're typing in fiercefully. You are likely to hold tension in your shoulders and in your neck, leaning over, looking at the computer screen. And sometimes all you need is a friend or a loved one saying to you, let go of that tension. Gosh. And you know, you'd be like, oh, shh. Shaking your shoulders, letting go of the tension, feeling a bit better until the next time you tense up. That could happen to you with your voice and your muscles inside your mouth as well. So when you speak and you hold tension, be the person, be the friend, telling you, you don't have to hold this tension. Let go and with breath, just release the tension in your mouth and your jaw in particular, and your tongue, and continue speaking. And then see what that does to your voice and to your English and to your confidence, which is not less important, and to your willingness to speak. And if you want an additional tool, then I'm going to link to my pronunciation cool down and tension release exercise. It's only five minutes three that you can do before speaking, before a meeting, or after a long pronunciation workout, or a short one, or just after a day of speaking. I hope you're gonna like it. And anyway, if you do, please make sure that you let me know. You can find me Hadar Accentsway on Instagram and I'm usually in my DMs so you can tell me what you think and if that was helpful. And in the meantime, thank you so much for being here. That is it for today. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
