Learning to think like a fluent speaker has made it all better

Learning to think like a fluent speaker has made it all better As stutterers, we're almost always in the habit of thinking about the words we're going to say, often anticipating that we might stutter. I've learned that this is actually the wrong way of speaking, and fluent speakers rarely plan out the words in their head before they speak. They literally don't know what they're going to say a lot of the time. So that's what I've been doing for a little while. Thinking like a fluent speaker. Whenever I speak now, I focus on the ideas I want to convey, and not how I'm going to say them. For example, if I'm narrating a story, then in my head I'm picturing that story, walking through the scenes, and the words just produce themselves. These days when I stutter, because I don't *actively* think about the words, it simply doesn't get to me on an emotional level because I don't see it coming. It's like I'm detached from it and has very little meaning. Since I don't think about the words, this also means I don't really think about upcoming speaking situations and so anxiety is pretty much zero. Anytime I get that fear feeling that I might stutter, I just remain focused on the message I want to convey and not how I'll say it. And the result? By thinking like a fluent speaker the stutter just slowly fades out over time without any confrontation. No working on my speech, and speaking is effortless as it should be. But since a fluent speaker doesn't particularly care they're fluent, I make sure not to congratulate myself or indulge in good feelings because I didn't stutter here or there and just move on. On the flip side, when stuttering happens, I just move on and don't reflect on it. Don't focus on the dysfluencies. Focus on the mentality that creates stuttering in the first place. As somebody that worked on their speech for a long time using all sorts of blocking techniques and obsessing over dysfluencies, this was weird at first. But I got used to it, and now life is so much better.