>My class never heard me stutter super bad and I want it to stay that way I understand from stuttering that the more we want **(1) fluency and (2) to avoid stuttering**, the more we *stop articulating because we perceive the words as too important* (resulting in a speech block). These are tips to lower the importance of words (that could then lead to not blocking): * You can stop blocking, if you anticipate that you are about to block but you don’t care (resulting in not perceiving it as a problem) and you don't try to avoid it * Don't want fluency/stuttering. Just command or instruct to move your speech muscles during a speech block without caring about [sensory feedback](https://www.google.com/search?q=sensory+feedback) (e.g., unhelpful condition: "*I need to feel/monitor my speech muscles to command to move speech muscles*") * Don't view stuttering as bad/failure and fluency as correct/helpful/good * Learn to not be bothered anymore by stuttering (and reduce other strong emotions) * Allow speech errors, dysfluencies and negative listeners responses - if they come - and learn to not care about them by ignoring anticipatory anxiety and feedback * Lower the standard of speech that you aspire to during a speech block * Resist the temptation to go back to repair your speech errors * If you get stuck on a block, move your speech muscles to the next sound * Speak immediately when breathing out * Place complete faith in the feedforward system (instead of directly operating it) * Feel, think, and behave like normally speaking individuals when you talk * Imprint the positives over the negatives * Change your beliefs and confidence in what you can do *in spite of* anxiety and tension as you speak * Don't track the outcome of your speech * Don't monitor the feedback of your speech muscles and even if you do, don't blame this feedback or any other feedback - on the fact that you stopped articulating (during a speech block) * Stop being skeptical about moving your speech muscles * Stop obsessing over stuttering patterns, attitudes and beliefs * Even if you stutter, don't notice it or don't care about it * Don't do avoidance-behaviors. This is difficult because 'if you stutter' by definition you did avoidance-behavior (basically you hold back speech) so, learn to identify your avoidance-behaviors and then interrupt yourself when doing it * Always expect stutter triggers (like anticipations) so that you don't activate a fight or flight response (in order to build tolerance). Don't try to eliminate these triggers, otherwise you maintain the vicious circle. Instead, accept and let them go while focusing on other things (*e.g., focus on daily routine activities*) * Reinforce natural or spontaneous speech * Learn to not care anymore how your speech sounds or whether it contains any errors * Learn to tolerate and not care anymore about disturbances (in the feedback loop) * Change What-If thoughts into Even-If thoughts, like: replace '***What if I will stutter on this feared word?***' to '***Even if I stutter on this feared word, it really doesn't matter I don't care***' * Resist the urge to engage in predictive self-talk because I don't need any information, as this just offers more unknowns to worry about * Don't react to false alarms. This is difficult if you don't know what your intrusive thoughts/feelings are so learn to identify them and then interrupt yourself if you do them. Hint: write down all your thoughts/feelings that a non-stutterer doesn't have (e.g., anticipatory anxiety) * Desensitize. This means, expose yourself to anxiety-based stimuli and learn to stay calm, stay objective and reduce (avoidance or emotional) responses (like when you experience stuttering anticipation). You can even visualize a feared situation (*e.g., doing a presentation*) to do this desensitization exercise * Stop relying on a specific technique * Just say what's on your mind \[only physical actions\]. So, don't visualize, feel or analyze first or after * Stop needing to search for and 'fix' dysfluencies * Speak slower and exercise patience * Don't analyze your unhelpful belief: "*I don't know how to move my speech muscles during a speech block*". Because non-stutterers also don't know the answer, they just do it. Also, don't need an answer to this question. Otherwise you stay in the vicious circle that holds back speech * Expect fluency, but without 'wanting fluency' and without viewing 'fluency as a success'. The goal of: 'expecting fluency', is to normalize fluency without getting bothered if you stutter * Stop requiring to reduce the fear: (1) of blocks, (2) that blocks will return if you speak fluently, or (3) that listeners will leave me * Stop justifying fear because of the fact that past experiences confirmed that it happened * Stop requiring (1) to increase the confident feeling that you have to understand why you stutter, or (2) closure in other unanswered questions regarding stuttering (in order to reduce fear or decide to move speech muscles) * Stop requiring to remove the risk of being misunderstood or getting into trouble (in order to decide to move speech muscles) * Stop requiring to speak less appropriate/accurate/careful (in order to decide to move speech muscles) * Stop requiring to a certain air pressure or the perfect articulation timing * Stop requiring to reduce the fight and flight response * Stop requiring to experience/know that your feedforward system is reliable (*because you can already decide to move speech muscles during a speech block, even if you have these intrusive thoughts/feelings*) * Stop requiring to reduce the impression of getting stuck * Stop requiring proof * Believe that your way of speaking still makes your speech understood by listeners * Believe that you are able **(1)** to cope with anxiety or in your capacity to execute fluency speech plans necessary to maintain the forward flow of speech during moments of anxiety, and **(2)** to aim for confirmatory experiences of being able to cope from the lower levels * Don’t need to fully pronounce all the words you want to say. Because listeners can usually accurately guess much of what we are trying to say - from the context in which we are speaking * Stop speaking for the purpose of proving to yourself that you can speak without stuttering (instead, speak to convey messages) * Change your unhelpful attitude of being reactive to being proactive * If you perceive listeners responses negatively, then tell yourself that they are not doing it to be evil, rather as a coping mechanism and their insecurities how to deal with the situation. If the listeners had known how to remove your stuttering, they would have told you but even therapies don't know this (only you can identify/analyze what causes your individual speech blocks as everyone battles their own vicious circle) so, listeners are just doing what they believe is best for the situation in their own perspective. Also, a block is never caused by external sources (like other people), I suggest to stop pointing at others because this is what causes a speech block, so it makes more sense to blame your intrusive thoughts (in other words, your unhelpful conditions). **So, instead of requiring help or change from the outside, start changing how you perceive/react, namely stop blaming thoughts, feelings, behaviors, feedback etc (even if they are related to stuttering like anticipatory anxiety) to decide to move your speech muscles (to send command signals to the speech muscles) which leads to not blocking**