My tips to countering social anxiety and stuttering

My tips to countering social anxiety and stuttering Hey guys, someone from my last text post asked me to share some of my day to day tips that I use to improve my speech and behavior in social settings. If you have any tips that you think may be helpful or even better than mine, don't be afraid to comment! Or if you have questions, I will gladly respond to them. Here it goes: One of my biggest problems is that whenever I enter a social setting, my subconscious mind automatically associates those occurrences with danger. To counter this, every morning and every night(while I'm laying in bed) I listen to social anxiety hypnosis and meditation. Not only does it help me to stay relaxed, but it also helps me to keep those thoughts in my head as I go throughout the day. Audios like this can be found on YouTube! My second problem that causes me to stutter is muscle tension. My body is always tense, more specifically my face. I keep my jaw clenched shut; I tense my forehead, my lips are tight, and this actually makes it harder for me to get the words out, and it only gets worse when I'm out socializing. My solution to this problem is to be more aware of my body, and when I feel myself getting tense, I take several deep breaths and try to position my face, mouth, and throat in a position where the air can flow smoothly and uninterrupted (Ex. letting the jaw hang freely and leaving space between the teeth, relaxing my forehead, tilting the chin upward slightly, etc etc). BREATHING!! I suck at breathing! Many people don't notice this but when we feel anxious and feel like we're going to stutter, our breathing becomes short and irregular. What I like to do is as I'm out and about, I'm breathing in through my nose for 4 seconds, holding it for 8 seconds, and releasing the air through my mouth for 8 seconds. In addition to regulating my breathing, I become more and more relaxed because I'm letting more oxygen reach my brain every repetition. Another tip: NEVER START A SENTENCE WITHOUT BREATHING IN FIRST! This is probably one of the most important tips. And as you're speaking, never stop the flow of air. If you take note of breathing before speaking, you'll give yourself more air to work with and you won't be struggling to produce words towards the end of your sentences. This tip also coincides with breathing, but phrasing!! When I'm speaking, I'm so focused on getting the words out as quickly as possible that I forget to take breaths in between phrases. Learn to put commas in your speech, and when you feel yourself running out of breath, relax, take in another breath, and continue. This strategy will also help you to slow down when you are speaking, and you will become more comprehensible to others. I've noticed that when I do this, I don't ever get asked to repeat myself(which I absolutely dread) because it's coming out clearly and slow enough the first time. When the day is over and I have some time to myself, I like to go on social media(or you could use a book, I find social media to be more entertaining) and read aloud every post I see. It's good practice for speech but it also is good for learning to speak with more expression. I like to read them as if I'm acting in a play or being interviewed by Oprah(lol). By doing this I learn to be more comfortable with my voice and my pronounciation of words. If you want to make it more interesting, sometimes I talk in different accents! Just for the heck of it. It's also kinda cool because, for example, British accents tend to be more relaxed and typically do not articulate R sounds so harshly compared to the American accents. If you're a person who has difficulty pronouncing specific words, you may even find a different type of pronounciation in a different accent that is actually easier! NOTE: While you're reading, it is perfectly fine to have a metronome running in the background to sort of pace yourself at a consistent rate. Metronomes can be found in the app store, and you should adjust the bpm(beats per minute) to a rate that feels natural and more relaxed than your normal speaking pace. And lastly, to drill the nail in the wall, I take sticky notes with inspirational quotes and sayings, and place them somewhere that I will see them every morning when I wake up. It just reassures me that I will be okay and that I am capable of fluent speech. And even if I'm not, I will be one day. My final tip to you is to learn to love the sound of your own voice, it's unique and only you have it. Thanks :)