I know a lot of people like to say that it's just the nature of stuttering. But let's try and analyse what could be affecting our speech more on some days. This is a topic that has troubled me a lot. I am one of those whose stuttering is in phases. I feel like I don't have a stutter at times, save for my mind reminding me of it when I head into situations where I am conditioned to feeling apprehensive/fearful of speaking. Then there are times when I cannot get simple words out of my mouth. I've been trying to figure out the antecedents of those particular days. 1. Stress, thus making me more tensed 2. Lack of sleep, thus low energy levels BUT, more importantly - I feel we fall into a vicious circle on such days. Our blocks act as self-reinforcing cycles. Say for example, I woke up today and made a phone call to the customer service. I stuttered on my name. My mind automatically tells me it's one of those days. Then for every subsequent speaking situation I head into, I am constantly reminded of it "being a bad day". It reinforces the idea that you stuttered in the morning and you will stutter right now. Imagine, if we could forget that we stuttered. Imagine if we had absolutely zero fear of speaking in front of others. Imagine if we did not calculate our every move or step the way we do and shape it around our stutter. Imagine that. Do you think we'd still stutter? We can see blocks coming from miles away. Going anywhere, we have the yet-to-take-place conversations already playing in our head. We are already nitpicking those terrible words we always stutter on. We are already mouthing them to rehearse how will we say those difficult words. Imagine, if we did not we had to do that? Would we still stutter? I think most stuttering takes place because our mind tells us that we stutter on these words. Our mind is a powerful tool. It learns, relearns things all the time. Our stuttering is triggered by very subtle signals the brain sends out. Those signals emanate from our memory and experiences. We might not realise it is happening, or the source of it lies there, but I really feel it does. Say for example, you go into an office with white walls and a large Picasso painting hanging on the wall behind the receptionist. The receptionist asks for your name, but you start to stutter. I feel this becomes a negative experience in your mind. And the experience is not just your stutter, but it also attaches itself to the surroundings the experience took place in. So, the next time you go into a restaurant weeks down the line, having forgotten at a lower memory level that you had stuttered at some office weeks ago. You step into the restaurant, there are white walls again. Behind the receptionist, there is a large Van Gogh painting. The receptionist asks for your name since there is a waiting to be seated. HERE IS what I feel what triggers your stuttering receptors. Your mind suddenly goes back to that office setting where you stuttered on your name. And BAM. That's exactly what happens. The mind reproduces what you think. You suddenly fall into the trap of not wanting to stutter and wanting to find a way out of it. What I have written might not help you alleviate your bad days, but it might shine a light on why such days exist, as it did for me. As I understand better, I work hard to keep such days far apart and lesser in frequency. Positive psychological reinforcement goes a long way. What goes even further is NOT caring if you are having a bad day. Take a deep breath. Relax. You're not having a bad day. You just need to reboot your system.