Written by: Anna Pasternak / Communication Skills / March 29, 2023 / 8 minutes read

Sometimes when communicating with others whether the situation is stressful or not,  we should always be mindful if there is any tension in our bodies.  Tension can lead us to speak more quickly, more quietly, or take away from speaking clearly. When the body becomes tense, this can take away power to our voice as some of the muscles for speech will not be working efficiently to produce voice. Tension can also cause us to not breathe effectively for speech, which is the basis for our voice production. If you would like to learn more about breathing for speech please check out our Breathing for Communication course online. 

Those who may experience tension when communicating may speak in a low voice and not enunciate clearly, which leads to mumbling. Speaking in an unclear voice will inhibit others from understanding our speech, which over time can become very hard for the person who is constantly asked to repeat themselves. 

Tension in our bodies can also lead us to communicating either passively or aggressively towards others. When we are tense this may affect our emotional state and cause us to react unfairly towards others.  Same goes for the opposite as when we are communicating in an aggressive or passive way due to anger, this causes physical tension in our bodies. This tension may assist in having a communication breakdown, steering us away from assertive communication. You can learn more about communicating assertively through our Assertive Communication course online. 

Now that we know how tension may affect our communication, how do we reduce it? In order to overcome this tension in our bodies, we have to be able to identify the areas where we may be carrying tension. This does take a conscious effort to do, as you have to become aware of where the tension may be produced during communication. Some areas may include our face, forehead, jaw, neck, shoulders, chest, stomach, and back. It is important to identify where it may be coming from so that we can make a conscious effort in reducing it. 

There are many strategies we can use to help reduce tension in our bodies. This will be specific to each person. First we can think about activities that we enjoy doing that help alleviate stress and anxiety that may cause tension. Exercises such as yoga, meditation, massage and different types of exercise can help reduce tension for some individuals. Try to find an activity that you enjoy and that you know helps ease stress. Other techniques we can use to reduce tension are some breathing techniques, and progressive muscle tension release. These two methods often show to be successful in helping reduce tension for many individuals.

Practicing a slow breathing technique not only helps us relax, but it can also help us reduce tension and slow down our heart rate, which sometimes can get elevated when we become anxious and tense. Slow breathing allows us to be in the moment for a short while so that we can identify tension and release it, and help steady our heart rate as well. Slow breathing can help us calm down and allow us to think more clearly about what we want to do and speak. With the slow breathing technique, we want to breathe through our nose and make sure we are taking slow clam breaths. 

Slow Breathing Technique

1. Take a breath in and hold it for 6 seconds, when you get to 6 s breathe out and relax ( feel the tension ease with your breath out.  

3. Next breathe in for three seconds and out for three seconds, after about 10 cycles of 3 seconds in and 3 seconds out, hold your breath again for 6 seconds and breath out release your air.

3. If you feel that you would like to do another cycle, as you need more time to calm and release tension, start again at 3 seconds  in and 3 seconds out for another 10 times, until you are feeling more relaxed. 

Progressive muscle tension release  will also help us identify were we carry tension. Here we work through tensing various muscles and then relaxing them to really become familiar with the difference between when it feels tense and when it feels relaxed. To do this exercise it is important to be in a relaxed position lying down on a firm surface where you don’t sink in or sitting up with good head and arm support. 

Progressive Muscle tension release (Psychology tools, 2023)

1. Working through the entire body starting with right hand and arm, left hand and arm, right leg, left leg, stomach and chest, back and shoulders, neck and throat, and face. 

Step one: Tense the body part, hold that tension and then relax the muscles

Step two- Tense the same body part just enough to feel the tension and then relax the muscles 

Step 3- Focus on only relaxing the muscles in that body part. 

1. Work through Step one to step 3 for each body part. 

When becoming more comfortable with doing this technique, it will be easier to identify which muscles are tense when we become anxious. We can then put more focus on targeting those muscle groups that cause more tension in our bodies allowing us to speak more easily.  Please visit https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/progressive-muscle-relaxation/ for a more detailed and in-depth description.

To speak with a psychotherapist or one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.