Public Speaking and a baby’s brain

What do a baby’s brain and public speaking have in common? The link below will take you to an article in today’s Boston Globe about how a baby’s brain is often in a “flow state.” What does this have to do with fear of public speaking? Well, almost everything, since a “flow state” also known as “the zone” is an ideal state for speaking, competing and performing. The author describes a baby’s brain as in a “lantern” state — one in which the brain can upload everything it experiences; however, a more important aspect of flow states for our purposes is what the author describes as a “complete lack of self-consciousness”.  For the anxious public speaker, this means no more self critical, negative thinking while attempting to communicate to an audience.  How in the world, you may be wondering, can one make the leap from all those anxiety symptoms to a peak performance state? Well, many of my clients have, and part of their journey from fear to flow was learning how to internally inhabit flow states.

When I begin with new clients, one of the first techniques I teach is how to inhabit a flow state in their imaginations.  I lead them through an imagery process, and give them instructions so they can recreate that experience over and over again.  It’s actually quite easy, and pleasant.  Then we begin to use these flow states in imaginary rehearsals  - “mental rehearsals” in which they see themselves functioning competently and in a flow state in some future challenging situation.  This mental rehearsal in a flow state can be used on anything from a few seconds of future performance to entire presentations – gradually building from the smaller to the larger segments.  While mental rehearsal is not new to sports and performance, imagining that this is all happening in a flow state is, as far as I know, an innovation of my own.

 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/04/26/inside_the_baby_mind/ 

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