postr/StutterMay 9, 2022

Exercise that helps me

12 points2 commentsView on Reddit →

Content

Exercise that helps me This exercise may seem a little strange, but of all the different exercises that I've come up with, this one has helped the most and is a more long term solution than the others. I imagine stuff a lot and I noticed that when I imagine myself in conversation with someone else, and I imagine myself talking in this hypothetical conversation, I stutter in my imagination too. It's just like real life too, where I don't know which words I'll block on till I get to them, and the stutter feels real except that I'm stuttering on a word I'm only saying in my mind. I have also found that in real life, it is very difficult to just push through a block, but in my imagination, if I consciously choose to, I can repeat the phrase in my mind and make sure that I don't block and speak with fluidity. In other words, I have far more control in my imagination and can just decide not to block on words and speak with fluidity. When I do this and my imaginary speech gets to the point where I'm not blocking, then I don't block in real life either and I hardly ever have blocks in my real life speech. The moment I start blocking in my imaginary conversations, I work on my fluidity and consciously make sure that each sentence I say is block free. This is the best way I've found to do the exercise (for me anyways) 1. Imagine you are in a conversation with someone you know or a group of people you know. They are looking at you and you make normal eye contact with them. (This gets your brain in the real life conversation mode with social pressures and all) 2. Imagine that they ask you a question or that something interesting was brought up and you want to say something. Attention is on you now. 3. Imagine the words you would say and the facial expressions you'll make as you say them. Body language, voice fluctuations, and facial expressions should all be imagined as you form your sentences, and try to feel as calm, confident, and chill as possible while this imaginary person/people have their attention on you and listen. 4. If you find that you block on a word, restart from the beginning of the sentence and try again, but this time try to imagine yourself, mid-sentence and face expression and all, perfectly saying the words without blocking. Sometimes I have to restart more than once and that's okay, till the word is nice and easy to say. From my experience, it is much easier to do this in your mind than in real life, you can command your imagination and how you sound better. 5. Practice these imaginary conversations, phone calls, teaching to a group of people, class presentations, or whatever in your mind until you hardly ever block on words if at all. You will find that your speech in real life suddenly becomes fluid too and your real life block rate is similar to the block rate of your imagination.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceCoping & Advocacy

Subthemes

Overthinking & MonitoringVoluntary Stuttering & ExposureAnticipating Stuttering