Tips to improve stuttering according to a person who outgrew stuttering (a mindfulness approach with the 5 senses)

Tips to improve stuttering according to a person who outgrew stuttering (a mindfulness approach with the 5 senses) Each person who stutters - stutters differently. But, if some aspects in this mindfulness strategy could help you, then it's worth it! This is my attempt to summarize a strategy that a person applied in order to outgrow stuttering. Note that I summarized in [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/10fizva/comment/j5066ds/?context=3) post, another strategy from another person who outgrew stuttering. # Strategy **Philophy**: Speech blocks occur when someone is too fixated on how they say it so they block out all outside instances. And to fix it you gotta focus on the outside instances and not your speech. Learn to become your own therapist to rekindle with the inner emotions to stop fearing identification **Background information**: * Forgetting that you stutter while having the fear of stuttering is verbally a paradox * Fake your confidence till you make it by forgetting that you stutter * Dont convince yourself that you can speak fluently, because you are born as a fluent speaker (although some *people who stutter* are hypersensitive to a low quality of speech and language). For example, if I'm walking then it doesn't make sense to convince myself that I can walk fluently in the same way nothing is wrong with my physical speech apparatus and feedforward system * Unbroken focus dispersed into two streams which do not mix leads to fluency * Adopt an attitude that you can freely speak and express yourself * To understand your own pain is to understand your purpose, because this pain is partly your unhelpful perception that you identify with * Handing tasks over to the subconscious, is done through engaging in conscious tasks. The better you are at engaging with the senses while a task is still active, the better the performance is. A great example of this is adrenaline. However, the hormonal backlash from adrenaline is too big of a price, but that doesn’t mean we can’t utilize the mechanism it works through **Conclusion**: * So, you don't have to consciously change anything about your speech, it's not broken. Because the issue is our unhelpful attitude (e.g., intolerance against uncertainty, a habit to decide for stutter speech plans and stop deciding for fluency speech plans, which then leads to executing a paralysis on articulatory muscles) to handle negative perceptions, behaviors and sensory experiences (like seeing and hearing) which can lead to overthinking (about stuttering, [anticipatory anxiety](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/10xtnr8/tips_to_improve_stuttering_by_working_on/) or negative listeners responses). [This](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/110b1co/important_to_learn_about_stuttering_how_does_the/) post explains how **sensory experiences** causes a feedback loop resulting in a speech block * So, prove to yourself you dont have to fear and be your best self * The issue is our inability to stop thinking * Adopt an attitude where you want to identify the truth inside of you (rather than creating the truth outside of you) **Method**: 1. Hear the world around you (excluding your speech). Hear the sounds around you more than the things you say yourself 2. Do not react to a thought, feeling etc 3. Block your thoughts to replace the inability of forgetting that you stutter 4. Keep talking while multitasking: * Hearing + Seeing + Emotions (and let the speaking work by itself) (in order to 1) clear the mind and 2) get out of the tunnelvision) * Sit down and commit to doing nothing and not making choices for hours * Make the choice to hear only your surroundings, and no other choices (Your focal points when hearing is silences) * Make the choice to hear and see, and no other choice (Your focal points when seeing are details) * Make the choice to hear, see and feel emotions, and no other choice * Choose to hear, see, feel emotions and speak, and no other choice * You should then be able to multitask hearing, seeing, feeling (emotions) and speaking * Perceive anticipatory anxiety simultaneously with the sound around you * The same overwhelming feelings arise when i am doing and thinking nothing, as when i multitask. I am using the principle of ‘resource sharing’, essentially multitasking, proven to enhance focus, on a complex and a simple task * You can think about a subject, but as soon as you want to talk - switch to listening. You cannot keep up hearing your thoughts and your surroundings at the same time, which cancels out the possibility of a stutter **Due to our primitive instinct we are programmed**: * ​ 1. to think: "I fear thoughtlessness", because this decreases our ability to prepare. The long term memory and the short term memory are frightened, as they both are involved in producing short term planning and long term planning. (Note that once you are already doing your task, you have little need for active long term planning, because all the planning that has to be done is very, very short term, and the conscious thought has almost no place in this moment) * 2) to reinforce overreliance on making choices. We are sensitive to making choices * 3) to be motivated to think, reflect and plan ahead. Because of our unhelpful attitude to handle environmental factors, it becomes harder for us to instruct/decide moving speech muscles **Thoughtlesness**: Why we think thoughtlesness is wrong: You are going to die, you will have children one day or you are planning for the days that you are going to retire and need a fund. These things make it hard to sit still and do nothing, so it feels like betraying yourself. However, we are ignorant of the creative capacity, the incredible progress, the untainted love, the inner peace, and the mindful world, which is attributed to the flow state: * **Action-awareness merging:** * I don’t experience a lack awareness of myself separate from the action that i am performing. * **Loss of self-conciousness:** * I don’t lose concern for the self, rather, i am immersed in concern for the self, as with any expression of individuality. * **A sense of control:** * A sense of exercising control without actually trying to be in control is less of a “feature” and more of a mindset. It is the belief that you create alongside your subconscious and that you are not it. It is a separate process from flow. Flow is the connection between the two processes, to respect the back and forth between the conscious and the subconscious is this “control without trying”. * **Transformation of time:** * This is a basic phenomenon that doesn’t mean flow state, it means enjoyment. You could access the flow state in the middle of a presentation and I’m sure time won’t go any faster. * **Autotelic experience:** * The application of personal justified action is neurologically processed in a portion of the frontal lobe, and is only a burden on the flow state. True flow does not abide by beliefs, and you do not need to be motivated to do anything. You simply choose. I have had flow state in more moments of bad feelings than in moments of good ones. * **Concentration on the task at hand:** * This is contradictory to point 3, as the back and forth between the conscious and the subconscious is done in thoughts and experience. I am allowed to be captivated and inspired by my own thoughts if i wish so, i do not need extreme focus on what i am doing. The ability to get distracted externally and internally is rather a blessing. * **Clear goals:** * Clear goals are not a part of the flow state. That would impede a flow state. Flow can form anytime, any moment. It is you who blocks up your natural ability to plan in the moment. Making more plans won’t solve that. * **Unambiguous feedback:** * This is beyond your control. Your feedback is reliant on your surroundings, your thoughts and your emotions. All of those come to you, you cannot expect them. What you can do, is increase your amount of choices made so there is more to reflect on - in case you do not feel like you know what to do, you only find out what you think you do wrong and fix it. * **Challenge-skill balance:** * You do not ever need to question yourself about your abilities. You have all the skill in the world that you will ever need = A human body. **Conclusion**: The flow state is not something that is exclusive to some parts of life. Flow can be found anywhere, it is a basic tool that will become an accessible tool in a very broad spectrum. Take for instance impressionism in art. That's literally an art style known for working with first impressions, and representing that on a canvas. I think you must pick goals that interest and challenge you greatly. Let the challenges eat you up inside and destabilize your life. You should experience hurdles based on commitment and learn to increase your capacity for taking on big goals. You should never decrease the chance to fail. Your failures teach you everything you will come to know. **Aspects that I don't agree with:** * ***"We stutter because we fear"*** \- I agree and disagree, yes indeed, if we stop fearing conditioned stimuli then it may lead to stopping with unhelpful reactions/corrections resulting in fluency. However, I don't perceive stuttering specifically as an anxiety disorder, rather as a vicious cycle issue. I agree, that we can break the cycle on the square: reacting to stimuli where *people who stutter* fear: 1) stuttering, 2) listeners responses and 3) anticipation. However, in my opinion, if we also at the same time approach the stutter cycle from other squares (sensitivity towards low quality of speech and language, intolerance against uncertainty, the unhelpful beliefs, behaviors and interventions and even positive thoughts and feelings to maintains the vicious cycle. Additionally, the stutter cycle is way bigger than anyone here realize e.g., we could approach self-made conditions with self-talk, we could be open to change our attitude where we depend on sensory experiences etc) * I don't consider stuttering as a fear-based condition. Let's assume that a *person who stutters* speaks for one whole day without stuttering on auto-pilot which means that he doesn't apply interventions to gain fluency, although, let's assume that he didn't reduce his fear. What attitude does this person have to adopt to increase the likelihood of a relapse? In my opinion: * Once I realize I stopped stuttering, I still won't lose the fear of blocking and hesitating, won't reduce anxiety for stuttering and won't gain confidence to move speech muscles while experiencing anticipatory anxiety * I continue perceiving: 'not paying attention, not caring about or not engaging in stuttering (events)' as difficult, not needed and I-already-have-my-own-way-of-speaking * I continue perceiving: 'moving speech muscles' as difficult * I label/define this whole day of fluency as 'luck' and something that I cannot learn from * Even if I speak fluently, I won't forgive stuttering if it returns so I'll keep my attitude of adopting avoidance behavior if speaking errors return * Conclusion: in my opinion, it could be that 80% of people who outgrow stuttering don't pay attention to stuttering while improving their attitude, whereas 20% of people that continue stuttering, speak (more) fluently when not paying attention but the moment they do pay attention they are back at ground zero, which makes them give up on: 1) aiming for outgrowing stuttering and 2) developing a stoic confident I-don't-care-about-stuttering behavior * ***"Mindfulness approach"*** \- I agree with the strategy, additionally I'd like to add more helpful mindfulness tips. Apply body scanning, focus on body parts with tension (while holding the breath or while you are calmly breathing) to increase tolerance, emotional intelligence and letting the body and mind digest unhelpful feelings (instead of you consciously trying to eliminate them). Replace discomfort with happy feelings - by doing this, your mind and body will learn that you don't have to paralyze speech muscles and that you have control to decide to move them. The more surprised you are the higher its effect is ​ **If you also have positive experiences with your personal strategies, share it in the comments! Let's create a positive environment where everyone can contribute to the community. Everyone is worth listening to!**