If you haven’t had a chance to see the King’s Speech, do yourself a favor, and check it out. It’s a wonderful and well-crafted film about one man’s fear of his own greatness. It’s also a great tutorial on the role that emotions play in our speaking problems.

I coach executives, administrators, teachers, professors, artists, everybody, and the one problem I see over and over again is a tight jaw. Jaw tension is epidemic. Where does jaw tension come from? Some of it is physical, but a good portion of it is emotional. As Kritsin Linklater pointed out in her seminal book “Freeing the Natural Voice”, clear thinking equals clear articulation, and a free emotional life equals a rich, powerful sound.

So what is jaw tension? It’s over-socialization. It’s a habitual pattern developed over years. Throat and jaw tension often have a direct correlation to “swallowing” our thoughts, and our feelings. When we are young, and we are told not to think something, or not to feel something, perhaps because of social consequences, we tighten the jaw, and push away our thoughts and feelings. Over years this habitual pattern of repression, and it’s correlating muscular tension, builds into hardened, malignant tension.

How can jaw tension be cured? Through breathing exercises, muscular release, and learning, slowly over time, to express yourself freely . Yes folks, it is all related. Emotional release connects to muscular release. I see it time and again with my clients; as they feel freer to speak their mind, their speaking related problems begin to ebb.

So don’t hold back! If you do not speak your truth, the world will not have it. Speak clearly. Speak freely.