Grounded triangle pose: a technique for you if you’re nervous or know you lack presence.
When you speak it’s easy to become what I call “a head on a stick”. You might rush because of enthusiasm, too much content, or nervousness. You might not want to pause in case you forget your next point… or you’re worried that the audience might think you’ve forgotten!
When this happens, our centre of gravity rises: imagine an inverted triangle from your head to your core. You make it all about your thinking brain, and you won’t be very well grounded.
What we want instead
What we’re after is to flip the triangle – now you have a solid stable base. My engineer clients love this concept because they know how stable a triangular structure is.
You feel a strong sense of grounding and you drop your attention to think and feel into your feet.
This is going to give you the greatest stability, it’s going to give you greater presence: and it gets you out of this potentially strong head focus and into a strong connection to your body. Which is what you want when you speak. Particularly if you are stressed for any reason or you’re suddenly challenged by an audience member.
This works equally well in one on one conversation or in meetings. It can also be done sitting down: yes, the triangle becomes a little squished up, but you can still make it work . Have your legs uncrossed – I know this may not feel more grounded or safer, but if you can practice it it will become second nature. Then when you are feeling that low sense of presence or stress, you’ll be able to rely on dropping your attention into your feet and letting the ground support you.
So, there you have it: the grounded triangle pose. See how you go!
Watch the video below for the short version with a visual illustration of the “head on a stick”.
And best wishes with your presentations and public speaking.