Clarity and Picture

Here I am concentrating upon having a simple straightforward picture of what we are saying before and when we are speaking. Having a picture "in our minds eye" is critical to speaking clearly, interestingly and effectively.

I was fortunate last night to see this in action in London at a stage performance of a story - a poem written by the German poet Wolfgang Goethe entitled The Green Snake and The Beautiful Lily. The performers lived their characters so thoroughly you could "see" the pictures they had in their heads and hearts and through how they moved,silently, while a narrator spoke the poem.

It was a graphic presentation of invisible pictures held by the artists.

To speak clearly and in a living way we need to push along this same path.

To go back to one of my earlier posts with the title "Immeasurable Help" - with a voice recording attached. There I described my hearing, when trying to help resolve a conflict between two people, the heartfelt speaking of this phrase by one of them. I "replayed" it back to both. This helped them realise what they had to do and they did it.

The art is not to leave doing this for just the key or most important words we are saying. The skill - the best way to develop - is to create and work from key pictures more and more until, like the performers last night we hold pictures of what we intend to speak all the time, making our speech truly living speech.