transformation Archives - Deborah Angel Austin

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Creating a life that you love requires that you step into your authentic power as a leader. As a visionary leader, the ability to communicate effectively in front of audience will help to get your transformational message out into the world. When you make the decision to invest in yourself, it will pay more dividends that you could ever imagine. Learning how to speak effectively in public is a skill that is essential to your success.

Being able to speak effectively in front of an audience ensures that you can capitalize on opportunities. If you have not been taking your speaking development seriously, now is the time to start doing so. The first place to start is to do an assessment of your communication skills, in terms of your strengths and challenges. Every time you deliver a presentation you need to capitalize on your strengths. One of the most effective ways that you can get a sense of what your strengths are is to compile data through feedback and by recording yourself on video to determine how you present.

On the opposite side of knowing your strengths, you also need to examine your communication challenges. Feedback from people that you know and trust can help you in identifying your strengths and the areas that you need to improve. Once you identify the areas that you need to work on, obtaining a mentor or a coach can help you improve your communication skills. Also investing in a program like Toastmasters, a self-directed communication and leadership training program can help.

If you want to learn to speak effectively in front of a group, learning the fundamentals of public speaking is important. Some of the fundamentals include: knowing your speech purpose, knowing your audience, learning to develop great content, using your nonverbal language effectively and being conscious of your language usage. When you know the purpose of your speech you are able to connect with an audience. Doing demographic research helps you to identify who your audience members are and craft your presentation to meet their needs. When you learn to develop great content, you can connect with your audience with storytelling techniques and relevant research. When you organize your speech effectively you take your audience on a journey. Learning to use your nonverbal communication like body language, gestures and facial expressions effectively all play a role in connecting with your audience. In terms of your language usage, use powerful words as they do influence the audience’s perception of you.

As a visionary leader, you have gifts, talents and skills that the world needs. Learning to become a powerful speaker can help you to get your life changing message out into the world to help transform lives!

As published in Sibyl Magazine: For the Spirit and Soul of a Woman (August 2016 issue)

Gabrielle Bernstein is a spiritual thought leader, speaker, kundalini yoga instructor and the author of several books. I’ve read several of her books and one of my favourites is: May Cause Miracles. I heard Gabby as she is called affectionately speak at a conference recently. Bernstein delivered a beautiful speech about how our emotional wounds can be the entry point into our personal transformation. In order to transform, we must be willing to look at our wounds first. It was one of the best speeches that I’ve heard to date. It was also interesting in that her presentation involved: a lecture component, audience interaction, music, mantras and visualization exercises. Here are some of the highlights from her presentation. They are:

•Sometimes when we pray for guidance, chaos shows up first.
•We can have resistance to true healing. Whatever we resists, persist.
•If there is a shadow i.e. something emotionally that we don’t want to awknowledge it will remain until we deal with it.
•The shadow acts as a block to us if we don’t awknowledge it.
•When we examine the shadow, the stories we’ve concocted around it start to unravel.
•We should honour and awknowledge our stories and be the witness to our traumas.
•We need to consciously face our fears, by feeling the fear beneath the ancient wound that could be from childhood or a negative life event.
•You can’t avoid your spiritual assignment.
•When you expose your wounds metaphorically speaking to the light, have compassion for yourself. You are doing the best that you can.
•The ego will resist looking at your emotional wound(s).
•The places that we don’t want to go emotionally, are exactly the places that we need to go.
•If you want to start healing say that you are determined to see and see what shows up.
•Affirm that everything is happening around me and I am taken care of (by the Divine).
•Affirm what you want out of life, because where your attention goes energy flows.
•Share your emotional wounds with those you trust. In an authentic exchange, light i.e healing and compassion enters.

The audience was thoroughly touched by her speech and it was not a surprise that there were a few tears in the audience. It was special to have a photo with her as I admire her work. She was an outstanding speaker and the standing ovation was well deserved!
Check out www.gabbyb.tv