How to breathe before public speaking

Two minutes before you start

The Before you speak in public pattern has three counts: in for 4 seconds, hold for 2, out for 6. You do it for two minutes, through the nose, and nobody can tell from the outside.

• Find a place where you can sit. If there isn't one, stand with your feet planted.
• Drop your shoulders and unclench your jaw. Let out whatever air you have.
• Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, down toward your belly.
• Hold for 2 seconds, without tightening your throat.
• Breathe out through your nose for 6 seconds, evenly.
• Keep going for two minutes, about ten breaths. Finish with one normal breath and start speaking after an exhale, not with your lungs packed full.

If you have more time

Ten minutes ahead, in a hallway or at your desk, you can do a longer pattern. 4-4-6-2 breathing goes in for 4 seconds, holds for 4, out for 6, and rests for 2, for four minutes. Box breathing 4-4-4-4 uses four equal counts, also for four minutes.

If the pauses bother you or you're very keyed up, skip the holds and do the One-minute pause: six breaths, in for 4 and out for 6.

While you're speaking

Your voice is made of air going out. The U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) explains it this way: air from the lungs blows past the vocal folds and makes them vibrate. The same institute recommends supporting your voice with deep breaths and not talking from the throat alone, which strains it.

In practice, that means giving yourself permission to pause.

• Breathe at the periods. When you finish a thought, close your mouth and breathe in through your nose without rushing. The pause also gives your listeners time to keep up.
• Don't talk until you run out of air. Short sentences come out better and leave you air to spare.
• If you speed up, exhale. Let the air out slowly before your next sentence, and don't grab more.
• Keep water nearby. A sip is also a perfectly good pause to breathe.

What the studies say

There aren't many trials on breathing before a speech. The closest one is from 2012 and involved musicians, who face a similar kind of pressure. Wells and colleagues randomly assigned 46 trained musicians to three groups before a very difficult performance. Two groups did one 30-minute session of slow breathing, at six breaths a minute with a longer exhale. The third did nothing.

While they waited to play, the two breathing groups showed heart rhythm measures typical of a less keyed-up body than the control group did. On questionnaires the result was more modest: anxiety didn't drop across the board. It did drop more among those who came in with the highest anxiety, a subgroup of just 15 people against 7.

It's a small study, a single session, and with musicians, not speakers. It shows that slow breathing can change how the body responds before stepping on stage. It doesn't show that it takes the nerves away, and nobody should expect it to.

The days before

A technique you try for the first time backstage rarely goes well. A 2023 review by Bentley and colleagues, covering 58 trials on breathing and stress, found that practices with an effect had repetition in common: at least six sessions over a week or more.

So start a week out. Do the two-minute pattern once a day, and do it again right before you rehearse out loud. That way your body links it with the moment of speaking.

And rehearse. Breathing goes along with preparation; it doesn't replace it. Knowing exactly how you'll open, with your first two sentences memorized, gives you a footing no technique can.

When to get help

Getting nervous before you speak is normal. A fear that won't let up is something else. The UK's National Health Service (NHS) describes social anxiety as more than shyness: excessive worry before, during and after social situations that affects daily life, work or school. If that sounds like you, or if you turn down opportunities to avoid speaking, see a mental health professional. There are therapies designed for this.

During practice, stop if you feel dizzy or tingly and go back to your normal pace. Don't do fast breathing or long holds standing up before you go on. And if you have a heart, lung or blood pressure condition, are pregnant, or have had panic attacks, check with your care provider first.