Speak Up!!

      Have you ever experienced that you want to say thousand things and yet words are not coming out, as if words are stopped somewhere inside?? You try to push them up, think several times, gather courage and this helps them to reach up to your esophagus, throat, vocal chord…. and shaaa… collapse!! :-(

     Well, if you have experienced this, then let me tell you, there is nothing to fear. It is absolutely normal. You belong to a quite customary set of people. It is comparatively easy to talk about business, sports or politics. We can discuss for hours on things which rarely affect our life. It’s easy to talk for long and gossip without any specific point or direction. But I don’t know what makes it difficult to speak up your innermost & truest feelings.

       It might be possible that you fail to frame words exactly as your feelings and may fear of it being misinterpreted, but still there is no other alternative than to speak it up. Don’t worry about the way it comes, don’t worry about the time it takes. Don’t worry about how the other person would feel about it. Just speak it up!

       Many a times we do not express what is on our mind or what we want just because we think that this is something sensitive, delicate and it can be read in my eyes. How would one read your eyes? No one is God here. And even if that someone reads, how would you know that your message is conveyed? Better way is to speak it up! :-)

      I know some emotions are just to be understood between four eyes and this requires very high level of understanding and compatibility (like me and prarthu ;-P ). But for everything else communication is must. Even though you feel that your point may not be explained fully or you may get confused somebody or somebody may think that you are silly, but it is still advisable to talk. Your body language, your expression with your words will definitely convey your message right.

      Even while speaking against a mass of people, or while giving some professional presentation, we become prey of this limitation. In normal terms we know it as stage fear. Stage is deprecated without a reason, everybody can stand on stage; stage is not dangerous, danger is in speaking against people. But normally before getting fear, we forget that those who are listening to us are also normal human being like us and not going to kill us (and do you think everyone is interested in listening?? How much do you listen when you attend such sessions ;-) ). And while speaking, even if you fumble, anyone can hardly notice.

     Such small changes also provide a great help in improving speaking skills :-). With this topic I would like to link a very good story from “Chicken soup of the Indian Soul” written by a friend of mine. A story in some way is very close to my heart. For people who are interested in reading a full story, here is the link: http://kamfucious.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html under title: “Impervious to Love?”

     For those who are running short on time, I am writing gist of the story: it’s a simple love story when a boy and a girl working in a MNC came in contact, exchanged their numbers, started liking each other, talk for long hours on phone and realized that they are in love. Next step is to admit their feelings. Boy typically thought that they both belong to different castes and their parent would never agree and did not speak anything. On contrary to that, despite of knowing all odds; girl went ahead and admitted her feelings without expecting anything in return. She became free as she expressed her thought without giving much importance to her ego, while the boy had to carry thousand things inside him. He could not tell what was true to his heart, thought everything is in order on surface and didn’t speak what was true to his heart. Firstly he thought he has great self control and he has not allowed anything wrong to happen. But ultimately felt great respect for that girl because she had courage to speak up which he didn’t have.

      Unsaid words can give endless pain & frustration. Sharing your knowledge, saying few good words, complimenting others will not damage anyone. Yes, it may make someone’s day! :-)

     So do not hold yourself, just speak up & shine! :-)   

     © Bridge Soul