Gravitas

Chapter 3The Language of the Body

Aldrete notes that, ‘A Roman spoke with two languages: verbal and nonverbal.’¹.

As a girl, I was required to deliver a presentation in the school hall. To calm my nerves, my teacher instructed me to stand stock still and simply stare at the clock at the back of the room. Over the years, when I continued to face nerves when performing, I was variously told to imagine that I was in a glass box or that the audience was in the nude.

If you've ever been faced with a case of the nerves (stage fright, or performance anxiety) before delivering a presentation or speaking in front of a group, you probably have heard the same well-meaning but decidedly unhelpful advice. Perhaps these strategies helped you to ‘get through’ the presentation, but these types of anecdotes certainly won't have helped you to develop that ineffable quality of gravitas that allows you to build engagement and trust with the people around you.

The reason this advice doesn't work is because it's from an age of disassociation: a time when ‘survival’ (or getting through it) was the only goal. Disassociation is an art form; it is not communication. To truly communicate well, we have to have body intelligence — the ability to notice, listen to and respond to body sensations.

Body intelligence is a field that is looking for the true resonance of the body, and the things that stop us from achieving this resonance. For example, I have a beautiful crystal bowl that makes a lovely sound ...