Friday, August 24, 2007

Emotion

When you speak it's important that you can hear your feelings in the words that you say, otherwise you don't sound sincere. In addition to the excitement in your voice when you talk about roller coasters and the wonder in your voice when you talk about peak experiences, you need to make some other words sound like what the mean. For example if you were saying the word "short" you would make the word sound just slightly abrupt, or if you're saying the word "humongous" you would drag out the syllables a little and maybe even raise your voice slightly.

Exercise 1 - Here is a list of emotions that you can practice saying with the feeling of the emotion in your voice when you say it. To help you out a little, you might want to imagine a time when you experienced this emotion, and see what you saw, feel what you felt, and hear what you heard. Also make sure when you imagine this event that you're looking through your own eyes
and not watching yourself. Lastly think of a sound that might represent that emotion for you.

Curiosity Lust Sincerity
Love Amazement Excitement
Exhilaration Happiness Calm
Playful

Here's a list of words that would sound like what they mean.

Huge Gorgeous Beautiful
Anticipation Powerful Tiny
Bright Smooth Rich

Exercise 2 - You also need to practice using these words in sentences, especially since many of them might be in one sentence together.

Have you ever had a peak experience, maybe you saw an amazingly, beautiful sunset.
I was snorkeling in Hawaii and I saw the biggest sea turtle ever, and I was so excited that I could hardly breathe.
Have you ever met someone and you were really curious, and the more curious you became the more playful you became in your thoughts.
Notice that the words might not actually match the way you say them. For example in the last sentence the word thoughts could be said in a seductive way.

Exercise 3 - Go and eavesdrop on people's conversations, or talk to one of your more boring friends or coworkers. Ignore the words that they are saying and just listen for what state they are in while they are talking. Notice when the states shift and the fine nuances between one state and
another. Understand, the other half to using tonality to put forth your own ideas and persuade others is being aware of other people's so you can know where they're at and what effect you're having on them regardless of the words that come out of their mouths.
When you're up for a challenge, ask someone to talk about one thing while they think about another, and figure out what state they're really in. For example, the last time you were talking about business, while you were thinking about going out water skiing next weekend.

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