One should set oneself then every morning to the performance of exercises consisting of opening the mouth as wide as one possibly can and then shutting it, to open it once more to its fullest extent, and so on until one becomes fatigued.

This exercise is designed to cover the well-known difficulty of those who speak infrequently and which is familiarly known as “heavy jaw.”

One should next endeavor to pronounce every consonant with the utmost distinctness.

If certain consonants, as s, for example, or ch, are not enunciated clearly, one should keep at it until one pronounces them satisfactorily.

Now one should construct short sentences containing as many difficult consonants as possible.

Next we should apply ourselves to declaiming longer sentences.

It will be of help to have these sentences constitute an affirmation of will-power and of poise.

For example:  “I can express myself with the greatest possible facility, because timidity and embarrassment are complete strangers to me.”

Or again:  “I am a master of the art of clothing my thoughts in elegant and illuminating phrases, because stammering, stuttering, and all the other misfortunes that oppress the timid, are to me unknown quantities.”

We can not insist too strongly upon the cumulative effect of words which are constantly repeated.  It is a good thing to impress oneself with forceful ideas that make for courage and for achievement.

Distrust of self being the principal defect of the timid, the man who would acquire poise must bend every effort to banishing it from his thoughts.

The repetition of these sentences, by building up conviction, will undoubtedly end by creating a confidence in oneself that will at first be hesitating, but will gradually acquire force.  This is a great step in advance on the road toward poise.

We are discussing, it should be understood, only such cases of difficulty in speaking as are directly traceable to an inherent timidity.

If the inability to speak clearly comes from a physical malformation it should at once be brought to the attention of a specialist.

It is well recognized that, in the majority of cases, those defects are the consequences of timidity, when they are not its direct cause.

In combating them, then, with every means at his disposal, the man who desires to acquire poise will prove the logicality of his mind.  It is a well-known axiom that effects are produced by causes, and vice versa.

Thus, in the case we are considering, timidity either causes the difficulty in speaking or is caused by it.  In the first condition as well as in the second, the disappearance of the one trouble depends upon the eradication of the other.

CHAPTER IV

PRACTICAL EXERCISES FOR OBTAINING POISE