There are essentially two times in communication: mental time and real time. One is experiential and the other conceptual. Mind time is the realm and speed of thoughts and images that view everything conceptually and abstractly. If I ask you to think of a house right now, you will imagine it abstractly in your mind. The house will have a certain shape, color, background, etc. You will see or project the house in your mind, but there will be no real house.
Real time is experiential and therefore physical in nature. Animals and children exist in physical time and indulge in it quite happily. In real time, everything has a beginning, a middle and an end: a sunset, cooking a meal, boiling water, opening a door, a pregnancy, sitting in a chair, etc. It is the time of physical reality or physical life beginning with gravity and breathing. At some point in our adult development, we stop belonging to real time and begin to apprehend life through concepts. The things, the world and of course the people around us become conceptual images for us. While it has obvious advantages, it also deprives us of important real experiences.
The best communications happen in real time or RT. There are certain realms where mind time is simply not enough: playing a game, running, talking to a child, drawing, etc. Public speaking is certainly included here. It means that we do not deliver presentations in the past or the future. Your audience must feel a phrase or gesture in real time for it to be effective.
Audiences are moved, touched and inspired on RT. You can’t tell an audience to get inspired; you have to experience it yourself with them. Body time or real time lives in the present. Its quality is relaxed and aware. A successful presentation is achieved in the present. Be willing to play in real time!
How do I practice in real time? Making sure to follow the rhythm of your breathing during your presentations and communications. For some people it is a revelation, as it increases their confidence and reveals a new effectiveness in communication. If you lose connection with your breath, you have switched to mind time. The second level of awareness is making sure you speak through your breath, not separate from it. Very often a speaker or communicator will stop breathing to finish a sentence. That takes him or her in mind time. In mental time, thoughts and conceptual life are at the service of real time and punctuated by breathing.
Make it a discipline! I guarantee that it will increase your effectiveness exponentially.