Friday 19 February 2016

Maybe I should just stop talking

Do you ever go to speak, or you're mid sentence and you just have a brain fart and a load of non coherent garbage spews out of your speakhole?

You're one of the lucky ones if you even realise what you just said made no sense whatsoever. Or if the person you're with is drunk enough not to realise what you just said.

The trick is just to hold your head up high and carry on like it didn't happen. No sir I did not just ask you to file the cupboard from the collects. That would make no sense at all. And I definitely did not just ask my son to hands his soap because the oven is in the dinner.

Those puzzled looks you get? That's just wonder in amazement at your brilliance. You've created a language of your own and it's so awesome you're just replacing the English language with it.

Processing disorder for me comes and goes. On a daily basis I don't tend to notice too much, and I can even laugh at some of the stupid things that come out of my mouth when I do. It can be crippling at times though. Especially when you have something important to do like an interview or a presentation.
I find practice (and copious amounts of alcohol) can help a lot. Learning what you want to say off by heart helps to reduce nerves which is when my mouth can really have a mind of it's own. Stress really sets it off and can even prevent me from speaking full stop. It's like someone has borrowed my voice* but forgot to send me a memo, or I ran out of voice battery.

I know a lot of you will get what I'm saying. It can be pretty lonely, frustrating, and soul destroying (especially when you're in the middle of an interview for a job that you really really want - yup been there done that). It has certainly taken it's toll on my confidence.

A few things have helped me lately when I've had what I like to call a brain fart.
Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Press that reset button**. And start again.

You got this.

*how awesome would it be to be able to borrow someone else's voice for a few hours. Dibs on Morgan Freeman!

**location varies between models

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