my experiments to conquer stuttering and stammering

Conquering Stuttering and Stammering

My Experiments In

Captain V K Bali(Ex,Wg. Cdr, I A F)

Email: [email protected]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording or by any information storage

and retrieval system, without permission in writing.

ISBN 13:

Copyright © 2012, VK Bali

Illustrated by Kingston Koncept

DISCLAIMER: This book encompasses experience of the author in combating his speech impediment for 63 years, which he continues to pursue, till date. He is just a layman as far as speech defects are concerned. So, you can follow his advice and techniques ONLY after consulting the specialists and at your own risk. In case you use any information or technique given in this book, for yourself or others, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility or liability for any consequences of your actions.

Contents

1. Disclaimer 1

2. Abbreviation, etc. 2

3. Dedication 4

4. A Word by the Author 5

5. Introduction 10

6. Paranoid and Desperate 13

7. What is Stuttering and Stammering 14

8. Why the Heading Conquered and not Cured 15

9. Stuck with S&S for the Rest of his Life 17

10. Why is S&S the most Humilating and Belitteling Handicap 18

11. Fear is the Key 21

12. The Way Out the Vicious Circle 24

13. Why is S&S the Best Gift of God? 25

14. Causes of S&S 28

15. S&S on which Words? 29

16. How much of S&S can be Conquered? 30

17. What is the Answer 33

18. Get rid of your Cockeyed way of Thinking 34

19. S&S Centric 38

20. Everyone knows that you Stutter and Stammer 39

Conquered Stuttering and Stammeringiv

21. Raise your Self-esteem (Self-pride) 42

22. Use your Mind Somewhere else 45

23. How does a Human Mind Work? 47

24. Nature of Conscious Mind 49

25. Dawn and Dusk Time: Ideal Time to Catch 53

26. Power of Writing 54

27. Scold Yourself 56

28. Music 57

29. Counter Attack 58

30. Depression 61

31. How to Counter Mild Blues/Mild Depression? 62

32. Actual Pysical Help 63

33 Body Synchronisation (BS) 72

34. When one hour left to go to Office/Working Place/ where Required to Speak 79

35. Concentrate on Matter and not on Words 81

36. General Health 91

37. Self-Control (Not only for S&S but also for your Entire Life) 93

38. Do not Bother what others Think or say about you 98

39. Understanding Nervous Energy 104

40. A Role of Vitamin B family 106

41. (B) Heavy Medication/Sickness/Constant Pain, etc. 108

42. Usage of Telephone by Stutterers and Stammerers 109

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43. Speak in a Different Accent 111

44. Use of Alternate Words and Sentences 114

45. Social Get-togethers: A few Helpful Hints 116

46. Repetition: The Biggest Enemy of a Stutterer and Stammerer 118

47. Some other Relevant Points 119

48. Singing Silently 123

49. Walking Interaction 124

50. Use of Vernacular (Local Language) 125

51. Lung Power 126

52. Keep Yourself Busy: Even if it Means to go and Fly a Kite 128

53. Constant Prayers 129

54. Arithmetic: Great Help 130

55. Mind Games (will help your S&S Indirectly) 131

56. Yoga 132

57. Repair of Speech Centre 133

58. Aladdin’s Lamp 136

59. Read A Novel, Preferably at Night (Regularly) 138

60. Twenty or so Blessings 140

61. Drive a Car vs BS 141

62. Be Like an Ocean 143

63. The Power of Now 144

64. Be Proactive 145

ContentS

Conquered Stuttering and Stammeringvi

65. Spell out and Write Down your Mission of life: Other than S&S 147

66. A Test of your Achievement 148

67. Some Time Savers 149

68. Selection of Your Profession 150

69. Great Temptation 151

70. Anger Management: Stop Fighting the World 152

71. Summary 153

72. (A) Physical 154

(B) Summary Mental 158

73. Marriage of a Stutterer and Stammerer 163

74. My Funda 164

75. Conclusion 166

76. Last Word by the Author: (Last word? not really!) 167

I cried when I had no shoes but I stopped crying when I saw

a man without legs. Life is full of blessings. Some times we

do not understand it.

— An old Persian proverb

Hi, Morning…

Do you notice my greeting? I have not said ‘good morning’. Why? Because for all the stutterers and stammerers in the world, there is nothing so good or great about each morning, when they are going to be dreading each moment of possibility of speaking during the day.

Do not worry; help is at hand because there may be delay in God’s justice but it is never denied.

If you follow all that is given in this book meticulously on a regular basis, there is a great possibility of each morning being brighter than the previous one.

1. Disclaimer

This book encompasses experience of the author in combating his speech impediment for 63 years, which he continues to pursue, till date. He is just a layman as far as speech defects are concerned. So, you can follow his advice and techniques only after consulting the specialists and at your own risk. In case you use any information or technique given in this book, for yourself or others, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility or liability for any consequences of your actions.

2. Abbreviation, etc.

lS&S: stuttering and stammering lSC: Self-coined word; for example, Tastopathy,

hearopathy, etc.lWhere reference is made to ‘morning’ time, it

means ‘sunrise’ +/- 1 hour. Where reference is made to ‘evening’ time, it means ‘sunset’ + 1 hour.

lAs per statistics, menfolks outnumber womenfolks five times in s&s impediment. However, mostly he/his has been used throughout the book. Usage of she/her has been avoided purely for convenience.

lAs the author understands, 1 per cent population of the world is affected by s&s impediment. That would amount to about 7 crore stutterers and stammerers in the world, desperately looking for some sort of relief from their impediment, at any cost, and I mean any cost in term of US Dollars as well.

lA stutterer and stammerer would happily give

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his left hand/right hand (and I mean it literally and not figuratively or as a phrase) if he could get rid of his nerve-wrecking and most belittling impediment of s&s. This is the only impediment/handicap where it is seen people making fun of you and laughing at you.

abbreviation, etC

3. Dedication

This book is dedicated to my mother, father and my wife. Without their help, I could not have achieved what I did or reached where I did, in spite of my s&s impediment. In order to get their blessings and heart felt prayers for me, I never ventured out for flying without touching their feet. That kept me going strongly for five decades.

The world understands the power of parents’ blessings. Unfortunately, we still have no idea of the possible strength of one’s wife’s prayers for the well being of her husband. It can be very potent, I can assure you.

This book is also dedicated to all those having speech impediments of any kind because only a stutterer and stammerer knows the meaning of getting battered by the negativities caused by s&s. I, therefore, salute all the stutterers and stammerers, for their courage to fight their impediment relentlessly, till their last breath. Hats off to them!

4. A Word By The Author

Hello,If I were to summarise all that I have written in

this book in one sentence, it would read something like this: The less the stutterer and stammerer thinks/

bothers about his impediment, the better will he speak and

the better he speaks, the less will he suffer, as a result of

s&s. If you have the willpower to follow and imbibe

the above mentioned sentence in your life, then you can stop reading this book meant to help the stutterers and stammerers, RIGHT NOW.

Unfortunately, s&s is such an unnerving and destabilising impediment that even for the strongest minded, one sentence will neither be sufficient to conquer the impediment nor will it make the stutterer and stammerer stop getting affected by its fallouts. When the impediment is severe, the stutterer and stammerer could even turn suicidal. So every stutterer and stammerer needs help, and hence, the necessity of this book.

Conquered Stuttering and Stammering6

The s&s impediment is worse than imprisonment for life, lived with a monkey. The monkey (s&s) will not go away till the last breath of a stutterer and stammerer (not even in his dreams), and will keep on haunting him 24x7, causing havoc in his life. That would be another way of looking at the serious need to have a detailed book like this one.

All that is written in this book is from my personal experience of 63 years of s&s. That is why I call it ‘My experiments in conquering stuttering and stammering’.

While writing this book, I almost felt euphoric, knowing that this one act of mine may repair and upgrade the battered lives of millions stutterers and stammerers.

The experts and the professionals of the world, in the field of speech therapy, will probably find a number of faults in my book. They may find that many issues, sayings and points are repeated over and over again. I feel that repetition can only strengthen a rule in one’s mind. However, the repetition has been kept to a minimum and only for the most crucial points.

The experts may also find many points irrelevant

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and useless, and simply a waste of time. Well that is their opinion and must be RESPECTED. There is also an old saying that ‘an ounce of practical is more valuable than a ton of theory’.

Basically, many points have been included only to strengthen the stutterer and stammerer’s mind, which will help him to withstand the fallouts of s&s more bravely.

Since s&s is really a devastating and horrendous impediment, that any help is welcome, even if it is coming from a retired airline pilot. Each action, suggestion, point and methodology given in this book has been time tested for 63 years by me, and therefore, must be given a fair try. These methodologies worked so wonderfully for me; then why not for you?

Ultimately, the final cure for s&s will only be possible when human beings discover/invent a methodology to repair speech centres in the stutterer and stammerer’s brain on a permanent basis, and without any side effects. As I understand, none exists today. In my humble way, I have devised a method for repair of alphabets ONLY, purely on daily repair basis. It will prove very beneficial to those who have

a Word by the author


the patience to practice it daily in very small doses, spread over a long period of time. Remember Rome was not built in one day.

Also I hope you will excuse me if you find that the sequence of various points discussed is not perfect. After all, I am not a professional writer.

I request all stutterers and stammerers to keep your minds open and keep pace with the latest developments in this field by reading all the material on the subject. You should also confer with specialists and professionals. As a matter of fact, do not follow any advice, suggestion or technique given in this book till cleared by the specialists. Also do not forget to utilise your own experience and share it with other stutterers and stammerers.

Remember that nature believes in slowness. Look at the age of earth. It is probably a few million years old. You are dealing with an impediment/gene. If you have been s&s for 10 years, then expect to wait for at least 10 years more to reach the possible optimum results in speech improvement. If you happen to have inherited s&s from your parents, then you are dealing with ‘genes’, in which case, recovery may be minimal. Reading through this

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material, may at the best change the stutterer and stammerer’s perspective and attitude towards s&s and that may reduce tensions and sufferings of s&s as a fallout . The major achievement would be to excel in almost all fields, other than speech.

Wish you all conquer s&s; may God be with you in your endeavour, quest and mission.

a Word by the author

5. Introduction

Fate: Destiny: Kismat: Karmas of Past Life: Call it fate, destiny, kismet or karmas of past life,

the fact remains that God has been very partial and kind to the stutterers and stammerers of the world. On reading this, all stutterers and stammerers would be up in arms against me but by the end of it, I am sure, they would agree with the statement whole -heartedly.

Life is a big struggle for all, especially the stutterers and stammerers. The struggle starts from the time we take birth till we breathe our last. In the case of stutterers and stammerers, the struggle becomes all the more intense due to their s&s impediment. For them, it is like fighting the world with one hand tied at the back.

A stutterer and stammerer’s very survival depends on his being nice to others. Therefore, when you meet a stutterer and stammerer, you find yourself looking at the nicest person you would have ever met in your life.

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Jesus said that it is the meek who will inherit the earth. The s&s makes a stutterer and stammerer a very meek person because of his inability to engage and fight the world due to his speech impediment. Ultimately, his greatest weakness proves to be his greatest blessing, by impelling him to excel in everything, except speech.

We have no say on the way God deals the cards for us. All we can do is play these cards to the best of our ability. So, we will humbly embark upon the journey together, to conquer our s&s. For me, it is 63 years and still continuing; you would be lucky if it is only 163 minutes for you. Time will prove that for a stutterer and stammerer, the worth of this book is worth a hundred times its weight in gold. Back those days when I was young, I wish someone had written this type of book; that way, I would not have suffered so much.

Initially, this book may improve your speech by as much as by 50 per cent. But ultimately, only your continuous endeavour to excel in other fields and by having a ‘don’t care’ attitude about your s&s, you can see the light of progress.

S&S cannot be treated in isolation. Every single

introduCtion


thing in life has influence on s&s, directly or indirectly, in small or big way, positively or negatively.

For example, if you are fined for speeding on the road, you will find great deterioration in your s&s, since you are upset after receiving the ticket.

orYou receive some exceptionally good news.

Since you are excited, your s&s will deteriorate perceptibly.

6. Paranoid and Desperate

A stutterer and stammerer is so paranoid and fearful of s&s that it becomes a matter of life and death for him. He would rather gladly fight a hungry tiger with his bare hands than proceed towards a podium to deliver speech.

A stutterer and stammerer is desperate for help. As a matter of fact, any help is welcome. Therefore, many items have been included, which may not have direct impact on s&s, but help indirectly to make a stutterer and stammerer mentally strong, and thereby, improve his speech impediment.

A stutterer and stammerer should be smart enough to follow all instructions given in the book, meticulously; he should not be selective.

Conquering s&s is like an all-out war. If you are lax about the instructions in any way, you will find no improvement in your s&s.

7. What Is Stuttering and Stammering

StutteringIt is a speech impediment in which the affected person speaks a word more than once.

StammeringIt is also a speech impediment in which the affected person cannot start a sentence and/or having started a sentence, gets stuck on certain words in between. The person struggles to speak but is unable to speak the required words.

8. Why The Heading Conquered and Not Cured

S&S is a habit-formed impediment and/or connected with genes, and therefore, it cannot be cured; at least till date, no 100% speech-repairing methodology has been discovered, as per my knowledge.

When we are awake, we think with speech. A stutterer and stammerer is weak in many words, letters and alphabets, in his speech centre in the brain. He stutters and stammers on those words in his speech, thoughts and even in his dreams. He might have failed on his weak words, may be a million times.(mostly in his thoughts ). So, a stutterer and stammerer will always stutter and stammer, under stressful and non-ideal conditions, and till his last spoken or non-spoken word. So, there is no chance of a stutterer and stammerer getting fully cured.

But a stutterer and stammerer can speak almost as close to how well he speaks under the ideal conditions most of the time and feels the side effects of s&s on reducing scale. Ideal conditions mean


speaking in the privacy of one’s room alone (with no one around - not even a CC TV) on, in pleasant, cool and noiseless surroundings. Side effects means low morale, bordering depression at times.

In my humble way, I have devised a temporary, daily repair of speech centres procedure for alphabets only (given later). I think it will be quite helpful.

The greatest help one can render for helping s&s words is to avoid them like snakes. Thinking about s&s words over and over is like scratching a wound again and again, and thereby, making it worse. Any s&s word ignored, over-looked, not bothered, not repeated, thrown out ruthlessly, will be that much easier to speak in actual life later on. Detailed procedure has been evolved and explained as how best to deal with s&s words.

9. Stuck With s&s for The Rest of His Life

Till such a time that human beings invent/discover methodology to repair speech centres a stutterer and stammerer must realise that he is stuck with the s&s impediment for the rest of his life.

I assure you that no angel is going to descend from heaven and cure your s&s 100 per cent. But a miracle of God is possible, as given below.

A stutterer and stammerer really feels frustrated. Under ideal conditions, his speech is pretty much normal. The moment conditions are not ideal, he starts s&s. He prays to God for a miracle. If a stutterer and stammerer understands that he is stuck with his s&s impediment till his last breath and there is no getting away from this harsh reality, then he should know that the God’s first part of miracle in form of REALISATION has already happened.

10. Why is s&s The Most Humilating and Belitteling Handicap

S&S causes automatic, spontaneous, involuntary and instant laughter from the audience (without meaning to hurt the stutterer and stammerer, except during childhood). Therefore, s&s would be considered the most humiliating handicap. There is no other impediment in which people laugh at you.

As it is, the stutterer and stammerer struggles to speak and on top of that, he has to tolerate other’s laughter. The laughter causes havoc to his self-pride and confidence. He feels very belittled. The belittling feeling is worse than getting roasted alive in hell.

The most unfortunate part is a stutterer and stammerer feels that everyone is laughing at HIM, which is not true. It is like when someone slips on a banana peel, everyone except the person who has slipped laughs spontaneously and involuntarily. This is because the whole act of slipping on banana peel

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is laughter-provoking. Similarly, when people laugh on your s&s,

they are laughing on the funny output of speech, and hence, by its very comic nature, is laughter-provoking. If a stutterer and stammerer was in their shoes, he too would be laughing at other stutterers and stammerers. Knowing this fact, a stutter and stammerer should smile or laugh at his s&s, depending upon the reaction of his audience. This puts both parties at ease.

Assume that millions of stars represent million of strong points of the stutters and. stammerers. A quick glance at the stars will raise his morale.

Note: Just in case looking at stars become far to distant to draw inspiration, then look at a banyan tree, whose each green shining leaf represents your some great quality. The shadow of the tree represents s&s, both waning and waxing all the time.

A stutterer and stammerer keeps worrying about his s&s 24x7. He stutters and stammers on his weak words, all the times in his thoughts or even in his dreams. With a result, when the time comes to speak, he would be quite drained out of his nervous energy. He would start sweating with fear of being

Why is s&s The MosT huMilaTing and BeliTTeling handicap


laughed at. His blood pressure and pulse rate go up. His heart starts to pound like a wild hammer. His body becomes stiff with tension (especially the vocal chords) and breathing becomes uneven. Under great pressure, even his speech centres in the brain get affected temporarily. He succeeds in creating an ideal conditions for s&s.

Note: Since a stutterer and stammerer evokes automatic laughter in the audience, many of the stand-up comedies are based on s&s characters. Whenever I used to watch such stand -up comedy, based on a s&s character, I really used to get furious at the insensitivity of the organisers of the show.

Then I learnt something really beautiful. I learnt that there are two parts in life. One is the world and the other is you. The world, you can do just about nothing. What you can do is to change yourself. Become immune by not bothering about s&s or by recounting your strong points.

Since then I have never looked back, not only from s&s point of view but also my attitude towards life itself. Now I only care about my part and invariably everything works out fine.

11. Fear is The Key

I will explain how fear affects one’s speech with examples.

Example: (1) Imagine you wake up from deep sleep in the middle of night and see a thief standing right next to your bed. You, in most probability, will be so paralysed with fear that you may not be able to utter ‘thief’ in spite of the fact that you have perfect speaking faculty.

Example: (2) Supposing you ask someone to walk on an iron plank 6 ft wide. He would do it with ease and without any hesitation or second thoughts. Now you put the same plank perched between two tall buildings and ask the same person to walk on the plank. To start with, he will outrightly refuse to do so. If forced to, he will cross over, trembling and sweating. Similarly, in ideal conditions, a stutterer and stammerer speaks almost perfectly (the psychology is: When I am alone, I have nothing to fear). The moment people are around and conditions are not ideal, he starts to stutter and stammer. He gets into


Fear is the key

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a vicious circle. The more he fears s&s, the more he stutters and stammers, and the more he stutters and stammers the more he becomes fearful.

Since s&s causes great embarrassment to a stutterer and stammerer, shedding total fear of s&s is impossible. Hypothetically, even if one was to overcome the fear of s&s totally, s&s will still happen (though on much reduced scale) because apart from fear of s&s, there are many other reasons for s&s ( imperfect speech centres in the brain being one of the most important reasons.)

However, slow and steady conquering of fear will reduce a major negative force in a stutterer and stammerer’s life, and it will definitely make him a better speaker than before.

Fear iS the Key

12. The Way Out The Vicious Circle

The only way out of this vicious circle is to start thinking of something else. That is the only way to walk over the plank perched between two tall buildings, as well as for better speaking. And while you are thinking of something else, other than your speech, two things happen.

Firstly, you handover your speech efforts to your subconscious mind. That is the correct thing to do, because speech, like breathing, is controlled by the subconscious mind.

Secondly, when you keep thinking of things, other than speech, you actually start to become better in other things. People start to appreciate and applaud you. That really raises your morale and your self-pride. This, in turn, improves your speech and makes you more immune to the psychological effects of stuttering and stammering.

13. Why is s&s The Best Gift of God?

Anyone can get up the pulpit and give lecture to impress everyone. Also everyone knows what is good or bad for him but is mostly unable to do anything because to inculcate a good habit takes ages of prolonged efforts. Like millions of smokers around the world know that it is bad to smoke but are unable to give up smoking. This is where s&s steps in to become the best gift of God.

Thinking is a continuous process. So is the process of stuttering and stammering (silently in one’s thoughts). A stutterer and stammerer gets reminded day and night (as a matter of fact every moment) that he was born as good as any other infants, except for his speech. He gets reminded that he may or may not be able to conquer his impediment but it will be a matter of shame if he does not make enough efforts to excel in other aspects of life. This continuous and hurtful reminder of God can be considered as the best gift of God to any human


being. People normally make new year’s resolution once in a year, whereas a stutterer and stammerer revises all his resolutions every time he gets kicked by s&s, which may happen any number of times in a day.

Next time when any stutterer and stammerer is totally frustrated due to his impediment, he should go down on his knees and ask God, O! God, why me? And if God could answer, He would say, My child,

I endowed you with stuttering and stammering because I

wanted you to excel in everything else, other than speech.

God’s Law of Compensation:If you observe any stutterer and stammerer, you will find that he is a very good human being, apart from being already very good in many other fields. This is because unconsciously he has been trying to compensate for his handicap. This is also known as ‘law of compensation‘, that is, when God closes one door, He opens 10 windows in compensation. And if you are lucky, the door after all may not be locked.

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A Few Facts15 The Speech organsl Lungsl Larynx( speech box)l Mouthl Tonguel Lipsl Speech centres in brainl Teethl Upper Palate

Why iS S&S the beSt giFt oF god?

14. Causes of s&s

a. Hereditaryb. Shock effects/severe trauma.c. Result of high fever d. Very strict parentse. Copying other s&s children in childhoodf. Other reasons

15. s&s on Which Words?

Each stutterer and stammerer has his own affected words/letters/alphabets on which he stutters and stammers more than other words/letters/alphabets. It has been noticed that in real life, a stutterer and stammerer can stutter and stammer on any word.

16. How Much of s&s can be Conquered?

Theoretically speaking, s&s can be conquered to the extent a stutterer and stammerer speaks under ideal conditions (when alone).

But practically, it will depend on innumerable factors like whom is he talking to (boss or subordinate), amount of noise level around, how many people are around listening to him, his state of rest or tiredness, how much his job(bread and butter) depends on his speech, degree of his body synchronisation ( explained later ), etc.

A. Psychological Fallouts Of s&sS&S is not as bad a handicap as say, being blind. Unlike a blind person, a stutterer and stammerer can almost lead a normal life. What is really horrible about s&s is the psychological effects that s&s has on a stutterer and stammerer. Basically no other impediment is laughter-provoking. Having a horrible impediment like s&s is bad enough; being

31

laughed at is really heart breaking.A stutterer and stammerer becomes very

frustrated, since he is not able to express himself clearly. He is unable to take part in conversation. He is mortally fearful lest he may be required to speak all of a sudden. Since the level of confidence of a person is measured by how well he speaks, a stutterer and stammerer is perceived as a person with low level of confidence. Many a times, a feeling of worthlessness sweeps through him; he suffers from very low self-esteem.

All this makes the stutterer and stammerer a very angry man. When he is alone, he thinks of the worst. He hardly interacts with others. He turns into a recluse. He throws tantrums at the slightest pretext. He starts to express himself through letters, emails, sms, etc. All his actions retard his progress in life. Not getting what he really deserves in life and not able to achieve true to his potential, makes him feel further frustrated.

B. Physical Effects Of s&s On BodySuch is the might of human mind that a perfectly healthy body can become sick without any physical

hoW muCh oF S&S Can be Conquered?


reasons, if the mind is involved in cockeyed thinking.

A stutterer and stammerer is a typical example of cockeyed thinking.

Psychological effects of s&s manifest themselves in physical form in a stutterer and stammerer. The body of the stutterer and stammerer starts showing symptoms of sickness/ailment, which actually do not exist. A stutterer and stammerer keeps seeking doctor’s advice all the time and most of the time he is found pretty hale and hearty.

So a stutterer and stammerer must remember that while getting his problems diagnosed, he should not forget the psychological effects of his s&s, which may be the real cause of his physical problem/condition. Clinically, a stutterer and stammerer may be fully fit but his body may feel otherwise.

So remember that you or the psychiatrist are the only ones who can cure you psychologically. Just follow all instruction and guidance given in this book, and you will be able to look after yourself psychologically, without ever feeling the need of visiting a psychiatrist in your entire life.

17. What is The Answer

a. If A stutterer and stammerer could reduce the fear of s&s to a manageable level.

b. If A stutterer and stammerer could raise his self pride to a respectable level.

c. If A stutterer and stammerer could follow some basic breath control exercises.

d. If A stutterer and stammerer could get rid of his cockeyed way of thinking.

Then, there is a great chance of a stutterer and stammerer leading a normal, happy, fulfilling and fruitful life.

18. Get Rid of Your Cockeyed Way of Thinking

A stutterer and stammerer’s thinking is also laced with s&s words. He keeps getting disturbed and distracted by these words and keeps thinking of those words instead of continuing with smooth train of thoughts. It can be compared to driving a car on a road full of pot holes. The thinking of a stutterer and stammerer is not smooth and continuous like a non-s&s fellow. So, what do you do when you are driving on a road full of pot holes? You just avoid the pot holes and keep driving. Similarly, ignore s&s words entering your head all the time and continue with your normal chain of thoughts. That will reduce a stutterer and stammerer’s cockeyed way of thinking to a great extent.

The source of s&s words entering one’s mind, could be internally from one’s own chain of thought – speaking to oneself, telling a joke, getting into an argument, carrying out verbal fight, giving an explanation, etc.

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orThe source of s&s words could be external; for

example, newspaper, TV, radio, social get together, train, telephone, fish market, class room, auditorium, group discussion, reading a book, etc.

Other Ways Cockeyed Thinking Strikes a Stutteters and Stammerers a. Repetition of a slogan, again and again, especially

when in speaking environment (My favourite slogan was ‘best in the world except speech’).

b. A stutterer and stammerer gets into repetitive mode basically to suppress fear of s&s.

c. Instead of giving an answer to his self-thinking question, he tends to hide it in some slogan going in the mind.

d. Repeating an answer already known or repeated many times.

e. Repeating an assurance or reassurance, when not confident, again and again.

f. Using abusive language while thinking/speaking mentally.

g. By not leaving the mind alone most of the time.

get rid oF your CoCKeyed Way oF thinKing


h. A stutterer and stammerer keeps fighting in his mind, to complete his unfinished agenda of lost arguments/fight during the day. He should avoid that at any cost.

How to tackle s&s words emanating from external and internal source OR when in trap of cockeyed thinking as explained above.1. Ignore the s&s word or cockeyed way of

thinking by physically wringing your nose, blink your eyes, moving tongue on lips/gums, finger movements, shoulder movements, etc. The s&s word or cockeyed thinking will go away. Do some physical movement deliberately. It will help.

2. If you are still unable to do so, then imagine to be looking up at the sky, where the bright stars/leaves of banyan tree represent your great qualities (only imagine; do not actually start looking up or go in search for a banyan tree!).

3. If the above (1) and (2) are not your style, then just pray. Slowly but surely you will switch from silent talking mode to silent thinking mode, and s&s words will stop emanating from your

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head for a while. Cockeyed way of repetition, etc. will also stop.

Long-Term IntruderSay you are required to speak a real difficult word ‘perforce’, of which you have no alternative, like a name for instance divert your mind elsewhere. When you actually speak the word, you will do a real good job.

Caution Do not get misled that by repeating s&s words mentally a number of times, you will conquer the word. As a matter of fact, it would not only become more difficult to speak those words next time, it will affect you adversely (physically) as well. By mentally repeating a word again and again would be like converting the pot holes of the road into ditches or, it can be compared with scratching a wound again and again, and thereby making it worse .

Alphabets can be silently repeated in a certain strict procedure, in order to carry out daily repairs of alphabets but never tinker with s&s words.

get rid oF your CoCKeyed Way oF thinKing

19. s&s Centric

All stutterers and stammerers are s&s centric. All their life and all their thoughts revolve around s&s. So any time one is thinking of speech in any form, think of something else. Remember the less you think of crossing two buildings on a 6 ft wide iron plank, the better chances you have to cross over safely. This is also applicable to good speech. Sometimes you will speak exceptionally well. Take care. You cannot keep thinking about that as well.

Except for morning and evening time, when you are deliberately revising this book and your diary, ensure that any thought relating to speech is replaced by some other thought.

20. Every One Knows That You Stutter and Stammer

Since s&s has humiliation and laughter stigma attached to it, one of the greatest fear of a stutterer and stammerer is that others will come to know that he stutters and stammers. Therefore, every stutterer and stammerer behaves like a closet (hidden) stutterer and stammerer, and speaks only when he has no other choice. Till then, he would like to keep his mouth shut.

But the fact is that everyone already knows that you stutter and stammer. If they pretend ignorance, it is out of sheer politeness. Therefore, throw away your useless and irrelevant fear that people will come to know that you stutter and stammer, and you will have one less fear regarding your speech impediment.

Also be open about your impediment, without letting it become a topic of discussion, especially when dealing with inebriated (drunk) person or a person with idle mind and children.


Do not hide your impediment; everyone already knows that you stutter and stammer

Before starting a lecture, announce that you stutter and stammer. Announce that you were born with the impediment and that you are not ashamed of it. If anyone has a problem, then that person can kindly leave. Do not get surprised to hear a thunder of claps. That would be for your guts to let the audience know that you are not afraid for the world to know that you stutter and stammer.

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Your real reward would come a little later. Since you know that everyone in the audience knows about your impediment, you would shed great part of your fear of s&s. As a result, it will improve your speech tremendously for that get together.

every one KnoWS that you S&S

21. Raise Your Self-Esteem (Self-Pride)

Come on, you have nothing to be ashamed of!(A) Since you were born with s&s or acquired it by default, you have nothing to be ashamed of. As a matter of fact, you should feel proud the way you have been battling your impediment, day and night, bravely and with raw guts. It is like fighting with the right hand tied at the back. Your achievements are literally 1,000 times more laudable than those without speech impediment because you have achieved the results under far greater stress and trying conditions.

When others were sprinting away towards their respective goals, a stutterer and stammerer was wondering how he was going to speak the next sentence. A stutterer and stammerer spends approximately more than 90 per cent of his total time and efforts to tackle his impediment. He spends only 10 per cent of his efforts for his other achievements. A non-stutterer and stammerer cannot even imagine

43

in his wildest dreams of the amount of efforts put in by a stutterer and stammerer to reach and excel the achievements of the non-stutterer and stammerer.

There is no doubt that each and every stutterer and stammerer truly deserves a double salute for all his achievements, in spite of his most belittling impediment.

And there is no reason for a stutterer and stammerer to let his impediment get his morale down… ever.

(B) In the long run, speech matters in our lives, only 1 per cent, though initially, speech may matter as high as 90 per cent. But surely and steadily, qualities like intelligence, dedication, professionalism, knowledge, pleasant temperament, good health, etc. weigh far more in merit than speech.

At your back, every one addresses you with some cute name like Mr. stutterer and stammerer, etc. But when there is real dire need, you will be the first to be approached because of your excellence in those fields other than speech.

When you realise the true importance of speech (which is really miniscule), you start to concentrate in things, other than speech, the things which really

raiSe your SelF-eSteem (SelF-Pride)


matter in the long run. As you start becoming good in other things, people start to appreciate you and your efforts. With that, your self -pride goes up and so does your speech, and you become more immune to the side effects of s&s.

22. Use Your Mind Some Where Else

Do not use your mind only for routine matters. Use it optimally. As I understand, an average person uses only 30 per cent of the potential of his mind. The figure drops abysmally low for a stutterer and stammerer, since most of the time, efforts, energy and thinking of a stutterer and stammerer get spent pondering, worrying and tackling his speech impediment.

A stutterer and stammerer can take part in following activities to increase the utilisation of his mind, and hence, make up for his lack of good speech to a certain extent.

Also from a stutterers and stammerer’s perspective, when you keep yourself busy through any activity, you keep your mind away from speech. The less you think of speech, the better would be the speech results. No doubt these activities keep your mind away from speech but factually what happens simultaneously, you become mentally strong due


those activities and more immune to the fallouts of s&s as well. Some of the suggested activities are maths, gardening, sports, mind games like cards, chess, video games, Sudoku, cross word puzzle, watching movie, trekking, social work, reading newspaper, magazine, novels, travelling, painting, cooking, computer, using phone on a regular basis to interact with your friends, not missing out on any social get together, learning to play a musical instrument (except flute and mouth organ, as these interfere with speech) driving, learning a foreign language, praying, etc.

Note: With your ingenuity, surely you can devise many more interesting games/occupation.

23. How Does A Human Mind Work?

It is good for a stutterer and stammerer to know how the human mind works. Knowledge is power. A stutterer and stammerer will then know how to apply and utilise this knowledge to his impediment.

The human mind works on three levels:a. Conscious b. Sub-conscious c. Super-conscious

Conscious and SubconsciousAs I understand, the conscious mind works at conscious level, continuously, when one is awake. Human brain is a thought-producing machine. However, one’s intellect exercises 100 per cent control over the conscious mind. Whatever one’s conscious mind thinks or whatever one does, goes into the sub-conscious mind, where it gets stored for action. For example, if you think positively, your sub-conscious mind stores positive thoughts. These


positive thoughts will result into positive actions later on. Sub-conscious mind does not distinguish between positive and negative thoughts. Like a slave, it keeps copying all thoughts flowing in your mind and keeps reproducing them in action. That is why there is an old saying, ‘as you think, so will you become’.

Therefore it is very important for a stutterer and stammerer to keep a tab on his conscious thoughts. He should ensure he indulges only in positive and strong thoughts. For a stutterer and stammerer, who is basically a very negative personality, it is almost impossible to keep negative thoughts away. Praying and talking to God continuously would be a major way to control conscious mind, especially when the stutterer and stammerer is in negative mode.

24. Nature of Conscious Mind

The nature of conscious mind has been compared to a monkey who is drunk and is sitting on a hot pot. As it is, a monkey is very naughty and restless by nature. On top of that, he is drunk and is sitting on a hot pot. You can well imagine how difficult it must be to control one’s conscious mind. If controlling one’s mind was that easy, everyone would have become a saint. Apart from being in contact with God all the time, following are a few methodologies to help control one’s conscious mind.

A. Leave Conscious Mind Alone: Most of The TimeConscious mind is smart mind. When we are awake it is working all the time. It keeps scanning a whole lot of issues and gives priority as per urgency of matter; for example, you are crossing a busy road. Your conscious mind will make you fully concentrate on crossing the road. So help your conscious mind to keep doing its job most of the time on its own and know when to interfere.


Again, you are crossing the road with busy traffic and talking to someone on mobile at the same time. You must order your conscious mind to stop using mobile phone at that moment.

It is healthy to leave your mind alone most of the time.

B. Best AnswersAll thinking is raised in conscious mind but conscious mind the is not able to answer any questions getting raised all the times. The answers have to be given by your intellect. So make sure you give best answers.

When a stutterer and stammerer is in the speaking zone, he starts repeating some slogan, some reassurance, some lesson learnt, all the times and mixes his required answers with them. So watch out there. No intermixing please. Straight question, straight best answer and no repetition of universal facts and of any answers already given.

C. Another WayAnother way to control your conscious mind is to keep your mind busy by indulging in various activities (as mentioned in chapter 22). When you keep yourself

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consciously busy with some useful speech-neutral activity, you are making your conscious mind busy in your given activity, and thereby, control the mind indirectly.

nature oF ConSCiouS mind

Dawn

The forces of nature are calmest at Dawn and Dusk. So do all your day dreaming at Dawn and Dusk.

Dusk

25. Dawn and Dusk: Ideal Time to Catch

At dawn and dusk, the forces of nature are at their calmest. It is easy to catch the conscious mind and make it think as per your dictates. So read this book at dawn and dusk every day. You can also make a diary of your own and revise and write new issues.

26. Power of Writing

Gone are the days when we used to write letters, make notes and do school work with pen and pencil. When you write, it refreshes the matter in your mind, apart from the fact that writing is a type of control by itself. Always write with a felt pen/soft pen. Write slowly, as if you were painting each alphabet.

When you write deliberately, slowly and legibly, you are controlling yourself.

One could write a diary in fair and material in this book in rough. You should at least write for about 10 to 15 minutes every day.

Keeping A Diary Diary is nothing but experiences, lessons and mistakes noted down by an individual on a daily basis. As suggested above, compile your diary, strictly in the morning/ evening only. Do your compilation by mentally revising the happenings of the previous day. You can quickly go through earlier experiences and delete what is not relevant any more. Also quickly

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revise the coming 24 hours to be prepared to tackle all the issues (mostly the unexpected ones).

Now is time to revise your aims, ambitions, targets, aspirations, dreams and priorities.

Read your diary when you feel low. It would be helpful.

PoWer oF Writing

27. Scold Yourself

You may find your conscious mind taking you for a ride. In spite of your unrelenting directions, you may find it thinking against your wishes, especially when in worrying mode. Now is the time to scold yourself. Tell yourself, Hey, I may or may not be able to

conquer my s&s but it would be a matter of shame that I

can’t even control my mind.Scold yourself in a similar fashion every time

you find your performance in any field (other than speech ) below your possible best.

28. Music

Stutterers and stammerers are basically music lovers (barring a few). Whenever a stutterer and stammerer finds himself in ecstasy of music, he should visualise himself, and what he can do (except speech).

When you are in ecstasy of music, you are almost connected with your sub-conscious mind and partially connected to super-conscious mind. In this state of mind, you touch and achieve your goals very fast.

29. Counter Attack

a. If you find yourself involved deeply in negative thoughts, (which happens very often with a stutterer and stammerer), then counter attack it by deep positive thinking immediately, every time and without fail – remember, old and stale air cannot go out of a room, unless fresh air is allowed to enter. If there is a flash of negative, then counter attack it by a flash of positive.

Practice the above procedure religiously, relentlessly, meticulously, and without fail, and you will find the difference. From a worrying personality, you will emerge as a positive and strong personality. When in process of extreme negative thoughts and unable to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts, just pray to God. He will come and help you. You will win the battle.

b. Maintain a diary as suggested earlier. Read your diary to counter negative thoughts. When in heavy mood and nothing is working out, just

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read your diary.c. If nothing works, pray as much as you want.d. God (part of super-conscious mind).

It is my belief that there a force in world, with whose help the whole universe works. Call it by any name.

Calling Him God would be the easiest. Pray to your God, whenever depressed or otherwise. Speak to Him as often as possible, especially about your s&s. Converse with Him. Ask Him any question that comes to your mind. You will get all answers. In God you will find your best friend, mentor and guide.

Counter-attaCK

Look at the stars and the moon when depressed

30. Depression

The behaviour of others towards a stutterer and stammerer forces him to go inside his shell; that moment, he can be attacked by bouts of depression. This should not be the situation. If a stutterer and stammerer always keeps it in mind that other than speech impediment, he has no problem, and he is better than others in many ways, then he would get the strength to fight his depression himself.

31. How to Counter Mild Blues/Mild Depression?

The actual s&s and its fallouts could lead to: a. Negligible depressionb. Mild depression

If s&s and its fallouts cause negligible depression, then wring the nose, blink your eyes, pluck the ear, shake the head or smile sweetly or do any physical action. The negative effects will go away after some time. Do not get caught in the trap of slogan chasing.

If s&s and its fall outs cause mild depression, then look up the stars/ banyan tree. It will remind you of your great qualities. This action will make you feel better and your blues/mild depression will wither away like ripples. The moment you feel better, get yourself busy. The best way is to start observing people, surroundings, etc. The moment you feel rooted, get back to normal life.

Test: Your test of having overcome depression will happen when you stop repeating any slogan going on in your mind to counter low feeling.

32. Actual Pysical Help

A stutterer and stammerer hardly speaks the whole day. That makes his speech organs go unused and unexercised, making his speech organs lazy and useless. Hence, there is a need to exercise the speech organs on a regular basis.

When you do breath-holding exercises, you increase the capacity and strength of your lungs. When you whistle, you include a part of speaking mechanism on breath control.

When you read loudly with exaggerated movement of lips, mouth and jaw, you are exercising all components of speech. When you speak real fast, with very little movement of lips and jaw, you bring your body in perfect synchronisation. Now you are ready to take on the world, speaking wise.

Caution: In actual life, do not practice more than one type of breath control, if getting ready for actual speaking. If you try practicing more than one procedure of breath control, your speech could become worse.


a. Breath Controlling ExerciseBest time to carry out breath control exercise is in the morning and evening, when the stomach is empty and nature is at its calmest. Sit in a comfortable straight back chair, keeping your elbows on the arm rest or your lap. Open your mouth, little less than maximum. Now make a sound of ‘aah’ while breathing out, keeping your vocal chords fully relaxed. Do not practice very loudly. Since unlike singing, we use a very small part of breath for speaking, make sure you do not force the depth and quantity of air going in and out of lungs. Let it be controlled by the lungs. Also do it for a period that you feel comfortable.

With time, your capacity to exercise will improve and so will your control over your breathing, from speaking point of view.

Half way through the exercise, increase volume of back ground noise/music (TV/radio) to force you to ‘AAH’ at louder voice, and thereby, increase your voice strength.

Breath controlling exercises must be carried out at least once in a day (when your stomach is light, i.e., more or less, empty), if not twice.

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Reserve morning time for reading practice, since you will need your breath control in reading mode in your office.

Caution: 1) Do not over-breathe or under-breathe. Let the lungs decide how much air to breathe in, in the most natural way. In any sitting, the breathing will be shallow initially. As the time progresses, the breathing will be deeper and longer. Let it happen normally and naturally.

b. Breath Holding ExerciseDo this exercise in morning and/or in the evening only, when the stomach is empty.

Stand with your feet together, with hands in front, at shoulder height. Inter-twine fingers and make palms face out wards. Start moving arms and heels up, while breathing in (breathe in as much of air possible but slowly).

Keep moving the arms, till both arms are touching the ears. Hold your breath, with feet raised on toes and hands raised touching ears, and inter-twined palms pointing towards the sky. Look in front at your eye level, while you do so. Hold your breath for as long as you feel comfortable.

aCtual PySiCal helP


When finished, lower your owns to the sides, heels to the ground, while breathing out slowly simultaneously.

Wait till you have gained back your breath and poise, before repeating the exercise. Exercise as long as you feel comfortable.

Note: There is another breath holding exercise in yoga (Under Suryanamaskar exercises, called volcano) worth practicing and is discussed later.

c. Learning Classical Singing: Classical singing involves deep depth breath control, which would prove very beneficial in combating s&s.You should give up smoking totally (if you are a smoker – occasional or chain).

Just imagine, on one hand, you are practicing classical music to improve lung capacity and increase breath control, and on the other hand, you indulge in smoking, which almost kills your lungs. Both actions are quite contradictory.

d. Quick Breath ControlIt can be done any time. It is designed for a quick response, when you do not have much time to regain

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body synchronisation. The exercise lasts for about 5 minutes or so. The good thing is that it restores body synchronisation to near normal.

Procedure: Stand with legs slightly apart. Keep one or both hands on chest. Blow out small air quickly through nose and pause. It will give you incentive to breathe in very little air. While breathing out this small air, make the sound of ‘aah’ with mouth half open. Try to feel the vibration on your chest and your hands. Put your hands down. Do not practice more than twice or so at a time. That will be enough to restore your body synchronisation. Repeat whenever required but with a minimum gap of one hour in between two quick breath control exercises. It can be practiced even just before starting your speech as you are walking towards the podium.

e. Reading PracticeIt can be done any time. Do it regularly and whenever required. As a routine, do reading practice in morning just before leaving for office and roughly an hour before actual speaking time.

By exercising breath control and breath holding exercises and cardio, we have the lung power and

aCtual PySiCal helP


breath control. Now we have to impose audio wave over carrier air in the wind pipe. We do that by reading practice. You can read anything, but reading this book and your diary would be more productive. It will serve dual purpose. Along with speech practice, it will make you revise your daily lessons of s&s as well. Exercise reading practice till you are just short of getting tired. This reading practice can also be very smartly used to help you to speak much better, when required.

Case One: In case you are practicing reading because you will be required to speak after a while, then move the lips and mouth minimum, and concentrate on fast speed and not on clear word formation. It would almost sound like mumbling. Have minimum background noise. Practice for about 10 minutes or so and at least 30 minutes to an hour before the event.

Case Two: In case you are practicing reading for the sake of practice and not for actual anticipated speaking, then (1) Increase background noise by increasing TV volume, etc, half way the reading practice, to increase degree of difficulty, and thereby, increase strength of voice. (2) While doing reading

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practice but not for speaking requirements, move your lips, jaw and mouth in exaggerated manner, to reduce pressure on vocal chords.

Reading practice can be done any time, with stomach empty or full.

f. Whistling: The Most Wonderful Exercise for Lips and Breath Control for The s&s

Whistle while taking bath in the morning. Preferably put on your favourite music while having bath. From the time you start changing your clothes till you are fully dressed, you can whistle to your favourite music.

Whistling is a heavy duty exercise. Therefore, no more whistling till your return from office. Dedicate return from office and evening/night time as time reserved for regular whistling practice. If you walk after dinner, then you can whistle after the walk, till you get tired. Even if you do not walk after dinner, no problem; you can go ahead and practice whistling about 10 minutes before sleeping at a time of your convenience. Whistling can be carried out as long as the vocal chords do not tire. The whistling control can almost match

aCtual PySiCal helP


semi-classic singing if whistling is done with help of semi-classical music or ghazals playing in the background. Always take help of music to enjoy and practice whistling. Keep changing music all the time to practice varied breath control. Your bathing experience will never be same.

Exercises for Lips, Tongue and MouthLIPS: Pout the lips. Move the lips back and smile. Move the lips forward and back till the lips feel tired.

Tongue1. Consider your tongue as chalk and wall in front

as the blackboard. Move your tongue as if you were writing alphabets on the wall. Continue with it till your tongue feels tired.

2. Move your tongue on your upper and lower gums. Move it clock wise and anti-clock wise, till you feel that you have exercised enough. This exercise can be done any time of the day and nobody will even notice you doing it.

3. Extend your tongue out. Move it up and down, as if you were licking ice cream. This exercise

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should be done any time in the morning and at night before sleeping.

Mouth 1. Open the mouth fully. Now, close it. Repeat

this exercise till you your mouth does not tire out.

2. Whenever visiting washroom, do forceful mouth wash every time. It will not only give you good oral hygiene but also help you in exercising the mouth. Do it vigorously. Let it be the last exercise before going to sleep at night.

Note It is preferable to do these exercises mildly during day time and vigorously at night because these are tiring exercises, and interfere in your speech. If you exercise at night vigorously, you will any way get up feeling and looking fresh in the morning.

aCtual PySiCal helP

33 Body Synchronisation (BS)

(self coined)

One of the reasons why the degree of stuttering and stammering of a stutterer and stammerer keeps varying all the time is due to BS. Say, for instance, when you get up after a deep sleep, your body is at bad BS, from speaking point of view and you have great degree of difficulty in speaking. Similarly, after vigorous exercises, you have pretty bad BS. During sickness, BS is quite bad. When you drink real hot beverage, the BS becomes bad for a while.

If BS is good, a stutterer and stammerer finds it very easy to speak. That will happen, say, after a brisk walk of 20 minutes or jogging for 10 minutes at a constant pace. There are various ways to get good BS.

Caution: Do not practice more than one BS exercise, if being carried for actual coming up

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speech. Practicing more than one BS exercise will actually make BS worse.a. Reading Practice: If required to speak after a

while, then read with least movement of lips, without clearly pronouncing each word. The whole act will sound almost like mumbling. Practice for 10 minutes regularly and an hour before the expected time of speaking. It will work wonders!

b. Brisk Walking At Constant Pace: As a first priority, brisk walk for about 10-15 minutes, at a constant pace. It will help your speaking efforts.

c. Jogging At Constant Pace: Jog for about 10 minutes at constant pace, if

really short of time and keeping your health in account. If constrained for space, practice in remote toilet. A very high price has to be paid by the stutterer and stammerer for his impediment. But believe me it is worth all the effort.

d. Quick Breathing Control: Do a quick breathing control exercise (explained

earlier). Do it as last minute exercise, twice, at any given time. It can be repeated only after a

body SynChroniSation (bS For Short)


good gap of at least one hour. It can be done even on dais, just before starting your speech. It is very helpful to give you last minute BS.

e. Shavasana (Sa): Part of Yoga: Find Out from Your Yoga Instructor, The Exact Way to Do It

When you lie down on a bed, on your back, with hands on side, with no pillow or very thin pillow, with body fully relaxed, it is called shavasana or posture of a dead person.

While lying in SA, mentally think of each part of your body, from head to toe. That will make each part of body go fully relaxed. After lying down for about 5 to 10 minutes, you will find yourself fully relaxed and at good BS. Avoid negative or disturbing thoughts during this yoga.

f. Whistling: When you have no time for any other BS exercise,

just whistle for a while. Do not overdo as it is a very heavy duty exercise.

g. Breath Control Exercise: It has already been explained earlier. Remember

that this exercise cause bad BS, and therefore, should be avoided as a last-minute exercise for BS.

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h. Relaxation of Facial Muscles and Larynx A stutterer and stammerer by habit keeps his facial

muscles and throat (larynx) muscles tense all the time, specially so, when he is about to speak. The pity is that he is not even aware of his tense body state. Let a stutterer and stammerer close his eyes and feel his facial muscles. He actually will feel them going in relaxed mode. It may be first time in his life to have realised his tensed state.

When a stutterer and stammerer senses speaking danger, his body goes tense, including his facial muscles. The larynx feels constrained, as if it was getting choked or interfered with. Thus, it fails to perform its basic functions properly.

Remedyi. From the time you get up in the morning till you

go to sleep at night, close your eyes every now and then and feel only facial and larynx (throat) muscles relax. Do not feel other parts of body go relax.

Do this exercise just before speaking as well. You will find great improvement in your BS and speech.



j. Suryanamaskar: Volcano): Another Breath Holding Exercise

(Check from your Yoga instructor the exact and accurate way to do it)l Stand with your legs open. Move your both

hands forward, at shoulder height. Join both hands in form of Indian namaskar. Move both hands up and around your ears, in this posture. Move your spine in an arch as much as comfortable. While moving hands up, breathe in air and hold it. When done breathe out slowly, while bringing the body back in normal posture. Do as many times as you feel comfortable.

k. When In Washroom For Urination: Whenever in washroom for loo, close your eyes while urinating and think of your neck, throat, shoulders, eyes, forehead and head. You will feel all muscles going in relaxed mode.

Caution: If you suffer from vertigo or imbalance, then do not do any exercise that involves closed eyes.

l. Head Massage: While sitting for long periods, keep moving your fingers lightly on your skull,

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every now and then. It will unwind you and lightly massage your skull. That will increase blood circulation to your head as well.

m. Jaw Posture: Under normal circumstances, if you observe, you will find your upper jaw and upper teeth resting lightly on your lower jaw and lower teeth. That is the normal and correct method for a normal person. The Idea is to let a stutterer and stammerer know the best posture for his face, teeth, mouth, larynx and lips, when the time for speaking approaches. Otherwise he can maintain his normal jaw posture.

Now deliberately place upper lip on top of lower lip…lightly. Your jaw will open slightly. This jaw posture is a must for your mouth, lips and jaw position, whenever you go in speaking mode. It will keep your larynx relaxed all the time. Concentrate on lips all the time, while you are in speaking mode, to achieve and maintain the required jaw/mouth posture. At times, you may have to wipe your lips dry to get the required lip position. At other times, you may have to moisten your lips to get the feel of lips back. If the above does not suit you, then find out by



experimentations what posture suits you. Secondary Benifits of maintaining mouth/jaw

posture at the time of speaking is that the mind of a stutterer and stammerer remains busy to keep correcting his lips position all the time. That in turn keeps his mind busy in something other than speech, and hence, make your speech better.

Very Important1. Do only one BS exercise at any given time. A

mixture of 2 or 3 exercises would only make your BS worse.

Note: You can do any number of exercises or any combination of exercises if it is purely for the sake of exercises, and not for speech requirement. In that case, the suggested exercise sequence could be (a) Vigorous exercises like jogging, swimming, playing, etc. (as restricted by your doctor), (b) Breath holding exercises, (c) Breath controlling exercises, (d) Reading exercises, (e) Shavasana, and (e) Whistling.

34. When One Hour Left to Go to Office/ Working Place/ Where Required to Speak

a. When a stutterer and stammerer starts to get dressed to go to his work place/anywhere else where he is likely to be speaking, he goes into defensive mode. It is basically to suppress/overcome fear of s&s. As a result, he starts repeating some slogan, some assurance, some lessons learnt, etc. (cockeyed thinking). He must try to think normally and not start repeating. He will physically feel better and do a better job in speaking as well.

b. Let us say you have to give a lecture. To get optimum results, stop thinking about your specific speech mission, about 30 minutes before actual speaking time. Pick up some magazine, or watch TV to divert the mind. Do anything other than thinking about your speech. You will do a good job.

c. While reading from the text, keep the coming


up script covered with your finger. The mind has a funny habit of jumping ahead and keeps deciding what words will it stutter and stammer on.

d. We assume that the stutterer and stammerer has been maintaining jaw/lips posture. We also assume that he has wonderful Body Synchronisation. When starting to speak look upwards towards the sky, where millions of stars represent your great qualities.

If Required, moisten your lips with your tongue and launch yourself into speaking. Not working, touch tip of your tongue to the front of the upper palate, just before starting to speak. You will do a good job. As you are walking towards the dais, you can do last minute qUICK breath control exercise.

What if you are stuck in between a sentence? Apply the same methodology (looking up at the sky). This is to raise your morale and will most likely make you finish your sentence correctly.

Other Useful Tips

35. Concentrate on Matter and Not On Words

When some conversation is going on, or a lecture is being delivered, or a matter is being discussed, etc., a stutterer and stammerer concentrates on s&s words more than the matter being discussed. His mind keeps getting diverted to the s&s words all the time. It has two drawbacks – first the burden of s&s is being carried, when it is not required to, and secondly, a stutterer and stammerer, due to lack of concentration on matter being discussed, absorbs only part of the matter, and hence, loses out to others in terms of retention and learning.

Concentrating on other matters will also keep your mind away from s&s, and ultimately, result in better speech.

Delegation of Speaking DutiesDelegate speaking duties to non s&s, when degree of difficulty of s&s is high. For example Delegating duties to find address while moving on the wheel (car).


Why do we help a blind man cross a busy road? For the similar reasons the speaking duties should be delegated to a non-s&s fellow whenever feasible.

For example, many a times we are on road and have to stop every now and then to find out an address. A stutterer and stammerer finds the degree of difficulty in speaking very high when asking for an address. So the duty of finding the address can be delegated to a non-s&s. No shame in that; if you cannot speak quickly and others do not have limitless time, the job can be delegated to someone else.

Some people feel that delegating duties of speaking to a non-s&s fellow will break confidence of a stutterer and stammerer. I do not subscribe to this theory. Facing the facts is far more important, far more courageous, far more winning than remaining a closet stutterer and stammerer. If you cannot speak very fluently, you cannot speak fluently. God has made you like that only. It is just too bad. A stutterer and stammerer may be better than others in thousands of other ways where he can take over from others tactfully.

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So?So, shamelessly handover the speaking duties

to the non-s&s, whereever and whenever possible. Everyone is good at something or the other. A stutterer and stammerer can take over duties from non-s&s fellows in the fields that he is better than them; for example, sports, computer repair, heart/brain surgery, flying a plane, etc.

If just by speaking a s&s child could gain confidence, all teachers in the world would give s&s children greater chance to speak. That does not happen in actual life. To protect the sensibilities of a s&s child, he is more or less not given any chance to speak.

Ultimately, a stutterer and stammerer will have to bear most of the burden of communicating himself to others all his life. But if the burden can be shared, reduced or eliminated, why not? There is nothing to feel ashamed; in fact, it is the practical way. But the ultimate choice of taking up speaking duties must be left to the stutterer and stammerer.

ConCentrate on matter and not on WordS


Join a laughing club

Join A Laughing ClubLaughter is a very essential part of life. A good laughter not only raises morale of a person but also is healthy and increases lungs’ power.

A stutterer and stammerer loses out a lot on laughing in life, since he is unable/refuses to interact with others due to his s&s. One suggestion would be to join a laughing club. If you do not have one around, open one.

These laughing clubs create laughter quite close to real one. This will lift spirits of the stutterer and

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stammerer, improve his lungs’ power and increase his interaction with others. All these will improve his speech and reduce the after-effects of s&s.

Dress Up WellA stutterer and stammerer s level of self-esteem at any given time, is one of the major factors, what decides how well he speaks or how strongly he deals with the side effects of s&s. Higher the self esteem, better is the speech; lower the self esteem, worse is the speech.

Unshaved beard, dirty clothes, etc. cause low self-esteem in a person. Similarly, dressing up well raises morale and spirits in a person. A stutterer and stammerer has such low self-pride, that he develops a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude towards his appearance.

So, a conscious effort must be made by the stutterer and stammerer to remain well dressed (not over dressed) all the times, even in the privacy of his home.

To add to his remaining well dressed, if a stutterer and stammerer can physically maintain a good physical figure (slim and trim), it will further add to his self-pride, and indirectly improve his s&s.



Hi, I love you

MirroroPathy (self coined)Mirroropathy is the process of utilising your image in mirror for strengthening many rules in your mind.

Assume your name is Vinay. To raise a stutterer and stammerer’s morale and self-pride, another way would be for him to salute himself mentally, whenever looking in the mirror and mentally say, Vinay, I love you and due to the best gift (s&s) of God, the

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whole world will also love you one day. You can replace the above slogan with any other

slogan as you feel fit.Caution: Say the above slogan only once or

maximum twice, while facing yourself in the mirror. Saying more than once/twice will disrupt your normal chain of thought process, and therefore, is undesirable.

SINGING, DANCING AND LIQUOR

SingingThe stutterers and stammerers are usually very fond of singing and dancing. It becomes their way to feel happy and express themselves. A stutterer and stam-merer usually can sing well without stuttering and stammering. Based on the above, a stutterer and stammerer must develop his voice and utilise the same to give live performances in small gatherings. If his voice is really good, then he can slowly gradu-ate his singing performance from small gathering to bigger gatherings. It will give him a sense of worth and participation, raise his morale, improve his s&s, and reduce the fallouts of s&s.



DancingSimilar theory applies for dancing. A stutterer and stammerer must get up and join the dancing crowd at the earliest. It will make him happy and joyous. His morale will go up, so will his speech.

Notesa. Dancing upsets the Body Synchronization

seriously, especially when dancing is carried out vigorously. So exercise your judgment before embarking upon dancing spree. You will have to choose between the two. If you are not required to speak majorly, then you can put on your dancing shoes and blast the dance floor. Why not? After all, how often does a stutterer and stammerer gets a chance to enjoy himself!

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Liquor: A normal person with normal speech faculty tends to have slur in his voice after having a few alcoholic drinks. His speech becomes incoherent after excessive drinking. So imagine what will happen to the speech of a stutterer and stammerer who takes excess of alcoholic drinks. He should treat this liquor effect on speech as God’s blessing, and when in a crowd, never indulge in drinking, purely from the point of speech impediment. Otherwise, it may turn the stutterer and stammerer speechless, and



others full of laughter. If you like to drink once in a while, then do it in

the privacy of your home, where you may not be required to speak. Also drink as recommended by your doctor. However, never drink when depressed due to s&s or otherwise. Drinking may be the softer option to happiness but would be habit forming in the long run, and you may end up becoming alcoholic, especially if you drink only when depressed.

Every time a stutterer and stammerer fails in his speech, he goes into his shell and keeps brooding about his speech for quite some time. He regains his poise, composure and strength slowly but surely. He is ready to fight and conquer his impediment once again. If he, instead, goes into drinking spree, he will come out weaker and more prone to be affected by fallouts of s&s next time. So, avoid drinking when in depression due to speech or otherwise.

36. General Health

If you are feeling fit and fine, you will do well in whatever you may be doing, including speech. There is an old saying that only a healthy body has a healthy mind. The reverse is also true. A stutterer and stammerer, though does not have a sick mind, remains under intense pressure 24x7 .

A stutterer and stammerer needs to give all physical help to his s&s, by looking after his body. For instance, if you have headache, your s&s will deteriorate horribly. Conversely, if you are feeling on top of the world, health wise, you will do a good job, speech-wise as well. A stutterer and stammerer tends to overeat in order to compensate for low level of nervous energy, and to increase his body comfort level. If sugar levels are high in body, the person will obviously feel good, so watch out there. You could turn fat/obese, and therefore, will not be able to help your s&s 100 per cent.

Also, if a stutterer and stammerer can afford, he should join a gym. It will help him to keep fit, apart


from interacting with others. The gym will also help him to express himself physically, and will make him feel good about it. That will further raise his morale and help improve his s&s.

37. Self-Control (Not only for S&S but also for your entire Life.)

Self-control in any form will indirectly help a stutterer and stammerer. One very smart thing a stutterer and stammerer can do is to utilise this impediment as a whip. Whenever he fails in self-control, he can get motivated by scolding himself (discussed earlier).

There is an old saying that ‘the control of universe starts from controlling one self and self-control starts from the TIP of one’s tongue’ (meaning both, eating and polite speech). So take care of your TONGUE and you will have the whole universe at your feet.

When God takes away/retards a faculty from us, He sharpens our other faculties as nature’s compensation. By following the methodologies (self coined) given below, we are only assisting nature in that direction.


Have patience; remember that Rome was not built in a day.

a. Tasteopathy Always eat slowly, munch thoroughly, feel the taste and aroma of your food. That is good for one’s health as well. In the privacy of one’s home, one could even close ones eyes to increase the concentration level. Do not deviate from Tasteopathy.

A suggestion: Whenever having uninteresting but nourishing food like fruit or salad, make sure you are watching some interesting TV programme or reading an interesting book, magazine, or working on your computer, etc. That will ensure that you do not get bored while eating boring but most nourishing and essential food. Secondly, it will ensure that Tasteopathy gets applied automatically, to the boring food as well. You will not even realise and your plate will be empty of boring food and you will thank me for the rest of your life for this methodology.

Conversely, while eating normal food/junk food, make sure the TV is off and all magazines are out of bound to ensure that you follow concentrated Tasteopathy, even on junk food.

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b. BlindopathyPractice moving around in the safety of your house as if you were blind, taking a few steps at a time (keeping your actual safety in account and as the first priority). You could safely apply Blindopathy while changing clothes, etc. as well.

Caution: No eyes closed exercise if you suffer from vertigo/imbalance.

c. Hearopathy As a rule, always keep volume of radio/TV low enough to just be able to hear the audio. Similarly, while going to sleep, put on your favourite music at low volume, where you can just about make out the music. That will also help you to go to sleep in jiffy (someone else can switch off the music).

Another way to improve and sharpen one’s hearing power is to close one’s eyes and try to distinguish various sounds at home, or in garden, or in traffic, or in a bar, etc. (wherever you may be).

The only exception to sound volume control is when you are exercising. While exercising physically, music can be made loud, since the emphasis is on

SelF-Control (not only For S&S but alSo For your entire liFe.)


exercises and loud music does help in carrying out vigorous exercises with greater gusto and enthusiasm.

d. Feelopathy While getting a massage, concentrate on the feel. When you are shaving, feel the lathering and blade. Feel the towel rub when drying yourself after bath, etc.

e. Smellopathy With eyes closed, try to guess various fragrances of fruit, vegetables, perfumes, etc. to strengthen your sense of smell.

f. Bodyneedsopathy Carrying out abstinence as planned and caring for others first will give one wonderful self-control, improve speech and have less fallouts of s&s.

In order to fight the most degrading impediment, we must use all armaments, however small or insignificant or laughable the armament may be.

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g. Limbs ControlA stutterer and stammerer keeps moving his limbs all the time – shaking legs, moving hands (especially while actually speaking). He does this unconsciously. In fact, the stutterer and stammerer is trying to unwind (relax) his tense body by this action. To me, it is fine.

What is not fine is the lack of limb control even when the stutterer and stammerer is alone, and there is no immediate requirement of speaking.

You can also devise your own methodologies. Some experts may scoff at these unconventional

methodologies to conquer s&s. To an extent, they might consider these methodologies irrelevant, time wasting and may be even silly. They have every right to their opinion. It worked so beautifully in my life. I am sure it will work wonders in others’ lives as well.

Note: If you notice carefully you will find all the ‘pathy’s’ mentioned above are a crude form of meditation. Here, we use all 5 senses to maintain concentration of mind, which is far more practical and doable than concentrating on ‘OM’ or on a ’point’.

SelF-Control (not only For S&S but alSo For your entire liFe.)

38. Do Not Bother What others Think or Say About You

To strengthen your mind against psychological fallouts of s&s, stop bothering about what others think or say of you. That would be not only about your speech, but otherwise, as well.

Easier said than done: Since our childhood, we like it when we get applauded, and hate it when we fail and are laughed at. But the fact is that character is like a tree, which remains sturdy and strong, and reputation is like the shadow of the same tree, which keeps moving up and down all the time. What should matter to you is the tree (character) and not the shadow (reputation). So stop bothering about what others think or say of you, not only about your speech but also otherwise as well. That will make you very strong mentally and consequently, you will have very little side effects of s&s.

Talking ill of others is human trait and a huge pass time for all idle minds. Even if you did not stutter and stammer, the world will find something else,

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funny or otherwise, to talk and laugh about you. So just relax and stop bothering what others think or say about you. IT DOES NOT MATTER.

But prayers, good wishes of others and blessings of parents and elders DO MATTER (not only for better speech, but for entire life).

A stutterer and stammerer gets laughed at and kicked around, wherever he goes. Since others are better speakers, they are able to win all arguments. A stutterer and stammerer starts to make imaginary enemies and keeps fighting with them in his mind. That causes terrible loss of nervous energy. We have to convert this negative force into positive force.

It is a fact that human thought process has power. When the intensity of this thought process is strong, the results are instant and profound. If you can ensure that the thought process of others regarding you is positive, then the results are amazing. As a matter of fact, you being a stutterer and stammerer have no other choice but to gather strength from every possible source, even if the source happens to be the person you do not like.

do not bother What otherS thinK or Say about you


Because: Remember it is a full scale war against s&s and no stone should be left unturned to conquer this horrible nerve-wrecking impediment. It is worth the effort.

The reverse is equally true. A Good wishes of others bring amazing results in your life (including better speech ); the curses/bad wishes of the same people can have highly negative effects in your life.

Therefore, the stutterer and stammerer must do everything within his means to get blessings and good wishes of others.

Prayers1. Dawn and dusk are good times to reserve for

prayers. These are the calmest times of the day, when you would have maximum concentration, (2) Many times of the day you carry out activities of low concentration, for example, gardening, walk in the garden, having bath, changing clothes, etc. During these activities, prayers can be carried out, (3) Any time you find yourself singing or speaking silently, and (4) Any time you feel like or you need to.

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Note: When you carry out prayers in form of poem/poetry, silently and mentally praising your Lord Almighty, you are repairing your speech centres as well.

Blessings of Parents and Elders: Are known to have profound impact on one’s life. Give respect to parents and elders, and their blessings will come like torrents in turn.

Good Wishes of Others: It is very easy to get good wishes of others. Just start praying from the core of your heart for their wellness and welfare, especially for those whom you ‘do not like’. The good wishes of others will start flowing in immediately.

There is an old saying that when you work in perfume shop, you have no choice but to get yourself soaked in fragrance as well. When you pray for others, you automatically get blessed.

There is a wonderful saying in Punjabi, which roughly reads something like this ‘sarvat da bhala, tere phane sada wi bhala’ meaning, bless everyone in the world, and as a fallout bless us too.

Besides, when you pray for the welfare of others, your jealousy and animosity towards others vanishes. With two major negative forces removed from



your life, you become much stronger, your speech becomes better and the side effects of s&s become more tolerable.

The catch is that the prayers for the welfare of others have to be from the core of your heart or you are wasting your time. That is because there is something known as body language, which unfailingly will reveal all the truth going on in your mind. It will give away the truth in a jiffy.

Big PictureBe it someone at home, or in office, or in your life, with whom you are really angry, just deliberately keep thinking of his good points.Very soon the strong points of the other person will overwhelm you, and you will be friends again.

g. Thinking and Talking about Others in Their Absence/Presence :

While thinking about others, imagine the person is reading your thoughts. You will never think bad of him. Also while talking about others at their back (in their absence), assume the person is present with you. You will never speak bad of him. Conversely,

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never praise a person on his face, especially if he happens to be your boss/senior. That is known as sycophancy and is very degrading and not expected from a stutterer and stammerer. If you really like your boss/senior a lot, then do all the good talking about him in his absence. It is graceful and will reach the right ears in the due course of time. That will make lot of positive energy flow between the two of you, and your s&s will improve as well.


39. Understanding Nervous Energy

As I understand, there are two types of human energies (1) Physical, and (2) Nervous.

Physical energy may help you to run 10 miles without getting tired. But lack of nervous energy may make you collapse without moving an inch. I know of a person who actually collapsed on the podium while delivering lecture because he was mortally scared of public speaking. Possibly his nervous energy had fully drained out, worrying all night about the lecture.

A stutterer and stammerer is very low on nervous energy because of his constant worry and cockeyed thinking. Unfortunately for the stutterer and stammerer, nervous energy and nervous system play a major role in speech process.

Once a stutterer and stammerer understands working of the nervous system, he will be more careful and ensure his mind works as close to normal, and will find ways to reduce worry of s&s. That will

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increase his nervous energy reserve, and as a result, improve his s&s.

Speech: A Function of Subconscious MindSpeech, like breathing, is a function of subconscious mind. If you notice your mind controls your breath , depending upon requirements of body. Similarly your subconscious mind controls your speech. That is why you have been advised to think of anything, other than the speech, when the time approaches for speaking. This is basically to allow you to leave your sub conscious mind alone, so that it can produce best possible results in the given circumstances.

underStanding nervouS energy

40. A Role of Vitamin B Family

(Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B complex, etc.)

As I understand vitamin B family helps in nerves repair and nerves building. Since nervous system plays a major role in speech delivery, the speech results are much better, when vitamin B family is administered well in time and in correct dose, before the speech delivery. However, three things need to be taken care of, before you start using Vitamin B family.

First, consult your doctor before you start using Vitamin B family. Also find out which Vitamin B family member is most appropriate for the purpose of speech and what is the safe dosage.

Secondly, find out by your own experiments as to how early, from the estimated time of speaking and how much Vitamin B should you take, so that your speech is at its optimum best, at the required time. Too late and excess of B family usage can actually

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make the speech WORSE.Thirdly, use Vitamin B family only in extreme

contingency. In life, it is never good to get dependent on artificial props, not even vitamins for that matter.

Note: Vitamin B complex ( combination of all vitamin B family ) suited me the best, out of Vitamin B family. I usually swallowed the Vitamin B complex capsule 6 hours before the speaking event. I always gave a gap of at least one day while administering B complex. That worked very well for me. It may not work equally well for you. You will have to find out what is best for you by your own experimentation.

role oF vitamin and Family

41. B) Heavy Medication/Sickness/Constant Pain, Etc:

Opposite to Vitamin B family is medication/heavy medication when not well. Like Vitamin B helps to synchronize speech centres temporarily, medication/heavy medication/sickness/fever/constant pain, may temporarily affect speech centres adversely, and you may find steep increase in degree of difficulty in speaking. You also may find steep increase in your s&s.

You will need to speed up measures to counter the adverse effects of medication, etc. To start with, read this book and your diary more often during this difficult time. Follow the instructions more religiously and meticulously. It will help you.

42. Usage of Telephone by Stutterers and Stammerers

Every stutterer and stammerer knows by now, how best to use the phone, to get the best results. However, a few words of advice will be in order.a. If you are right handed person, then hold the

earphone on left ear and if you are left handed person, then hold the earphone on your right ear. In any case, by now, each stutterer and stammerer has already found out what suits him the best. Just follow it. In most likelyhood, it will be as suggested above.

b. If the other party is talking very loudly, then keep earphone as far as possible from the ear, where you can just about hear the other party and keep your mouth piece normal.

c. When the other party’s voice is very low, then keep earphone normal and mouthpiece as far as possible.

d. While using mobile phone, preferably use speaker phone, for best results (it may not be


always possible, due people sitting around).

Note one: While speaking, make sure earphone is not physically touching your ear, even at the cost of not being able to hear every word of the other party. As a matter of fact, farther the earphone is from your ear, better would be your speech. Then the phone almost becomes like a speaker phone.

Note two: If you are going to speak to an unknown person, send him a SMS introducing yourself. Give him a short detail of your business and your difficulty in speech.

The other person will be waiting for your call and that will avoid lot of initial s&s. He will also be sensitive to your speech difficulties.

Note Three: When you are speaking in non-ideal conditions, for example, lots of people around you/lots of noise around, then excuse yourself (if you are using a mobile phone), and try moving out of the non-ideal conditions immediately.

43. Speak in a Different Accent

(Especially for those who have real bad/severe speech impediment, can try to speak with an accent.)

Every language, including English, is spoken in different accent in different parts of world. Normally, the accent of the local languages (vernacular) gets laced with English pronunciation, and the output is quite different from the original queen’s English. That is why workers in call centres all around the world are trained to speak in a pronunciation and accent like those whom they are suppose to serve.

ProcedureTo start with, use your mouth and lips in exaggerated movement to speak. While doing reading practice, speak with lips and mouth only, and with accent. To start with, use the new way of speaking while taking marketing calls, followed by talking to strangers like shopkeepers, etc. Next, request your close relations to bear with your new procedure. Then request your real close friend to bear with you.


In the beginning, it would seem quite an abnormal way of speaking to others. You will find your friends exchanging knowing looks and smiles amongst themselves. Better to get smiled at, than be laughed at, and wallow in the miserable after effects of s&s. Surely but slowly others will get used to it. If you happen to be their boss by chance, then they better get used to your new way of speaking. They, any way have, no other choice.

Are you smiling? You mean a stutterer and stammerer can not rise in life to become the boss. If a stutterer and stammerer can convert his impediment into asset and make it a spring board (a motivator), he can be as good as anyone else, except speech of course.

Trying to speak with accent can be compared to singing songs by a stutterer and stammerer. When a stutterer and stammerer sings, he does not stutter and stammer, because his concentration is on the tune and words of the song. Similarly, when he speaks with accent, his concentration is on accent, and therefore, he almost does not stutter and stammer.

Once in a while, you could excuse yourself and

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apologise for your accent, to the person/group/gathering. They will understand. When speech gets on its way, they will not even remember about your accent. Basically, every one is interested in WHAT you speak than HOW you speak.

Also when you use mouth and lips in a major way to speak, you reduce major load on vocal chords, which will get tired much later; that is a big help in speaking.

SPeaK in a diFFerent aCCent

44. Use of Alternate Words and Sentences

All stutterer and stammerer are smart enough to use alternate words and sentences, while speaking. The real problem comes when only certain specific words have to be used, like a name. What to do now? (1) Relax your face by closing your eyes for a split second. Move your tongue on lips and have proper jaw posture (2) Keep thinking of something other than the coming up difficult word. (3) Alternately touch tip of tongue to front of upper palate, just before starting to speak. If you keep touching upper palate all the time, your vocal chords will get very tired. (4) If still not able to do so, then use ‘aah’ technique. It will work. (5) You can look at the sky, where all shining stars represent your great qualities. Try spelling the difficult word – London will sound roughly like ‘EL O EN D O N’. If the person reacts strangely, then point towards your mouth with thumbs down. He will understand that you have speech difficulty, just like he will have understanding

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of sign language of dumb and deaf person.What if you are dealing one to one. For example,

you are talking to a bank clerk from whom you wish to find out interest rate and you are unable to speak the word ‘interest’. Just write the word in block letters and show it to the clerk at the right time.

If you carry your grocery list with you, no order taker will ever insult you by announcing ‘next please’ just because you are taking too long to order. Use pen and paper extensively. It is like when you are travelling in a foreign country where you write basic words. You show it around and move long. In the worst scenario, introduce yourself with your name on a piece of paper with a caption that you stutter and stammer.

Note: Usage of vernacular (local language) along with English will give additional vocabulary to a stutterer and stammerer to play around with for alternate words and sentences.

uSe oF alternate WordS and SentenCeS

45. Social Get Togethers: A Few Helpful Hints

(1) The best way to be a part of the party, is to keep asking questions, especially about people themselves. You know people love to be asked questions; they also love to talk about themselves. (2) Be ready to laugh, even if you do not understand/appreciate the joke. (3) Go to the stage for singing and dancing at the earliest hint. (4) If you have problem introducing your spouse, due to your s&s, then say, Oh, I am really bad at names. This is my wife and he is…..

give a pause and in most likelihood, the gentleman will introduce himself.

NoteStutterers and stammerers are the best listeners, and hence, considered the best conversationalists.

b. Group DiscussionSupposing you are busy in group discussion or are socialising in a group. The s&s words will fly

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around in hundreds, let loose by various speakers, at a furious pace. To get your mind off s&s words, put your mind away by observing people, surroundings, focus on a point directly opposite. If you happen to be eating or drinking, put your mind in Tasteopathy. You will do a very good job in group discussion, by taking part in conversation at the right time, without getting overwhelmed by the s&s words flying around.

SoCial get togetherS: a FeW helPFul hintS

46. Repetition: The Biggest Enemy of a Stutterer and Stammerer

A stutterer and stammerer is always in the process repeating various slogans, assurances, lessons, and issues in his mind. He keeps repeating already given answers, keeps mixing up the answers in some slogan as well, especially when speaking is imminent. This is because he wants to suppress fear of s&s. Unfortunately, this process becomes a habit and a stutterer and stammerer carries on repeating in non-speaking environment as well. This causes his mind to work in a cockeyed manner.

However, there are two ways to overcome the repetition mode – firstly, during morning and evening time, repeat this book and your diary, preferably reading loudly, with accent. Revise all your missions, aspirations, priorities and dreams, and secondly, when in repetitive mode, do some day dreaming; if you are not able to do so, then pray.

47. Some Other Relevant Points

Some Wonderful Speakers AroundIn life, you will come across some real wonderful speakers and you may feel a tinge of jealousy. You should not be jealous, because God has sent everyone in this world with his/her special role, including you. Those with s&s handicap are actually very special people. Due to constant failure of speech, they get compassion for others. They go out of their way to help others. They become really good human beings – almost the best. So when you come across a real good speaker, he should remind you that God has selected you for bigger and greater things or may be for different things in life.

A stutterer and stammerer may be taking care of his sick parents, when his colleagues may be partying. May be God wanted him to become a doctor, instead of a lawyer, and thereby, serve the humanity. May be He did not want the stutterer and stammerer to be a smoker or a drunkard. May be He wanted him to


be the most humble human being, and hence, the most loved one as well.

Worry: Looking from one angle, worry is the worst enemy of a stutterer and stammerer, since it saps the nervous energy of the stutterer and stammerer, and thereby, makes his speech horrible.

Looking from another angel, worry is the most wonderful defensive mechanism of human mind to protect the owner of mind and his interests. The moment something goes wrong or is likely to go wrong, the mind goes in an over drive to protect the owner of mind, by delving into the issue and think it threadbare. This over drive continues, even when not required. It ends only when the dust of the issue is fully settled.

If one can learn how to handle and harness worry, then one can learn how to draw maximum benefits from this wonderful defensive mechanism of nature without sacrificing nervous energy or wasting time unnecessarily.

Normal Worry: Once normal worry sets in (for whatever reason), allow the mind to work normally. Let it think of all issues and all aspects of worry openly.

Having done that, the mind will keep bringing

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new angles and new aspects of the problem, which is good. The mind will also keep repeating earlier discussed aspects again and again and again. That is bad for your nervous reserve. When that happens, it is worrying matter. Now deliberately put your mind somewhere else to counter that. Not working take help of God. It will work 100%.

Also your mind will think of extremes, without any logic or reason. Counter it with extreme positive thoughts; your worry will be reduced to required level. That will help you to preserve your nervous energy and utilise it in proper channel to solve/fight the cause of worry and speak better as well. Any time nothing works take help of God.

Additional Worries of a S&SA stutterer and stammerer due to his nature and due to his impediment is a very worrying person. That is why his nervous energy is very low. He is a person always in a hurry, gets upset on small issues and is very nervous by nature. By fidgeting all the time, it becomes abundantly clear that he is nervous.

In our lives, upsetting issues keep cropping up, every now and then. It affects a stutterer and stammerer far more than others. He goes into worry

Some other relevant PointS

mode, which further empties his nervous energy. A stutterer and stammerer has his worries but in a

different way. He has constant pressure on his mind due his impediment. If he follows all instructions given in this book he can reduce his s&s worries to a great extent but can never get rid of it totally. Read this book and you diary in the morning and evening. There after treat you s&s like an intruder. Put your mind somewhere else. Your worries will reduce.

48. Singing Silently

All of us keep singing mentally or keep humming mentally many times. Just convert it to whistling. If whistling is not possible due to the surroundings, just pray it away. If the stutterer and stammerer is very fond of music, he may get overwhelmed by silent singing. So praying is the only answer.

49. Walking Interaction

When we are engaged in casual walk in a park, we come across hundreds of people. Some are non descript, some are noticeable, some are responsive, etc. Use this period to interact with them. Be natural about it. Do not overdo it. If you get negative vibrations about someone, pray for him quietly. Your positive vibrations will reach the destination. The feel good factor will improve your speech immensely. You will finish your walk happily, and will be looking forward to next day’s walk and interacting session with your newfound friends.

50. Use of Vernacular (Local Language)

Do not be afraid/ashamed to use your vernacular language, wherever possible. As a matter of fact, you will be at great ease using vernacular; use both English and vernacular as you please and as it may happen naturally. As a matter of fact, that would give you far greater alternate choice of words to use, and hence, more flexibility from the point of your s&s.

There is another way to beautifully employ vernacular. Whenever in a thought process and a difficult s&s word comes along, just change your language in your thinking to vernacular.

51. Lung Power

Air coming out of your lungs is the basic source of power for speech. Therefore, lung power is the base on which complete speech is based upon.

Indulge in whatever cardio exercises as per your doctor’s instructions, to improve your lung power.

Keep yourself busy – Even if you have to go and fly a Kite

52. Keep Your Self Busy: Even if it means to go and fly a kite

There is an old saying, Lucky is he who has work to

do, for he shall never get bored. It is especially true for a stutterer and stammerer who thinks far more, far cockeyed, far negatively than a person with normal speech. So, if a stutterer and stammerer keeps himself busy, he would no doubt finish his work faster and be ahead of others.

53. Constant Prayers

While engaged in low level mental exercises like walking in the garden, gardening, cooking, car driving, car washing, vacuuming the house, bathing, changing clothes, etc, keep praying. It will, of course, help you a lot.

Remember God when unable to get out of negative thoughts. Just speak to Him when the degree of difficulty is high. He will come and help you. Anytime. Just speak to Him. He is always with/for you.

54. Arithmetic: Great Help

Arithmetic is a speech-neutral mental activity, which can prove to be of immense use to a stutterer and stammerer. The mind of a stutterer and stammerer remains overactive all the time. If the stutterer and stammerer keeps giving it a break by doing simple arithmetic every now and then, he will relieve his mind from compulsive negative thinking. He will also sharpen his counting skills.

55. Mind Games (will help your s&s indirectly)

a. Power of Observation: Observe your surroundings, where ever you may be sitting. Start with one item and slowly keep adding other items. Ultimately, you will be able to recall all the items in drawing room, office or where ever you may be. Exercises like arithmetic, calms your mind.

b. Recall Your Journey: Whenever you want to relax, pass time usefully or go to sleep, recall your journey under taken last. Let us say your last journey was a trip to office and back. Revise the journey mentally. By the time you are on return trip you would be fully relaxed or would have gone to sleep.

c Look Forward: Let us say you are leaving for office or for some work errands. Take a piece of paper and write down all your requirements by looking forward till you are back home. Just write down whatever you think is necessary. You will do a good job.

56. Yoga

Yoga is one of the most valuable discovery by human beings to harness nervous energy by controlling one’s breath. It is really worth making Yoga part of your life, especially for improving your s&s. There are two exercises that are worth mentioning – Anulom/Vilom and Suryanamaskar.

NoteYoga must be practiced under strict supervision of a qualified instructor. Self-practice is highly unwarranted and uncalled for.

57. Repair of Speech Centre

It is almost impossible to repair speech centres, especially in case where the stutterer and stammerer has inherited the impediment from one parent/both parents.

The repair procedure is difficult, complicated and painfully slow. It might take one’s lifelong just to partially repair the speech centres.

One can just about attempt to repair alphabets only. That too purely on daily basis and by following strict rules.

Do not even think about repairing the s&s words. By repeating s&s words, you are converting pot holes on the road into ditches. The only way you can help s&s words is by treating them as intruders. Whenever they enter your mind, carry out their expulsion by using drill as explained earlier.

Daily Temporary Repair Of Alphabets: a. The Most Potent Method: Mentally and

silently revise English and vernacular alphabets,


when you are half sleepy. That will happen when you get up from deep sleep. When you are half sleepy, you have direct access to speech centres, through the subconscious mind, and hence, the repair work is longer lasting, more effective and with less side effects. You can revise English and vernacular alphabets in normal order, that is, A to Z, when revising in your sleepiness. The moment you are fully awake, stop revising.

b. The 2nd But Far Less Effective Method: A similar revision of alphabets can also be carried when fully awake but with reduced results. The suggested method would be to revise English and vernacular alphabets whenever visiting washroom for urinating, or when munching food any time, or walking at constant pace any time.

The idea is to simultaneously do another activity, while reciting alphabets. That ensures that revision of alphabets does not become primary work. While you were busy doing the main job, the alphabets get repaired unconsciously and automatically.

CAUTION: IF ALPHABETS ARE PRACTICED/REVISED IN ExCESS, IT CAN

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DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD. Note 1: Make recitation of alphabets while urinating for repairing alphabets in speech centres as the primary method. (though it is equally effective while walking at constant rate or munching food.Because 1: Urinating is compulsive. Therefore recitation of alphabets also becomes compulsive. (2) The period of urinating is really small, may be just a few minutes. That ensures no over doing of recitation. (3) The gap between to visits to loo is wonderfully good (2-4 hours) which ensures good gap between two recitation (4) No special time needs to be taken out (5) It is regular.Note 2: Recite alphabets in English followed by alphabets in vernacular. (A-Z). Alternately recite in reverse order (Z-A)Note 3: Recitation of alphabets is Always done silently, quietly and in one’s mind only. It is never done loudly.

rePair oF SPeeCh Centre

58. Aladdin’s Lamp

Do not forget that a s&s is like the Aladdin lamp, gifted by God to make him excel in everything except speech. By all means follow, this book and your experience to get best possible speech results. But do not forget the main purpose of God’s gift.

Read a novel before going to sleep

59. Read A Novel, Preferably At Night (Regularly)

Before retiring to bed, read a novel at your normal and natural speed. If any s&s words come along, just ignore them and continue with reading.

It is well said that books are a person’s best friend. They take you in realm of their own. For a short while, they make you forget your own life. You start feeling sleepy and going to sleep becomes that much easier. Simultaneously you become wiser and more knowledgeable by the day. Your English vocabulary improves and you get a command over the language.

Keep changing the author because each author has his peculiarities and style of writing that will enrich you in many ways.

Reading a book daily and as explained above will help your s&s and repair of speech centres temporally.

Note: From a stutterer and stammerer point of view, there is a distinctive difference between reading

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a novel and reading newspaper/magazine/course books/professional books, etc. You are active reader when you read newspapers, magazines, etc., and a passive reader when you read novels.

While reading a novel you get so engrossed in the plot that you forget about s&s words. These words keep getting revised/repaired simultaneously without your knowledge and effort.

read a novel, PreFerably at night (regularly)

60. Twenty or So Blessings

A stutterer and stammerer gets so traumatised and paranoid by his s&s that it becomes a matter of life and death for him. He feels and thinks of nothing other than s&s. The importance of other things becomes minuscule. He loses correct perspective; his priorities get warped.

So in order to get a stutterer and stammerer’s perspective right in a very simple way, a stutterer and stammerer must make a list of blessings that he thinks he is endowed with and read them, first thing in the morning, just as he gets up, every day and at the time of going to sleep. The list should have at least 20 or so blessings. Soon, a stutterer and stammerer will get his perspective right. The priority of speech will fall quite low, and hence, will stop troubling him too much.

61. Drive a Car vs Body Synchronisation

Driving is a speech neutral activity and a stutterer and stammerer must grab any chance to drive. Driving car is quite difficult and challenging exercise, especially in today’s traffic scenario. It can be excellent exercise for coordination and sharpening of one’s reactions and revising one’s driving skills.

However, two aspects need to be covered. Firstly, during driving, the tensions skyrocket. That is why you witness so many road rages today. Driving upsets your Body Synchronisation and will cause quite a bit of s&s after the drive is over. To counter that, one would need to leave early from home to avoid fast and rash driving and therefore have less tension and also have enough spare time in office to set one’s Body Synchronisation right by doing one of the various Body Synchronisation exercises explained earlier. Secondly, always be proactive while driving to remain out of trouble, to avoid unnecessary build up of tension, and thereby, help your s&s.


Be great like an ocean

62. Be Great Like an Ocean

All the rivers join in ocean at the end of their journey. By then the rivers are highly polluted.

A stutterer and stammerer should be great like an ocean, ready to absorb all insults, all laughter of others, understand under estimation by others, tolerate shouting by others, even when not at fault, get defeated in arguments gracefully even when you know you were right, etc.

To excel in life, one should either be like a hammer or an anvil. Being a stutterer and stammerer, you have no option but be an anvil. Only do not let any insult go waste by converting all negative thoughts into positive thoughts all the time. THAT WOULD BE LIKE CONVERTING MANURE INTO BEAUTIFUL ROSES.

63. The Power of Now

A stutterer and stammerer procrastinate by nature. Procrastinates means to put of some work for latter that needs to be done right now.

A stutterer and stammerer would rather wallow in misery of worry than getup and start working.

No doubt the stutterer and stammerer must look back to learn from the past. But that should not be more than 1% of his total time. Similarly a stutterer and stammerer must look ahead to be ready to tackle coming up events and requirements. This also should not consume more than 1% of his total time. Most of the time (almost 98%) must be spent in living in present. Keeping oneself busy in Now will make him very strong man, with very little time left to brood over the past and worry about future. All this will make his speech better and have less fall outs of s&s.

64. Be Proactive

Proactive is opposite of reactive. Say for example you are driving a car and someone in another car does a bad gesture at you. What will you do? If you are reactive, you will return the bad gesture back at him and that might get you in lot of trouble. If you are proactive, you would have already pre-thought of the situation and concluded that whatever may happen, you would never react to a bad gesture. If at all, you will return a bad gesture by a good gesture and peace will prevail. Similarly, be proactive in your relationship as well.

If you notice we all are already quite proactive towards people who matter a lot in a very negative way, like our boss. We laugh at his jokes (funny or not), we remember his date of birth, we cater for his mood swings, etc.

But where we miserably fail being proactive is towards those who really should matter to us in the positive way like husband, wife, children, parents, colleagues, etc. whose wellbeing really matters a lot.


And where we fail more than miserably in proactive process is towards those who do not matter to us at all, like servants, the poor and the downtrodden, weak and sick but whose good wishes and blessings are closest to the Almighty, and therefore, strongest and fastest.

Being proactive in life will make your conduct worth emulation. Your man management would improve. Your human relation will improve. When your relations are good, people will love you, and living with positive vibrations and with good wishes of all, will indirectly improve your s&s.

65. Spell Out and Write Down Your Mission of Your Life: Other Than s&s

Apart from speech, there are hundreds of issues, wishes, desires, targets, requirements, needs, health issues, constrains, priorities and dreams which are far more important than s&s. Write them down in your diary and revise them in morning and evening time, when the nature is at its calmest. The whole lot of list will go in your subconscious mind and will keep working silently. Keep updating the list. Targets of each person keep changing all the time.

66. A Test of Your Achievement

How well you start speaking, is not the test of your achievement. What really proves your achievement is (1) how often you repeat a slogan, a reassurance, a lesson learnt, especially when the time of speech is approaching, (2) how often do you repeat an answer already given number of times, (3) how often you override your answer with some slogan, (4) how fast you can throw out s&s words by physical movement of nose, fingers etc., (5) how long you take to recover from your blues, when actually hit by s&s, (6) how often you are able to convert a speech thought into something else or just ignore it, and (7) how fast you can convert thinking of abusive language into decent thinking.

67. Some Time Savers

(1) We spend more than 30 minutes in the washroom each day. This could easily be used to do simple maths or many exercises mentioned in this book. (2) While lying on bed, exercises of lips, tongue, is possible. (3) While driving back home and changing clothes, whistling practice is possible. (4) While doing activities of low concentration, prayers can be carried out.

68. Selection of Your Profession

Be very careful while selecting your profession as for as possible. The core part of your job should require 99 per cent brain power and only 1 per cent speaking power, and not the other way around. If it happens other way round than you are seriously asking for misery for rest of you life.

Ensure your profession requires 99% brain and only 1% speech (as far as possible)

69. Great Temptation

Since a stutterer and stammerer’s speech is quite normal under ideal conditions, he gets tempted again and again to speak as well as he speaks when alone. As a result, he forgets the cardinal principle he learnt while crossing 6 feet wide iron plank perched between two tall buildings. Think of something else; the less you bother/think of speech, the better job you will make of it. Even under extreme pressure of s&s, do not abandon the cardinal principle. That is only way to better speech. When you do not bother or think of speech, you get best possible speech results.

70. Anger Management: Stop Fighting The World

A stutterer and stammerer is on war path with the whole world due to his own shortcoming. He is on the edge all the time. He is angry all the time.

Since he is not able to express himself verbally, he starts to express himself by letters, email and SMS and with excited and troubled body language.

So, what is the answer?

All that a stutterer and stammerer has to do is to follow what is given in this book, from first page to last page, meticulously, religiously, regularly, day and night and you will see the difference.

71. Summary

A summary of physical and mental points has been made for your quick reference and daily revision. However, do not forget to keep revising main text as well.

72. A) Physical

• Keep your Body Synchronization at the top level, all the time by following various exercises given in the book.

• Sleepwell intimeatnightsothatyoucangetup in time to do physical and mental exercises before sunrise.

• Whilestillinbedandhalfsleepy,reviseEnglishand vernacular alphabets. The moment you are fully awake or have recited once, stop reciting.

• Stillwheninbed,revise20orsoblessings.• Stillinbed,liedownonyourbackandgothrough

all your ambitions, targets, aims, requirements, etc. briefly and quickly.

• Afterbrushingteeth,dotongue,lipsandmouthexercises.

• If you indulge in stretching exercises in themorning, then include some breath holding exercises as well. If you do not indulge in stretching exercises, then do breath holding exercises after clearing your stomach. Yoga can be included at this juncture, mainly related to

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breath control.• Doyourrunning/jogging/walkingasrequired

and instructed by your doctor.• Do squeeze in some time todo some reading

exercises before leaving for office/working place. Practice with exaggerated lips, mouth and tongue movement. If you need to do reading practice during office time for good Body Synchronization, then practice in mumbling fashion, as explained earlier, without getting tired.

• Avoiddoingwhistlingexercisesinthemorning,accept during bath and getting dressed. As it is tiring, do it after you return home in the evening.

• Leavehomewellintimesothatyoudonothaveto carry out fast/rash driving in order to reach office in time. Fast and rash driving spoils good Body Synchronization.

•Beproactivewhiledriving.• Onreachingoffice,youwillfindyourselfinbad

Body Synchronization. So depending upon time in hand, indulge strictly in only one of the Body Synchronization exercises.

PhySiCal


• Jog on spot, or brisk walk, or read, or dobreath control exercise for about 5 to 10 minutes, depending upon your health and space restriction.

• During the whole day, recite English andvernacular alphabets, preferably while urinating. Include one minute exercises for mouth, tongue and lips exercises. Yes strictly for one minute only. These exercises will keep your speech tools at their optimum best. Over doing more than one minute will tire them.

• Having reached home practice ‘Shavasan’ forabout 5 minutes before having evening tea.

• After resting for a while, take your diary andmake it up to date by writing experiences of past 24 hours. Revise next 24 hours and write that down as well.

• Afterdinner,brushyourteethfollowedbylips,tongue and mouth exercises.

• When in bed, revise 20 or so blessings. Dosome light prayers and you will go to sleep like a baby.

General

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Whenever one is in hurry or in panic, one starts to rush things. That really spoils the Body Synchronization quite badly. The body almost feels shaken up. The reverse is also true, that is, if a stutterer and stammerer slows down deliberately in his normal life, he would get a wonderful Body Synchronisation. That will be a big help for better speech. One way to slow down would be to pray, whenever possible.

PhySiCal

72. B) Summary (Mental)

This book might prove to be a turning point in your life. Follow the instructions meticulously, strictly, regularly, unfailingly, and you will find the difference. Coming across this book might prove to be the most wonderful accident in your life. Have faith in experience.• Sorry: No curing: Only conquering s&s is

possible: S&S cannot be cured 100 per cent, till human beings discover/invent a methodology to repair speech centres in human brain without side affects. Till then, you will have to live with the impediment.

• s&s Words: s&s words will keep entering your mind all the times. Just ignore them. If the source of s&s word is external just do any movement of body. That will make the s&s word bounce off.

If the source of s&s word is internal than just change from English to vernacular and you will be able to continue to think in uninterrupted manner.

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• s&s Centric: The less you think of speech, the better you will speak.

• Raise Your Self-Esteem: You have nothing to be ashamed of. As a matter of fact, you should be proud of the way you have been fighting it out relentlessly.

• Use Your Mind Somewhere Else: There are hundreds of activities in which you could keep yourself busy, and thereby, keep your mind healthy and away from s&s. Hence, better speech.

• Scold Yourself: Any time your performance is below your possible best, scold yourself; you will improve.

• Join A Laughing Club: To make up lack of laughter in the life of a stutterer and stammerer, due his not being very social, there is a serious need to make up the same. Laughing club could be one source.

• Mirroropathy: Whenever viewing oneself in a mirror, a stutterer and stammerer must talk to himself.

•Dress Up Well: It will raise the self-esteem of a stutterer and stammerer, and thereby, improve

Summary (mental)


his speech, apart from having less psychological effects.

• Singing and Dancing: When in a social get together, join singing and dancing at the earliest. That will raise your morale, and thereby, improve your speech and have less fallouts of s&s.

• General Health: If a stutterer and stammerer has sound health, he will do well in everything, including speech.

• Power of Now: Live in present 98 per cent of the time to get the best from life. Devote only 1 per cent to look behind and 1 per cent for looking forward. That is good for your s&s as well.

• Be Proactive: Do not be reactive. Be proactive to get the best in life and to assist your s&s.

• No repetition of any word, slogan, lesson, assurance, reassurance, etc. again and again.

• No repetition of any universal truth or repetition of an answer already given.

• No abusive language in your thought process.• Pray whenever you can, need, possible or when

engaged in low concentration activities. • GIVE best answers all the times. Do not mix any

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answer with some slogan, etc. • Do not be after your mind all the time, except when

in repetition mode OR when you are in bed after sleep OR except during morning and evening.

• When depressed due to speech hurt, look up at the shining stars, moon and dark clouds. Bright and shining stars represent your great qualities; moon represents s&s, always waning and waxing; dark clouds represent hiding of all your great qualities temporarily due to a bout of speech failure.

• Self Control: Self control in any form will help in s&s.

• Do not be a closet stutterer and stammerer: Anyone who has heard you speak knows that you stutter and stammer. Anyone who hears you speak in future will know that you stutter and stammer. So why do you wish to remain a closet stutterer and stammerer and hide something that cannot or need not be hidden?

• Be open about your speech impediment, without letting it become a topic of other’s time pass. That will reduce your fear of s&s to a great extent, and you will feel greatly relaxed.

Summary (mental)


• KEEP throwing out s&s words all the times, as explained earlier.

• Observation: When you are sitting anywhere, observe people and things around you. Start with one person/item and keep adding that.

73. Marriage of a s&s

If one stutters and stammers, then one should be careful enough not to marry a person who also stutters and stammers. I am not sure but I suspect that one’s children MAY inherit one’s or/and one’s spouse’s s&s. You can check on that from a specialist yourself.

74. My Funda

I am convinced that the theory of handling a stutterer and stammerer with kid gloves, is obsolete. Being sensitive to the feelings of a stutterer and stammerer is fine. But by hiding the impediment, one is doing the greatest damage to the future of the s&s child/person. A stutterer and stammerer always tries to go in the closet. He feels that the less the people know about the impediment, the better for him. When others laugh, a stutterer and stammerer should also try to see the funny side of it, and join others in laughing on himself, instead going into depression. When others find you laughing, they will be quite disappointed, as if they have been robbed of all their pleasure; they will stop laughing.

After speaking to my school principal, my mother sent me to school with the caption on my T shirt, which read ‘I STUTTER AND STAMMER’, and I was cured of fear of s&s overnight. My mother cautioned me that the children will laugh at me. No problem there. My mother suggested that I should

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also start laughing with them. As a matter of fact, I should outlaugh them, my mother suggested. The children were quite disappointed and stopped laughing.

Of course such severe action like caption on shirt can not be tried on a normal child. It could traumatize the child.

Instead a milder version can be tried. The child should be taken in confidence and in presence of child explain to the class in sweet coated manner about the child’s impediment.

Once the child knows that all in class know about his impediment he will shed fear of stuttering and stammering.

my Funda

75. Conclusion

If I were to conclude the book in one sentence, it would read something like this – ‘the less one bothers about one’s s&s, the better one speaks, and the better one speaks, the less the s&s affects one adversely’.

Unfortunately, the side effects of s&s are so unnerving, severe, disturbing and upheaval causing that just one sentence will not suffice to cancel the life-long suffering of the s&s. Therefore, a stutterer and stammerer will require lot of help, especially in the initial stage of recovery. As a matter of fact any help, direct or indirect, is welcome.

When a stutterer and stammerer excels in every other field except speech, no one should be surprised if they find the stutterer and stammerer winking at God and saying, “Thank You!”

76. Last Word By The Author: (Last word? not really!)

Do not expect miracles. Do not imagine that as you finish reading the last word of this book, you will become a better speaker. It is only when you practice all that is given in the text for a long long time, you will be able to put s&s in place.

Patience is The Key. When you get benefited from the book, help out the other stutterers and stammerers who have had no means to access this book, in what ever way you feel you can. The best way would be to send your comments to the author at [email protected] with suggestions to change, amend, delete, modify and add.

A fire always starts with a spark. My idea is to open clubs exclusively for stutterers and stammerers. The stutterers and stammerers of the world have as much right to enjoy themselves as others.


Quote

William Shakespeare did not pass MA English. But

now no one can pass MA English without reading

Shakespeare...

Success is what you make of it...

Not the END

but

A Start of New BEGINNING

my experiments to conquer stuttering and stammering

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