Teddy Bear Problems: Mumbling and Hiding

Men who shoot up rapidly ahead of their peers in their teens, often end up almost scaring themselves with their new, HUGE voice.  These men become the Teddy Bears of speaking - kind, often mumbling, overly humble and considerate, and somewhat under-confident, or shy.

As teenagers, their compensation for the new, big voice that they aren't sure how to manage, is to mumble, drop their shoulders forward to make themselves smaller, and to try to turn themselves into a bit of a giant Teddy Bear.  Teddy Bears don't hurt their little wee friends.  By the time the peers of a Teddy Bear have caught up in height, the speech pattern is often firmly enmeshed with their burgeoning young adulthood.

Is it possible for a Teddy Bear to use his whole voice without scaring people?  Absolutely!  The issue is learning to differentiate projection, volume, and the vast energy of their voice.  You can project a voice quite quietly and with compassion, without scaring people.  Volume and projection are two separate issues.

Going from a Teddy Bear into someone in charge of their powerful voice means learning to: 

  • engage volume control
  • project the voice consciously
  • embrace your full height comfortably, and use good posture
  • get used to your full presence within a larger room.  

For a Teddy Bear, changing posture isn't a manner of just shoving shoulders back - the real postural change comes from the deep core engagement, and spine elongating out of the way you stand into your legs, and deep pelvic muscles.  Shoulders will naturally open as the deeper core engagement takes effect.

Teddy Bears are often very kind people, who just really, didn't want to hurt their tiny little friends, but they often have a magnificent presence, and when they embrace a room kindly, it is often with a naturally majestic leadership quality, that people truly enjoy.