Using Gestures to Paint Those Mental Images

In the last issue we discussed starting to use gestures. We talked about the fact that many gestures are simply the same hand and body movements that you might make if you were arguing your point with a single individual. We also discussed the idea that if the movement looks natural then it will appear that way to your audience – if it feels awkward then the audience is go to notice it and question how genuine you really are.

For convincing and effective gestures that look spontaneous, practice your speech in front of a mirror. As you do, allow yourself to move you hands, your arms and any other part of your body that feels natural. It won’t take long before you feel comfortable motioning during your speech.

Once we have the spontaneous gestures under way we can start looking into the “rehearsed looking gestures.” These are motions that your audience will know are actually part of your speech. They are used to reinforce the mental images that you are creating.

Remember, one way to captivate your audience is to “paint a mental image”. Mere descriptions become mental images when you describe them so vividly that your audience can imagine being there. The trick is to start using practiced motions to help develop those images.

In one speech I gave I talk about one of my sons when he was two. I was playing with him on our deck while our dog kept dropping his ball beside me. I would throw the ball and then continue playing with my son. After a couple of minutes he got a glimmer in his eye and crawled across the deck, picked up a toy with his mouth and crawled back to me. He dropped the toy in front of me, sat like a dog and barked.

Can you imagine that scene in your mind – this little two year old sitting like a dog in front of me barking for me to play fetch with him? In order to help the audience picture it even more, I acted out some of actions (with gentle arm motions). I made the motion of throwing a ball while describing what I was doing with the dog. I made hand motions that resembled crawling when I described my son crawling. Finally I said the word “barked” in a manner that sounded somewhat like an actual bark.

By adding these actions to the speech I was able to help the audience develop their own mental pictures of this scene.

I believe it worked well. I used this speech in several Toastmasters contests. I won first place with it twice (at the club level) and came in second once (at the area level).

If you are telling a story in your speech then you want to paint a mental picture yourself. Look for action in the speech and add some gestures where it is appropriate.

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Copyright © 2007 David Mudie All Rights Reserved

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