#1 Trial Technique of All Time
Transcription
Sari de la Motte here, I specialize in helping attorneys communicate with jurors. In today's video, we're going to talk about the number one trial technique of all time. Breathing. Now, for those of you who've followed me for a while, you know that I talk about breathing a lot, so let's discuss why breathing is so important and why it's the number one trial technique.
Most trial attorneys I've observed in court don't breathe very well.
Now that could be from nervousness, but I think it has more to do with breathing being so out of our awareness. Because it's so automatic, we don't tend to think about it, which means that we aren't aware of when we're breathing shallowly or holding our breath. But here's the problem: when we hold our breath, we activate our fight or flight response, which means we go into survival mode. Now if we're talking about things like leadership in court, we know that no one is going to follow someone who's only looking out for themselves. So when you're breathing and low and well, what you're communicating to the jury is, "I've got this. You can trust me. I can lead you to the right conclusion."
The number one thing any audience wants from the presenter is to know that you've got this. Breathing is not only going to help you appear credible and authoritative, it is also contagious. This means your listeners, and in this case that's the jury, is going to be pick up on your breathing pattern and breathe better themselves. That's huge! The better people are breathing, the more open and receptive they are to you. You don't want a jury that's in fight or flight, because they literally won't be able to hear what you're trying to get across.
I say that authenticity is showing people who you are, but breathing shows people how you are. If you want to show up as a leader in court, you must access your deep, I'm-comfortable-in-my-own-skin type of breathing. So how can you do that? Just bring it into your awareness. Once you're aware, the body knows what to do. There's no perfect way to breathe. As long as you bring breathing into your awareness and you focus on it, your body will take over and know what to do. So start with 5 or 10 minutes a day of just focused attention on your breath, and notice that the more attention you bring to it, the deeper it becomes and the more calm you'll start to feel.
Most trial attorneys I've observed in court don't breathe very well.
Now that could be from nervousness, but I think it has more to do with breathing being so out of our awareness. Because it's so automatic, we don't tend to think about it, which means that we aren't aware of when we're breathing shallowly or holding our breath. But here's the problem: when we hold our breath, we activate our fight or flight response, which means we go into survival mode. Now if we're talking about things like leadership in court, we know that no one is going to follow someone who's only looking out for themselves. So when you're breathing and low and well, what you're communicating to the jury is, "I've got this. You can trust me. I can lead you to the right conclusion."
The number one thing any audience wants from the presenter is to know that you've got this. Breathing is not only going to help you appear credible and authoritative, it is also contagious. This means your listeners, and in this case that's the jury, is going to be pick up on your breathing pattern and breathe better themselves. That's huge! The better people are breathing, the more open and receptive they are to you. You don't want a jury that's in fight or flight, because they literally won't be able to hear what you're trying to get across.
I say that authenticity is showing people who you are, but breathing shows people how you are. If you want to show up as a leader in court, you must access your deep, I'm-comfortable-in-my-own-skin type of breathing. So how can you do that? Just bring it into your awareness. Once you're aware, the body knows what to do. There's no perfect way to breathe. As long as you bring breathing into your awareness and you focus on it, your body will take over and know what to do. So start with 5 or 10 minutes a day of just focused attention on your breath, and notice that the more attention you bring to it, the deeper it becomes and the more calm you'll start to feel.