This is one of the chapters of my book dedicated to public speaking. It talks about hands. If you are interested in this topic, you can subscribe to the author of the article and will receive notifications when new chapters are published. You can find the previous chapters on resource B17. What do you think public speaking is? This is speaking in front of an audience, you will answer and you will be right. But the question is more complex, who is considered the audience? - When you stand on stage and there is a full hall of people in front of you, this is, of course, your audience. - If there are 2 people in the hall, this is also your audience. - And if these two people are not in the hall, and you are not on stage, but, for example, you are just standing on the street and telling these people something, because this is also your audience. - Now imagine that one person is standing in front of you, and you are just talking to him, this is also your audience, and you, accordingly, are his audience. - Even when you sit peacefully at the dinner table with your family, you are also communicating, this is, in a certain sense, also your public. Thus, it turns out that we are all public people in one way or another, and it would be nice for all of us to know the rules of communication and structure public speaking. But in a speech, not only the essence of the speech itself is important, but also the details, in particular, in this article I will talk about how you can “handle” with your own hands when you are standing in front of an audience, when you are speaking, when you are being interviewed, or when you are standing at the board. When performing, many people have the feeling that the hands are just some kind of atavism, like a tail, and a completely unnecessary and only getting in the way part of the body. They don’t know where to put their hands: should they take some object, hide them behind their backs, cross them over their chests, or maybe just lower them and let them hang like a whip? Let’s look at the most common mistakes. TAKE ANY OBJECT IN YOUR HANDS. Any object in your hands, from the smallest to the largest, is like a straw for a drowning man. This is how listeners will perceive it on a subconscious level. If you don't want to look like you're drowning, don't do it. Don’t hold a notebook with notes in your hands, you still won’t be able to read anything on the go. You will only get confused when you start looking for something in your notes, and it will interrupt the harmony of your performance. Advice on how to deal with this problem. But if you really can’t do without notes, you can try the method of using multi-colored cards - small pieces of paper. To do this, you can use sets of colored office sheets, which can be purchased at any office supply store. Break your speech into several parts, for each part, choose a different color card and write on it a key phrase or quote from this section. Place the cards in order on the table. During your speech, you can either go to the table and read these phrases, or simply glance at the table and remember which color corresponds to this phrase and part of your speech. But it is important that your hands will be free, and there will be no straws for those drowning in them. HIDE YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR BACK. Hands behind your back are a sign of either secrecy, or aggression, or both in one bottle - hidden aggression. Choose what you like best. If you don't like it, don't hide your hands behind your back. CROSS YOUR HANDS ON YOUR CHEST. Arms crossed on the chest are a sign of superiority and closedness. It can also be a sign that a person is not confident in himself and is trying to compensate for this with such a pose. Remember the caricature of a wife standing with her arms crossed on her chest in front of her drunken husband who has “crawled in”. She is simultaneously indignant, feeling both superiority and powerlessness. Such a cocktailIt’s not at all appropriate for a performance. HANDS ON SIDES Still the same wife in front of the same husband, but now she is not just angry, but swears and shows her importance, because she is so big, scary and significant. In a state of aggression, many animals try to create a visual effect of their massiveness; to do this, they arch their backs and literally swell, causing their fur to stand on end. After all, in the animal world, the more, the stronger and more terrible, the greater the chances of winning. This is too primitive for a person and indicates his low level of upbringing and education. By the way, the desire to be more significant and weighty can lead not only to the frequent use of the “hands on hips” pose, but also cause a literal increase in weight and the occurrence of obesity, but that’s another story. LOW YOUR HANDS AT YOUR SEAMS There is an expression: “My hands have dropped.” It means lack of will, inaction, inability to fight and low interest. A man with his hands down is ready to obey and carry out someone's order. Not a very suitable image for a performance. SO HOW IS IT RIGHT? Determine the allowable space and range of movements for your hands. 1. This space should be limited to approximately the distance from the waist to the chest.2. The arms can be slightly bent at the elbows and move freely in the designated space.3. It is better if there is nothing in your hands, or, as a last resort, a pointer. You should not raise your hands above your chest - this is a sign of too much emotion, and if this is combined with a lowered palm, perhaps aggression and suppression. Also, do not lower your hands too low, this was mentioned in the previous paragraph. But if during the performance your hands sometimes fall, then rise and live their own lives, there is nothing wrong with that, it only speaks of your emotionality and sincerity. 4. Gesture moderately (a separate chapter will be devoted to this point) It is worth remembering that too much gesticulation can make your image and your speech too lightweight and reduce the effect of the speech. Bosses always gesticulate less than their subordinates. Confident people gesticulate less than their insecure counterparts. But, at the same time, the absolute absence of gestures speaks of a person’s stiffness and insincerity. So gestures, like everything else in life, should be in moderation. 5. Don't concentrate on gestures, don't be afraid to make mistakes. This can be fixed. Only the one who does nothing makes no mistakes. If you periodically take something in your hands, cross them on your chest or lower them along the seams, nothing bad will happen. This does not mean that the performance failed, it just means that you are a living person , and your gestures do not work on their own, but in the context of the performance. The main thing is that these “wrong” hand positions and gestures are episodic and short-lived, and most of the time the hands are in the space you have determined for them.6. One mistake is not a failure! Experience comes only with experience. You will succeed, you just have to want it and practice. The first time you may have difficulties with your hands, you will have to control them, but with experience you will stop paying attention to your hands altogether, and they will only add expression and decorate your performances. 7. Filming on video can be very useful.!