Do you have ‘well-being of speech’? Let me explain well-being of speech with a vignette … *“Well-being of speech is like a lute without strings. Even without strings, the musical instrument proclaims itself. This is an image of our speech being settled. It doesn’t mean that we’re controlling, uptight, trying hard not to say the wrong thing. It means that our speech is straightforward and disciplined. We don’t start blurting out words just because no one else is talking and we’re nervous.

We don’t chatter away like magpies and crows.

We’ve heard it all; we’ve been insulted and we’ve been praised. We know what it is to be in situations where everyone is angry, where everyone is peaceful. We’re at home with ourselves, so we don’t feel that out of nervousness, out of our habitual pattern, we have to run at mouth. Our speech is tamed, and when we speak, it communicates. We don’t waste the fit of speech in expressing our neurosis.” (* If you know the reference to the vignette please let me know).

Own the Conversation

Implementation suggestion Over the next seven days tally the number of times you speak from a feeling of nervousness, or from a feeling that you have to fill the silence with the sound of your voice.