'Cause we are living in a virtual world: Virtual Communication Presence

Are you finding yourself on Zoom a lot lately? 

We are living through some interesting times. For the last few weeks, a third of the world’s population has been on lockdown as the world battles the Covid-19 Pandemic. For many of us, this has meant completely changing the way we regularly communicate both professionally and personally, because we can’t socialize with people outside of our homes. So we’re having to bridge the gap by communicating virtually— through platforms like Zoom, or Microsoft Teams, or Skype or FaceTime—- platforms where we can still see each other and in some cases even meet in groups. 

All of this virtual communication brings up some interesting new communication challenges, including:

• Physical Tension: because we are moving a lot less potentially in life but definitely when we are spending our days sitting and communicating on screens, you might be noticing more physical tension in your body as you communicate. 
• Restricted Breathing: This physical tension or destabilization might be restricting your breathing, making it harder to feel at ease and to speak from a supported, empowered place. 
• Pushing Vocally: Because we’re not getting the same kind of verbal/physical cues from our audiences that are letting us know we are being clear or that they are on the same page, we might feel the need to overcompensate by pushing physically and vocally 

This episode looks at some of these challenges and gives you some tips for how to handle them. The big takeaway is— don’t let communicating to a screen lull you into a false sense of security or divorce you further from your body as you communicate. Your body language, breathing and voice are even more important to pay attention to now than ever. It’s all about adjusting your awareness of how you’re communicating physically and vocally to this new medium. Warming up your body and your voice regularly is crucial, especially if you’re spending the majority of the rest of your day sitting down. We have a lot of warm ups on our website and podcast that you can look into to help you. 

Tips covered in this episode will help you think about:

— your body language and being physically grounded, at ease and ready to communicate

— breathing deeply and easily 

— supporting your voice 

— structuring your content to help you build a stronger relationship with your audience

We are not sure at this point how much longer social distancing is going to go on, but the cues we’re getting so far suggest that we could be communicating virtually for awhile yet. So as you navigate this new medium, we’d love to hear from you about the challenges you’re facing and how this episode is helping you or raising new questions. 

Take good care, stay safe and healthy!