The Health Benefit of Public Speaking

W

hen once asked by Dale Carnegie about the health benefits of public speaking, Dr. David Allman, former president of the American Medical Association stated, "it is a prescription that no drugstore can fill. It must be filled by the individual; if he thinks he can't, he is wrong." Dr. Allman continued by jotting it down on a piece of paper for Mr. Carnegie.

Here it is:

Try your best to develop an ability to let others look into your head and heart. Learn to make your thoughts, your ideas, clear to others, individually, in groups, in public. You will find, as your improve your effort to do this, that you-your real self-are making an impression, an impact, on people such as you never made before. You can reap a double benefit from this prescription. Your self-confidence strengthens as you learn to speak to others, and your whole personality grows warmer and better. This means that you are better off emotionally, and if you are better off emotionally, you are better off physically. Public speaking in our modern world is for everybody, men and women, young and elderly. I do not know personally about its advantages to one in business or industry. I only hear that they are great. But I do know its advantages in health. Speak when you can, to a few or to many; you will do it better and better, as I have found out, myself; and you will feel a buoyancy of spirit, a sense of being a whole, rounded person, such as you never felt before. It is a wonderful sense to have, and no pill ever made can give it to you.

What are you waiting for? Go give your presentation!