How to integrate the exercises into your daily life

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone!

My name is Federica, I am 35 and originally from Italy. I have been living in the Canary Islands
Short story: I have been stuttering since I was little, always ignored it – until a year and a half ago. I bought the course in Aprile 2020, started and left it. Now I am determined to master it!

I am reading the book again from the beginning – I am still within the first 150 pages. I found it very difficult to integrate the crunches into my daily life. Firstly, the majority of times I just forget about them. Secondly, my thinking seems quite slow in comparison to Satan-stuttering.
I read aloud daily – 30 to 60 minutes. However, I am a self-publisher and newbie blogger so, lots of reading material is under my eyes every day and it just gets “wasted”. I put a note on my laptop “READ ALOUD” but it doesn’t seem to work.

I am curious to know if anyone faced these challenges.
How did you manage the beginning of this journey?
How did you integrate the exercises suggested in the book into your daily life?

Is anyone interested in practicing the crunches with me?

[Anonymous]

Hi Federica,

Have you signed up as a stuttering plan member, as you get 3 free coaching sessions if you do so. This way, we can explain absolutely everything to you.

[Anonymous]

Hi Leah,

Thank you for answering.

I remember I read somewhere that it was suggested to finish the book before doing the coachings.
Am I mistaking it then?

Also, can I take part in the meetings on Saturdays or those are only for PWSS?

[Javier]

Hi Federica! I’m Javier, and just like Leah, I’m a PWSS and one of the Certified Coaches of WSSA. I’m from Madrid, Spain, so we could even speak in Spanish if you wish 🙂

It’s great to see that you’re going to take this program seriously and start your process of becoming a PWSS.

Reading aloud, especially at the beginning, can be tedious. I admit that. When I first started this program, I must say that I didn’t like reading aloud. But I knew I had to do it. I forced myself to do it, because stopping stuttering became my nº1 priority. So I made a huge effort to read aloud every day at least 1h. Even if my throat began to ache, I kept on doing it, but whispering. Since at work you deal with a lot of reading materials, read those! Everyday, when I went to my office, I liked to read the news while I prepared myself a coffee. Well, I used to read those articles aloud (or in a whisper if I didn’t want to bother those around me). I also read aloud all my whatsapp messages, emails, etc.
I forced myself to read aloud as much as I could. I even wrote it in my agenda, as one of my tasks to do every day. The beginning is the toughest part, but the more you do it, the easier it gets, because you’ll get used to it. In the end you’ll even get to enjoy it, I’m not joking!

Force yourself too to do the mind training treatments (auto-suggestions and/or self-hypnosis) at least x2/day, once in the morning and another one before going to bed. To find the time, I woke up (and I still wake up) 20 minutes earlier, to be able to give myself one of these treatments. And I don’t regret it! It helps me so much, not only with my speech, as now my affirmations deal with other things about myself.

About the Crutches and how to use them during the day…. well, you have to try to use them as much as possible. You should know that using them is going to actually improve your speech, so why not use them 24/7?
I used to give myself challenges, such as: now, I am going to use Crutch 1 for the next 10 minutes, on random words while I speak. For the folloeing 10 minutes, the same but with Crutch 2. And so on, until you finish with the list of the Crutches.
When reading aloud, use them too. It is a great opportunity to master them. Read aloud and use one Crutch per page, on as many words as you can. This is a great “training exercise”. BTW, when reading aloud, the only 2 Crutches that you won’t be able to use are Crutches 5 and 6 (it’s not easy to use them when reading aloud).
Every time you open your mouth to say something is a great chance to use the Crutches.
The Crutches work because when you use them, and focus 100% on the Crutches, you won’t be focusing on the word, so you won’t have issues saying that word. We stutter when we think-fear-hesitate-force the word. The Crutches prevent this from happening. So the more we use them, the sooner that speaking thinking only on the Crutches will become a habit, the sooner it will become your usual way of speaking. If you get there, you’ll be able to use the Crutches automatically, without thinking. This is when you won’t ever again worry or even think about your stutter.

About the coaching, we recommend to first finish reading the book, so that we don’t need to explain the book (so you save time, and you will be able to make a better use of the coaching sessions). But of course, you can ask us to explain to you anything about the book.

Regarding the meetings on Saturdays, of course that you can come to those. They are aimed for PWS and PWSS, of course!! We hope to see you this Saturday!

About practicing the Crutches, we have created a series of group meetings to precisely practice the Crutches:

Crutch Practice Group

The idea is to meet in groups of not more than 5 people, so that all the attendees have time to work on the Crutches. I am the host of some of these meetings (Wednesdays and Fridays at 5am EDT, or 10am if you are still in the Canary Islands). So my session will start in less than 1h. It’d be great to see you there!!!

I hope I answered all your questions, if not please let me know. If you have other questions, please share them with us! Have a great day.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Javier!

I am going to try the 10 mins challenge, which seems ‘easy’ to start with. It feels a bit less overwhelming and certainly a good way to begin to integrate the crutches into my speech. Thank you so much!!

I had a look at the group meetings you suggested and I already have 5 days on my agenda for next week! I won’t be able to meet you there as my timetable doesn’t match your meetings. Do I have to book them off or I just show up?

Since the last time I logged into the platform, so many things have been added, that is great!

Enjoy your day!

[Javier]

Hi Federica!
You just have to show up, but if you want, you can tell the hosts in advance about your intentions to joining their Crutch Practice group session. Send me an email to [email protected] and let me know to which ones you’d like to go, and I’ll give you their emails so that you can tell them.

Please keep up posted with your progress! And we hope to see you tomorrow at the SAM meetings! remember that you don’t need to talk in those meetings, and simply attend as a listener. No pressure!

[Author]

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