Instructions:

• Find a calm indoor space where you feel comfortable and safe, a chair, and a mobile phone with a voice recorder and timer functions. You'll improvise a speech to empower yourself by improving your ability to cope with stress, so choose a word that will be the topic of your improvised speech. Set the timer for 1 minute. Sit down. When you feel ready, take a deep breath, turn on the voice recorder and activate the timer.
• As soon as the timer is activated, start talking. There’s only one rule: no interruptions. If you feel like you’re running out of words, take a breath and keep talking again. As soon as the timing is over, stop talking immediately and turn the voice recorder off.
• Reflect on how you felt during the activity: which word, thought, or reasoning struck you the most? Listen to your recording: did your voice falter at any point? If so, why? And how did you manage the time at your disposal?
• If you want, you can repeat the process, using the same word or a new one; otherwise, close the exercise with some simple activity to balance the breathing and release the tension accumulated: the tools "Hissing" and "Singing while Breathing" are highly recommended.

Advice:

If you plan to practice this activity regularly, consider beginning with "neutral" words (e.g. "tree", "cloud", "flower", etc.) and with your timer set to 1 minute; afterwards, when you feel ready to cope with potentially higher levels of tension, you can try yourself with more emotionally charged words (e.g. "dream", "love", "death", "burnout" etc.) and/or with reducing the time at your disposal to 30 seconds. You can also add an extra level of challenge by placing your seat in front of a mirror and looking constantly at your reflection while speaking.

If you want, you can combine this practice with journaling, taking note of anything relevant you have observed during the process. 

The activity can be also made in pairs, with a “speaking buddy” and a “listening buddy” switching roles, choosing words and topics for each other, and giving each other feedback.