I wonder how many of the people who read my articles have heard of the Five Elements of Speaking? I’d like to know, because I wrote them, and it's about time I got them out there. As a shiatsu therapist, I worked with Chinese medicine, which uses the Five Elements of Health. I wondered if these five elements could be applied to other businesses? Can it be applied in your business? I believe they can. The First Element of Speaking is Fire. How many times have you seen a boss, a speaker, who's fired up? Who’s really buzzing, emitting energy, and naturally attracting people to them, just as fire attracts people to its flame. “They’re on fire”. Who hasn’t heard that said before? You see, it was Fire that started the universe. The Big Bang. It started everything. It's the idea, the emotion generated by enthusiasm. We’ve all the theme of your speech; that's your fire. It’s the way you introduce yourself to the audience. Fire in the belly can inspire people to fight, to achieve, and change other people’s lives. But Fire needs the elements around it in order to draw the crowds safely. Storytellers need FIRE. Physical fire is great when the storytelling takes place outdoors; inside, they have to create the fire by marketing, the location and their opening. They need the audience to gather, move closer and feel comfortable enough to listen. The storyteller, the artist, brings laughter, song, and silence. Our heartbeat is raised; we feel hot; there is passion, and the circulation/persperation improve. We love being with people. Nature tells us that FIRE is associated with maturity, laughter, the colour red, and sex. FIRE is used to bring a spiritual nature to an event; pagans, christians, muslims, jews, buddhists, bedouin, you name the culture, fire sits at its heart. And many of them ‘worship’ the Sun. Religion, of course, is heavily involved with FIRE as a symbol of judgement, purification and power. Many references to “Burning bushes”, “pillars of fire”, “tongues of fire”, spirits and of course, Hell. Most other spiritual practices have Fire at the centre of their faith.

Love is Pain. Through the hours of pregnancy searchng my breast for an escape. An escape that cannot exist. Because Love is Pain. And I have known love. I have known love...I have loved and been loved, and it brought great pleasure. It brought wonderful women into my life and beautiful daughters, and grandchildren. It brought wondeful memories...and that's why it was painful, so painful that it forced me to look at myself. And that was painful. But, now it's painful in different ways. Now the pain is loss. I am at an age where the people of my past are leaving, the people I loved, but didn't live with as a partner. The mother of my first daughter, died last year. I loved her. I cried like I've never cried before. I was able to touch her lips with my finger one more time at the funeral parlor. I touched her coffin before it disappeared, and I think of her today. I met the love of my life in 1964, through air mail, and met her physically in 1968. It was painful because I didn't understand her, or her past, But, even when I flew out of America, I knew I loved her, and it hurt all the way home. I didn't understand then, that she had a lifelong effect on my life. Through the miracle of the internet, we reconnected again in 2004 and have been talking on Face book and other platforms virtually every week. And I love her, and it hurts that I can't be with her. Especially at a time when she has suffered the losses of a husband and a son. But that's not the only pain. We found that we had different views on the American political scene, and that has led to arguments and shouting at each other over the bloody internet, and occasions where we have refused to connect for months...but I love her. The conclusion? I guess to know love you have to know pain. To know you can love, you have to know that you will be hurt along the way. I am grateful for the pain, because it means that I can still love.

https://trimtrain.com/

I have the hardest speaker challenge in the country. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Hi, I’m Ernie Boxall, and I’m a storyteller…or should that be storyseller. Let me explain… Every school holiday, I become Erine the Wizard of Storytelling at Tudor World in Stratford-upon-Avon, and to be a storyteller in Shakespeare's hometown, you have to be pretty good. The house, built in 1480 and renovated in 1594 after one of the most destructive fires in the town, is a living museum where families can steep themselves into the fabric of Tudor life. The town life, the English Civil War, and the Great Plagues of Stratford, along with smells, videos, and educational notice boards around the museum. In one particular room, Erine awaits as families climb the stairs into the infamous Ship Room, where, for ten minutes or more, they will learn about ‘Otto’, the now famous ‘Headless Knight of Stratford Upon Avon. NOTE: Don’t waste time scouring the history books for him. These slots are relatively easy as a storyteller, a captive audience who, while they have paid to tour the museum, I come for free, and it's all for personal satisfacrion. The challenge is the evening where, at 6 pm and 8 pm, almost every Saturday, you will be met by Wilfred the Warden of Tudor World, one of England’s most haunted Houses. This, ladies and gentlemen, is when I take the victi…visitors around the house, barely lit by a ‘Tudor LED lantern’ and educate and entertain them with the stories of everyone who has died there (and there have been an awful lot of people who have died in many ways, all of them tragic). And this is where it is, in my opinion, the hardest speaking gig in Britain. There will be a number of people pre-book for the hour’s tour because of the historical significance of the house, some will book because of the opportunity to experience the Spirit side of the building (no other actors, or ‘jump outs’ but ‘stuff’ as often happened), and the other will have come off the street after a day out or a hen night.