Sweeney’s Stuttering Update – August 2023

Good afternoon everyone,

I hope that you’re all keeping well 🙂

August 2023 has nearly come to an end and with that marks the perfect time for this month’s Sweeney’s Stuttering Update! I like to do these updates as a monthly log of my journey to speech fluency, bringing you along on the ride with me! So, let’s reflect on how my speech has been doing over the last couple of weeks.

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

We’re going to be doing this month’s Stuttering Update a little bit differently today. Usually, I write these blogs as a way of reflecting on how my stutter has been doing over the last couple of weeks, however, I want to mix it up a bit for today 😄

I’m going to be heading off on holiday next week, and while this is a very exciting time, it’s also the ideal place to perform a little test when it comes to managing my stutter. I’ve said it a lot on the page lately, but over the past year, my stutter has come such a long way, to the point nowadays, where my speech is largely fluent, which is absolutely fantastic to see!

In saying that, my speech fluency could have improved so much because I’ve started to feel a lot more comfortable in my surroundings – I’ve settled in well to my new job, my content has been doing well both on here and on my LinkedIn, plus some of the other things in my life have started to become less hectic than they were a couple of weeks ago.

The question that now arises for me is – have I become more comfortable in myself, my surroundings, or a combination of the two? My upcoming holiday will be a brilliant way to find out my progress here, placing me in a different country, with a whole new set of circumstances. Typically I would now start to ask questions such as “Will my speech be okay”, or “What happens if I stutter a little bit more than usual”, but I’m not going to do that this time around, I’m going to go into it all with a much more open mind.

I’m going to treat this holiday as an experiment for my stutter, seeing how far I have really come over the last couple of months/years. Regardless of whether I mess up a lot or it all goes as smoothly as possible, there will definitely be lessons to be learnt from this trip, that will help me in preparing myself for future holidays and journeys away from home.

As always, I’ll keep you guys updated with how it all goes and the lessons that I learn along the way. If it all goes well, then that’s perfect, if it doesn’t quite go to plan, that is 100% okay too, it’s all a part of the journey. I’ll see you in the next blog.

That’s all for today’s blog, what do you think? Do you enjoy seeing these monthly updates? Are there any blogs or topics that you’d like to see me talk about going forward?

I’d love to hear your thoughts 🙂

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!