How to Make Presentations Without PowerPoint

In these days, most of the presentations are made by a powerful tool called PowerPoint. In addition, there are lecturers and teachers who use this tool to make the learning process and teaching more interesting. However, there are some people making their presentations without using such tool.

Without PowerPoint, presentations can be quite boring. The reason is that they will be monotonous without any visual aid and music background. Presentations with PowerPoint usually provide the audience with a change in the presentation, and additionally provide the crowd with some explanations visually to the points being told. So without PowerPoint, the presentation requires the presenter to use his or her creativity. The reason is that the creativity is the only technique to keep the audience motivated and interested in the presentation!

The most important thing to be kept in mind to make a successful presentation without the help of PowerPoint is to know exactly what to talk about. If you are the matter of the issues intended to present, you will present it very well without PowerPoint. However, you should ensure making your presentation after you have learned about the nature and temperament of your audience.

At the beginning of your presentation, you need to present it and keep the end of your presentation in mind at the same time. You should know what your presentation talks about, because you may lose the audience’s interest without PowerPoint! Whatever you say, you should ensure seeing, hearing and feeling exactly what you want them to respond to. Make a strong beginning to the presentation. It is essential that your appearance and first words should be interesting enough to keep your audience glued to you listing. One of the most effective techniques to make a connection with your audience is to tell them a story or a universal appeal anecdote.

It is necessary to use props in a presentation without PowerPoint. The reason is that props are basically worth more than a thousand words. With such props, the audience tends to anchor their thoughts to these props. It makes no difference if the prop is serious or funny, small or large as long as it really relates to what you are trying to talk about and the audience can see it! Another technique to ensure that your audience loves you and your presentation although you do not use PowerPoint is to bring answers to the questions they have. As regards the audience, you can have a general idea of what their questions are; it is all dependent on you as it comes to bringing new ideas to your audience to try.

Keep in mind that because you do not use PowerPoint, you are just the visual aid and sound effect of your own presentation. People will get more interest in whatever you say, instead of overheads, visuals or fancy slides. So essentially, it is important for you as a speaker to be more well-versed and self-confident in your speech without PowerPoint.

Staying in the Present Moment Using Meditation

Meditation is great for having peace and calm throughout the day. But what about when you want to be in the moment (like during meditation) for everyday activities? Many people call it being present.

I used to be a worry wort all the time! I would be thinking about the future, making myself guilty about the past, and rarely thinking about the moments I was getting involved in. There were a few times where I was present, and in the flow of my work. Those times were when I was listening and playing to music. But I wanted to be able to have this feeling of peace all throughout my day. Here are the techniques I used based on my discoveries.

1. Every time you get lost in your thoughts, think to yourself, “The past already happened, and the future is a result of my current actions. Focus on what I am doing RIGHT NOW.” This will help you get into the present mindset

2. You could also set a trigger. Sometimes people put a rock in their pocket to touch when they start getting angry. You can have any trigger – a deep intake of breath, a word/mantra you say, or every time you see a stop sign. Anything that will regularly bring you back into the present moment.

Over time this will become easier. Meditation takes practice, but what takes even more practice is being present. It requires you to not getting worried about stuff, get involved with your thoughts too much, or have meta-thinking (thinking about thinking).

Noticing – Deliberate Embodiment in the Present

It’s not generally easy for us human beings to adopt new habits. One thing that helps is to make them easy. Noticing is a habit made easy by my seventh grade teacher and Dick Olney.

Living in Turkey, it was natural to hear the call to worship several times a day. A teacher at the time invited our class to pause whenever we heard it, be quiet, still our bodies and notice. That stuck. When I moved back to the states, sirens and red lights and now the sound of an airplane overhead invites that same pause -modern mindfulness bells.

Long before mindfulness was as accessible as it is today, Dick Olney occasionally talked about noticing practice. He taught how noticing practice can help us “Think in other categories.” What he meant by thinking in other categories is to wake up, to wake up from the bad dream of who we think we are IN ANY GIVEN MOMENT.

Woman: What I really want is to love, value and appreciate who I really am.

Dick: What about just experiencing it?

(Excerpted from Alive and Real)

Noticing is a practice like that, an invitation into becoming aware of your experience in the moment. This awareness is an invitation in gradual expansions in acceptance. For acceptance is free from the pull of liking or disliking. The awareness that comes from noticing without the inhibition of judgment, criticism or evaluation is liberated from clinging to some idea of good or bad, right or wrong, pleasant or unpleasant.

Noticing practice can also be an antidote to apathy or pain. You may find yourself savoring the floating moments of time – but that is NOT the goal. The goal is to simply notice.

I took to heart Dick’s teaching not to wait until you are in the middle of a fire to practice a fire drill. This idea struck a chord with me. I had been a dancer for about 20 years, practiced yoga and meditation for several years by the time I met Dick. Practice makes sense to me.

Though I do meditate, my noticing practice is not a formal sit down mindfulness meditation kind of practice, but a walking around and pausing to experience life in this moment kind of practice. The savoring of life’s floating moments happens unbidden, surprising me. It’s a habit that bears fruit in the most surprising places.

Of course, noticing involves acceptance. The more complete the experience of acceptance is, the more interesting I find the noticing and vice versa. It can become a pleasant game of acceptance. Practicing acceptance in this way becomes alive.

In the beginning, it is useful to put your attention to various elements of life generally thought to be noxious, like smelly garbage. Ask yourself, “can I accept this?” Remember, you don’t have to like it, you don’t have to somehow agree that “it” is OK. The question is “can I accept this?”

Practicing with inanimate objects can have an effect when you encounter another person who you judge as somehow not good or OK, somehow less than OR greater than. First, accept that you are judging them (and you). Then, practice accepting them in that moment. Your acceptance does not mean that you like or approve. It means you can accept that they are present.

For a more disciplined approach to noticing practice, try these tips:

Set a reminder on your phone or watch every couple of hours or so. You could use an app like CHILL that has inspirational quotes.
If you spend a lot of time in the car, use stop lights and stop signs to notice.
For 30 seconds to 1 minute pause, notice. Become aware. Notice your thoughts. Notice the images around you, emotions in the moment and body sensations. Take a few easy breaths. Just noticing.
Don’t aim to find something to appreciate. Linger as you like.
Simply notice the creation. Notice without the inhibition of judgment, criticism or evaluation.
Notice your thoughts.
Notice your breath.
Use your senses – what are you seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting – what are you sensing?