Who was Bodhidharma (also know as Tamo)? He was a Buddhist monk that followed the Silk Road back into China. But his travels had other impacts as well. During his adventures he wound up in southern China, a whole other story onto itself. While there, he spent many years meditating in a cave. One day during his meditations, Bodhidharma fell asleep. This was inexcusable! So to be sure that he never again fell asleep while meditating, Bodhidharma cut off his eyelids and tossed them outside the cave’s mouth. To this day, all paintings of Bodhidharma show him with an intense stare, and no eyelids.

Bodhidharma’s act had a lasting impact. The eyelids landed in a patch of fertile earth, taking root and growing into the first tea trees. Monks gathered the leaves and made a drink out of them that helped them to stay awake during meditation. To this day, Buddhist monasteries still utilize Bodhidharma’s gift. One monk is assigned to a teapot, and offers his drowsy brothers a fresh cup of tea.

There is a grand history with the act of tea drinking and the martial arts.

Now, you have to take care of what is going on inside your head! I am giving below my thoughts based upon my own experiences. Hope readers find it useful.

It is correct that to captivate listeners the speaker herself has to be captivated by the subject of discourse. If you are interested in what you are speaking, then your listeners will also be interested in your speech. - This is regarding the extent of ‘interesting’ that can be created in the listeners.

Now, may be you have to make a speech on a subject with which you are not really fascinated. Here, the thing that helps you best is your knowledge and grasp of the subject on which you are speaking. if you have good level of mastery over the topic, it will show, and the audience will respect you for that.

Another important thing to remember is that you should not be awed by the fact that you are going to speak from a position of authority, so you are required to be something more than is actually the case. It makes you feel nervous, you feel that you are not actually that great, after all. Here, you can calm yourself by thinking that this is a case of role playing. In many cases you are the audience, and in a few cases the reverse is the case. There is nothing very great about it.

Always remember that audience is there to know or listen to something new from you. Do that, and you will be a great speaker!