Public speaking often causes anxiety and anxiety. What if I forget something? Am I confused and can’t cope with my emotions? Can't answer questions? Will my speech be uninteresting to the audience?
Many people believe that only timid and shy people experience fear of speaking in public. But according to oratory, in fact, almost everyone goes through such experiences. Even many experienced speakers experience anxiety when speaking on a new topic or in front of an unfamiliar audience. As surprising as it may sound, fear of public speaking is one of the most common phobias on the globe (according to statistics, fear of public speaking ranks first and second in different countries).
Any person has experienced excitement, and sometimes even fear, when it is necessary to make a report, give a presentation, give a speech at a meeting, give a toast at a festive event, or recite a poem at an amateur competition. Depending on the importance of the event and the audience in front of which you are speaking, anxiety can manifest itself to varying degrees. At such moments the pulse quickens, hoarseness and trembling appear (in the hands, knees, voice), the tongue becomes stiff, and sometimes even the face and neck become covered with red spots. Linking several words into a meaningful text seems like an impossible task. Where to put your hands? Eyes to the ceiling or to the floor? How to overcome the fear of public speaking and cope with anxiety?
Basic principles of dealing with fear:
1. Practice is the most effective way. To get rid of fear, you need to constantly overcome it. After about the fifth or sixth (regular!) performance in front of an audience, fear will gradually begin to subside. Practice, practice and more practice. Take every opportunity to gain public speaking skills.
2. Preparing for the performance. The best way to reduce your fear of public speaking is to prepare for it. To give a successful presentation, you need to know the topic of the report well. The prepared material can be shown to other people so that there is no doubt about its quality.
You can rehearse your speech in advance (in front of a mirror, a listener), thinking through the pace of speech, movements, facial expression, etc. The more confident you are in your knowledge, the less you will worry about saying something wrong and ending up find yourself in an awkward position. It is the lack of confidence in their knowledge that keeps many people from speaking in front of large audiences.
3. Give up the idea that you always have to be perfect. Most people are afraid of public speaking due to the fear of making a mistake in front of everyone. This anxiety further increases the likelihood of mistakes. And even professional speakers are not immune from them. Ask yourself, "What's the worst thing that will happen if I'm wrong?" A mistake will not result in a death sentence. Remember: you still won’t be able to please everyone. About 5% of the audience will still remain dissatisfied. There’s nothing you can do about it, it’s the law of life, so is it necessary to waste your nerves on it?
4. Appearance. Try to look good during your speech. First of all, for yourself. This is where the next psychological moment comes into play. For example, a girl had an “arrow” on her tights. She thinks about it, worries. Even if 90% of people don’t see her, the girl knows about it. These thoughts do not add to her confidence. Make sure that your clothes and shoes do not cause you internal discomfort and do not distract your attention during the performance.
4. If possible, take training or courses in public speaking
Methods for dealing with fear immediately before a performance:
1. Move your jaw back and forth quickly, this will help relax the facial nerves so that your face does not resemble an ancient theater mask.
2. Vigorously shake your hands, move your fingers, stretch your palms. This gymnastics helps relieve the paralyzing effect of anxiety and stimulates the speech apparatus; Your reaction speed and eloquence are significantly improved.
3. Walk vigorously and wave your arms. Physical activity helps relieve nervous tension.
4. Move at a calm rhythm. Stretch your arms up without lifting your heels from the floor, stretch and throw your body down, shake your arms.
When we’re nervous, our breathing rate reflexively increases (when we’re nervous, we breathe quickly and shallowly). And since everything in the human body is interconnected, with conscious control of breathing, the psychological state of a person also changes. By learning to control and manage your breathing, you will learn to control feelings such as anxiety, fear, and panic. Breathing slowly and deeply will help reduce anxiety. Try the following breathing exercises before your performance:.
1. “Square breathing”: inhale through your nose, pause, exhale through your nose and pause again. Do the exercise in four counts (inhale for one, two, three, four, pause for one, two, three, four, etc.).
2. “Breathing on a count”: inhale through your nose for one or two, exhale through your nose for three, four, five, six. Take a pause. (3-5 inhalations and exhalations). Next, increase the duration of your inhalations and exhalations. Inhale through your nose for one-two-three-four, exhale through your nose for five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven-twelve (5-7 inhalations and exhalations).
3. “Exhale through the mouth”: inhale through your nose for one-two-three, exhale through your mouth for five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven-twelve (5-7 inhalations and exhalations). We always speak on the exhale. Speaking, it is better to inhale through the nose, and we, one way or another, exhale through the mouth. The longer our exhalation, the stronger, more melodic and without interruption we will be able to speak. It is important to learn to exhale more slowly than usual.
4. If you are out of breath, take several deep breaths and pronounce any words using the vowel “u” as you exhale. For example: wow, circle, fluff...
If you don't know where to put your hands. Before the start of the performance, the arms are in a natural position along the body or slightly bent at the elbows and slightly pressed to the body. During a speech, you can put your hands behind your back, on a table or podium. It is not advisable to cross your arms, close your hands, or keep them in your pockets. You can pick up an object (pen, book, sheet of paper with your notes), but do not perform unnecessary manipulations with the object. It is better to hold the object with one hand so that the other remains free.
If anxiety increases during a performance, any movement will help. You can walk around, pick up something, a microphone, a visual aid. Come up with a reason for applause and applaud along with the audience.
We hope you find these tips useful. Anyone who wants to stop being afraid must start performing. It's only difficult the first five times. Arm yourself with knowledge and gain speaking experience, improve your oratory. And each time the discomfort will be replaced by the pleasure of a job well done. Try it, find what helps you.
Our nervous system is a complex mechanism that includes many components and even processes that are not always clear to us, and often not known at all. Some of them, such as fear, worry, anger or apathy, we would gladly get rid of. Fortunately, we cannot turn off nature's carefully designed reactions. It is fortunately, and not unfortunately, because there is nothing natural and at the same time unnecessary. Each, even the most inappropriate, in our opinion, property has its own rational reasons and practical goals. Even uncomfortable, unsettling and forgetting words anxiety is not as destructive as it might seem at first glance.
It may be hard to believe, but it's actually true: the fear that paralyzes you before public speaking is not sociopathy or a flaw in your upbringing. This is just an instinct, securely wired into the most ancient parts of the human brain. It works for all people, it’s just that some have learned to hide these emotions and, over time, not pay much attention to them. And it doesn’t matter at all whether you are going to speak in front of a crowd in the square or take the floor at a close family meeting, how often you have to speak in public and how well prepared you are, glossophobia (this is the term in psychology for the fear of public speaking) will definitely remind you in one way or another About Me.
You can deal with it in different ways, but the fact that your negative emotions are not unique and most people experience the same feelings in similar situations should calm you down at least a little. Coming to terms with your fear and accepting it as a given is the first step towards overcoming it. We will assume that it has just been done, and we invite you to go through all the subsequent steps together, with each point of our advice getting rid of the oppressive anxiety before performances.
How to get rid of the fear of public speaking
You will need all your determination and a sincere desire to get rid of anxiety. Concentrate on this goal and try not to forget about it even in those moments when panic completely knocks all coherent thoughts out of your head. This is the main insidiousness of emotions: they interfere with thinking logically. But you are already armed with an understanding of what is happening and can prepare in advance for the test of excitement:
- Conscientiously rehearse your upcoming performance, be it a report, a performance concert, or a poem at a children's matinee. You must have absolute confidence in your own preparation. If you are faced with the task of freeing a child performing at a children's party from the excitement, do not skimp on praise and instill in him the confidence that he knows the number perfectly. Very often, the awe in front of the public is caused by internal uncertainty and a feeling of guilt that they screwed up, although they could have prepared better. Don't give fear a single chance to take advantage of this loophole. You can rehearse in front of a mirror, but it is better to ask one of your friends to listen to you and observe your own reaction to a “live” spectator.
- By the way, about the audience. Why are you afraid of them? These are exactly the same people as you. Yes, there are many of them, but each individual has not done anything bad to you and the main thing is that they are not going to reproach you or look for flaws in your performance. Perhaps they are also worried about something; most have their own fears and problems. Treat the audience with understanding - and you will feel that it becomes easier to connect with these strangers. Think of them not as a hostile crowd, but as a collection of pleasant, intelligent and friendly individuals.
- You are lucky if you have the opportunity to visit the place where the performance will take place in advance. Be sure to take advantage of this chance: go on stage, walk along the ramp, go down into the hall. In general, master this unfamiliar territory properly, including psychologically. It is believed that a familiar environment gives more confidence than seeing it for the first time.
- Breathing exercises can quickly and effectively restore your mood and help you feel more confident. Inhale as deeply as possible and exhale slowly and completely. Try to involve your abdominal muscles in breathing. Such ventilation of the lungs will supply the brain with oxygen and organize thoughts, even if a panic attack happened to you in the midst of a performance. Performing breathing exercises is useful for everyone who regularly performs solo in front of an audience, so that at the right moment they can easily master their frayed nerves.
- And now some unexpected advice: don’t strive for perfection. Yes, instead of trying your best to perform as best as possible, immediately admit to yourself that you have the right to make mistakes. Everyone has this right, and it’s great relaxation in stressful situations. And an old woman can be a failure, and if you are not a professional speaker or an artist just starting a career, then you are allowed to fall short of the masters in some ways. Moreover, it is mistakes that allow you to notice and correct your mistakes as early as possible in order to prevent them in the future. In other words, your current inexperience is the key to development and improvement. And even celebrities and public favorites are beyond the power to please everyone present.
- Play for success. Mentally look ahead and imagine yourself having already completed the performance, and finished it with a bang. Feel this satisfaction with your own achievement as if it had already been accomplished. Often such a simple technique helps to get rid of the surging excitement both before and during a performance.
Some tips on how not to behave and what you should not do under any circumstances before a performance, so as not to aggravate your stress.
- Despite the great temptation to relieve tension with medication, refuse sedatives. Sedatives do not affect everyone the same, and even if you take a proven medication, the effect may be unexpected. It’s one thing to take sleeping pills at night, and quite another thing on the eve of an important event. You don't want to think slowly, be sluggish, or even fall asleep in the middle of a sentence. This means that you will have to get rid of anxiety using your body’s own forces.
- Excitement causes many people to behave unnaturally, for example, to joke at the wrong time and inappropriately. So, when a serious performance is coming up, it’s just the wrong time. In a tense environment, the brain seems to work convulsively, unable to keep up with the language. Your forced jokes will most likely come out awkward and flat. As a result, you will not relax with the help of humor, but will only become even more anxious. This condition should not be provoked.
- Naive school advice such as mentally undressing those present, imagining them in comical situations can only distract you from the purpose of your visit to the stage. Few people are able to simultaneously have fun like this, repeat the text and fight anxiety. So, if you are not aiming for Julia Caesars, it is better to choose a priority direction for thoughts and actions and follow only it.
Hello, dear readers! Fear of public speaking is very common today. Presentations take place in schools, colleges, and at work. We encounter this in various areas of life. How to speak in public and not worry? Is it possible to overcome self-doubt and become a skilled speaker? Can. Let's talk about how to achieve this.
10 minutes before the performance
How does our stage fright manifest itself? The face turns red or pale, the heart begins to beat faster, arms and legs shake, a lump forms in the throat, the jaw stops working, and so on. All this is a manifestation of the release of adrenaline.
A man looks behind the scenes, opens the audience door and sees a crowd of people. This could be a hall for a thousand spectators, or maybe a room designed for ten people. For us, this is a crowd, a danger, a threat, and we need to run away from it as quickly and as far as possible.
But the performance must take place, we are not running away. Understand one simple thing, your physiological manifestations are not something inadequate and bad. In this way, the body tries to cope with the release of that same adrenaline and release excess energy.
Don't think that you are a lost person and will never be able to speak in front of a large audience. Every problem can and should be worked on. And anxiety before a presentation can be overcome.
One of my friends was so afraid that she sometimes fainted ten minutes before leaving, like clockwork. But after several months of hard work, she went out into the hall to an audience of thousands and successfully gave a presentation.
It is important to understand the reason.
Looking for a reason
For many, the first unsuccessful performance plays a cruel joke. Your parents didn’t praise you, the teacher said you were stupid and incompetent, and so on.
After all, the first appearance in public can take place even in kindergarten, and it is very important that they give a good assessment. Since this affects all subsequent performances. Be vigilant with your child.
Role change. We don't feel afraid of talking with friends, we just chat, discuss an interesting topic and have fun. We don’t feel tension, nothing excites or touches us. For the most part, this happens because we understand that at any inconvenient moment we can stop talking.
This can't happen in public. We cannot get up and leave in the middle of a speech if it suddenly becomes uncomfortable or the situation gets out of control. The speaker takes responsibility for the conversation. And he understands that he needs to keep the audience under control. It puts pressure and causes nervous tension. It’s not so easy to stop being afraid, especially when several dozen pairs of eyes are looking at you.
When talking with a friend, the emphasis is on the information that the person is conveying. During a public presentation, many people focus on the fear of failure, on failure. This makes it difficult to concentrate, brings up unpleasant images in your head, makes you nervous and distracts you from the essence of the performance.
“What if I don’t succeed”, “What if they laugh at me”, “what if someone asks a question to which I don’t know the answer” - all these phrases focus attention on the expected future failure.
Change the vector to presenting information and focus your attention here. Don't attract failure yourself.
Grade. Another reason for a speaker's uncertainty is fear of evaluation. The audience will look closely at everything: clothing, demeanor, facial expressions and gestures, speech, jokes, presentation slides, handouts, and so on. The speaker is as if under a microscope.
But many people do not understand that many assessments are based on an inadequate system. Someone may not like your blouse because she wanted to buy the same one for herself but didn't have enough money. The other person won't like your joke because he has problems with his sense of humor.
Remember, only you know correctly. Don't listen to negative reviews from people whose opinions you shouldn't care about.
You must be able to listen to constructive criticism. When possible errors in the pronunciation of a word are pointed out to you, they give useful advice on facial expressions and gestures during a speech. Know how to sift the chaff from the chaff.
Don't be afraid of negative evaluation. Remember, there will always be dissatisfied people. There are such comrades even at the speeches of the most famous speakers. They find fault with everything. The presentation may be perfect, but they will definitely not like the presenter's tie.
In the article “” you can find a lot of useful information for yourself that will be useful not only in your personal life, but also for professional growth.
A few secrets of a successful speaker
What should you do to make your presentation interesting, memorable and useful?
Remember, public speaking, like any other art, can be learned. Today there are a huge number of schools, courses, and open lectures for those who want to learn how to perform. Don't be afraid to take lessons like these.
What can you do on your own?
Work out the structure of the presentation. It depends only on you how prepared your speech will be. Spend a little more time on this and you can have prepared all the questions that may arise during the presentation, you will understand in which places you are swimming and where you need more information, what can be painlessly removed from the speech and what to add.
Remember the attention of the audience. A person can concentrate on one thing for only about twenty minutes, then he switches his attention to something else. Make inserts with real-life examples, bright pictures, jokes or life stories. You control the audience's attention. Direct it where you need it.
Talk to the audience. Don't think of them as mindless dolls. Ask for advice, let them tell similar incidents from their lives, let them help you draw a picture on the board. Involve them in the process. People like to feel important and useful. Use this in your presentation.
Study. Eighty percent of success depends on how you behave during the speech. Your facial expressions and gestures are much more important than the speech itself and the information you are trying to convey.
Look at how famous speakers behave, how they behave on stage, what gestures they use, what emotions their faces express. It is body language that provides you with ways to please your audience, appear confident, and knowledgeable.
Stay straight, speak calmly, do not use defensive gestures, and do not lower your head.
Before you begin, stand in the superhero pose for about five minutes. This will give you confidence and charge you with positive energy. Don't laugh, just try it, it really works. Tested for myself.
You can find a lot of useful information about speaking in Dale Carnegie's book How to Build Confidence and Influence People When Speaking in Public" Study, work on yourself, practice and success awaits you!
Have you always been afraid of speaking in front of an audience? How does this manifest itself on a physiological level for you? How do you deal with this and what helps you calm down?
Believe in yourself and don't be afraid of anything!
“How to stop being afraid of public speaking?” - a relevant question for people of all ages and professions. For the first time we are faced with the need to speak in front of a serious public already at the institute or at work. And if at school speaking in front of your classmates made you feel uncomfortable, and you caught yourself thinking, “I’m afraid to do this,” then work assignments where you need to convey certain information to professionals most likely terrify you.
But all this fear of public speaking is only in our heads, so you can easily get rid of it by first explaining to yourself how it arises and what ways to overcome it exist.
The anxiety before performing on stage can be different, but we feel the same state, which is extremely difficult to overcome: our hands and knees are shaking, our mouth is dry, our voice sounds as if from the outside, the audience turns into one frightening mass. To understand why fear controls us so much and how we can cope with it, let’s find out its causes.
Perhaps the first and most underestimated cause of fear of public speaking begins in childhood. The first time a young child speaks loudly in a public place, the parent will silence him. Subsequently, this will be the explanation of why a person has a phobia of expressing thoughts loudly in front of an audience.
When the voice is suppressed, it leads to anxiety, and ultimately to fear. Of course, school teachers who belittle abilities and classmates who can hurt feelings without thinking about the consequences will not forget to add fuel to the fire. These moments are the causes of social phobias, including those that provoke fear of public speaking.
The second reason why fearless public speaking eludes us has to do with the psychological component of fear. Fear used to be synonymous with the word danger. I felt cold - I tried to warm up faster, went to the edge of the abyss - I was afraid of heights and walked away. Under the influence of everyday stress: work, study, economic and political changes in society, the instinct of self-preservation has undergone changes. As a result, we begin to worry in unjustified situations, including before performing on stage.
- The reasons that awaken this fear in us are the following:
- Fear of people as such due to low social activity.
- Fear of saying something stupid or slipping up.
Constantly telling yourself that the listeners are negatively disposed towards you and will closely evaluate your performance.
Another reason is not having the information necessary for the presentation. And the last one is agoraphobia or fear of crowds. Unlike the fear of people described above, this fear is deeper, and people do not even realize that they are afraid of large crowds of people and suffer from this type of phobia.
Why you shouldn't be afraid to perform on stage
Having understood the sources of the formation of a phobia for stage performances, you must first of all convince yourself that this fear does not exist, that we are starting to worry in vain.
The main point on the way to overcoming fear, which you need to realize and feel, is that public speaking is an opportunity to show your best side and evaluate your skills in working with an audience. This is important because every day, at work or school, we communicate with people, and when this brings us discomfort, our productivity drops, our mood worsens, etc. Fearless public speaking is the key to your self-confidence. By training skills by presenting information in front of other people, you bring actions to automatic execution, and over time you will no longer feel discomfort when communicating with people.
- Let's summarize the useful aspects that can be gained from performing on stage:
- In the process of preparation, you will deepen your knowledge related to the topic of the speech.
- At work conferences or student summits, your speech will be noticed by influential figures, which can benefit you in the future.
- With proper preparation for reports, your speech will soon become more competent.
How to overcome stage fright
If it’s too late to apply the above tips - the performance is already on the horizon, and the phobia haunts you, and you cannot get rid of it, then use the following techniques:
- Relax. When the body is tense, you involuntarily want to shrink and not be the center of attention. Relax your body so as not to reinforce psychological discomfort with physical tension.
- Your posture on stage should be confident: both feet are on the ground, your arms are not in a closed position, your back is straight. Place your supporting leg forward for stability. This will allow your blood to circulate better, deliver more oxygen to your brain cells, and you will worry less.
- It is important to normalize breathing so that the body is not stressed. To do this, inhale, count to 4, then exhale sharply. Repeat 10 times.
- If you feel that your voice is breaking from excitement, do speech gymnastics in advance. Tell your speech without opening your mouth. Pronounce the letters as clearly and expressively as possible. This exercise will relax the muscles of the face and larynx and help cope with anxiety. Take water with you, otherwise at the wrong moment you will lose your voice and have to interrupt the performance.
- If fearless public speaking suddenly causes your knees to tremble, try mentally directing your attention to them. Or trick your brain and consciously make your knees shake. After this, the trembling often stops.
- Make eye contact with your listeners to maintain contact with them. This will show that the performance is aimed at their interest and impact.
- If you made a mistake, the right decision would be not to focus attention on it and continue speaking. In addition to the task of presenting information, it is important to be able to concentrate on the main thing. Therefore, if you succinctly omit the error, none of the listeners will even notice it.
The recommendations in this article will help you overcome fear, and fearless public speaking will become a constant companion to your stage performances. You will never say, “I’m afraid to perform on stage, I won’t be able to cope with it.” Having felt confident in front of an audience for the first time, you will realize that you have become much more relaxed in life, and the phobia that haunts you has receded.
Author: Lyudmila Nikolaevna Medvedkova, primary school teacher at Makeevka comprehensive school with preschool No. 102
Description of material: I offer you the article “How to cope with anxiety before public speaking.” This material will be useful to teachers who have encountered anxiety before public speaking. This article will introduce you to the causes of anxiety and methods of dealing with fear of public speaking.
How to deal with anxiety before public speaking
In the modern educational environment, demands on the personality of a teacher are increasing. Every day, a teacher is forced to advertise his educational services, the effectiveness of his pedagogical developments in order to position himself as a successful teacher in the field of education.
Countless number of seminars, conferences, presentations, and competitions force teachers to speak. Every day every teacher is faced with public speaking. Audiences can be different: children (children) and adults (parents, colleagues, administration). And all this can cause excitement, fear or even horror. Such experiences affect the teacher’s health, as well as the productivity of his teaching activities.
You often hear: “I can’t perform because I’m very worried! But Marya Ivanovna has an excellent stage presence! That’s her talent!”
They say that good speakers are not born, but made. How can you become a good speaker if the mere thought of public speaking fills you with fear and causes a storm of anxiety.
In this article we will talk about how to cope with anxiety before public speaking and learn to enjoy the stage.
The fear of public speaking originates in instincts. It's as if you are challenging the audience, you find yourself on stage in the spotlight of a large number of people. You literally feel like you're under the gun, like you're being thoroughly assessed, every gesture and every word is being caught. Surprisingly, fear of public speaking ranks second in the classification of phobias after fear of death.
Any person experiences anxiety at this moment. Finding yourself in such a situation is a lot of stress, and instinct tells us that when stressed we should run away! But we are human, which means we can pull ourselves together and not give in to our instincts. Let's try to help ourselves!
There is an opinion that in order to overcome fear you need to look into its eyes.
So let's find out Reasons for anxiety before public speaking:
- Inflated expectations and overestimation of the significance of this event. Often we attach great importance to an ordinary speech lasting 3–5 minutes, and if something goes wrong, then terrible things will happen after that. We compare the very chance to speak to speaking in front of the president or in court, where our freedom is at stake. It is important to learn to objectively assess the importance of such an event.
- Past public speaking experience. If in a previous similar situation you were very worried or defeated, then in this situation you will experience the same emotions. Try to forget what happened to you in the previous situation and start over from scratch.
- The erroneous belief that the audience in which you will have to speak publicly is initially hostile. This is wrong. People treat the speaker at least neutrally and initially give the speaker a certain amount of credit. Of course, there are initially negative listeners, but they criticize everyone, not just us, and you shouldn’t judge all listeners by them.
- Fear of forgetting a prepared speech. In this case, you need to rehearse your speech in advance and make a plan so as not to get confused in front of the audience.
- Fear of additional questions on this topic. In this case, it is important to understand that it is impossible to know absolutely everything, and if you are asked an additional question to which you do not know the answer, you can address this question to the audience itself. This will be sincere and honest on your part. And the main thing in a speech is the speaker’s trust in the audience.
- Inexperience of the speaker. This can only be corrected by systematically speaking to different audiences and on different topics. Practice is the most effective way. To get rid of fear, you need to constantly overcome it.
To overcome anxiety you need to use methods of dealing with fear:
1. Move your jaw back and forth quickly to help relax the facial nerves.
2. Shake your hands, move your fingers, stretch your palms. This gymnastics helps relieve the paralyzing effect of anxiety and stimulates the speech apparatus; Your reaction speed and eloquence are significantly improved.
3. Walk vigorously and wave your arms. Physical activity helps relieve nervous tension.
4. Move at a calm rhythm. Stretch your arms up without lifting your heels from the floor, stretch and throw your body down, shake your arms.
When excited, the breathing rate increases. By learning to control and manage your breathing, you will learn to control feelings such as anxiety, fear, and panic. Breathing slowly and deeply will help reduce anxiety. Try the following breathing exercises before your performance:
1. “Square breathing”: inhale through your nose, pause, exhale through your nose and pause again. Do the exercise in four counts (inhale for one, two, three, four, pause for one, two, three, four, etc.).
2. “Breathing on a count”: inhale through your nose for one or two, exhale through your nose for three, four, five, six. Pause (3-5 inhalations and exhalations). Next, increase the duration of your inhalations and exhalations. Inhale through your nose for one-two-three-four, exhale through your nose for five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven-twelve (5-7 inhalations and exhalations).
3. “Exhale through the mouth”: inhale through your nose for one-two-three, exhale through your mouth for five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven-twelve (5-7 inhalations and exhalations). Speaking, it is better to inhale through the nose, and we, one way or another, exhale through the mouth. The longer our exhalation, the stronger, more melodic and without interruption we will be able to speak.
4. If you are out of breath, take several deep breaths and pronounce any words using the vowel “u” as you exhale. For example: wow, circle, fluff...
And finally, the last method that will help you relax and relieve tension, 3 - 5 seconds before the start of your speech, you need to look around the audience and say something good to yourself, for example: “My dears, how glad I am to see you!” This will bring a smile to your face and help you emotionally tune in to pleasant sensations.
Thus, in order to cope with anxiety before public speaking, theory is not enough, you need to speak, speak and speak again... at every opportunity. If you have something to say, stand up and speak. Even if your inner voice tells you that you don’t need to do this, you won’t succeed. Public speaking should become as familiar to you as washing your face and brushing your teeth in the morning. Remember that every performance you give improves you as a speaker and helps you feel more confident in front of an audience. The law of dialectics: quantity turns into quality, then begins to bring pleasure. When the speaker himself enjoys the process of speaking, then the audience will be delighted with the speech.
