Do you know this? You soon have an important presentation or a conversation on which a lot depends and you are easily nervous. An unpleasant feeling slowly but surely spreads in your stomach area, your throat becomes tighter and your throat dry. Your hands are sweating and you would like to flee.
You are not alone with this feeling. Many people feel a certain fear of speaking publicly, in front of or even with others. Some statistics even show the “fear of public speaking” with over 70% in first place1 among human speech fears. Others show a percentage as low as 10% as realistic. Regardless of the current percentage, the fear of speaking in front of others is a widespread one and therefore a lot of tips for dealing with it are already in circulation.
Bye bye stage fright or speech anxiety
I would like to briefly reveal to you the three things that help me the most to give a presentation or sing a concert as free of fear and relaxed as possible. These three tips have also helped numerous executives and entrepreneurs in my performance coaching sessions:
1. Accept and not get rid of
Notice the uncomfortable feeling and don’t judge it. It is simply there. Don’t fight it, because that way it gets more focus and your energy dissipates as a result. Instead, accept the feeling. It is a part of you that wants to be noticed right now. It has a positive purpose for you, such as protection. It’s okay for it to be there. Just let that part and the feeling be there.
2. Use your body
Stage fright and performance anxiety make you more alert. They make you more alert and also get your adrenaline pumping. Receive this adrenaline rush as a positive rush through your body. This will allow you to start your presentation or talk full of vigor. This also results in you being fully present on stage from the very first second.
3. Breathe and center
Breathe in through your nose counting to 4 and out again counting to 8. Repeat this a few times and find your own rhythm, calm and relaxed. There is no right or wrong. Feel the air moving in and out of your lungs and how your chest expands. Observe yourself doing this and be completely in the moment – in the here and now – and center yourself in your middle.
Welcome exercise and relaxation
Try one or all of the tips in this or another order. Combine them with techniques you already know. The important thing is to keep trying it out to see which technique works well for you. Some of them you may let mature over a certain time and may need several attempts until it works well for you. In any case, keep at it – it’s worth it!
If you would like to get to know more techniques or even try them out together, I cordially invite you to a “Get to know you SPOTLIGHT SESSION”.
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Rock on 🤘 Christiane
Sources:
1 T. Furmark et al., “Social phobia in the general population: prevalence and sociodemographic profile”, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 1999