The fear of speaking in front of an audience is called glossophobia. I note that this does not concern natural excitement, but namely a panic attack before an event of any degree of importance. Despite the significance of what is happening, the number of spectators, a person may have such an overwhelming anxiety before leaving the curtain, which does not allow connecting two words. However, in one way or another, people are always worried before going out to the public.<\/p>\n
This type of experience is embedded in us at the subconscious level. At a time when people needed to hunt large animals in order to feed and warm themselves, the success of the “sortie” depended on teamwork. The need to feel like a part of the “tribe” has remained with us to this day, therefore, going on stage alone, we feel discomfort. Thus, we sort of separate ourselves from the rest of society.<\/p>\n
Panic in this case is an absolutely normal emotion. The difference is that for a beginner it can be a devastating problem, but in the hands of an experienced speaker it can turn into a powerful tool and even transform into charisma. In addition, excitement is the motivation that makes the speaker prepare and develop harder. The absence of such a phobia would give rise to irresponsibility, laziness. Think of it as a real gift that allows you to perform your best.<\/p>\n
Replace negative thoughts with affirmations. It's not for nothing that this word comes from the Latin affirmare – “to make it stable, to strengthen,” says Price. – “Tell yourself:” I am an energetic speaker “,” I am enthusiastic and charming “,” I am prepared and confident “.<\/p>\n
As Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right in both cases.”<\/p>\n
The phobic state begins to torment the speaker long before the impending event. It continues during direct contact with the audience, becoming the cause of psychological shock. Anxiety can arise from a reluctance to hear criticism, ridicule, lack of confidence in one's external attractiveness and competence. These attacks do not depend on the audience itself (fear will prevail in the circle of both strangers and acquaintances of the glossophobe). Discomfort is necessarily accompanied by physical symptoms (tremors in the limbs, accelerated heart rate, disruption of the gastrointestinal tract, fever).<\/p>\n
One of the most powerful ways to deal with fear or anxiety is to voice your feelings and find their true cause. It is better to do this not on the eve of the performance, but in advance. Imagine that you have to go on stage in front of a large audience, answer an examiner or a whole commission. What sensations do you have? What exactly is unpleasant for you, what causes discomfort? The reasons can be different: people's attention, fear of making a mistake, fear that everyone will laugh, fear of not meeting the allotted time.<\/p>\n
To understand the nature of your fears and relieve anxiety, answer yourself to the question: “What is the worst thing that can happen if the speech or answer is unsuccessful?” The most common options are: “They will laugh at me”, “They will give me a bad grade”, “I will not get enough points”, “I will feel like a failure.” But do not dwell on the most common reasons – give free rein to your imagination, list everything that comes to mind. Imagine in color the most terrible consequences, and then how you will deal with them. When you rationalize and voice your fears, they diminish and become easier to control. An additional beneficial effect of the exercise is the emergence of fallback options in case of failure.<\/p>\n
There is no better way to calm yourself down and be confident of a successful presentation than to rehearse the presentation out loud, with the audience, if possible. “Ideally, record this rehearsal and watch it,” Price says.<\/p>\n
Specialists identify several types of this phobia. They are similar in symptoms, but differ in the sources of the fear itself. To understand how to deal with a problem, you need to determine the specific form in which it manifests itself. Sometimes this requires the help of a professional.<\/p>\n
To understand how to overcome uncertainty before a public speech and boldly interact with the public, it is necessary to determine the causes of fear, there can be a lot of them, starting from a genetic predisposition. The attitude of parents to public events and their behavior can be laid down in the child at the genetic level or instilled in the process of upbringing. Children always imitate adults, adopt their manners, habits, so it is very easy to provoke the occurrence of a phobia. Common factors contributing to the onset of glossophobia are:<\/p>\n
A phobia such as fear of public speaking in front of an audience can become a serious problem and lead to:<\/p>\n
If a speech scares you, physiological signs of excitement appear – your gaze runs, your voice and hands tremble, unnecessary, chaotic gestures appear, you start speaking too softly or shouting. Increased adrenaline and increased heart rate lead to facial flushing and dilated pupils. Signs of excitement are noticeable to the audience, she unconsciously feels them and loses affection for the speaker. To cope with the physiological manifestations of stress, you need to remove muscle clamps and learn to control your muscles and ligaments. First of all, engage in breathing. It is directly related to our emotional state, “gives out” excitement because of the performance – it becomes intermittent, frequent, superficial. Deep breathing helps to align the voice, remove tremors and squeaks from it due to lack of oxygen in the lungs. Doing special exercises for 5-10 minutes helps combat stress. The classic technique is the alternation of a deep, smooth inhalation and a sharp exhalation, or double inhalation \/ double exhalation. Breathing in a “square” is useful: hold inhale-pause-exhale-pause for two seconds. Exercise “ball”, developed by Professor H. Herminson for the preparation of extreme athletes, relieves fear and concentrates attention. You need to close your eyes, imagine a ping-pong ball – it rises with a slow breath from the abdomen to the larynx and also smoothly descends as you exhale. Exercise will also help you relax and calm down: Exercise “ball”, developed by Professor H. Herminson for the preparation of extreme athletes, relieves fear and concentrates attention. You need to close your eyes, imagine a ping-pong ball – it rises with a slow breath from the abdomen to the larynx and also smoothly descends as you exhale. Exercise will also help you relax and calm down: Exercise “ball”, developed by Professor H. Herminson for the preparation of extreme athletes, relieves fear and concentrates attention. You need to close your eyes, imagine a ping-pong ball – it rises with a slow breath from the abdomen to the larynx and also smoothly descends as you exhale. Exercise will also help you relax and calm down:<\/p>\n
“Study the topic of your speech in advance, prepare your speech carefully. You should be familiar with the topic of your presentation, “advises Price. “Remember the Rule of Six Ps: A Careful Preparation Process and Practice Preserves Excellent Public Speaking,” she says. “Procrastination only leads to more anxiety.”<\/p>\n
Collect references ahead of time to find out what people hope to hear from you, says Cunliffe. “It is worth arriving early and talking to several of the event attendees about their expectations. This way, you will have inside information and friendly faces in the audience, and you will be able to focus on them during your speech. “<\/p>\n
Price agrees: “Conversation helps to calm down, create a connection with the audience, perform for people, not just in public.”<\/p>\n
Remember, most people feel insecure when speaking in public. Many aspiring speakers think that the audience is always critical and will pick on every word. But this is not the case! Listeners rarely notice minor hesitations, pauses or word usage mistakes, and if they do, they easily forgive them. This also applies to examiners – usually they are neutral or friendly and calmly react to minor flaws in speech, if your answer is generally correct. The only exception is the Russian language exam, during which the coherence of speech and the number of speech errors are assessed.<\/p>\n
By making adequate demands on the quality of your performance, you will remove at least one reason for worry and anxiety. Experienced speakers use the following technique for this – they deliberately do something wrong: for example, they drop the folder with the report or display the wrong slide of the presentation, immediately pay attention to it and correct the mistake with a smile. It helps to relax and connect with the audience.<\/p>\n
The human psyche and physiology are closely interrelated. If we feel fear, our breathing quickens, our muscles tighten. The opposite is also true: if you establish control over your breathing and body, the emotional state is stabilized. Correct breathing not only calms, but also affects the rate of speech, makes the voice deeper.<\/p>\n
To calm down before a performance, sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and focus on the sensations in your body, tracking tension and muscle spasms. It is better to move from top to bottom – facial muscles, neck, shoulder girdle, arms, abdomen, legs. Breathing deeply, it is necessary to direct attention to the desired part of the body and achieve its relaxation. The exercise takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete.<\/p>\n
Excitement is usually accompanied by a release of stress hormones. To get rid of excess adrenaline, you need to actively move for a few minutes: walk, squat, perform arm swings or push-ups.<\/p>\n
Ask yourself a question: what moments make up my fear, what am I afraid of. Maybe it's an “excellent student's complex”, or a fear of a large number of people, or your psychotype of an introvert today is not inclined to communicate with the audience.<\/p>\n
Striving for excellence, of course, is commendable, but within reasonable limits. This means that everyone has a tendency to make mistakes. And if something goes wrong with you, the planet will not leave its orbit, and the end of the world will not come. For those present, believe me, it will not have such a global significance as it does for you. Give yourself the right to make mistakes!<\/p>\n
How not to worry before a performance when you are alone on stage and the hall is full? Of course, it's easy to get lost. Try to focus on what you have to do, rather than how you look from the outside and what the audience will say about you. If you focus on the purpose of your speech, on establishing contact with the audience, on improvisation, then you will only benefit from this.<\/p>\n
If you are not very fond of being in the spotlight and are more and more “in yourself”, try to find pleasure in active communication with the public. What if you like it?<\/p>\n
If, for example, you try to make your speech as useful and interesting as possible for the listener, then you can see in response interested and attentive persons who gladly respond to your jokes and approvingly support you. It will help reduce your anxiety and fundamentally change your attitude towards public speaking.<\/p>\n
First you need to figure out why there is a fear of speaking in front of a large number of people.<\/p>\n
Fear of performance can be at the genetic level, or due to an innate temperament, or due to previously acquired neurotic phenomena. In addition, fear of speaking in front of an audience can exist due to inappropriate parenting or bad experiences.<\/p>\n
The root of the problem lies in all the same instincts. We unconsciously perceive the attention directed at ourselves as a threat, literally a weapon that looks in our face. This creates physically unpleasant stress and reinforces the anxiety. At the cognitive level, we are afraid of the unknown, the attention of all those present directed at a person, negative acceptance by the audience, we are afraid of not reaching the goal. All these are absolutely normal psychoemotional manifestations characteristic of people of all ages and professions. Learn exercises that can help you deal with stress. They are conventionally divided into groups:<\/p>\n
A separate issue is stimulant drugs, which supposedly help not to worry, and other means “with unproven efficacy.” If you attach importance to the psychology of color, there is nothing wrong with using red accessories and lingerie – they, according to chromotherapists, fight fears. Admirers of antiquity and symbolism can activate the energies of Hermes, the Greek god of eloquence, with a ring on the little finger – a finger dedicated to the “guide of souls”. What should be avoided is alcohol, sedatives (even valerian) – their effect is not controlled and leads to sad consequences. Do not gorge on tightly before giving a speech, otherwise you will be drawn to sleep. Coffee, too, should not be overused, it causes anxiety and makes you nervous. If you want to calm down, eat 20-50 grams. chocolate or banana.<\/p>\n
There are several effective ways to reduce your fear when preparing for your report at home.<\/p>\n
To regulate the neuro-hormonal state, it is necessary to work with the body. Exercise, jump, squat. Sport promotes the production of endorphins – antistress hormones. But you should not do this right before going to the audience: breathing should be restored, and your appearance should be neat.<\/p>\n
Try to reproduce in detail the upcoming event in your head. Pay attention to how the audience perceives you, joke and easily answer their questions. Create the most positive picture of what is happening.<\/p>\n
Before speaking, repeat the following aloud:<\/p>\n
There is often an adrenaline rush at the start of a performance. Memorize the first few first sentences of your opening speech so that you don't think about it during your speech. “It will give you the opportunity to start confidently and make an appropriate impression instead of nervousness,” Price says.<\/p>\n
If you apply the above tips too late – the performance is already on the nose, and the phobia haunts you, and you cannot get rid of it, then use the following techniques:<\/p>\n
The recommendations in this article will help you overcome fear, and fearless public speaking will become a constant companion of performances on stage. You never say – “I'm afraid to perform on stage, I can't handle it.” The first time you feel confident in front of the audience, you will understand that in life you have become much more relaxed, and the phobia that haunts you has receded.<\/p>\n
In order not to worry during your performance, use these tricks:<\/p>\n
For some, this is a certain appearance, for example, a business suit, for someone it helps to twirl an object in his hands, for example, a pencil. Someone is reassured by a “lucky” pebble or any other trinket in their pocket. Remember and use what gives you confidence.<\/p>\n
Try changing your posture – stand up straight, straighten your shoulders, and lift your chin. If you feel a surge of confidence, remember this feeling and watch your posture as you perform.<\/p>\n
Fond memories can help you gain confidence. Think about the last time you felt confident and calm. Recreate this situation in your mind in the smallest detail, and you will feel how you return to the desired emotional state, become more relaxed and balanced.<\/p>\n
It:<\/p>\n
\nThe inner strength will be visible visually and palpable on a subconscious level. A relaxed posture, a confident voice, smooth movements and gestures, a benevolent look and a sea of \u200b\u200bcharm. And excitement is the drive from meeting the audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
If you don't have self-confidence, you need to work on it, you need to educate it in yourself.<\/p>\n
And in parallel, learn to speak in public using the following techniques to cope with anxiety:<\/p>\n
\n
- Present your success. Mentally draw yourself as an orator who is applauded by the audience. This is more constructive than a picture of your failure in the smallest detail. Losing your success in thoughts and reinforcing it with positive emotions, you influence the result.<\/li>\n
- Feel friendly feelings towards the audience, then there will be no subconscious desire to hide and defend. You will want a sincere mutual communication.<\/li>\n
- Make eye contact with the audience. In order not to go anywhere, find some pretty faces in the hall and devote your speech to them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Why you shouldn't be afraid to perform on stage<\/h2>\n
Having figured out the sources of the formation of a phobia for stage performances, you must first of all convince yourself that there is no such fear, that we are starting to worry in vain.<\/p>\n
The main point on the way to overcome fear, which needs to be realized and felt – public speaking is an opportunity to prove yourself from your best side and evaluate your skills in working with the audience. This is important because every day, at work or school, we communicate with people, and when it brings us discomfort, our productivity drops, our mood worsens, etc.<\/p>\n
Fearless public speaking is the key to your self-confidence. By training skills by presenting information to 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:<\/p>\n
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- An experience of interacting with a large audience that will help develop communication skills.<\/li>\n
- As you prepare, you will deepen your knowledge of the topic of your speech.<\/li>\n
- At work conferences or student summits your speech will be noticed by influential figures, which may be of service to you in the future.<\/li>\n
- With proper preparation for the reports, your speech will soon become more literate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Warm up and breathe deeply with your performance.<\/h2>\n
Find a place in advance where you can stretch or sit down a couple of times. Or walk briskly across the hall. “This will relieve the body of excessive stress,” explains Price. “In addition, take a few deep breaths. Inhale slowly through your nose for a count of three, exhale slowly through your mouth in four counts. Deep breathing fills the brain with oxygen. “<\/p>\n
Smile<\/h2>\n
With a sincere smile, substances are released into the brain that calm the nerves and create the feeling that everything is fine. Plus, it shows the public that you are happy and enthusiastic to see them.<\/p>\n
Visualize your success<\/h2>\n
“Athletic psychologists have proven that athletes' ability to visualize their success increases their chances of winning,” Price says. “Before your next performance, roll it over in your head. Imagine how you speak with confidence, how the audience responds positively. “<\/p>\n
How to relieve stress during public speaking<\/h2>\n
During your speech, learn to think not about your excitement, but about the essence of the report and the goal you want to achieve. To relieve stress, you can resort to a joke (this is also useful for connecting with the audience). The recommendation to publicly admit their fear and tell the audience about it, as a rule, is adopted by aspiring speakers. Experienced speakers are reluctant to use it, preferring to master the techniques of “masks” of confidence. Reproduce the postures, facial expressions and gestures of the signs inherent in calm, skillful, well-behaved speakers. Even if you're really worried, keep it a secret and play with confidence. Demonstrate its signs:<\/p>\n
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- visual – an even posture, straightened shoulders, a smiling face, a straight, fixed gaze;<\/li>\n
- auditory – a loud, even voice, pronunciation without hesitation, illogical pauses;<\/li>\n
- gestures – they should be smooth, clear, not too slow and not fussy (soothe nervousness by holding a pencil in your hand), synchronized with speech;<\/li>\n
- movements – they need to be streamlined, make sure that you do not “play” with your hand with hair or a microphone, do not rush around the stage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Speak out<\/h2>\n
The best way to get rid of the fear of public speaking forever is through practice. Go out to the audience at any opportunity or create them yourself: participate in school activities, prepare reports and presentations in the classroom, tell stories with friends. This will help you get used to the audience's attention, relieve stress and fear of failure. Thanks to this, at the decisive moment you will be able to successfully pass the exam, defend the term paper, present a report or presentation.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
The ability to find internal resources and energy will help to cope with anxiety and stress. Sign up for my one-on-one online and offline consultation. Perhaps this conversation will be the starting point for changes in your life. Don't worry that one way or another, everyone is worried before reading an important speech. It will take a lot of practice and work on yourself for fear to go away completely and you get pure pleasure from interacting with the public. Learn to step out of your comfort zone more often, speak to the public, to different audiences, so that the fear of public speaking ceases to be a problematic phobia for you, and the question of how not to be afraid to go on stage and not worry no longer arises.<\/p>\n
Sources used and useful links on the topic: https:\/\/damienmilay.com\/basis\/strah-publichnyh-vystuplenij-kak-ne-volnovatsya-pered-publikoj-puti-preodoleniya\/<\/a> https:\/\/pronetworking.ru\/2016\/07\/ 11-sposobov-uspokoitsya-pered-publichnym-vystupleniem \/<\/a> https:\/\/media.foxford.ru\/stage-fright\/<\/a> https:\/\/oratoris.ru\/kak-ne-volnovatsya-pered-vyistupleniem\/<\/a> https: \/\/ zen. yandex.ru\/media\/orator\/kak-spravitsia-s-volneniem-pered-vystupleniem-chto-delat-chtoby-ne-volnovatsia-5efcb717e51de179553e12d0<\/a> https:\/\/zen.yandex.ru\/hmedia\/id\/5b322favy69dba7500a93 -na-publike-sovety-po-izbavleniiu-5b39e3148b424e00a97b2f9a<\/a> https:\/\/yourspeech.ru\/eloquence\/performance\/kak-ne-volnovatsya-pered-vystupleniem.html<\/a><\/p>\n