How to Overcome Performance Anxiety?

The key to being calm is to avoid becoming nervous about feeling nervous. Finding the right balance between managing as much as you can while acknowledging that there will be things you can't control is important to avoid allowing your anxieties to interfere.

Most individuals can avoid the attention type that pro golfer Charlie Beljan had after he got a panic attack on national television. However, you may be one of the millions of people who suffer from performance anxiety before speaking in public.

Does your face turn red, or does your heart pound, or do your thoughts go blank when you toast at a wedding? Do you get dizzy, even faint, when you show work to clients or raise your hand to ask or answer a question?

The following tips have helped alleviate anxieties. These tips are Cognitive Behavior Therapy, one of the numerous techniques used by psychologists to manage performance anxiety. CBT assists people in understanding their anxious reactions and gives methods for gaining control of them. Here are seven suggestions for public speaking that are proven to be the most useful.

1) Accept your anxiety:?Many individuals believe that other speakers had it easy, but the fact is that practically everyone has performance anxiety. Have you ever observed how many performers had shaken hands and even jitters? The level of nervousness is not a strong predictor of good speech. Once you begin, the jitters usually subside in less than a minute, even if it seems longer. And that's why accepting your anxiety is the first step toward easing your anxiety.

2) Reduce the anticipation:?The most uncomfortable part of the process is waiting for your turn in the limelight, known as anticipatory anxiousness. It is difficult to turn off the "fight or flight" response once it has begun. Find ways to shift your focus in the days and hours leading up to your speech. Take long, calm breaths just before speaking to help decrease the adrenaline flow. Short-term meditation is also effective.

3) Productive preparation:?While distraction helps in minimizing anticipatory anxiety, rehearsing is required. Stand in front of the mirror and practice your speech's opening lines or memorize them. So you don't have to think about how to begin. Performance anxiety is most noticeable toward the start of a speech. If the initial few lines are problems, you can say them as if on autopilot. Preparing your opening in this manner will most likely minimize the chance of persistent anxiety.

4) Understand your environment:?Visit the place where your speech will be delivered so that you feel at ease when it is your turn to speak. That's why, before keynote talks, there's always a lighting and sound check. Go to your convention hall, stand at the podium, or use your imagination to put yourself in these situations.?

5) Wait for silence:?If there is applause as you begin your speech, pause until it stops. It's another method to assert control, implying that you decide when to start. Use these opportunities to breathe, smile, glance around the room, and nod your head as if to say, "Thank you." You might appear to be taking it all in, but it allows you a few seconds to collect your thoughts.

6) Make the opening simple:?Preceded your speech with introductions, "We would like to welcome our honored guest" or "let's move on to our next presentation" are typical phrases. Practice your opening words with an intro in mind to do much well.

7) Break the ice:?If feasible, begin presentations with a story that breaks the ice. Depending on your audience, a personal tale works well. It also helps if you can create a joke out of your nerves. When you start talking about the subject, the worries usually evaporate. "I stayed up all night thinking about what I wanted to say today," one speaker stated, "but the words flew out of my head." People nodded as if they understood what he meant, and his straying thoughts returned within minutes.

Being in the spotlight is difficult unless you frequently perform. If you foresee it and prepare accordingly, you may be able to get through your performance with low wear and tear. When it's all said and done, you could find yourself thinking that, despite your anxieties, you did a good job. If you do, the following time will be much simpler.