Public Speaking

Ahh Public Speaking, even those who think they can do it with ease find ways to distance themselves from their audience. It is the way our brains work after all, but the question arises as to how we can overcome such a fear. To calm this sense of panic down, we must turn the focus away from ourselves, and instead focus on our audience. Moving attention away from the dreaded fear of how we may embarrass ourselves, and instead focus it on helping educate the audience as a whole.

This same principle can also be applied with speech, when we approach this by showing kindness and generosity to others, a nerve within our bodies known as the vagus nerve will spring into activity, easing our body’s “fight or flight” response. Most of us who do public speaking usually try to avoid eye contact with our audience, which may feel like an effective strategy to avoid feeling anxious while speaking, but in truth, this only increases your sense of nervousness.

There is a solution to this with the ability to quell the sensation of feeling anxious whilst speaking to the public, and that involves Human Generosity. It has been shown in several studies that generosity reduces amygdala activity, as showing kindness and generosity to others can leave us feeling calmer, with a significant reduction in stress. Of course, this is not so easy to do, but it is entirely possible, so long as one follows three simple steps:

1.)    Take your audience into consideration above all else.

If we can identify the needs of the audience, it will be much easier to craft a message that speaks to the audience and suits their needs.

2.)    Refocus your brain before you begin speaking.

It is important to mentally remind yourself that you are not the focus of the presentation, and that the focus is on helping your audience. The more you do this, the quicker you’ll get the hang of it, and before you know it, you’ll be much less nervous than when you started off!

3.)    Make eye contact

The people sitting in the room listening to you are learning as individuals. The best method to connect with them is by speaking to them as individuals, most effectively done through eye-contact. This allows you to give the feeling that you are talking to each person in the audience directly.

Generosity is a wonderful quality; it can turn an experience that can be seen as frightening and even impossible to do, and change it into something that allows you to see the good in helping others. A speaker who is generous will be relaxed and in a state of peace when giving a speech to their audience, and if the desired effect is achieved, it will reach the audience and leave a truly lasting impact.