3 Keys to Conquering Your Fear of Public Speaking
When you imagine speaking in front of people, what happens to your body? Does your heart rate increase? Does your breathing become shallow? Do you shut down and get weirdly sleep?
Congratulations - you’re a typical human being!
But just because you’re in good company doesn’t mean you like these feelings. They’re not… shall we say… productive. They don’t feel good.
Here’s the good news: with the right mindset and preparation, you can break through the anxiety and deliver your message with passion and power. Hooray!
There are 3 areas where I see people struggling the most.
Lack of technical skills: Not knowing what to do with body language, voice, or where to look.
Solution: Learn breathing practices, vocal techniques, and stage presence tools.
Content worries: Concern over mastering your message or material.
Solution: Ask: Who am I talking to? Tailor your content to your specific audience. Then practice, get feedback, and then practice some more.
Fearing judgment or criticism: They’re all loooooking at me!
Solution: Use mindfulness, visualization, and awareness practices. Notice where the judgment is self-imposed. Focus on connecting to your purpose.
It’s incredibly hard to do all of this in a vacuum. And by vacuum, I mean in a room by yourself with the door closed hoping no one hears you rehearsing. Public speaking is… public. So after you work on the internal tools, you’ll want to nudge your sphere further and further away from yourself, practicing in ways that allow you to see that discomfort is not the same as danger.
Listen to this week’s episode of From Your Center. This 12-minute overview will help you start to consider: which of these three key areas feel the best to you? The most challenging?
When you step into your public voice, you unlock the ripple effects of sharing your full self with the world. You got this.
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