Public Speaking Without Fear: Master Your Anxiety

Use self-compassion to increase your confidence and reduce negative self-talk.

Many of us experience fear with public speaking because we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves. We buy into our perfectionism and believe we have to give a brilliant speech. By setting realistic expectations, we can reduce a lot of the pressure which, paradoxically, makes us better speakers.

The best public speakers don't experience overwhelming anxiety, but they don't experience nothing either: they reach their optimal zone of performance.

When we feel nervous before a speech, we often think of it as a bad thing. In the lesson, we'll explore how to turn that feeling into a positive.

Using cognitive-behavioural therapy techniques we can challenge the negative thoughts we experience and turn them into something more positive.

Breathing is a powerful way to regulate our nervous system. Using structured breathing is a good way of helping regulate our emotions and calm ourselves down.

There is no replacement for good preparation. While we should not allow perfectionism or fear to get in the way, spending time understanding the material in our speech can give us confidence.

There is no replacement for practising a speech. As we act the speech out, we begin to experience some of the emotion of doing it for real, allowing us to develop resilience.

We cannot always prepare for the speech in the location we will give it. But we can do that via mental imagery. Imagining ourselves there can help us prepare for giving the speech in real life.

A large part of many people's fears of public speaking is "what if X happens". While we can challenge those thoughts, ti can also be helpful to have a backup plan we can rely on as a worst-case scenario.

Distraction can be unhelpful because it means we don't engage fully with the difficult feelings and learn to control them. However, as a temporarily measure, distraction can be useful for getting us through difficult situations.

Mindfulness is the practice of experiencing the present moment without judgement. Regular mindfulness practice can help reduce anxiety and give us coping skills for stressful situations.