• Breathing exercises – when you’re nervous, your breathing can become shallow and rapid. Breathing from the abdomen can instantly aid relaxation. Place one hand on the navel area and watch it move outwards as you breathe in and inward as you breathe out. If your hand does not move, you are not doing the technique correctly.
• Visualisation – try to imagine yourself successfully presenting a speech in front of an audience. Visualise yourself walking onto the stage, the whole speech going well and the audience bursting into applause at the end of it. Take time over the whole visualisation. As fear of public speaking is all in the mind, positive visualisation can work wonders.
• Rehearse your speech. People who are very nervous about public speaking often think that because they get nervous every time they think about their upcoming speech, the less they think about it the better. In fact the opposite is true – the more you rehearse your speech, the more confident you will be, because if you know your material well, not only will you appear more authoritative, but even if your mind goes blank, you’ll be able to continue on autopilot. Knowing that will give you inner confidence.
• Practice speaking in front of an audience. Any audience. Go up to a group of people at a bus stop and ask if anyone has change. Ask a question at a public meeting. If you’re very nervous, take baby steps – start by addressing two or three strangers, and build up to a bigger audience each time. Much of the fear of speaking in public emanates from the fear of the unknown, and the more you do it, the less scary it becomes. Bear in mind that every time you speak in front of an audience, you gain a little more confidence.
• Hypnotherapy – fear of public speaking is all in the mind, and by relaxing your mind in a controlled environment with a professional hypnotherapist, you can reduce the fear.
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