I asked, what is the best way to handle public speaking nerves?
You said, breathing exercises. I say, yes, with an important caveat.
The survey results are in. So, what is the best way to handle public speaking nerves?
The majority vote, first place by a long way, goes to breathing exercises. I agree. That’s where I’d put them too, but with a caveat which I’ll share in a paragraph or two.
We know anxiety feeds on itself and escalates if it goes unchallenged. Sometimes with alarming rapidity: from OK to NOT, I can’t go on, I can’t speak, in minutes. Breathing exercises are a good first response to that.
The ones I learned to deal with my own panic and later passed on to my students, I’ve written about here: breathing exercises for public speaking anxiety.
Essentially, it’s diaphragmatic breathing, with variations. They’re exercises designed to strengthen a person’s self-confidence, through lessening the fear-filled responses triggered by having to make a speech. The positive impact of conscious deep breathing is immediate and often all that is needed to alter ‘can’t’ to ‘can’.
However, let’s take a step or two back. This is the caveat - a warning that deep breathing exercises are only enough to shift anxiety if other conditions have been met.
Why? Because there are situations where no amount of deep breathing, hold for the count of 4, exercises, lip trills, or positive visualizations of yourself as effortlessly eloquent, will make much of a difference. Hero stance or not, it’s a very cruel fact of life that if you haven’t done the work, you’re going to know about it.
By work I mean practice - large quantities of all sorts of it. It’s the foundation - the underpinning of successful presentations. In my experience, when it’s not there, or only partially present, it’s the equivalent of handing out an invitation to all the worst aspects of public speaking anxiety. Open house at mine, come on over! Let’s get together and shake, rattle and roll. Literally.
I know because I’ve tried to wing it, failed, sometimes dismally, and once or twice publicly. And I’ve seen the same thing happen to others.
A couple of hasty read-throughs, the right clothes, a snazzy set of slides, 10 minutes worth of deep breathing exercises, warmups and a great handout is simply not enough for me to keep anxiety away. It’s too slap-dash. I need systematic, sustained practice, as well as breath work.
What about you? What do you know you need to do to effectively handle nerves? (That’s an invitation to share in the comments section below. It’s a big topic. Having your input would be wonderful.)
Thank you for voting.
I’ve a couple of pages on rehearsal and practice - why to, how to, and what to suggestions for people who don’t where to start. They may be useful for you or your students.
Have a great week!
Susan
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PPS. As I said last week, and I’ll say next, if you have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in this newsletter, or if you’d like to share an article on some aspect of public speaking, or a speech of your own, please get in touch. Either reply to this email or contact me through the form on my about me page on my website. I’d love to hear from you!
I used to remind people of a quote from Tom Antion, a professional motivational speaker. He said before he goes on stage, he'll practice a speech 50 or more times so that he can appear that he's just having a conversation with his audience. That's a good testimonial for the value of practice.
Well said!