In psychology, the fear of public speaking is called peiraphobia or glossophobia. According to psychologists who study human behavior in society, 95% of all people are afraid of performing. Stage fear, as a rule, manifests itself at all levels of the psyche: behavioral or bodily, emotional or sensory, evaluative or mental. Therefore, it is necessary to overcome the fear of performing at all levels of your manifestations in public.
Instructions
Step 1
A person who is afraid of the stage and speaking in front of an audience is like a person who is caught in a frying pan. Emotional temperature rises, he gets hot, palms sweat, arms and legs tremble with tension, his breath catches. Thoughts are confused, and the voice becomes hoarse from a suddenly dry throat. Plus a strong heartbeat, lip tremors are often accompanied by nausea and dizziness.
Step 2
Thought level
It is at this level of assessing the situation that stage fright arises. You imagine a situation where everyone is laughing at you. Or you think that you will surely go astray or stumble at the most inopportune moment of the performance and go crazy. Change the assessment of the situation in front of an audience, then your emotional reaction will also change.
Step 3
Psychologist's advice on how to overcome the fear of speaking at the mental level. First, find the opposite image or thought to your initial assessment. Then use the pain shock method to build this new assessment into consciousness. To do this, put a rubber band on the wrist of your non-dominant hand (if you are right-handed, on your left hand). As soon as the thought of a bad performance or shame on stage arises, pull back the rubber band and click on your wrist. In the same second, with a willful effort, focus on a new thought and image of a successful speech. Click until your mind automatically switches to new thoughts.
Step 4
Bodily level
At the behavioral level, stage fright manifests itself in the form of muscle tension and shallow and rapid breathing. The best way to release excess tension in the body is with abdominal or abdominal breathing. It is characterized by a short inhalation and a long exhalation, so that the muscles of the diaphragm relax. It's best to learn this way of breathing in advance, so that if you're stressed out before a performance, you can easily switch to belly breathing.
Step 5
As soon as you "embedded" a new thought with the rubber band, immediately begin to breathe deeply. Moreover, to inhale and exhale, you need to add a self-hypnosis formula, which will tune your consciousness to the desired, confident mood. This relaxation technique is called signal relaxation. For example, while inhaling, think "I-I-I-I", while exhaling - "I-I-I-I-I". Or "I'm calm." Come up with a self-hypnosis formula that gives you confidence and calms you at the same time.
Step 6
Emotional level
Your general mood before going on stage, your feelings, ultimately determine in what state you will perform. By changing your mental assessment of the situation, you have already shifted your emotional reaction towards positive. And yet, let's add another technique to overcome stage fright.
Step 7
Use the anchoring technique to control your emotions. It also takes time and works on the principle of replacing negative emotions, in this case fear, with positive ones, such as confidence or calmness. First, build up an "anchor" and anchor it at the sensory level.
Step 8
To do this, recall in turn all the situations in which you won, achieved your goal, or experienced joy. Having brought this emotion to its peak in your imagination, squeeze the thumb and forefinger of your dominant hand and wait for a pulsation, release. You have just set the "anchor". Type, accumulate as many of these situations as possible and anchor them on your fingers.
Step 9
Now, in a stressful situation, before a performance, or right on stage, when someone confuses you with their question, squeeze your thumb and forefinger in the same gesture. And your confusion, fear will dissolve and be replaced by previously anchored feelings.
Step 10
So, you have worked all the levels of stage fright. You are now ready to perform emotionally, physically and mentally. In the comments, post questions to the author and clarify any ambiguities in overcoming fear of speaking. Be sure to apply these techniques at all levels of your psyche to overcome your fear of speaking in front of an audience.
