Ways to reduce anxiety and fear of public speaking.
The fear of public speaking is one of the five most important fears that most people note. Suppose you find out that you are about to make a public appearance. The usual reaction to this news is excitement or fear, depending on how inclined you are to them.
How to reduce fear and anxiety:
1. Set aside some time that no one bothers you. You will need 20 to 50 minutes.
2. Relax and concentrate all your attention on your bodily sensations. For relaxation, you can use any methods that help you. For some, calming music helps, for others, autogenic training sessions.
3. Think about the upcoming performance. As you think about it, you will feel changes in your emotional and bodily spheres. Fear and excitement will arise. Your task is to trace precisely the bodily manifestations of these emotions. Usually they manifest themselves through increased heart rate, various sensations in the chest and abdomen, "pulling in the stomach", etc. You can tune in to the emotions of fear and excitement and feel them as certain clots pulsating in the body.
4. Now imagine the situation of the speech brighter. Imagine that you are standing in front of an audience and they are looking at you. Pay close attention to all the feelings that excitement and fear creates in you. And stop for a while. You are mentally in a performance situation and are focused on your feelings. Don't be afraid of your feelings. They are unable to harm you.
5. Allow your negative feelings to be present in you, do not try to get rid of them, just feel them, experience excitement and fear, but consciously. This will take some time. Maybe 10 to 30 minutes. At some point, you will notice that your negative feelings, if you do not fight them, but simply live carefully, will begin to melt. You will be able to experience the peak of excitement in advance, rather than in a performance situation, and thus the situation itself will be calmer and more constructive.
