Public Speaking Anxiety

She could hear her name being announced, she knew that she had to make the most important speech of her life, but she was rooted to one point. Slowly, her trembling legs nearly giving her away, she walked towards the podium, which seemed miles away. She could feel hundreds of eyes, staring at her. Gathering her guts, she looked up and all she saw was total darkness ahead of her. She could hear a buzzing sound. She knew she had to speak, but no sound was coming out of her. It was as if she had gone dumb. She started sweating profusely. She breathed in deeply, but still she could not speak.

I am sure many of you, have faced similar situations like this in your lifetime. These are nothing but common signs of public speaking anxiety. Many people face this situation. No matter how well they are prepared with their speech, when they stand in front of the audience for delivering the speech, a certain fear overcomes them and they go blank. Even I had and I still have the same fear. It was the worst day of my life when I had to stand up in front of my entire college and present something. But you do not have to face the same thing if you know the steps of overcoming fear of public speaking. The fear of speaking in public is called Glossophobia. it has been derived from the Greek word glossa, which means 'tongue' and phobos, which means 'fear'. It's a common thing among many people. But, you have to overcome this fear. You cannot live with it your entire life. Here are some tips to help you overcome your fear.

Symptoms

• You feel nervous while preparing for any speech
• When you are standing there, facing the public, you see total darkness
• You start trembling while giving a speech
• Your thoughts become confused
• You hate it when people ask you questions
• Heart rate increases
• You are in a hurry to finish the speech

How To Overcome It

When we are in school, having this anxiety is all right. But once we start to grow, we have to overcome this problem. It will take time, but slowly, you will be confident about giving a speech in public.

Be Prepared
Do not try and prepare a speech overnight. Take your time. Maybe start preparing a month before the actual speech. Preparation will only make you confident on the final day. Get all your facts right. Do not give others a chance to point out your mistakes. The more mistakes people point out in your speech, the more your fear overcomes you. As people say, practice makes a man perfect, so keep rehearsing your speech again and again. Stand in front of the mirror and start speaking. Then ask some of your friends to sit in front of you and ask them to listen to you. First you will be scared even in front of them, but with time and more preparation, you will be confident. Nervousness and public speaking go hand in hand if you're not confident, so get rid of that nervousness and become confident.

Visualize
While you are practicing the speech with your friends, visualize that you are actually standing in front of hundreds of people and giving a mind-blowing speech. Visualize that your speech has bowled over everyone. Visualize, you being able to answer all the difficult questions easily. Do not only visualize it, but believe in it and you will be more confident on the day of the speech.

Get to Know the Place
If possible, then only do this. You have to get used to the place where you will deliver your speech. Try to get the feeling of the place. Stand at the podium and practice your speech, check where the audio and visual components are, check whether or not you are comfortable with the way you are standing or not, or whether the microphone is placed at the proper height or not. All these will give you a feel of the place.

Day of the Speech
Finally comes the day of the speech. Reach the place at least an hour before you have to deliver the speech. Do not worry about what you will say. Just be confident that you can do well. When it's time for you to give the speech, and you can hear your name being announced, take in a deep breath and try and recollect whatever you have prepared. Walk up to the podium and look up and smile. Do not look at any one person. Look at a distance, focus on something that has no expressions, say maybe the wall, or the pillar or anything. Count till 10 and start off. If you feel that you have skipped a point, do not worry. Just be confident about what you are saying. You should be convincing, only then will people not question you much.

Do Not Write Your Speech
When you are at the podium, do not read out from a sheet of paper. That will be boring for the audience. Have cue cards at hand but refer to them as less as possible.

Medications
There are various medications which the doctors can give you when you face fears like this. They can get you temporary relief only. Along with that, there can also be some side effects. Also, people tend to develop a habit of taking this medication for even the tiniest of their fears.

The Statistics

Did you know that fear of public speaking tops the list of human fears and phobias? People would rather die than give a public speech; in fact three out of four people suffer from this problem. It's mainly the women who suffer most from this problem rather than men.

Besides this, there is also Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety or the PRPSA, which is actually an instrument that contains 34 statements dealing with feelings of people while they are communicating. The score that you get, helps you to assess whether at all you have the fear or not.

So now that you have the tips to overcome your anxiety, follow them. With these techniques, you will no longer be afraid of opening your mouth in front of others. Just be confident about what you speak and practice what you want to speak about. Do not worry about the consequences, just relax and let everything be. Soon you will overcome the greatest fear.