Public Speaking: Mr. Nervousness, My Old Friend

You are next in line to give a presentation. Your face is red like an apple, your heart is racing like you’re about to jump out of an airplane and your t-shirt completely changed colour due to how much you’re sweating. This is called stage fright. Here is how to deal with it.

When we have to speak in front of other people, we instantly experience a feeling of discomfort. Everyone’s body reacts to it differently, but almost everyone has it.

I am a public speaking and communication coach, but when I was younger, I was nervous whenever I had to talk to people I didn’t know — when I had to go to any kind of institution to file a request, when I wanted to talk to a salesperson in a retail store or even when I wanted to make a phone call to order a pizza. As a matter of fact, these things felt so uncomfortable that I had to come up with exactly what I was going to say and then rehearse it in my head before I went there or made the call. To be completely frank, sometimes I still get this feeling. And maybe you do as well. Now, if we experience nervousness even when performing these everyday interactions, it’s understandable that we tend to be quite scared when we actually have to stand in front of a number of people and talk. But the question is, why do we feel this way? Why does it feel so scary? The answer lies in our past. Not yours or mine…