Overcoming Speech Anxiety

Speech apprhension is that anxiety or fear of the prospect of facing up the public to deliver a speech (Lucas, 2001). It is primarily due to the lack of preparation, but other factors contribute to that apprehension such as unreasonable fear or fear of the unknown, fear of making mistakes and the lack of self-esteem.

Dealing with speech anxiety depends on the cause. But preparation stands out as primary factor to affirm and assure the speakers that they will do well in the speaking task. Preparation is so essential in the process of speech making and presenting one's self to the public.

F-E-A-R, according to Zig Zigglar (1993) is False Evidence Appearing Real, and it is a powerful emotion that influences our emotions in many negative ways. Psychologist understand the power of fear, that it may alert us to prepare, take caution and really put our mind and heart on what we have to do, but it could also affect us to stay out of the risk and suffer more negative emotions.

Having self-confidence does not mean being free from experiencing speech anxiety. That apprehension is normal and there's no assurance that one who has self-confidence will never be anxious in speaking up on stage. Anxiety results from various factors. One can be self-confident, yet still experience some level of speech anxiety.

The more you experience public speaking, the less anxious you become when you face up your audience. To overcome your speech anxiety, consider the following: 1) examing your feelings; 2) changing your mindset; 3) picturing your success; and 4) doing what is needed for the speech act. Going through these four steps will help you deal with your speech anxiety and gain confidence in communicating with others.

Examine your feelings. Fear is an emotion, instead of denying it, acknowledge its presence. With that you will be able to control it. Determine where that fear is coming from. Gain more understanding as to its cause and resolve them reasonably. Freaking out will not get you anywhere but into disaster. Emotions are a product of our senses and thoughts. Acknowledging what you feel and understanding about how you think about them will get you to cognitively reconstructing the negative into positive emotions or thoughts.

Thinking positively is a streetsmart knowledge and it works as you change your mindset or reconstruct your cognitions about the speech act. What you think and how you think have implications to your behavior and your senses. If you dread speaking for no reason at all, you will not likely find yourself ever engaged in it. But if you think of the incentives or gains you will have in it, you will be more eager to learning and experiencing it.

You are probably afraid in your first major speech because you lack the experience. So avoiding the engagement will not really help you gain the experience. You might also be afraid of the unknown. That is just irrational, so just be objective in looking at the speaking situation as an opportunity for you to personally grow as a speaker and really learn from the experience. You may be afraid to make mistakes that's why if you can avoid it, you will do everything to do so. But, everyone makes mistakes, even those who you think are great speakers.

Related to changing your mindset is picturing your success. This is mental visualization exercise that you can integrate in your preparation. As you try to relax and deal with the symptoms of anxiety, you might try creating positive images or scenes in your head of your success in public speaking. Create and watch your own public-speaking success movie in your mind. See yourself as how you would deliver, stand, move and even what you want to hear from the audience. That will help be more confident as you create an imprint of your speech act prior to the event.

Lastly but most importantly, do something about it. Even if you are delivering an impromptu speech, where you are called to speak about something or someone, at the moment. In seconds you can actually organize your thoughts. For major speaking events, you will never be called unprepared because you will be informed of it few days before that.

Speech anxiety that is caused by the lack of preparation is a lame excuse. Fear is inevitable, but you can be in control of the situation including your emotion. Overcoming stagefright or communiation apprehension requires a conversion in thinking and taking positive actions. Start it by believing that you have the ability to be the best that you can be. Don't let self-doubt sabotage you and prevent you from becoming an eloquent and confident speaker.

Anxious about Public Speaking?

If you feel scared to go up there on stage to speak in front of the public, that is what we call speech anxiety. This nervy feeling to some others is also termed communication apprehension or stage fright; at the most it is but a normal feeling that will leave you as you have begun your speech.

At the lighter side, you should be encouraged by the fact that even those great and well-known speakers experience speech anxiety every time. They just don't appear so from afar. Those who are humble enough to share how they advanced from being a lousy speaker to an excellent one would admit they too still feel anxious in speaking in public.

Speech anxiety is that shrinking feeling which dwarfs you amidst terrifying monsters and giants. When you can not resolve it or control it is a sure way to your failure in your speech delivery. To deal with it, you need to know what it is, where it is coming from and how it manifests.

To better our understanding about speech anxiety, we need to consider that it is an emotion. Hence, we all feel the same way because it alerts us to prepare for the speaking situation. It makes us conscious that we need to be in control of the situation and of our self-presentation.

Stagefright has physical manifestations or symptoms, like sweating, wet palms, trembling knees, cracking voice, heavy breathing, and faster heart beat. You will need to address these symptoms as mere manifestations of your anxiety, but you can not ignore them. They will stop only as you have approached the stage and got through the first minute of your speech. So deal with these symptoms as necessary.

Practically, you should wipe your sweat off, and be reminded that it even shows in the oiliness of your face. To stop your tremors, take slow breathing exercises until you are composed. Instead of cracking your fingers and jumping off your trembling knees, just seat or do some slow walk while you tame the tempest in your chest with relaxing breath of fresh air. Drink warm water to sooth your drying throat and relax its muscles. Those things should do the trick, but they will fail if you pay much attention on the symptoms rather than on what you should do in your delivery.

Preparation reduces the tension, but the lack of it is the main cause of speech anxiety. In the surface you get anxious, because you are nervous. But you are nervous because you are afraid. You are afraid because you don't want to be in shame. You think that you will be in shame because you actually did not do anything before the time of your speech delivery. That fear is also heightened because we do not know the situation, or we fear the unknown up to exaggerating levels.

But when you have actually done all the needed preparations, including getting some background information about the audience, the topic and the event, things tend to lighten a bit, and your anxiety is reduced even prior to the speaking event. It's easier to say to yourself just be confident, but there is much needed work to be just confident in any speaking engagement. The first step is to go up there and face your audience with a smile.