Curing Stress?Fear?

[collins1393]

Hi, I am currently in grade 9, high school. I have a geography assigment coming up where I have to give a 5-10 minute show and tell speech about something in my cultural background.

Anyways here is the problem. I have one of the biggest fears of public speaking. My voice shakes, my heart thumps, etc. I just can't handle this. It started happening after one presentation I did a bad job and got scared then something *clicked* and ever since I have been full of fear during oral presentations.

Can energy work, or any other things on this site help me cure this fear? I'm sick of it and want to put an end to it.

This is not an energy cure, but a more practical approach. I used to be terrified of public speaking too. A good cure is as simple as A LOT of practice. Ask your family and friends to be your audience, and practice, practice, practice. :)

With these types of fears, sometimes just facing it and diving in is your best cure. Pretty soon, you'll realize that it's not as bad as you think. Plus, you'll start to feel good about yourself when you realize that you really CAN do it.

I think a good thing to do is to ask yourself why it scares you so much. What's the worst thing that can happen and is it really all that bad? Will you survive? Of course you will. :) You want to try to disarm the fear by confronting it.

Then, I would try some positive imagery and imagine yourself making it through beautifully, practice in your mind (every night before bed is a good idea). Imagine your success. Do this as often as you can, along with lots and lots of real practice and you should do just fine. :wink:

[sash]

scym's last point does work very well. Imagine if you could have a lucid dream every night and practice doing the talk in your dream for several times until you got it just right. Before going to sleep each night up to the day what you do is imagine practicing the speech. The imagination should be your ideal result of how you do it, see yourself doing it well and how you would want it to come out (without being stressed etc.). Attempt to "deepen" this imagery as much as possible.
You might find my article on Practical Imagination useful: http://www.psitraining.org/ar-imagination.php - it has my personal experience which directly pertains to public speaking towards the bottom.

During the presentation if you are still having difficulty it will help to stay as aware as possible and keep focusing on your breath to bring you back on point.

You could also try going around your ego directly but I would have to make a longer post regarding this if you are interested. However for me public speaking used to be almost impossible and the first method I mentioned was more than sufficient to achieve success with it.
What you are doing with that method is virtually doing the speech in a "parallel dimension" and thus creating the required energy to do the speech as you imagined when you do it in actual.

Good point Sash. It's been found that 'imaginary' practice of an activity can be just as beneficial as real practice - athletes who used this technique found they improved just as much, if not more.

However, I think in the case of public speaking, real practice along with postive imaging is just as important. It helps you get the feel of speaking in front of live people, which really does help a great deal in overcoming this fear - I know, I had to give presentations several times a week and was so uncomfortable the first few times I almost peed my pants. :lol:

Through repetition/practice, the intensity of the nerves died down quite a bit, at least to the point where I could step up and do it. Now, I still get a little nervous, but it's not overwhelming at all, just because I have done it so much. :)

[sash]

I think actual practice is still important but not as important as much so as practicing visualization.
The difference being that when you practice with one person in the room it is nothing like standing in front of 20 or so people, in a different environment, and where you are being assessed - what you thought was easy suddenly becomes a nightmare.

However both actual and imagined practice combined should do the trick.

[collins1393]

scym's last point does work very well. Imagine if you could have a lucid dream every night and practice doing the talk in your dream for several times until you got it just right. Before going to sleep each night up to the day what you do is imagine practicing the speech. The imagination should be your ideal result of how you do it, see yourself doing it well and how you would want it to come out (without being stressed etc.). Attempt to "deepen" this imagery as much as possible.
You might find my article on Practical Imagination useful: http://www.psitraining.org/ar-imagination.php - it has my personal experience which directly pertains to public speaking towards the bottom.

During the presentation if you are still having difficulty it will help to stay as aware as possible and keep focusing on your breath to bring you back on point.

You could also try going around your ego directly but I would have to make a longer post regarding this if you are interested. However for me public speaking used to be almost impossible and the first method I mentioned was more than sufficient to achieve success with it.
What you are doing with that method is virtually doing the speech in a "parallel dimension" and thus creating the required energy to do the speech as you imagined when you do it in actual.

This visualization sounds like it would work. I'm still a little unclear about it but I would like to start doing it. Thanks for the replies

[sash]

How I do it is before going to sleep I perform a light meditation to get into a relaxed state. When I am relaxed enough I close my eyes and begin imagining myself in the area that I am practicing in (in this instance it would be a classroom).

Then I would add elements to "deepen" it.
Deepening it means making it as much a reflection of the actual state as possible. So I would add the classroom attributes - the desks, the teacher, and the other students.

Then I would imagine sitting in class, how I would feel at the time, what I would be thinking at the time etc. in as much depth as possible.
From here I would play each step in my mind from the beginning to the end exactly as I would like it to proceed.
This would need to be done several times over and over again (in different sessions) to re-enforce it.

Remember the state that you feel like during this visualization and try to replicate it when performing the task in actual. This will produce the sense that you have something to fall back on.

To enhance this sense even more attempt to equalize the room's vibration with your internal state by using a joke or something you can relate back to your audience.
Try to speak from the essence of your heart directly and in this way you will avoid being thrown off track, especially when you've got the sense of confidence to back you up and the prior visualization practice integrated.

Let us know how it goes.

[collins1393]

Wow, I already started using that visualization technique and I have been participating much more in my classes. Thank you so much sash. You've helped me when I thought I would be stuck with this for life.

[CFTraveler]

When I was in college I had to give a few reports, in which I had to use equipment and know what I was talking about, two things I'm terrified of. I got over it by picking one person off the front row and giving the lecture to them in particular. I tried to pick a friendly face, and it made it so much better.
(and no, the naked thing doesn't work. :cry: )

Wow, I already started using that visualization technique and I have been participating much more in my classes. Thank you so much sash. You've helped me when I thought I would be stuck with this for life.

That's great! :D Glad to hear it.

[sash]

Wow, I already started using that visualization technique and I have been participating much more in my classes. Thank you so much sash. You've helped me when I thought I would be stuck with this for life.

That's great! :D Glad to hear it.

Ditto. That's good to hear.

The single requirements are belief and knowledge alone to being able to do whatever it is you want to accomplish. Striving to accomplish a deed of the soul is potential unrealized. The rest is just a process of getting there. Good luck again and keep in mind that this technique can be used for anything.

[jaycep]

yes! rub the adrenal glands (top of kidneys) in the lower/middle back. These will help regulate stress dramatically. Also I suggest waving hands at the sides while taking a deep breath in.