Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Overcoming anxiety
I have to admit I am more nervous after finishing Chapter 2 than I was going in! I had not considered a lot of things that contribute to public speaking anxiety, like being unfamilar with the space, being nervous after giving the speech, and media malfunctions. It makes sense that a large part of public speaking nervousness stems from the aspects of the moment that are unfamiliar. I feel that visualization, relabeling, and relaxation are excellent tools to fight anxiety. I have already been walking myself through each step of the speech, although being a hybrid class we are at a disadvantage seeing as we have only had one night physically in the classroom. My fear is that I will confidently walk to the front of the class, turn around, and upon seeing everyone's eyes on me waiting to hear my speech will go completely blank. Hopefully practice, visualization, relabeling, relaxation and having my notecard will prevent this from happening. Just breathe, smile, and start talking!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Jessielou,
ReplyDelete"I'm sure after reading everyone's posts that you know you are not alone in how you feel," one of our classmates, BTSblog, said it to me. After receiving this message, I felt warm and not being anxious about the next presentation. I thought it might help you to reduce your anxiety about the class. In the same way, I agree with your belief that these strategies are the excellent tools to against our speech anxiety. Moreover, I told to myself giving a speech just likes an ordinary conversation, as delivering my opinions to my friends and receiving their feedback. However, as you said, “Just breathe, smile, and start talking,” you will be fine.
I too have that fear of going blank in front of all those judging eyes. I take comfort in knowing that everyone in the class will have to go through the same agonizing situation. I real life however, this is not always the case. If I have to speak in front of a group at work for example, the audience may not be as forgiving. I think it all depends how we handle the blank out moments. If we freak out and run off for example, it might leave a not so good impression with our audience. However, if we laugh it off or start talking about something we are comfortable or knowledgeable about, our audience will likely forget about the incident. At the same time we are building our confidence and lowering our anxiety by incorporating a familiar topic. By the way, you're going to do just fine!
ReplyDelete