The phrase “I have butterflies in my stomach” is commonly used to describe the feeling that occurs with speaking anxiety. This is not a good feeling. Fortunately we have the power to get our butterflies in order.
In the early days of my own personal journey to overcome speaking anxiety I was given lots of advise for how I could deal with it. Some of the advice was good. Some, not so good.
A couple still stand out. One was that I should image my audience naked when I speak to them. I don’t know about you, but I had enough trouble talking to them dressed. Imagining them naked wasn’t going to work. Another piece of advice was to find a spot on the back wall and focus on that while I speak. I realized very quickly that I needed to to use my eyes to engage my audience. Staring at the back wall would lot allow me to do that.
Anxiety is negative energy and I believe that we only have so much energy. So anytime we can focus on something constructive we peal away that negative energy and convert it to positive. The more we focus on our audience and our message to them the more positive energy we create and the more comfortable we become.
Speaking is a craft. If we focus on the tools we have and how to use them we become more confident.
Now go out and Make Your Voice Heard!
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