What should I do if I'm nervous before a performance? How to calm your nerves before an important speech

It is possible to cope with fear and self-doubt; there are many ways to do this. effective techniques.

As you begin to combat your fear of public speaking, remember that there is nothing reprehensible about it. Many people experience the same fear, which consists of many small fears: fear of a bad performance, fear of looking bad in the eyes of others, worries about possible loss of the thread of the story, etc. These worries, as a rule, are groundless, but they exist, and there is nothing to worry about, you just need to try to minimize them.

Don't focus on yourself

One of effective methods eliminating fear of public speaking is to remove the focus from one’s own person. Focus on your audience, look at the people gathered, answer the questions: who are these people? Why did they gather? What do they want to hear from you? What is important to them? Focus on the interests of those around you and you will have no time to evaluate the strength of your trembling knees.

The public's fear is based on the fear of being criticized. A confident person will not be afraid of the assessments of others. How to increase the firmness of your position? Let's watch the video!

Remind me of reality

Knowing that you are well prepared will also help you neutralize your anxiety before a performance. Repeat the following phrases several times out loud or mentally: “I know everything. I prepared very carefully for the report. I have no objective reasons for excitement." The content of these phrases can be changed depending on the specific situation,

Get comfortable

For everything to go well, practice, rehearse your speech in a circle of loved ones and acquaintances or in front of a mirror. If there is such an opportunity, get a little used to the place of the performance: walk around the audience (stage, hall) in which your performance will take place, determine in advance your trajectory of movements (if necessary).

Fall in love with the audience

Instill in yourself the idea that your listeners are exactly the same people as you, they will be happy about your success. Treat the audience as loyal fans; none of them are hostile towards you. Don’t beat yourself up, watch your fears-thoughts as if from the outside, try to understand where they come from. Remember that these are not your fears, they come from outside. Let them move on, leaving you alone with your positive emotions. If you become aware of your fears, they lose their power over you.

Avoid bad predictions

Don’t create negative scenarios for yourself, solve problems as they arise. Programming for negative events will bring you nothing but anxiety and disappointment.

Control your breathing

If a panic attack takes hold of you right during a performance, you... Take a deep, calm breath and exhale, feel how your abdominal muscles tense and relax. Breathe like this throughout your performance, it will help you gain peace of mind. This breathing technique can be rehearsed long before the actual speech.

Always remember that your anxiety, like everything else in this world, is temporary and will end as soon as your performance is over.

“How not to worry before speaking in public?” - that's pretty actual question for people of many professions and ages. For the first time we encounter a similar problem at school, university or at work. And if in the process of studying the fear of speaking in front of classmates caused only discomfort, then tasks from the authorities, where it was necessary to convey certain information to professionals, could generally put a person into a stupor.

But in reality, the fear of presenting in front of an audience is something that can be overcome. Below we will tell you in detail how to stop worrying before a performance. So let's get started.

Reasons for fear of public speaking. Children's phobias

There are different types of excitement on stage. But many people fall into approximately the same state, which is quite difficult to overcome: the audience turns into a frightening crowd, the voice sounds like it is not their own, their mouth becomes dry, their knees and hands shake. To understand how not to worry before a performance and overcome fear, you need to find out the reasons for its occurrence.

The first of them begins in childhood and is the most underrated. When a small child speaks loudly for the first time in a public place, one of the parents silences him. Subsequently, this turns into a phobia and the person, on a subconscious level, begins to be afraid of loudly expressing his thoughts in front of an audience.

When a speaker's voice tightens, it causes anxiety and ultimately leads to fear. May well add fuel to the fire school teachers who belittle skills, and classmates who can easily hurt a speaker’s feelings without thinking about the consequences. All this provokes the emergence of social phobias and fear of performing on stage.

Fear of society

The second reason why we cannot make our public speech fearless lies in the psychological component of fear. Previously, it was synonymous with such a word as danger. I approached the edge of the abyss - I got scared and moved away, felt the cold - I immediately started looking for a source of heat. Under the influence of daily stress - study, work, political and economic upheavals in society - the instinct of self-preservation has changed significantly. As a result, people begin to worry in unjustified situations, including during public speaking. There are several reasons that awaken this fear in them:

Poor knowledge of information necessary for speaking.
Fear of slipping up or saying something stupid.
Confidence that listeners will closely monitor the performance and evaluate it in a negative way.
People are afraid of low level social activity.

Agoraphobia

This is the last reason for the fear of speaking in front of an audience. It is also known as Unlike the fear of people mentioned above, this fear is much deeper. Some people don't even realize that they suffer from this type of phobia.

Show yourself

Having figured out why a phobia of public speaking appeared, you need to convince yourself that this fear does not exist and is not worth worrying about.

People who know how not to worry before a performance have realized one thing: important thing. For them, public speaking is an opportunity to show their best sides and evaluate their own skills in working with listeners. It is very important! Especially for specialists whose activities are related to communications. In this case, with poorly developed communication skills, their mood deteriorates, discomfort appears, productivity decreases, etc.

The benefits of speaking

Speaking fearlessly on stage is key to self-confidence. If you train your skills by expressing your thoughts in front of an audience, they will soon become automatic. Over time, the discomfort when communicating with people will disappear. What benefits can you gain from speaking in public? Below we list them:

With the correct methodology for preparing for reports, your speech literacy will improve over time.
At student summits or work conferences there are business and influential people. They will hear you speak and are likely to make lucrative offers in the future.
During the preparation process, you can significantly expand your knowledge related to the topic of the speech.
Experience communicating even with a small audience helps develop communication skills.

How not to worry before performing on stage and overcome fear

Of course, you can convince yourself that giving a speech in front of people is useful. The phobia will recede a little, but the fear itself will not disappear. You shouldn't fight him. It must be present for the audience to receive feedback from the speaker. Only fear needs to be controlled and known reliable methods overcoming it. After all, if you are too nervous, the report will be spoiled. Below are some tips to help you overcome your fear of speaking.

1. Rehearsal

Please pay attention sufficient quantity time to prepare for a speech. You need to clearly understand what you are saying, and never bring your knowledge of the text to complete automatism. In this case, you can easily forget it as soon as stress arises. It is necessary to thoroughly study the topic of the speech and get into the essence for a better understanding. In addition, you need to have an idea of how to present the text to the public. Speakers who know how not to worry before speaking are sure to work on this aspect. They understand how important it is to rehearse every step of a public speech. This is how a speaker gains confidence on stage. There is a conditional rule: one minute of performance requires an hour of rehearsal.

2. Speech clarity

3. Relevance of the topic

You need to know the composition of the audience in advance and find out what information will interest them. It is also worth thinking about how to involve the audience in the performance process. After all, any topic can be easily covered from different angles and you can choose exactly the one that will be relevant to the audience. Therefore, it is better to first ask the organizers of the performance for lists of guests and study the areas of their activities. And then everything is simple - you need to connect your topic with their work, formulating the main theses of the report.

4. Conversation with the audience

To create a comfortable atmosphere for yourself and the audience, you can start a dialogue before the start of a public speech, talk with those present on abstract topics. After talking with the audience, you should smoothly move on to your report. This will help get rid of anxiety. And the audience will become much more relaxed.

5. Shifting the focus of attention

While on stage, you need to ask yourself: “Why am I standing here?” Excitement appears just when the speaker pays attention to himself, that is, he thinks about how he looks, how his voice sounds, etc. You should get rid of such thoughts. After all, the speaker goes on stage not in order to, but in order to convey to the audience useful information. Such an attitude will help overcome a baseless phobia.

How to not worry before a performance and stay confident

It happens that it is not possible to apply the tips listed above because the date of the event is too close. At the same time, a phobia may not give a person peace. If you cannot get rid of it, then you should use the following methods:

Just relax. This is one of the first pieces of advice from experienced speakers to those newbies who are wondering: “What should I do if I’m very nervous before speaking?” When your body is tense, you want to shrink and not be the center of attention. Therefore, it is necessary to relax so as not to reinforce psychological discomfort with physical tension.
When performing, your posture should inspire confidence.: straight back, open position, both feet are on the floor. It is better to move your supporting leg slightly forward for maximum stability. This position will ensure optimal blood circulation, which will deliver more oxygen to the brain, thereby reducing anxiety.
To bring the body out of stress, you need to normalize your breathing. To do this, you need to inhale, count to four and exhale sharply. And so ten times in a row.
If your voice often breaks down from excitement during a speech, then it’s worth doing speech gymnastics: pronounce a speech without opening your mouth, pronouncing the letters as clearly and expressively as possible. This exercise will help relax the muscles of the larynx and face, as well as cope with anxiety. Be sure to bring water with you. Perhaps at the most inopportune moment your voice will disappear and you will have to interrupt the performance.
If you experience trembling in your knees during a public speech, then mentally direct your attention to them. You can also trick your brain by consciously making your knees shake. After this, the trembling usually stops.
To maintain contact with your listeners, be sure to look them in the eye. This way you will show that public speech is aimed at their return and interest.
If you make a mistake during a report optimal solution there will be a continuation of the performance. There is no need to focus attention on it. Continue speaking as if nothing happened. After all, in addition to conveying information, it is important to be able to focus on the main thing. Therefore, if you succinctly omit the error, then no one in the audience will notice it.

Medicines for fear

Many novice speakers think about what to drink before a speech so as not to worry. Perhaps the most common sedative is valerian. But the psychological effect is more at work here. Therefore, we do not recommend taking any medications before the presentation. Improve your communication skills and over time the fear will disappear.

Conclusion

Now you know before performing on stage. Be sure to take advantage of the helpful tips in this article. They will help you overcome fear, and speaking fearlessly in front of your audience will become your habit. After this, you will never again wonder what to do if you are nervous before a performance. When you first feel confident in front of an audience, you will realize that your existing phobia has receded, and life has become much more relaxed and beautiful.

The question of how to learn to speak in front of an audience worries people of different ages and professions. This fear appears in childhood and then accompanies throughout life, when performances become more voluminous and the audience becomes more serious. But you can easily get rid of anxiety during public speaking; you just need to know a few simple but effective techniques.

How to learn to speak alone in front of an audience?

Usually the fear of speaking in front of a large audience is due to the fact that a person is afraid of not meeting the expectations of the audience, forgetting the words and being judged. To overcome this fear, you need to work on it.

First you need to determine what was the source of fear. Some know the text perfectly and are ready to perform, but there is still fear. This is the fear of appearing funny, stuttering, making a mistake, making a mistake, getting ridiculed, etc. The main thing to understand here is that the viewer is simply watching and listening, he is not preparing to condemn or attack. One has only to realize this, and some of the problems will be solved.
You should prepare for the performance in advance. It's better to make up detailed plan, including the main points of the speech, diagrams or even sketches. You also need to rehearse your speech several times. Modern technology allows you to make a recording to view a trial performance and work on mistakes.
While on stage, you don’t need to think about the possible reaction of the audience. The public does not even know about the speaker’s internal state, about his fears. If you don’t show your excitement in any way, no one will notice it.
There is no need to think about what the audience is thinking about. They will certainly look at the person who is giving the speech. You should not pay attention to their views, gestures and facial expressions and try to analyze what they mean.

Speaking is also an art: how to learn to speak in front of an audience in any situation?

The public's reaction depends on how you present yourself.

How to learn not to worry in front of an audience?

The most important thing is to try to relax. You should not curl into a ball and strain all your muscles. This will only add excitement and make the situation worse.

Before going on stage, you need to do a little breathing exercise: take a deep breath, count to four and exhale. It is advisable to repeat the exercise ten times.
Standing on stage, you need to accept open posture without crossing your arms or legs. This will create a visual illusion of openness and self-confidence.
It is better to have a plan for your speech before your eyes, so that if there is a hitch, you can spy on it and continue your speech further.

The ability to speak publicly plays a big role in different life situations.

How to learn to speak in public and how to quickly calm yourself down?

It happens that a person speaking in front of an audience suddenly makes a slip of the tongue or stumbles. As a result, internal panic begins and all words are forgotten. How to proceed?

May help some breathing exercises: you need to sharply hold your breath for a second, and then exhale slowly. It’s better to repeat 2-3 times. It will take a couple of minutes, but the result will be noticeable. You can simply apologize to the audience and take a sip of water, since a pause is still necessary. Finally, you can simply break the prolonged silence with a good joke. The audience will appreciate the speaker's sense of humor, because laughter helps people relax and become a little closer.

“How to stop being afraid of public speaking?” - a relevant question for people of all ages and professions. For the first time we are faced with the need to speak in front of a serious public already at the institute or at work. And if at school speaking in front of your classmates made you feel uncomfortable, and you caught yourself thinking, “I’m afraid to do this,” then work assignments where you need to convey certain information to professionals most likely terrify you.

But all this fear of public speaking is only in our heads, so you can easily get rid of it by first explaining to yourself how it arises and what ways to overcome it exist.

The anxiety before performing on stage can be different, but we feel the same state, which is extremely difficult to overcome: our hands and knees are shaking, our mouth is dry, our voice sounds as if from the outside, the audience turns into one frightening mass. To understand why fear controls us so much and how we can cope with it, let’s find out its causes.

Perhaps the first and most underestimated cause of fear of public speaking begins in childhood. When Small child speaks loudly for the first time in a public place, the parent will silence him. Subsequently, this will be the explanation of why a person has a phobia of expressing thoughts loudly in front of an audience.

When the voice is suppressed, it leads to anxiety, and ultimately to fear. Of course, school teachers who belittle abilities and classmates who can hurt feelings without thinking about the consequences will not forget to add fuel to the fire. These moments are the causes of social phobias, including those that provoke fear of public speaking.

The second reason why fearless public speaking eludes us has to do with the psychological component of fear. Fear used to be synonymous with the word danger. I felt cold - I tried to warm up faster, went to the edge of the abyss - I was afraid of heights and walked away. Under the influence of everyday stress: work, study, economic and political changes in society, the instinct of self-preservation has undergone changes. As a result, we begin to worry in unjustified situations, including before performing on stage. The reasons that awaken this fear in us are the following:

Fear of people as such due to low social activity.
Fear of saying something stupid or slipping up.
Constantly telling yourself that the listeners are negatively disposed towards you and will closely evaluate your performance.

Another reason is not having the information necessary for the presentation. And the last one is agoraphobia or fear of crowds. Unlike the fear of people described above, this fear is deeper, and people do not even realize that they are afraid of large crowds of people and suffer from this type of phobia.

Why you shouldn't be afraid to perform on stage

Having understood the sources of the formation of a phobia for stage performances, you must first of all convince yourself that this fear does not exist, that we are starting to worry in vain.

Main point on the way to overcoming fear, which needs to be realized and felt - public speaking is an opportunity to express yourself with the best side and evaluate your skills in working with an audience. This is important because every day, at work or school, we communicate with people, and when this brings us discomfort, our productivity drops, our mood worsens, etc.

Fearless public speaking is the key to your self-confidence. By training skills by presenting information in front of other people, you bring actions to automatic execution, and over time you will no longer feel discomfort when communicating with people. Let's summarize the useful aspects that can be gained from performing on stage:

Experience communicating with large audiences to help develop communication skills.
In the process of preparation, you will deepen your knowledge related to the topic of the speech.
At work conferences or student summits, your speech will be noticed by influential figures, which can benefit you in the future.
At proper preparation to the reports, your speech will soon become more literate.

How to overcome stage fright

If it is too late to apply the above tips - the performance is already on your way, and the phobia haunts you, and you cannot get rid of it, then use the following techniques:

Relax. When the body is tense, you involuntarily want to shrink and not be the center of attention. Relax your body so as not to reinforce psychological discomfort with physical tension.
Your position on stage should be confident: both feet are on the ground, hands not in closed position, back straight. Place your supporting leg forward for stability. This will allow your blood to circulate better, deliver more oxygen to your brain cells, and you will become less anxious.
It is important to normalize breathing so that the body is not stressed. To do this, inhale, count to 4, then exhale sharply. Repeat 10 times.
If you feel that your voice is breaking from excitement, do speech gymnastics in advance. Tell your speech without opening your mouth. Pronounce the letters as clearly and expressively as possible. This exercise will relax the muscles of the face and larynx and help cope with anxiety. Take water with you, otherwise at the wrong moment you will lose your voice and have to interrupt the performance.
If fearless public speaking suddenly causes your knees to tremble, try mentally directing your attention to them. Or trick your brain and consciously make your knees shake. After this, the trembling often stops.
Make eye contact with your listeners to maintain contact with them. This will show that the performance is aimed at their interest and impact.
If you made a mistake, the right decision would be not to focus attention on it and continue speaking. In addition to the task of presenting information, it is important to be able to concentrate on the main thing. Therefore, if you succinctly omit the error, none of the listeners will even notice it.

The recommendations in this article will help you overcome fear, and fearless public speaking will become a constant companion to your stage performances. You will never say, “I’m afraid to perform on stage, I won’t be able to cope with it.” Having felt confident in front of an audience for the first time, you will realize that you have become much more relaxed in life, and the phobia that haunts you has receded.

Author: Lyudmila Nikolaevna Medvedkova, teacher primary classes Makeevskaya secondary school With preschool № 102
Description of material: I offer you the article “How to cope with anxiety before public speaking.” This material It will be useful for teachers who have encountered anxiety before public speaking. This article will introduce you to the causes of anxiety and methods of dealing with fear of public speaking.

How to deal with anxiety before public speaking

In the modern educational environment, demands on the personality of a teacher are increasing. Every day a teacher is forced to advertise his educational services, the effectiveness of pedagogical developments in order to position oneself as a successful teacher in the field of education.
Countless number of seminars, conferences, presentations, and competitions force teachers to speak. Every day every teacher is faced with public speaking. Audiences can be different: children (children) and adults (parents, colleagues, administration). And all this can cause excitement, fear or even horror. Such experiences affect the teacher’s health, as well as the productivity of his teaching activities.
You often hear: “I can’t perform because I’m very worried! But Marya Ivanovna has an excellent stage presence! That’s her talent!”
They say that good speakers are not born, but made. How can you become a good speaker if the mere thought of public speaking fills you with fear and causes a storm of anxiety.
In this article we will talk about how to cope with anxiety before public speaking and learn to enjoy the stage.
The fear of public speaking originates in instincts. You seem to challenge the audience, find yourself on stage in the spotlight large quantity of people. You literally feel like you're under the gun, like you're being thoroughly assessed, every gesture and every word is being caught. Surprisingly, fear of public speaking ranks second in the classification of phobias after fear of death.
Any person experiences anxiety at this moment. Finding yourself in such a situation is a lot of stress, and instinct tells us that when stressed we should run away! But we are human, which means we can pull ourselves together and not give in to our instincts. Let's try to help ourselves!
There is an opinion that in order to overcome fear you need to look into its eyes.
So let's find out Reasons for anxiety before public speaking:
- Inflated expectations and overestimation of significance of this event. Often we attach great importance to an ordinary speech lasting 3–5 minutes, and if something goes wrong, then terrible things will happen after that. We compare the very chance to speak to speaking in front of the president or in court, where our freedom is at stake. It is important to learn to objectively assess the importance of such an event.
- Past public speaking experience. If in a previous similar situation you were very worried or defeated, then in this situation you will experience the same emotions. Try to forget what happened to you in the previous situation and start over from scratch.
- False Belief that the audience in which you will have to speak publicly is initially hostile. This is wrong. People treat the speaker at least neutrally and initially give the speaker a certain amount of credit. Of course, there are initially negative listeners, but they criticize everyone, not just us, and you shouldn’t judge all listeners by them.
- Fear of forgetting a prepared speech. In this case, you need to rehearse your speech in advance and make a plan so as not to get confused in front of the audience.
- Fear of additional questions on this topic. In this case, it is important to understand that it is impossible to know absolutely everything, and if you are asked an additional question to which you do not know the answer, you can address this question to the audience itself. This will be sincere and honest on your part. And the main thing in a speech is the speaker’s trust in the audience.
- Inexperience of the speaker. This can only be corrected by systematically speaking to different audiences and on different topics. Practice is the most effective method. To get rid of fear, you need to constantly overcome it.
To overcome anxiety you need to use methods of dealing with fear:
1. Move your jaw back and forth quickly to help relax the facial nerves.
2. Shake your hands, move your fingers, stretch your palms. This gymnastics helps relieve the paralyzing effect of anxiety and stimulates the speech apparatus; Your reaction speed and eloquence are significantly improved.
3. Walk vigorously and wave your arms. Physical activity Helps relieve nervous tension.
4. Move at a calm rhythm. Stretch your arms up without lifting your heels from the floor, stretch and throw your body down, shake your arms.
When excited, the breathing rate increases. By learning to control and manage your breathing, you will learn to control feelings such as anxiety, fear, and panic. Slow and deep breathing will help reduce anxiety. Use the following breathing exercises before the performance:
1. “Square breathing”: inhale through your nose, pause, exhale through your nose and pause again. Do the exercise in four counts (inhale for one, two, three, four, pause for one, two, three, four, etc.).
2. “Breathing on a count”: inhale through your nose for one or two, exhale through your nose for three, four, five, six. Pause (3-5 inhalations and exhalations). Next, increase the duration of your inhalations and exhalations. Inhale through your nose for one-two-three-four, exhale through your nose for five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven-twelve (5-7 inhalations and exhalations).
3. “Exhale through the mouth”: inhale through your nose for one-two-three, exhale through your mouth for five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven-twelve (5-7 inhalations and exhalations). Speaking, it is better to inhale through the nose, and we, one way or another, exhale through the mouth. The longer our exhalation, the stronger, more melodic and without interruption we will be able to speak.
4. If you are out of breath, take several deep breaths and pronounce any words using the vowel “u” as you exhale. For example: wow, circle, fluff...
And finally, the last method that will help you relax and relieve tension, 3 - 5 seconds before the start of your speech, you need to look around the audience and say something good to yourself, for example: “My dears, how glad I am to see you!” This will bring a smile to your face and help you emotionally tune in to pleasant sensations.
Thus, in order to cope with anxiety before public speaking, theory is not enough, you need to speak, speak and speak again... at every opportunity. If you have something to say, stand up and speak. Even if your inner voice tells you that you don’t need to do this, you won’t succeed. Public speaking should become as familiar to you as washing your face and brushing your teeth in the morning. Remember that every performance you give improves you as a speaker and helps you feel more confident in front of an audience. The law of dialectics: quantity turns into quality, then begins to bring pleasure. When the speaker himself enjoys the process of speaking, then the audience will be delighted with the speech.