CC BY Tiziana Moreno
Public Speaking is when you’re speaking face to face to an audience. Since there are so many eyes on you and so many people listening to your every word, people can get anxiety on stage and become nervous. Not everyone in the crowd is judging you but watching people talk to each other during a speech or whisper and laugh can cause you to overthink and believe you are their topic of side conversation.
Many people refuse to get on stage to talk in front of people or would rather not be a person to present because of how anxious they can get. You start sweating and not being able to concentrate on what you’re presenting because of the nervous feeling in your stomach. Sometimes you have to forget the people are there. Don’t look directly at them it doesn’t help you and can make your feeling even worse. Instead, look above them or concentrate on something behind them so it presents to them your looking at them but instead you aren’t and you are able to calm your nerves.
Being prepared and practicing what you are going to say can help you so much. You can always bring a little note pad just in case you get off track to set you back in place. Knowing your speech can help you concentrate on getting the words out and not so much who is listening to the words. Although notes and remembering speeches can help, do not rush into every word and take your time so you can stay calm and present as you would like too. Remember to breathe and that everything takes time.
From my experience with public speaking, it hasn’t always been a perfect road. Getting nervous in front of others is okay but it’s important you can be able to collect yourself together once again. In my high school class, we all had to present a different project based on the topic you were assigned. Although I had known the people who were in front of me, the fear of messing up still got to me until I realized we were all feeling this way. No one is going to be perfect at talking in front of an audience so if you mess up it wouldn’t be such a big deal since most of them were too nervous for their turn to notice. I took long deep breaths and I talked about what I knew with a calm feeling of reassurance. This helps me in every public speaking I have to do because most people in the crowd would feel the same way about going onto the stage as I would. My presentation was very good and I was able to forget about the feeling by the time I was done.
Just because you’re nervous does not mean you should doubt yourself. Take a deep breathe and do your best.
