Category: Public Speaking

CC BY Serena Hutchison

May 5th, 2022

Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety

For some, public speaking comes very natural and easily based on confidence or experience. For these speakers, their voice is audible, there is comfortable eye contact being made with the crowd, and there is little to no swaying back and forth while presenting to the audience. For many though, public speaking does not come as easy. Whether you are very social around your friends and are confident outside of the classroom, when put in front of a crowd, you are in a different ball game. For these speakers, they may tend to tremble their words, refrain from keeping eye contact with the crowd, and or sway back and forth. So how do we overcome this anxiety behind public speaking, so we can fully portray who we are to the crowd and knock down the stigma of anxiety connected to public speaking. 

In myself, I notice that when I know I am the only one speaking in the room and eyes are on me is when I start to tremble and sway back and forth. For me, being able to acknowledge what gives me anxiety was crucial. Furthermore, I was able to decrease my anxious tendencies while presenting. Another factor of anxious public speaking I saw myself portraying was trying to maintain eye contact but then going off track and stumbling my words. Like many, I am very social outside of the classroom but when I am in front of a group of people I may not know or am not comfortable with, this is when I become anxious.

So what are my tips to fix this?

I have a few tips on how to overcome public speaking anxiety. In my own experience, understanding that everybody else in the room is worried about their own presentations that they present helps me understand that I am not the only one going through the anxiety of presenting. Furthermore, understanding that your topic could be very interesting to the audience as it may be an informative presentation that the audience may enjoy or may have never heard of is something else that takes anxiousness off my shoulders. Another tip I have for overcoming presentation anxiety correlates to if you are in a group presentation. Getting to know the presentation group is a key factor for me and installs comfort while presenting. To add, when you are comfortable with your presentation group, this could be a gateway to meeting up outside of class to practice the presentation. 

There is nothing wrong about getting nervous to present. It is okay to be anxious to stand up confidently and present to a group of people you may not know. In the end, the idea of a presentation is to share your findings on a topic. After your hard work making a presentation, you deserve to share a beautiful presentation and reward yourself on all the new information you learned!

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.

CC BY ND Jason Sanchez Rojas

There is something about a large crowd that gets alot of people anxious when talking. We all have to speak in front of large groups at some point in our lives. Whether that be for a school assignment, giving your boss and colleagues ideas at work, or something as simple as speaking to your family at dinner on holidays. I personally struggle with this and I want to give people the tips and advice they need to overcome their speech anxiety

This might sounds silly to come but honestly just fake it til you make it. This is a great technique I was taught by friends and therapists’ of mine. If you tell yourself everything will be ok and you got everything under control, even when you feel like you don’t, your brain will think you actually do have everything under control which leads you to feeling confident in actuality. I use this technique when I am about to present a slideshow, about to perform a concert, or trying to talk to someone. I repeat to myself “you got this” “I’m that guy” “THEY NOT READY FOR THIS” and those phrases help me through large group settings.

Another way I combat my anxiety is that I listen to my favorite music. I personally can’t deal with my anxiety in silence and I need something in the background to help clear my head. Having my favorite songs playing helps me clear my mind on what is making me anxious and I just focus on the words and sing alot at times.

I am positive that if you follow what I do, you will find yourself being less anxious for large crowds and will have a positive outlook on your speech. Being anxious is a normal feeling to have and I can assure you everyone feels anxious at something in their lives. And I can also assure you that some people in the crowd will admire your strenght to come on stage.