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Date Posted: 04:32:34 09/02/02 Mon
Author: AnDray Strickland (Dray)
Subject: Re: Topic 4--re: Overcoming Speech Anxiety
In reply to: Ken Harley 's message, "Topic 4--re: Overcoming Speech Anxiety" on 12:29:12 08/29/02 Thu

>Give several examples of when you may have had some
>temporary anxiety that developed before you were
>supposed to speak or give a presentation. What did
>you do to calm down? What tips would you give to
>others so that they can relax before, during, and
>after a presentation that they are giving?

I remember being nervous in front of a school talent show. My group all wore glasses in high school, and before we began singing the crowd started chanting, "Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!" Talk about pressure! But we had practiced hard and we were confident enough to look beyond the chanting and to complete our perfomance. The same crowd that had called us nerds ended up giving us a standing ovation.

My advice from that experience: remember your purpose and to visualize yourself completing the task at hand.

Another experience was in a speech class with a girl that I really liked. It's funny how focusing on the wrong person can make you nervous, and why did she have to sit in the front row? I fumbled through that speech like a bag of nuts in a blender and my teacher talked to me about finding a focal point right over the tops of everyone's head. She explained that it was important to give eye contact, but not too much direct eye contact. My advice: treat the audience as an entity and not as a single person.

To calm down I have learned to "accept the butterflies". As weird as that may sound, I think I get more nervous when they are not present because I may be feeling a bit over-confident. The butterflies are humbling and keep me focused.

I would advise fellow students to also:
Be prepared
Breathe deeply
Imagine the audience are all family members
Always have fun

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