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Date Posted: 12:06:06 09/02/02 Mon
Author: Kathy Oskison
Subject: Re: Topic 4--re: Overcoming Speech Anxiety
In reply to: AnDray Strickland (Dray) 's message, "Re: Topic 4--re: Overcoming Speech Anxiety" on 04:32:34 09/02/02 Mon

>>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

Reply to AnDray:
I can relate to those early school speeches. I remember getting up to give a speech in high school, and I started to giggle. I was so nervous, I simply could not stop giggling. My teacher was great, she took me out in the hall and explained that it was just a nervous reaction, let me calm down a bit, and then I could go on.

I can only hope that some day I will be comfortable enough about speaking to a group that I can have fun with it. You seem to have mastered that quite well.

KO

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