Public Speaking – Use That Nervous Sweat To Shine, Shine, Shine Every Time You Speak In Public
You’re waiting to speak in front of a group of people. As you sit there, waiting to be introduced, your hands start to sweat. Your stomach flips over ten thousand times. Your heart pounds fast and hard.
Ugh! You hate these physical sensations of nervousness. You want them to all go away. You curse at them and think to yourself, “Oh, no! I don’t want to feel THIS! I hate it that my heart is pounding. What if everyone sees my whole face trembling? Am I blushing? I’m sure I must be beet red by now…” and on and on.
If only you could just get your hands on a shot of whiskey. But there is no whiskey and it’s only 9:30 in the morning, so you try breathing deeply in an effort to calm and control these sensations. This seems to help. For one second. Then those pesky physical sensations are back!
Hey, it’s okay! It’s just your nervous system doing its thing.
Listen, the problem is not that your heart is pounding or your stomach is clenching. The problem is that you resist these physical expressions of energy. You try to get them to go away. You judge them as bad, wrong and unwanted. But your “pushing against” only makes them more aggressive, persistent and unnerving.
What to do? How can you allow these sensations to assist you rather than make you feel crazy and out of control?
The first thing is to realize that pushing against these sensations never works. Not unless you can amputate your entire nervous system.
The second thing is to stop judging these sensations as “bad.” They aren’t bad. They’re just energy. Energy that is moving through your body and creating certain sensations, like stomach flips, chills and pounding heart.
Oh, sure, you can name these sensations “nervousness” or “anxiety” or “terror” even, but in truth, they’re just physical sensations.
Can you let yourself be with these sensations without making them bad or unwanted? Can you allow these sensations, this energy, to move through your body without pushing them away or trying to make them stop?
When you feel those sensations, instead of contracting around them, breathe deeply and just let them be there. Let them move through your body as they will. Let yourself feel them without judgment. If your heart is pounding in your chest, let it pound away. Feel it thump, thump, thump away. It’s perfectly okay that your heart is beating. That’s what hearts do.
Whatever sensations are present, let them do their thing without trying to control them, and they will move through your body easily and naturally.
When you allow this energy to move through you in this way, you will start to feel like you’re expanding, growing with that energy. Now, this sounds a little like science fiction, but it’s not. It’s your nervous system getting you big enough to do what you’re about to do. Make room for that energy and it will empower and support you IF you let it be there, if you let it move through.
Now, this may feel scary the first time you try it, but that’s only because you are so used to pushing it away in an effort to be in control. Trust your nervous system. It really is working for you, not against you.
If you’d like to learn how to use your own energy to feel completely confident any time you are speaking in public, sign up for my free monthly e-zine, Becoming Fearless here: http://www.unconditionalconfidence.com
You can also learn the three power tools for feeling relaxed and present in all your communications with the “Engage Your Audience” CD. It will also teach you how to make a magnetic connection with any audience, whether it’s an audience of one or one thousand.
Nancy Tierney teaches entrepreneurs how to speak in public with confidence, ease and their own kind of charisma. You can discover how to be completely confident any time you are expressing yourself in any way by going to: http://www.unconditionalconfidence.com
