"Take away that sense of 'you'"
We've all been there - standing at the top of the room with a group of people hanging on your every word. Your hands are sweaty and that sick feeling deep in your stomach. You just want it to be over.
So how can we make a change?
Fiona Brennan is a clinical hypnotherpist and psychotherpaist who is also the founder of The Positive Habit platform.
Throughout the years, a high volume of Fiona's clients have called on her due to anxiety during public speaking, so she has devised an approach to aid people get over the fear.
Speaking on Dermot and Dave, Fiona explains the two main reasons most of us suffer from this disposition:
- Evolutionary default setting
- Subjective, more personal experiences from when we were younger and more vulnerable
After exploring the reasons, Fiona then moves on to the preventative techniques we can practice to guide us through the art of public speech.
She directs us to adopt the mindset of "this is normal" when it comes to the nerves associated with addressing a group of people.
Get comfortable with the fear
Fiona also highlights how important deep breathing is;
when you're breathing deeply, you cannot get into that panicked state. You're sending a message of calm into your system
But her principal tip is to;
take away the sense of it being about 'you'. Focus on the message rather than yourself
Check out her guidelines in full by pressing the play button on screen.