Anxiety and Panic Attacks
 
While Public Speaking

[This is a transcript of a spoken lecture]

Throughout my youth, I was absolutely terrified of speaking in front of groups. Nervousness would spiral out of control, a lump in my throat would make my voice sound awful, I'd blush bright red, and I'd mentally freeze so that I couldn't even remember a bit of what I needed to say. I would do anything to avoid public speaking possibilities... I even put off university for a long time because of this issue.

Whether your fear of public speaking is more severe or less than what I experienced, the truth is that anything even close is going to have an adverse impact on your personal, social and career life.

Now, as a former panic attack sufferer, I can see how many people might compare the overwhelming fear experienced during public speaking to the sensation of a panic attack. The feelings are quite similar. One important difference, however, is that with public speaking at least you know why you're panicking. You could escape from it if you had to (like I did by by delaying my education, and even then choosing class where I wouldn't have to speak). With true panic attacks, you're not necessarily sure why you're feeling that sensation of fear and overwhelm - so it seems like there's no way out, no escape.

However what's more important here are the interesting similarities between the two:

In both situations (public speaking and panic attacks) you have a super uncomfortable body sensation growing within you, such as nervousness and fear, and you're trying to control or suppress it - which actually causes it to grow.

The great news is that that exact same approach that I have developed for resolving panic attacks also works with public speaking fears! Simply apply the technique to any fear that you feel arising before or during your speech (or during any social activity for that matter). With practice, that pressure cooker of anxiety within you will be a completely tolerable sensation - one that doesn't interfere with your speaking ability. Just remember, regardless of how much nervousness, fear, or inner terror you experience, you'll be able to speak well if you mentally embrace those feelings rather than trying to suppress them. And once you you realize how well this works and see that you can depend on it, you'll find that your fear of speaking won't have nearly the impact on your life that it does now. Learning to embrace your inner fear sensations can really do miracles for your public speaking ability.

So basically you'll want to start by practicing in a low stress environment. Perhaps just stand up and imagine yourself giving a speech. Really visualize and imagine that you're in front of the group of people, and then as you're speaking, and as you're visualizing that crowd of people facing you, you're going to notice the sensation of nervousness and fear start to arise... nervousness, fear and anxiety. The more clearly you've imagined yourself in that situation, like really projected yourself into it, the more real the feeling will be, and the more effective this exercise will be for you. The fact is, your subconscious mind doesn't really know the difference between what's real and what's imagined. So if you mentally project and imagine yourself in that situation with the crowd in front of you, you'll get the same kind of feelings arising within you.

Then, as soon as you notice that nervousness, turn your full mental awareness to that feeling and just let it be there. Just observe it, without trying to change it or stop it. You can greet it, welcome it, talk to it, talk to it like it's a think within you (I know this sounds strange, but it's a means to an end). You can describe it with any adjectives you can think of. Just do whatever works for you to get absolutely comfortable with that sensation. Treat that feeling like it's your best friend... like you want it to be there, you want it to come (this is what I mean by "embracing the feelings"). Your attitude should be like "bring it on, I can handle you".

Again, I know this might sound weird at first, but if you practice this on a daily basis you'll become so familiar with that feeling that it will no longer scare you when it arises while really giving a speech. The key is to let it be there, want it be there... And just be totally aware of it, and accepting of it.

When you develop your mental approach of accepting those feelings in your body, and as you continue accepting them no matter how intense they get, they eventually stop growing at all. This is because it was only your previous mental approach of trying to squash those feelings that was making them grow. You were trying to suppress the feelings, which means you were afraid of the feelings. That fear was adding adrenaline to the situation, and since adrenaline is nervousness, that fear was directly causing the feeling of nervousness to grow. And when the nervousness grew, your fear grew, which only caused the adrenaline/nervousness to grow more. It's an intensifying spiral of fear - just like a panic attack.

And as with a panic attack, the key to reversing that spiral is to learn to accept those sensation, and even welcome them - embrace them (rather than trying to suppress them). With a little time, and growing confidence in your ability to handle all those reactions, your fear of public speaking will soon be totally under control.

[I would also suggest listening to my free anxiety audio program for more structured practice]

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