How to Calm Your Nerves before Public Speaking?

Very often, you need to deliver a public speech in front of a large audience or you just need to have an official talk with somebody. However, it might be really hard to pluck up your courage and start delivering your message. Usually, you feel anxious and nervous when it comes to speaking in front of the public. Still, I must assure you that you can overcome this anxiety and keep your emotions under control. Here are the most important tips how you can calm your nerves before speaking.

Keep Your Mouth Hydrated

Very often, apart from the psychological difficulties, while speaking, one can get a dry mouth, which might also be a serious obstacle to delivering a good speech. It’s really uncomfortable for a person to struggle with uttering every next sentence when having a dry mouth. Therefore, before speaking, drink a sufficient amount of water and keep a bottle or a glass of water next to you.

Do Physical Exercises

Workout before public speaking can have a soothing and meditating effect on you. Exercises will help you to distract your mind from excessive worrying. Even going for a walk, swimming or practicing yoga will ease your anxiety and make you feel better.

Visualize something Pleasant before You Speak

Try to distract your attention from this fear of speaking by remembering something pleasant, looking at some cute photographs or listening to soothing music. Try visualization and deep breathing. Probably, by visualizing the final outcome or aftermath of your speech, you will become more confident.

Learn how to Calm down during Your Speech

Sometimes the bouts of anxiety or nervousness overwhelm you just while you are delivering a speech or a presentation. You may feel your leg or hand shaking, etc. In this case, the best option is to take a deep breath, change your position, and calm down in order not to let out these uncomfortable symptoms. You may also distract your audience by telling a joke so that you will have a moment to calm down while everybody is laughing.

Control Your Nervousness

It’s not bad that you at times become nervous before some important events. This nervousness and anxiety mean that you react to some “irritants” in a healthy way. Moderate stress helps you to be more productive and focused. Besides, you should become more aware of what is going on around you. Therefore, if your organism lets out some extra energy, learn how to control it by engaging the audience into some interaction and activities.

Always Prepare for Public Speaking

You can always decrease the stress levels if you are confident that you have well prepared for the speech. Make sure you have a plan of what you are going to say. Afterwards, practice in an empty room: say your speech out loud, then ask your friend to listen to you, and ask his/ her for a constructive feedback.

All in all, what you should know is that everybody feels anxious before speaking in public. There’s nothing wrong with it. Just make sure this stress does not negatively influence your health.