Speaking in front of an audience.

One of my new students had stage fright, when asked to introduce herself to  her classmates. She was reduced to a bag  of nerves. I see myself in her -those -once upon a time days and instantly empathise.

Everything sort of goes blank, you feel cold and clammy and the tears threaten. I had a wonderful  class teacher who refused to give up on me.She was a strong believer that once you give in to your fears, you will never be able to move forward. Of course at that point of time, I hated her. I screamed "witch"at her from my heart.

So she got a wobbly  me out in front of the class and and told me "For now, your classmates do not exist. They  are all objects-tables and chairs". She looked me right in the eye and asked me gently, "Do you understand?" I nodded my head silently. Next she put her hand on my shoulder." Now close your eyes,  do you feel my hand on your shoulder? Okay", she said very softly. " Focus on my hand. There's no one here except you and me .Now tell me about yourself."

Slowly but surely, she got me talking,guiding me with easy to answer questions and before I knew it, the ordeal was over. When I went back to my seat, I felt I had accomplished something. Seriously. My friends gave me a congratulatory applause and that helps too. That method may be old fashion but it  helped at that point of time.

This freebie-two hours public speaking workshop, I attended a long time ago also gave me a few pointers. A nervous looking man was asked to speak on a topic for five minutes  up on the stage. He took one look at us, his  co-attendees, perhaps fifty odd people and instantly, freak out. "My mind went blank," he explained later.  So what was the advice given? If nerves get to you, focus on a point, an object in front of you, a dot, xtra, xtra -if you have a friend in the audience, imagine you are speaking to that person alone-the rest of the audience have disappeared. It might not be practical if you need interaction from your audience. What then? My mentor cheekily told me," just tell yourself, they are kids -small people-you are teacher-big" . Why be afraid of small kids? Not easy, but he got a point there.

In a presentation, you know before hand what you need to speak about,-prepare short notes on small cards and number those cards, in case somehow they got jumbled up.   If your mind refused to function, take a quick glance at your notes and it will click back on track. Remember even very established speakers, need to fall back on notes sometimes and they do get the occasional attack of nerves and cold feet as well. Nothing to be ashamed of but work on overcoming those fears. It is an asset to be confident in front of an audience. Cheers!