Tips To Over Come Performance Anxiety

Performance anxiety disorder is classified as a fear or a phobia that is typically stimulated by the need to perform in front of a big audience. Performance anxiety is one of the most widespread phobias, and it looks like a component of a large mold of social anxiety disorder. Everyone suffers from nervousness to some extent. Performance anxiety comes with several symptoms such as dry mouth, cold hands, shaky hands, sweaty hands, nausea, increased pulse, tight throat, trembling lips, and shaky knees. However, you don’t have to let the situation control you. Here are some tips on how you can perform with confidence.

Prepare Well

Main reason for performance anxiety in public speaking is fear of mistakes or fear of forgetfulness. Therefore, see that you are well prepared for your presentation.

Practice in Front of Mirror

Get a mirror and practice your speech in front of it. Concentrate on how you look, how your hands are moving, what is the overall posture and so on. This will help you to avoid getting into a few embarrassing postures.

Get your Vocal Chords Warmed Up

If you don’t warm up your voice, it might crack, and that would be very embarrassing. When warming up the voice, practice thinning and thickening the vocal chords. Also, you can try scales and talking in diverse pitches. You must also warm up the muscles so you’re not stiff. Warming up the muscles is important, particularly if you are doing a dance routine or work out routine in front of spectators.

It is Okay to do Some Mistakes

Nobody is going to put you in jail if you commit mistakes. Remember that it is okay to commit mistakes during the presentation. You are not a superman to give a completely perfect presentation. Everyone does mistakes, so it is okay if you are one of them.

Make Eye Contact

A lot of people just look down or somewhere else when they feel nervous. However, it is important to maintain eye contact with the audience, if you want them to understand what you are presenting. The sole purpose of the presentations is to satisfy the needs of the audience; focus on the faces individually. Or else, at least try to look at the audience as a whole. If you find this intimidating, then you can try putting your focus on what you are talking about or your performance.

Overcoming performance anxiety may seem hard at first. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different performance strategies. Some may work, and others may have flaws. You can also get help from psychologists. Mostly, those who treat clinical depression also help in overcoming performance anxiety. At the end of the day, if you execute these tips, you will learn to control performance anxiety, and it should no longer be an issue.