Public Performance Anxieties?

[JerryF]

Fear of public speaking is the most common fear in the US, and the same is probably true of the rest of the world.  I can share one experience that was quite interesting related to that.  I had to tell a large group of people about myself in a professional setting.  I was anxious and wanted to prepare notes, but as things worked out, had no time to do so.  So I focused on the fact that they were all other-selves, just me underneath their individual forms.  I also focused on the fact they were only God in their essence, and I know that God loves me.  Therefore it didn't matter what they expressed - in truth it was only God looking at me, and I have no need to either impress or fear God because God already knows me better than I know myself.  I ended up feeling as if I was speaking to a roomful of close friends.  Speaking became very easy, spontaneous and natural, and I got incredibly and unusually positive feedback.

Thanks for sharing that idea on how to apply the concept of oneness to overcome public speaking anxiety.

As a young student, my public speaking phobia got to the point of refusing to speak in front of class.  Instead, I would choose to receive an F grade for any assignment that required speaking in front of the class.

Being a musician and performing on stage helped overcome the shyness.

One way to build speaking confidence is to speak with others about a subject with which one is passionate and well informed, perhaps speaking with individuals at first, and then expanding on that.

I now do tutoring of small groups of young music students.  It started out with giving individual music lessons.  This will probably develop into speaking in front of larger groups.

One of the messages that Brene Brown (author of Daring Greatly) preaches is “Dare to be seen.”  I prefer the version that goes “Dare to be seen and heard.”