Nervousness and Public Speaking

[Gorilla7222]

Im in highschool, everytime i get asked to read aloud i do it and everytime i do it i get very shaky, voice cracks like crazy, and feeling my breath getting shorter and shorter. I really want to overcome this situation. I noticed my stage fright begining to happen in the 5th grade. Hasent stopped yet.

[BeautyFetish]

I had a presentation in college just two days ago and it was the abolute worse! My voice was soooo shaky and i was to obviously nervous. I thought I was going to have a heartattack! It was just god awful. And i'm usually not THAT nevous when I present but for some reason, that particular day I was just down right terrible. I was beyond embarassed. So embarassed I had to come here and write this comment.

[antion]

@BeautyFetish BeautyFetish that's terrible. I'm so sorry that happened to you. Make sure you visit my site public dash speaking dot org and read the article on stage fright. It has lots of good tips you can experiment with to see which one works best for you.

[bnvustrini]

what about shaking hands when holding the microphone?

[antion]

@bnvustrini Have a mic stand available to hold the mic in the beginning. Then as you calm down take the mic out of the mic stand and start walking around with it.

[estebonlouder]

I have a big problem when doing presentations, my voice starts shaking and it goes down hill from there especially when in front of a lot of people I feel like running out of the room. I have a presentation in 1 day from know and I cannot sleep or eat, I am constantly thinking about it and when the time comes I will make a fool out of myself. I wish there was something I could do.

[antion]

Picture yourself doing great in front of the crowd and keep thinking about that. They are there to learn something, not to make fun of you or judge. Even when you are nervous, your audience can't really tell that. You never come across as nervous as you feel. Take a number of deep breaths before you go up and remember that they really are interested in what you have to say and find value in it. And try and talk to your audience as if you were at a party talking with friends.

[Fuuast2009]

change your focus...

[antion]

@estebonlouder In the beginning I would hold it with two hands with your elbows tucked in touching your sides. Then I would switch it every couple minutes from the left to the right hand always keeping the elbow of the hand holding the mic tucked into your side for stability. Your stage movement and switching between hands should mask the shaking. Also, the shaking most likely feels worse to you than actually looks bad to the audience. Keep practicing and good luck!

[PEREZ33190]

noo i dont think that iss

I went up once and frose and went back downn

after that i can go up but usallu they were small preentations now i have to do a really big one and im not sure if i should jsut skipp cuase i dont want to frezze

[PEREZ33190]

Man when i go up i get so nervous i dont why from grade 1-8 i had no problem presenting and now i do??? i swear i might frezze next time i go up

[antion]

Maybe the stakes are higher now than they were in grade school. In what kind of situations are you speaking?

[dinadaqueena]

that happened to me....and even when im asked to read aloud O__O