If you are afraid of speaking in public you are not alone in your fears. The only fear that is more common than public speaking fears is the fear of death itself. People have irrational fears and anxieties when it comes to speaking in front of a group of people. The people you see speaking out at conferences, and making speeches at meetings are not unafraid, they have just learned to control their anxiety about public speaking.

The first action you can take to cure those public speaking nerves is to do a deep breathing exercise that will relax you and calm you. The exercise starts with you planting both your feet firmly on the ground, and closing your eyes. Imagine that you are alone and listen to nothing but your own breath. Tell yourself that there is no hurry, and that you have until the end of time to stand there and listen to your rhythmic breathing. Make an effort to slow your breathing, you want to get to the point where you can comfortably count to six while you are inhaling, and comfortably count to six during your exhale.

You cannot let public speaking fears rule your life, you must conquer them. Fear is what you have to conquer, and fear is false events that appear real. There are very few times when you will be afraid of something that is rational and makes sense. You are afraid of the unknown and what you imagine can happen. Once you make yourself realize that your fears are based on nothing concrete you can banish your fear.

That sounds too easy, but here is the truth, if you fear people ridiculing you, making fun of you, or thinking you are boring and lame, well then you need to rationalize those fears to make them go away. If you are speaking at a conference why would anyone ridicule you? Obviously you have some expertise, or some credential that made someone request you as a speaker, so allow the confidence that you were selected to speak shine through. You are not lame, boring, or a joke. You have something valuable to say that the crowd you are speaking to will find interesting if you will just get up and share with them.

One of the best ways to stop yourself from being afraid of speaking in public is to make sure you are very familiar with the subject you will be addressing. The more you know about the material you are covering, the more you will feel relaxed when you discuss it. You cannot relax and discuss something that you are uncertain about. You need to gain confidence by knowing that you are as well schooled on the subject at hand as you can be. Research your material thoroughly.

It has been said a thousand times before, and it will be said a thousand times after, but you need to stand in front of a mirror and practice speaking out loud. When you can talk to the mirror comfortably, gather a few of your friends together and have them listen to you. This practice at speaking aloud in front of others is one of the most valuable things you can do to help you when you are trying to overcome your fears. The more often you do something the more relaxed you become while you are performing that action the next time. So practice all you can.

The people in the audience cannot tell how nervous you are just by looking at you. They would more than likely rather have a root canal than trade places with you, so you need to cash in on their fear of public speaking and tell them up front that you are scared to death. Let them know that and then you take some of the power away from the fear. If people know you are a little nervous, and you make a slight mistake, you can always blame your nerves and they will be forgiving. So fear can no longer make you think you are going to fail, you will already have won.

Being able to speak in public is a major plus in many different employment situations, and confidence in yourself does not just happen, you have to make it happen.

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