Glossophobia, or otherwise known by its more common name fear of public speaking, is basically present in the vast majority of people. Not only that, but most people actually list it as their number one fear, greater even than the fear of death.

It exists because as an individual, you become very self-conscious and fear the judgement your audience can pass onto you. The main goal you should have in regards to public speaking is not to fully overcome it. Even expert speakers get nervous when they get in front of the audience. No, it is much better to transform it into energy and thus turn the defect into an effect. There are certain physical things and behaviours you can do to achieve this. The following are notable examples of this:

• Do more physical exercise – you probably know that physical exercise is very good for your wellbeing. As it turns out, doing some physical exercises can also prove useful for your public speaking expertise. The reason is that feeling anxious often causes your muscles to tense and fills your body with stress hormones. Doing something light just before your public speaking event can help relax your muscles and flush out the stress hormones, thus boosting your confidence. You can also engage in some yoga or muscle relaxation techniques, both of which are much better options than looking at the clock and counting down the minutes to doing a presentation.
• Meditation – regularly engaging in short meditation sessions is essential for your brain’s function. This is quite a popular technique that more and more public speakers adapt to conquer their nervousness. Even a session as short as 5 minutes can have a positive effect on your pre-speech anxiety. That is because meditation is all about emptying your mind. As you stand still, you are essentially resting your body and freeing yourself of the clutches of tension, allowing you to adopt a more positive outlook on the prospect of giving out a great speech or presentation.
• Breathing exercises – you may think that singers alone need to do careful exercises since they are the ones using their voice excessively. However, public speakers should also consider them, since they too need to rely on their voice. The anxiety associated with public speaking often makes you take shallow breaths, eventually leading to breathlessness. Your breath is probably the very first thing that falters due to the high tension of public speaking. Learning how to control your breathing by making full use of the diaphragm can solve this problem for you. By doing this, you will essentially be able to remain calm in a situation that would otherwise have you gasping for air. Calming your breath is a recipe for a calm mind as well.
• Do some speaking exercises – there are a lot of speaking exercises that you can try out. A large part of them requires that you repeat the same sentence, while others are about gradual change. No matter the type, they share the same goal: to make you better at going over words and articulate with ease. This, in turn, will help improve your speech and give you some much-needed confidence.
• Rejection therapy – rejection therapy is all about accepting your flaws and not caring much about social judgement, which is at the root of fear of public speaking. Rejection therapy actually puts you in situations of rejection daily, thus desensitising rejection altogether. Being able to deal with rejection at the moment is a vital skill, which can easily conquer the fear of public speaking.

All of these methods and techniques work well towards conquering your fear of public speaking and turning you into a better speaker.

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