“You are the lodestone, and the stage is yours; the audience is yours. A whisper in your heart grows louder, that of immense fear, fear of passing out. In comes your brave shade of courage, making your eyes sparkle and smile. You rule the stage, shadowing your Stage Fright!”
We all face stage fright; let’s gracefully admit it. People who seem confident on stage are those who know how to tackle that fear without freaking out.
So let’s come to the basic phase of your life where stage plays an important role: The student life. You have curricular activities, the teacher finds your silence amusing, and you are called upon the stage to speak.
It might be the presentations in your college or maybe the office events with your colleagues. At all these places, you are often greeted by an irritating friend, Stage Fear!
At times like these, when you are nervous, sweaty, shy, and most importantly, FREAKING OUT…you need to calm yourself down! Let me tell you what really works. This has been experimented with and advised by the amazing author Rhonda Bryne.
1. Stage Fear and Law of Attraction
So, do you believe in gravity?
Obviously, you do!
Then you will agree to the point that it doesn’t matter if you are a good person or not; if you stumble from the 10th floor of a building, then you are bound to die.
So it doesn’t matter whether you are good on stage or not; all you need to do is believe that you can rock the stage.
You might ask, ‘How So?’
Just believe in yourself, think happy thoughts, and think of these magical, powerful sentences.
“I can do this, and I am going to be amazing at it” instead of “What if something goes wrong?” With the latter sentence, you attract negative energy from the universe, which will resonate with your thoughts and create a circumstance where you will stumble, stuttering, and give out a rather negative vibe to your audience.
2. Take a Deep Breath
So, take a deep breath and close your eyes briefly before going up there. No one will kill you, yes, they can hoot at you, but that’s the only thing they’re capable of.
Instead, be glad you are up on stage, taking the courage to face the crowd while most won’t even consider doing the same. So pat yourself on your back; you are one confident human.
3. Know Your Audience
If the crowd before you are your peers, you need to connect with them. This is, in fact, the first rule in any public speaking.
When you go blank on stage, don’t fumble. Instead, tell them right out that you are blank, pause, give out a laugh, and continue by praising the audience for actually sitting there to hear you out. Remember, this is only for people you know, the crowd you are completely mingled within an informal environment.
For the unknown diplomatic crowd, go with the pause, the smile, and course (for all cases): be prepared with a few points. Know your slides well and try to animate your audience, not your slides. It should be more of the comfort zone you create rather than the information you render.
4. Let Your Thoughts And Feelings Flow
If it is a general topic and you are on stage, remind yourself to feel relaxed. Ensure you don’t get crushed under the pressure of other’s criticism, and allow yourself to feel at home. That is exactly how you must feel when you are on stage, even though you know that the whole crowd isn’t your best friend.
Then, go on with the flow and speak your mind. Trust me, you will eventually realize that being yourself and not being biased is the greatest gift, and being able to convey that awesomeness to others is an even greater gift—time to bid adieu to stage fear.
5. Where To Look At
Making eye contact is a phobia for people who are generally silent or shy. There are two ways to deal with this.
1. Place your friends separately at different columns amidst the crowd so that when you look at each of your friends, the audience will get the impression that you are concentrating on everybody present.
2. Select a few positive people who wouldn’t dare to sulk or discourage you; either look at them or their foreheads (better) and let the thoughts flow.
6. Worry About Something Greater
Yes, this trick usually works wonders. If you are scared to death on stage, think about the topic you are speaking on. Connect to the adversities of the topic, discuss them with your audience, make sure you have a greater aim of reaching out to people with the information you have rather than worrying about what will happen if something goes wrong.
Always end it on a positive note and try to question the crowd. Leave that presence of you, lingering on the stage for a little more time, and always smile! That curve can set a lot of things straight.
Last Updated on by Sathi
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