Hello!
I used to be terrified of public speaking, was a painfully shy child, but then I went to uni finally and had to do them.
My face would twitch, shake, sweaty, quivering voice, all that. I finally realised instead of instantly letting dread be my overwhelming response ( because of the reactions) when I heard I had to talk until I had to talk, this could be weeks that what I was doing and had to do was giving a talk, not get anxious. I was certainly doing that too, but that was a side effect, not actually my purpose, my purpose was to give the talk. So if i got nervous and shook etc, okay that was happening but just like you still are breathing or standing or pumping blood while talking those things are not my focus or aim. My aim or purpose is to deliver the talk, and get it done and not give so much attention to the symptoms, whether they happen or not, does't really matter. Sure would be great if they didn't but guess what, when I stopped making them so big and bad and fighting them yet making them the main focus of all my attention, they started to go away. When I realised I have a job to do thats not being nervous, thats just a reaction on the side and I'm not a freak, most people got nervous, many were just as terrified. But once I just shifted my aim of focus and just let the side effects happened if they needed to and thats okay but not ALL I'm doing, I just got better and better and they didn't happen so much or often and I didn't mind if they did. Helped a lot! A huge lot!
Can deliver a talk no probs now, still get a few symptoms sometimes but they just do their thing and its no biggie. And the more you do one, and feel yay I did it, and good on you for getting it done!! you realise you can do it! You get more confident!
so your well on your way now, so don't worry if you get nervous, even people you think don't often do! They just do it anyway, and so are you!!
