Anxiety Support Group

I have to do a lot of presentations at work (i got one tomorrow aft!) and totally know how scary it is when yr anxiety is bad. Things that help me are:

BEFORE
- Take some exercise an hour or so before if poss
- Avoid caffeine
- Prepare as well as you can

DURING
- Try and take slow deep breaths and speak slowly
- Focus on what your saying and not how you are feeling (not easy!)
- Remember that nearly everyone gets nervous for presentations / public speaking, its one of the most common phobias
- Use lots of visual info so you don't have to talk as much and 'face' the audience
- Look forward to the relief when its all over!

Another thing i can tell you from experience, is that the anticipation is always worse than the presentation itself!

Those are good suggestions from Northstar36. Your audience doesn't know your nervous, so act like you're not. There are probably others in the class stressing over this, too. If you don't make it through the whole 10 minute, that's ok. Just say what you're prepared to say and sit down. Better to have a short presentation that makes sense than try to fill time with things that don't make sense and just make your anxiety worse. GOOD LUCK!!

Thanx guys! There's a possibility that I will get pushed to Thurs. because people were going over their time last week so I'll check back in n keep u posted....think of anything else let me know. I need ALL the h3lp I can get!!!

I perform professionally so here's what you need to do:
Prepare the material as best you can, 10 minutes goes by very quickly.
Exercise beforehand, it will calm you down.
Drink water, don't go for the caffeine.
If you have access to a store with vitamins and natural care look for Rescue Remedy.
Wear something with a lavender scent even if it's lotion.
Don't wear heals as they can make you feel wobbly, wear shoes you feel confident in but firmly on the ground.
Take a few moments to acknowledge your breath before it's your turn. Say: breathing in, breathing out for a good 20 minutes to one minute. Longer if you can.
Recognize that most people are as nervous as you so they aren't going to be in the super critical role.
Most people feel a huge rush of relief when they're done so they're barely paying attention to what happens after they speak.
Look over people's heads but don't be afraid to look up. It's worse if you lock yourself in with just reading off you're paper.
If you don't need to stand at a podium you might feel more free moving around.
You are going to be fine.

Yes and don't forget to breathe while you're speaking. Be conscious of your speech patterns, breathing and message your trying to convey. You won't even think there are people in front of you if you can do these things.

Thanx everyone! It went well, I stumbled over words a couple of times but so did everyone else! I was nervous but it wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined. Thanx again guys *GROUP HUG!*