Anxiety often consists of worry and fear, with many people experiencing physical signs such as chest pains or nausea. This is a complex emotion composed of a number of varying problems. Some problems involve thought processes that force the body into preparing itself to deal with external threats. The heart rate will speed up increasing blood pressure. Elevated levels of blood will now be sent to various muscles in the body. At the same time, the digestive system functions will slow down.

Uncertainty, intense fear, uneasiness, or apprehensions of a real or imagined future event are all states of anxiety. Everyone knows the effects anxiety and stress can have on ones state of well-being.

Anxiety can be mentally and physically devastating. Depending on the perceived threat, anxiety is usually categorized as separation anxiety, social anxiety, performance anxiety, relationship anxiety, and many others. Anxiety often causes stress and stress often causes anxiety and therefore goes hand in hand.

There are several anti-anxiety treatments for overcoming anxiety. Anxiety medications that work for some don’t always work for others. Some people try more natural cures for anxiety management. Included in these are herbs, vitamins, acupuncture, hypnosis and even aromatherapy has proven to be beneficial for overcoming anxiety.

L-Theanine is a little known, unique form of amino acid which is found in the green tea plant. Drinkers of green tea often report a feeling of calmness after a cup or two of tea. This calmness is due to a high content of L-Theanine.

With no known downside green tea studies have shown a reduction of anxiety symptoms and an increase of concentration, immune system build up, learning performance improvement, decrease in blood pressure, and brain dopamine levels increased, and other positive benefits.

Based on toxicology studies and its historical use as a component of tea, L-Theanine is considered to be safe. After water, tea is consumed the most worldwide, and has been by billions of people for thousands of years. A heavy tea drinker, who drinks between six and eight cups daily, will ingest between 200 and 400 mg of L-Theanine.

While the dosage for stress, anxiety and depression remain individual, a recommended dosage for anxiety relief would be 100 to 200 mg taken one to three times daily. Clinical studies have shown that L-Theanine in some individuals is effective with a single dosage of between 50 to 200 mg. This suggests that people with a higher level of anxiety should take a larger dose between 100 and 200 mg for overcoming stress or anxiety.

Anyone who tells you that the ability to give an amazing speech won’t change your life… just doesn’t know better.

The problem is that most people don’t realize that they can actually conquer their fear and get the confidence they need to make amazing, emotional and powerful speeches. Most people have no idea for example that one of the ways to overcome this problem is by using of hypnosis.

There is an old debate in psychology about the “source” of fear and anxiety. Usually the term “fear” is related with a feeling or sensation that can directly be related to some external-source, while the term anxiety refer to the feeling of stress that caches us without the appearance external-source. That is why anxiety was claimed by many psychologist to be irrational.

This is a debate as I say, and many does not agree with the claim that some behavior may occur without a source, that can empirically be revealed. However we will not get deep into this debate.

The fear of public speaking in this term is more tend toward definition of anxiety. Therefore you may also encounter the term “Speaking anxiety” in your searches for this topic.

Well, I heard some story about some office in, some big city in the world, I will tell you where, that used to electrify by hidden electrodes, those over motivate workers that insist to give a presentation, so they become terrified and developed fear of public speaking. This is of course an extreme case that does not reflect the common cases we are talking about here.

Just kidding…

To those of you that label the term “irrational” as something negative and unwanted – please don’t. Despite the fact that humanity know to do things like Genetic engineering and sending spaceships to the moon, many of the facts about our psychic life can’t be reduce to the rationality of science. An holistic approach in psychology that give place for both rational and irrational is therefore more balanced and as result has better chances for leveraging humanity science.

An interesting aspect of irrational fear – or anxiety, is that it can be overcome by suggestion. It may sound to you little bit ridicules if you haven’t thought about it before, but after hearing what I say give it another chance.

You will discover the new matrix of yourself and others. OK then… imagine that your behavior is controlled by kind of internal “program” that generate the same OUTPUT (the symptom – fear of public speaking in this case) when the some present conditions match some primordial condition. In this term some parts of our behavior can be explained in terms similar to hypnotic suggestion. Have you watch a show that someone is hypnotized and then it is instructed to do something for example cry like baby, and he react to that instruction. This is what I am talking about, but much primordial and an integral part of our overall behavior!

Now you may think that I am a loco because what I just actually told you is that you are a kind of puppet operated by some internal, unknown program. Well, my explanation of course is an over simplification, but if you go and check the roots of psychological treatments, up to concurrent and modern approaches, you will find that many approaches are based upon this underlie undercover program that is very frequently also call – unconscious.

You probably heard about therapies that uses the “free association”, or analysis of dreams or “slip of the tongue”. These are all, in terms of those therapies, an external expression of our “internal program” that make us react on some situation as we were hypnotized. Techniques are different from each other but the very basic assumption of their all is the ability to change the “underlie program” of our external behavior, using some kind of suggestion, or using some kind of a unconscious-mapping technique, to map those external expressions of the unconscious, bring them to conscious (telling them in the session), expose more and more of this internal network of words ideas and concepts,  that at some moment of the treatment, suddenly the “gravity” toward the unknown (too deep to reveal) source of the problem, change, losing its “power”, and symptom gone. And that my friends is true, and working.

Lets go back now to fear of public speaking. Overcoming this fear or anxiety, like with any other psychological stress or phobia, does not happen instantly. It requires practice and commitment to the process.

Hypnosis is one of the approaches for solving public speaking anxiety. If we try to realize what happen theoretically that makes it work, then based upon my oversimplified explanation before, a suggestion generated by external hypnosis (use he link below to know more about a specific technique) may work on some internal primordial “suggestions”, as explained before, and by doing that “unbind” the internal relation between terms that trigger anxiety, and therefore prevent what we consider as unwanted behavior – fear of public speaking.

I am a single man, 42 years old with two teenagers and a mortgage. I have been avoidinga real education because I guess I never realized the value of it and figured I would always work with my hands and could gain skill through on the job experience. I have social phobia and have been really depressed lately and need to get back on my feet somehow. I want to become a professional at something like my peers all seem to have done.

It is important that you eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water each day. If you have anxiety, it’s even more important . In this article we’ll look at the importance of drinking sufficient water as a natural anxiety cure.

Water is essential to life. Water transports hormones, chemical messages, and nutrients to vital organs of the body. Not drinking enough of water can affect us negatively in many ways including adding to feelings of anxiety. Imagine, if something as simple as drinking more water could bring you some anxiety relief. What could be an easier, inexpensive anxiety cure than drinking water?

Perhaps you find it hard to believe that water can have that much of an effect on how you feel and your state of mind. If you’ve ever had a hangover, you know how bad it makes you feel. The symptoms you experience from a hangover are largely caused by dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Are you familiar with the “the fear” caused by a hangover? This is characterized as extreme emotional highs and lows combined with a dose of paranoia.

So there is no doubt that getting dehydrated can contribute to nervousness and anxiety. This is easily remedied by drinking plenty of hydrating fluids, such as water, seltzer, water with lemon, or herbal, hot or cold. Fluids that don’t hydrate you include soda, alcohol, coffee, tea, or sweetened fruit juice! Plus the caffeine and sugar in those drinks can make you feel even more jittery.

You always hear that everyone should drink 8 glasses of water, but that is just an average. To calculate the optimal amount of water your body needs, use this easy formula. Take your weight (in pounds) and divide that number by 2. This number is how many ounces of water you should consume each day. So if you weigh 200 pounds, divide by 2, and that equals 100 ounces. So a 200 pound person should drink 100 ounces of water, which turns out to be over 12 glasses of water.

Many people find that adequate water intake reduces subtle feelings of anxiety, builds stamina and helps avoid fatigue. Simply increasing the amount of fluids you drink is an easy way to feel better and be healthier. When you don’t have enough water your brain detects this as a subtle threat to your survival since you need water to live. Your brain then turns on the fear switch that creates anxiety.

So if you are looking for an easy, inexpensive natural anxiety treatment, look no further than your tap. Drinking water is a vital to your health and your mental health. This is something nutritionists, and maybe your mom, have been telling you for years. And it turns out they were right. Make a habit of drinking plenty of water for one of the easiest natural anxiety remedies available.

How do you speak naturally while all those people are watching you?

This document covers hints and tips on public speaking and presentation skill, dealing with public speaking nerves and anxiety, public speaking skills and public speaking techniques, public speaking training.

Common Fears of Public Speaking

What happens when you have to speak in public?

Did you know that public speaking tops the list of phobias for most people? Not spiders or heights – public speaking – speech in public!

Well, if you didn’t know that, we bet your body does. It will do all kinds of unpleasant things to you when you have to stand up and face a sea of faces with the hope of getting your message across in a compelling and interesting way.

Your hands may sweat and your mouth goes dry. Your knees may shake and a quaver affects your voice. Your heart may race and those well known butterflies invade your stomach.

When all that happens most people don’t think of getting their message across in a compelling and interesting way; they just think of getting off the ‘stage’ as quickly as possible!

Have we frightened you sufficiently yet?

It’s normal

We don’t really mean to frighten you, just remind you that your body reacts ‘in extremis’ when put under pressure, and for most people, public speaking is just about the worst pressure they can be put under.

It’s normal to be nervous and have a lot of anxiety when speaking in public. In a way, it’s less normal not to have nerves or anxiety; in fact, to feel you have a phobia about public speaking.

Why do we get Public Speaking anxiety?

Fight or flight

Our bodies are geared to fight or flight from ancient time – fight that mastodon or get the hell out of the way. We don’t have too many mastodons around these days, but the body still reacts as though we do. So, if we have to get up and speak in public, all that adrenalin and noradrenalin goes coursing through our bodies – way more than we need.

We can’t run away (well, we could, but we’d be out of job pretty quick if we did it too often), so our only option is to fight. But in terms of speaking in public, it can be hard to define just what we’re fighting.

Why does public speaking do this to us?

Good question. You’d think that for most people, being given the opportunity to impress their audience would be a fantastic one. There you are in front of a group of people, the spotlight is on you and for the length of time you’ve been give, the world is yours.

Or is it?

The very fact that the spotlight is you is enough to trigger every fear, anxiety and phobia you’ve ever had about public speaking.

Here’s why

You may be judged by all those people, and judged badly
You may feel like a fool
You might make mistakes and loose your way
You’ll be completely humiliated
You’ll never be as good as _________ (fill in the blank)
‘They’ won’t like you
‘They’ won’t ‘get’ what you’re trying to say

How to overcome fear of Public Speaking
What good are Nerves

Public speaking may not be comfortable, but take our word for it, nerves are good. Being ‘centre stage’ is not a good place to feel too comfortable.

Nerves will keep you awake and ensure you don’t get too complacent. Hard to feel complacent when your heart is beating so hard you’re sure everyone watching you can hear it.

If channelled well, nerves can make the difference between giving a humdrum presentation and giving one that keeps people listening.

Get your attention off yourself

It’s very tempting to keep focused on how you’re feeling, especially if you’re feeling really uncomfortable. You’ll start to notice every bead of sweat.

To make your nerves work for you, you need to focus on just about anything other than yourself. You can distract yourself by paying attention to the environment in which you’re speaking and seeing how you can make it work for you.

Once you’re actually in front of your audience, pay attention to them. If you can, notice how people are dressed, who’s wearing glasses, who has on bright colours. There will be dozens and dozens of things you can pay attention to help you trick your mind into not noticing what’s going on with you.

Anything will do and you will find that the less you concentrate on how you are feeling and the more you concentrate on other things, the more confident you will feel.

How to build confidence in Public Speaking

Your audience can be your friend

Unless you know you’re absolutely facing a hostile group of people, human nature is such that your audience wants you succeed. They’re on your side!

Therefore, rather than assuming they don’t like you, give them the benefit of the doubt that they do.

They aren’t an anonymous sea of faces, but real people. So to help you gain more confidence when speaking in public, think of ways to engage your audience. Remember, even if they aren’t speaking, you can still have a two-way conversation.

When you make an important point pay attention to the people who are nodding in agreement and the ones who are frowning in disagreement. As long as you are creating a reaction in your audience you are in charge.

Keep them awake

The one thing you don’t want is for them to fall asleep! But make no mistake public speaking arenas are designed to do just that: dim lights, cushy chairs, not having to open their mouths – a perfect invitation to catch up on those zzzzs.

Ways to keep them away include

Ask rhetorical questions
Maintain eye contact for a second or two with as many people as possible
Be provocative
Be challenging
Change the pace of your delivery
Change the volume of your voice

Public Speaking Training

Get a coach

Whatever the presentation public speaking is tough, so get help.

Since there are about a zillion companies out there all ready to offer you public speaking training and courses, here are some things to look for when deciding the training that’s right for you.

Focus on positives not negatives

Any training you do to become more effective at public speaking should always focus on the positive aspects of what you already do well.

Nothing can undermine confidence more than telling someone what they aren’t doing well.

You already do lots of things well good public speaking training should develop those instead of telling you what you shouldn’t do.

Turn your back on too many rules

If you find a public speaking course that looks as though it’s going to give you lots of dos and don’ts, walk away! Your brain is going to be so full of whatever it is you’re going to be talking about that to try to cram it full of a whole bunch of rules will just be counterproductive.

As far as we’re concerned, aside from physical violence or inappropriately taking off your clothes, there are no hard and fast rules about public speaking.

You are an individual not a clone

Most importantly, good public speaking training should treat you as a unique individual, with your own quirks and idiosyncrasies. You aren’t like anybody else and your training course should help you bring out your individuality, not try to turn you into someone you’re not.

Hints and Tips for Effective Public Speaking

Here are just a few hints, public speaking tips and techniques to help you develop your skills and become far more effective as a public speaker.

Mistakes

Mistakes are all right.

Recovering from mistakes makes you appear more human.
Good recovery puts your audience at ease – they identify with you more.

Humour

Tell jokes if you’re good at telling jokes.
If you aren’t good, best to leave the jokes behind.
There’s nothing worse than a punch line that has no punch.
Gentle humour is good in place of jokes.
Self-deprecation is good, but try not to lay it on too thick.

Tell stories

Stories make you a real person not just a deliverer of information.
Use personal experiences to bring your material to life.
No matter how dry your material is, you can always find a way to humanise it.

How to use the public speaking environment

Try not to get stuck in one place.
Use all the space that’s available to you.
Move around.
One way to do this is to leave your notes in one place and move to another.
If your space is confined (say a meeting room or even presenting at a table) use stronger body language to convey your message.

Technology

Speak to your audience not your slides.
Your slides are there to support you not the other way around.
Ideally, slides should be graphics and not words (people read faster than they hear and will be impatient for you to get to the next point).
If all the technology on offer fails, it’s still you they’ve come to hear.

You can learn to enjoy public speaking and become far more effective at standing in front of a group of people and delivering a potent message.

When it comes to improving your public speaking skills we have three words:

practise, practise, practise!