Dealing with stress when giving a presentation

It is completely normal to feel anxious before giving a presentation. Many experienced teachers, lecturers, and other presenters feel nervous beforehand, even though they have given hundreds of presentations. The same applies to actors, actresses, and celebrities. Politicians, preachers, and others working in the media field or under the spotlight. Being nervous does not mean there is a problem or evidence of weakness. You just need to direct your nervous energy wisely. On the other hand, feeling overly confident and not stressed may be evidence of weakness! Symptoms of stress can include a “gurgling stomach” or feeling of nausea, sweaty palms, a dry throat, and a sense of dread that erases the opening lines of the show. Fortunately, there are some proven methods and techniques to control your nerves so that you can focus on delivering an effective and attractive presentation. These techniques will not relieve you of your stress, but instead they will help you use your stress as an advantage to your advantage. When you are alert as a result of adrenaline pumping into your body, you can use that energy to communicate in an enthusiastic, persuasive, and emotional way. The key to this lies in reducing your level of nervousness, which allows you to focus your energy on those positive activities instead of trying to control your nerves. When you feel stressed before giving a presentation, you will find that the following strategies and exercises help:

• Practice deep breathing: Adrenaline causes your breathing to become shallow, and by deliberately breathing deeply, your brain will get the oxygen it needs. That slower pace will deceive It will make your body think that you are calmer, and it will also help with the issue of voice trembling that usually occurs when your breathing is shallow and irregular.
• Drinking water: Adrenaline may cause dry mouth, which leads to tongue-tie; So make sure to have a glass or bottle of water within your reach and sip water from time to time, especially when you want to stop or when emphasizing a certain point, and be careful not to drink large doses of water.
• Chewing gum: may Chewing gum before giving a presentation helps you feel more comfortable, as studies have shown that the act of chewing can increase your alertness and help reduce anxiety, and it is usually preferable to get rid of the gum at the beginning of the presentation.
• Smile: A smile is considered a soothing agent. It naturally sends positive chemical messages through your body, and smiling and making eye contact helps you build rapport with your audience.
• Use visual visualization techniques: Imagine that you are presenting your presentation in front of an interested, enthusiastic, smiling audience that interacts with you positively. Reinforce that positive image in your mind. And remember it before you are about to start.
• Self-massage: Press and massage the forehead to activate the front of the brain and the speech center. Before starting to speak, stop, make eye contact, and smile. That last moment of quiet is very relaxing and gives you time to adjust to being the center of attention. Slow down Speak slower than you normally would in a conversation, and leave longer pauses between sentences. This slow pace will calm you down and make it easier to be heard, especially in the back of a large hall.
• Walk around a little while giving your presentation since this uses up some of your nervous energy. However, try not to move back and forth. Or to swing on the heel of your shoe; Because these activities may distract your audience, stop thinking about yourself. Remember that the audience is there to get some information and that your job is to pass this information to them; So try to put your anxiety aside and think about delivering your message as effectively as possible.

Remember that the audience does not know where you are going with your speech as a speaker. If you give the listeners a “general picture” and then talk about the details, you will be the type of lecturer who allows his audience to relax and feel that they are in safe hands. From Book 44 Amazing