Publish at November 05 2020 Updated February 16 2023
How can one have the audacity to present oneself in front of a group to speak? Where do you find the energy and confidence to dare? How to prepare oneself to avoid the blocking of the jaws and the breath? We propose a course where we will meet speakers, but also singers and that will lead you to make some faces in front of your computer.
Public speaking can be a long-term project. But who is this audience? Is it known to you or unknown? Is it 20 people, 100 or 1000? If the answer is 1000, start with smaller groups and gradually increase the size. The principle is to multiply the positive experiences that will give us confidence. In speaking, as in any activity and probably even more so, we feed on previous successes and the image that our audience sends back to us each time.
To prevent stage fright, we can concentrate and remember episodes that went well and that are close to the situation we are about to experience. It is about visualizing, remembering, until you feel in the same mood, as if you were reliving the event. We speak of anchoring when a first experience freezes our representation. A bad memory of public speaking can come back to us for years, at the worst possible moment, i.e. before presenting ourselves in front of an audience. Mobilizing our memory on a positive experience provides a favorable anchor, which will help us face a nearby situation.
We can also project ourselves in time and imagine our speaking, in a positive way. Often, stress instead makes us imagine all the worst-case scenarios. A participant who would break the mood, a technical problem, a rushed agenda that would force us to do everything in half the time, etc. The more we think about it, the more we become paralyzed. Visualizing in a positive way instead allows for a series of rehearsals that go well.
This is what athletes, skiers, pole vaulters, high jump champions do. They imagine their journey over and over again. They don't imagine falling or slipping, but making the perfect moves. Visualizing the movements makes it easier to do, but it also puts you in the mindset to succeed.
Managing your breathing and breath brings the quality of energy needed to face your audience. In a situation of stage fright or more generally of stress, we tend to block the breath, or to limit it to the rib cage. Finding a slower, fuller breath can help the body to relax. And for this, it is the diaphragm that must work. It lowers, the belly inflates a little and the lungs can fill up. It rises again and the lungs are accompanied in their exhalation.
Be attentive to your breath and rhythm, anchor yourself on the ground, clear your shoulders and adopt a stable position avoid the physiological blockages that can precede a speech. Add a glass of water! Let's let the doctor of a famous toy explain this mechanic visually.
Speakers can draw much useful inspiration from singers. Breath is one of their working tools, as are voice and posture. Antoine Rudi's capsules on YouTube offer us explanations, but also exercises. Your entourage will quickly see you making faces in front of your screen, massaging your jaws energetically and more delicately your temples. Arriving in front of an audience with a tense lower face bodes ill for the speaking that will follow!
With great clarity in her explanations, singer Isabelle Trottier also offers some exercises. She also advises us on the right posture for singing, but also for speaking.
Popularized by transactional analysis-inspired techniques, "compelling messages" are voices we hear under stress that tell us what to do. They have contributed to our successes and have built us. We have built them from the injunctions of our parents and other people who educated us during childhood. They are drivers most of the time, but they are also hindrances.
Commonly cited among these messages are "please", "be strong", "hurry up", "be perfect"... What does this have to do with stage fright? Depending on the strength of these messages and the importance they have for us, they can become paralyzing. The perfectionist who hears the message "be perfect" may be paralyzed by the idea of not being in complete control of his subject. The person who hears "be strong" before speaking will be blocked by the idea that the emotion of speaking in front of so many people will be perceived.
The term "pilot" is sometimes used to define these messages, so much does this model emphasize the control of these command words, which block our ability to strategize our communication, and tell us what to do...
Speaking is a skill that is built over time, made of both technique and posture. Christine ABADIE nevertheless insists on the absence of a single model. One must be coherent and find one's style. Wanting to resemble the image we have of the "good speaker" can only contribute to freezing us and to a lack of congruence. One of the secrets to helping us overcome the fear of the audience is to be forgiving of our own imperfections ourselves, which paralyze us when they often make our speaking lively and human!
Illustrations : Frédéric Duriez
Resources
Christine ABADIE - IONISx - public speaking - eloquence is not a gift - video dated 2018, accessed November 1, 2020
https://youtu.be/gRgShp4Sj30
Isabelle Trottier; AT Culture - Breathing, Breathing, Voice Technique - video dated November 14, 2014, accessed November 1, 2020
https://youtu.be/gRgShp4Sj30
Antoine RUDI - Singing Well - Relaxing Your Jaw - video dated July 16, 2017, accessed November 1, 2020
https://youtu.be/H0QZGpSDDxA
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