Overcoming Stage Fright > Public Speaking Tips > How to Breathe and Move in Public Speaking

How to Breathe and Move Your Way through a Public Speaking Engagement

Stage fright is a horrible thing to have. It keeps you from being able to give an effective presentation in front of a group of people, and can affect you both physically and mentally. There are several different things that you can do, however, to help yourself to get over the initial stage fright that you might be feeling. Believe it or not, your stage fright will begin to disappear from the moment that you take a platform. Most people find that after the first few minutes they become a little more comfortable and then after they are into the meat of the presentation they almost forget that they are speaking to a group. You can speed up the calming process, however, by using some various breathing techniques and also by keeping yourself a little bit limber on the platform.

A lot of people use various breathing techniques in order to help themselves maintain a calm disposition. This is not only the case when it comes to public speaking but also in general health practices. There are methods, such as those practiced during yoga, that will help you to be able to draw on the strength and support that breathing deeply can provide. Most people realize that breath is actually life and you can use this knowledge to be able to calm yourself before you get up on the platform. Several very deep breaths will help you to be able to maintain your composure and to become comfortable standing in front of a group faster.

Another thing that you can do to help to speed up the calming process is to keep yourself limber while you are giving your presentation. By limber I mean that you should gesture normally and also move about as is permitted by the theme of your presentation. You will want to avoid gestures that do not have any purpose and also from pacing whenever you are giving a presentation. I saw someone that paste 20 feet back and forth the entire time that they talked. I'll have to admit it is one of the most annoying things I have ever experienced and I got absolutely nothing out of what they were trying to say. Not only that but their speech was being videotaped and the poor cameraman had to follow him back in force for 20 minutes while he talked.

So use breathing and movement in order to cover up any initial nervousness that you might be feeling. By doing this you will be able to appear poised to your audience and they will get the jest of your talk and take away more of the information that you are trying to present. If you allow your nervousness to overtake you then you will not be able to calm down at all during the course of your presentation. All you are doing is making yourself uncomfortable and appearing uncomfortable to those whom you are speaking to.