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Amid the Trees highlights the expertise of our professors at Bethany by inviting you into their classroom and seeing a sample writing of their outstanding work.
Glossophobia
By Jon Loging, Associate Professor of Communication
In comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s classic 1998 routine, “I’m Telling You For the Last Time,” he talks about how a study showed the number one fear Americans had was speaking in public. Death was number two! His punchline for the bit was, “If you have to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Stage fright. Speech anxiety. Communication apprehension. Glossophobia. Whatever you call it, most people have it. If you don’t have it when speaking in public, you are probably doing it wrong! However, there are many ways to overcome the nervousness…and maybe even use it to your advantage.
In most cases, the cause of your hesitation is simply a lack of experience. Think about your other new experiences and how you felt. Riding a bike the first time without training wheels or your parent holding on. Kissing your boyfriend or girlfriend for the first time. How nervous were you the first time you drove a car? Now, imagine doing that with a full audience there to watch you. Public speaking is defined by having an audience and being the center of attention. Doing something new with everyone intentionally watching you do it can be intimidating. Many people won’t do it. How many people would be married if a large audience was watching that first kiss?
One basic technique for everyone is learning to breathe better. When we get nervous, our muscles tense up, including our diaphragm, which controls our lungs. We don’t breathe as deeply. The lack of oxygen causes shortness of breath. This leads to other thoughts and feelings like you are being smothered, trapped, or drowning. If your shoulders go up when you inhale deeply, you are not breathing correctly. Your belly needs to expand, using the larger, lower portions of your lungs. Consciously breathing better helps nearly everyone.
When you think about public speaking, what is the first indication you have of being nervous? Dealing with this factor could be the key to overcoming the nervousness. Is it a physical reaction? Increased heart beat? Sweaty palms? You need to deal with that physical reaction. Deep breathing and systematic muscle relaxation are good ways to start. Does your mind race with worry or thoughts of messing up? Practice sitting quietly and thinking of each step of the process, but in your mind, everything works correctly. “Seeing” yourself do it right will bring feelings of success and enjoyment. If there are external issues, like work stress or homelife issues, understand the public speaking is not the problem and you need to address the real issue.
It is not this simple, but it is a start. Get some formal public speaking training. Try out a speech on a few friends first. In the end, public speaking is a skill and needs to be practiced. It took awhile to ride a bike and drive a car, but you practiced and did it. I don’t know what you did for your first kiss!