First up, don’t picture your audience in their underwear. Trust me, it never works.

When we get nervous and anxious before a presentation, it can send our body spinning. We often experience a tight chest, a dry mouth, a quiver in our voice, our palms sweat, our shoulders tense up, we get butterflies in our stomach, and in extreme scenarios, we can even feel nauseous.

When we are struck with this type of performance anxiety, it can feel like we are totally out of control; like our body has completely taken over our mind. Nerves can make our brain feel foggy, affecting our concentration and our levels of focus.

 So, what’s the best way to gain that control back? Through your breathing.

After years of feeling fear, fighting nerves and getting on stage…. and then doing it all over again — and again — and again — I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt — one of the most important aspects in controlling stage nerves comes down to controlling your breathing.

If you can control your breathing, you can control your body. Breathing exercises calm you down, give you a central point of focus and help distract you from any pre-presentation worrisome thoughts.

I learnt some incredible breathing techniques many years ago through Feldenkrais — a body movement exercise therapy — that involved taking slow and deep breaths in, holding for a few seconds, and then breathing out equally as slow. Slow and deep breathing allows you to regain control of your physiology and empowers you to be in control.

Do you want to learn effective breathing exercises and strategies to help combat your presentation fear? Join my next Communicate With Confidence Workshop!

– Jordana Borensztajn

Image: Anson0618 /Shutterstock.com