Being nervous about giving a speech to an audience is normal. There is even a word for this fear, “glossophobia”. Psychologists have studied glossophobia and attributed this fear to what they call the illusion of transparency. In experiments on public speaking anxiety in relation to the illusion of transparency, they focused on the speaker’s perception of his or her anxiety levels versus an observer’s perception of the speaker’s anxiety levels. The results were as expected: the speaker judged himself or herself more harshly than the observer did.

I along with each of the over 500 Toastmasters I have mentored have felt nervous when giving a speech to an audience. After 30 years, I still experience this nervousness. Mark Twain once said there are two types of public speakers. There are the nervous ones and then there are the liars. Butterflies in the stomach are a common symptom. It’s a sense of uneasiness. The adrenaline rush you get before a performance. Early in my Toastmasters journey, my mentors told me, it’s okay to have butterflies in your stomach. Just get them to fly in formation. With me, it was quite severe and disturbing because when waves of glossophobia rolled over me, I would sometimes physically lose my voice. It was horrible when this would happen when I was to give a speech. Fortunately, my Toastmasters clubs were very supportive and understood when this would happen. Nevertheless, it was mortifying to my self-respect. Seriously, I went to an eye, ear, nose, and throat doctor to try to cure this physiological condition. He probed my nose and throat with instruments and cameras and did his best to find a physiological cause to no avail.

Then, I came across a product called Rescue Remedy from Bach-Flower.com. This stuff really worked for me. I used it before each speech I gave for two or three years. It enabled me to control my nervousness and make the butterflies in my stomach fly in formation. After using Rescue Remedy before every speech for 2 or 3 years, one day I was driving to my club to give a speech and my Rescue Remedy spray container was empty. Lo and behold, I didn’t lose my voice this time. Rescue Remedy had trained my body to relax enough that my voice did not disappear. I no longer use Rescue Remedy but it was a godsend for the few years that I relied on it.

I don’t know of anyone else whose throat constricted and whose vocal cords were paralyzed to the point of losing their voice. But it happened to me. Perhaps I was just a hard case when it came to glossophobia. But I was persistent and ultimately found the remedy.

Here are some other tips to control nervousness.

The number one tip is to turn nervousness into service. That is to have the adrenaline work in your favor. You’re excited. Your heart is pumping. Your eyes are brighter. Harness this energy to improve your delivery.

The second one is to breathe. It’s something we do all the time. But when we get nervous, we become tense. Our chest constricts. For me, my throat would constrict, and my vocal cords would tighten so severely that my voice would go away. It’s important to breathe properly. This means to breathe from the diaphragm rather than the chest. You can practice this by placing your hand on your stomach. Your stomach should expand on an inhale and not your chest. In conjunction with breathing properly, pause. This will help you focus and give you more vocal range and power. More vocal variety. Breathing properly will make your experience more pleasurable even though the nervousness is still there.

The third tip I have for you is to take more pauses. When you pause, you sort of reset. You engage more with your audience. You are more present. It creates more rhythm and cadence to your delivery.

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