Written by Ellie Smith, Yoga Instructor
Ellie Smith is an experienced yoga and breathwork teacher, with a background in academia, teaching communication and cultural studies. She is the founder of Ellie Smith Yoga Ltd, a platform for new and returning professionals to learn how to apply practices from yoga to improve their public speaking presence.
“Ok, so how about we each give a brief self-introduction? Tell us who you are, where you’re from, and a fun fact about yourself!” The clouds were rolling across the horizon outside my window. The dog walkers were strolling up the road in front of the apartment. The crickets had begun their evening gossip circles.
Outside was pretty peaceful. Inside, however.
My stomach was a white-hot ball of steel. My mind was rifling through every fact about my life at the speed of light looking for anything “fun” and coming up shockingly empty.
The worst part? The host of this online yoga coaching Zoom call had decided I was the best fit to go first.
“Ellie! Let’s start with you!”
As a bead of sweat dropped painfully into one eye, I rapidly squeaked out “OK, I’m Ellie. I’m from the U.K. but I live in Japan and a fun fact about me is, uh, I have seven cats”.
And it was as if every member on that call had subtitles flowing from their faces.
“Did she say seven?” “Seven? That’s just, a bit weird” “Oh god, an awkward middle-aged woman alone with seven cats”. “Why is she winking?” “I thought he said ‘fun’ fact”.
I don’t remember the rest of that call. I was in anguish over what my fellow trainees were thinking about me. Just when I’d resigned myself to not joining another Zoom coaching session ever again, I remembered an actual fun fact about how I once narrowly avoided arrest in the wee hours of the night in Vietnam circa 2006 and kicked myself for not sharing it earlier.
Key takeaways
The thought of speaking in front of an audience affects a vast demographic, from college students to elite athletes alike.
Public speaking anxiety stems from a natural fight or flight response, causing symptoms like increased heart rate or even a panic attack at the mere thought of being the center of attention.
Learning how to manage public speaking opens doors to new opportunities, both personally and professionally.
Beginner-friendly, practical, science-backed techniques from yoga can significantly reduce public speaking anxiety levels.
The prevalence of public speaking anxiety
The fear of public speaking (or Glossophobia, as it is officially called), is often touted as one of the most common phobias. In fact, some suggest that it outweighs death in terms of how concerned we are about it.
It can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, economic background, status, and education. Some of us feel the symptoms more intensely when speaking in front of a small group, others when presenting to a much larger audience.
For many people, speaking in person may not result in much anxiety, but when asked to speak live online, it seems to come out of left field. Some of the most experienced public speakers have felt the uncomfortable pain of public speaking anxiety at some point in their careers.
So, we know that it is a widespread fear. We know that it doesn’t discriminate when selecting its next victim. What helps a little bit at first, is knowing that it is a natural, self-preserving response. So, what exactly IS that response?
Understanding your symptoms of public speaking anxiety
The roots of our dread when facing an audience stem from a mix of physiological and psychological responses.
The physiological symptoms of public speaking anxiety
Facing an audience triggers a profound physiological response in many of us. These reactions are akin to what our early ancestors experienced in high-stakes situations. Symptoms may include some or all of the following:
Accelerated heart rate
Rapid breathing
Trembling muscles (commonly in the legs and hands, but could occur anywhere)
Dry mouth
Nausea
Dilated pupils
Loss of appetite
Sweating
A freeze response (the inability to move or think clearly)
These symptoms are our fight-or-flight response kicking in to prepare the body to fight or flee from a perceived danger. It doesn’t matter if that danger is a large, angry, woolly mammoth or an audience of curious listeners.
The psychological symptoms of public speaking anxiety
Psychologically, the fear of public speaking magnifies the dread of being the centre of attention, negatively judged, and the prospect of a humiliating brain freeze (like not being able to think of one single fun fact about yourself on demand). The symptoms range from:
Mild to intense nervousness
Mild to intense worry
Panic or panic attacks
A feeling of dread before and during the speaking event
Experiencing intrusive thoughts (a common one of mine is “They all see right through me”).
Your mind going blank, or conversely, a racing mind.
When I was on that Zoom call with my fellow yoga trainees, I was experiencing perspiration, loss of appetite, trembling of muscles (specifically those in charge of regulating my voice), intense worry, a racing mind, and intrusive thoughts (all the things I thought the others were thinking when I said I had seven cats).
So, what are some ways to manage public speaking anxiety?
Practical strategies to overcome public speaking anxiety
Public speaking becomes less daunting once you have a few practical approaches in your back pocket. Let’s look at a few ideas stemming from conventional wisdom, and then delve into a few that I use from my yoga practice.
Conventional tips for managing public speaking anxiety
Try to reframe limiting beliefs. For example, “They can all see right through me” is a thinly veiled disguise of “I’m not good enough”. Instead, try to reframe this toward something a little more reassuring like “I know what I’m talking about” that is still believable for your brain but isn’t too saccharine.
Practice. And then practice a little more. Doing this in front of a mirror is wildly helpful, if a little awkward. Go beyond rote memorization of your planned script, and add in a little vocal flare here and there to keep the audience engaged. Where is it appropriate to speak a little louder and faster, or quieter and slower? How can you move around the stage in a way that is interesting but not distracting? What facial expressions do you habitually pull, and how can you adjust them to better match your words?
Try to visualize a positive outcome. Are you after a standing ovation or a healthy round of applause? Would you like the audience to follow up with some interesting questions? Whatever it is you’re after, try to imagine that happening. Why? Because that will help with the next point.
Try to turn nervousness into excitement. The same physiological response is at play for both feelings. Yet, the latter is far more effective at helping us to put our best selves forward as we step into the speaking arena. Maria Papacosta puts it best by saying “Practice feeling excited”
Yoga-inspired practices to curb public speaking anxiety
The above conventional nuggets of wisdom go a long way in helping to curb some of the psychological responses to public speaking anxiety. But what about the physiological responses? How do we stop the trembling legs, sweaty palms, and uncontrollably squeaky voice?
Yoga may have some of the answers. Three unexpected techniques from yoga can help alleviate some common symptoms of public speaking anxiety.
Yoga poses
Breathing Exercises
Meditation.
Yoga poses (Asana) help us to
Improve our posture, immediately making us look and feel more authoritative, knowledgeable, and confident. Mountain Pose is wonderful for this.
Increase our lung strength and capacity, enabling us to take slower, deeper breaths (more on this below). Seated side bends help with this.
Improve our balance and coordination, making us less likely to trip over ourselves on stage.
Breathwork (Pranayama) can aid in
Stimulating our rest-and-digest response to take ourselves out of fight-or-flight and back into a more calm and grounded state. One practice I love is Belly Breath - it’s easy and you can do it pretty much anywhere.
Warming up and relaxing our vocal cords. Humming Bee Breath is a common go-to for relaxing the nerves and reducing the risk of a squeaky voice.
Meditation (Dhyana) is wonderful for
Focusing the mind on the present moment and not projecting about what awful thing may happen while you speak. Staying grounded in the present allows you to focus more on your audience than yourself. It also helps to sharpen concentration. Mindfulness techniques like pinpointing five things you can hear, smell, and touch are great for keeping you in the here and now.
Getting comfortable with silence. This directly translates onto the stage. Increasing the length of pauses in your speech allows the audience to process and consider what you’re saying. You also allow yourself to take a few more deep breaths, increasing your sense of inner calm.
After inadvertently confessing my love for cats, I applied these techniques before every subsequent Zoom session. I spoke with more clarity and ease each time. I developed a short routine of a few side stretches, a few Belly Breaths or Humming Bee Breaths, and a couple of minutes just sitting.
These five minutes didn’t completely erase all my symptoms. I still jerked to attention whenever I was called to speak. But, this mini-routine noticeably cleared the clutter in my mind a little, and so I encourage you to do the same.
The next steps to curbing your public speaking anxiety
In this article, we’ve covered the common physiological and psychological symptoms associated with public speaking anxiety. We’ve also looked at some practical strategies you can apply to both. So what should your very next steps be?
Begin a simple yoga practice
If the idea of using yoga to help manage your symptoms intrigues you, but you’ve never set foot near a yoga mat before, your first step might be to sign up for my weekly newsletter.
You’ll receive a free, actionable guide helping you to get started with yoga at home. Each week you’ll get some tips and tricks on how to stick with yoga as well as some ways you can apply it to the realm of public speaking.
Try some breathing exercises
If you’re not quite ready for yoga yet (I get it, it took me a few good tries to get into it) then stick with some of the breathwork practices mentioned above. These will help alleviate some of the symptoms in real-time.
If you do them consistently, the effects compound over time. The best part is you don’t need to invest anything except a little bit of time to do them.
Set aside 3 minutes a day to just sit quietly
Meditation is daunting at first. Your mind will go to every possible cringe-worthy memory it can find. If it can’t find any, it will make some up. The meditation part is noticing when this happens, and just gently guiding it back to one point of focus. This could be your breath, a sentence you repeat to yourself, or observing an object in the room.
If you’d like to develop your own mini-routine, a personal pre-game if you will, then feel free to reach out either by replying to my newsletter or by reaching out through one of the avenues listed below. I’d be more than happy to help.
I may even let you in on exactly how I avoided arrest in northern Vietnam.
Read more from Ellie Smith
Ellie Smith, Yoga Instructor
Ellie Smith is yoga and breathwork teacher based in rural Japan. Her background is in tertiary education with a focus on communication and cultural studies. She now blends these two professions in her business, teaching clients how to get started with yoga, how to stick with it, and how to apply its principles and techniques off the mat to reduce public speaking anxiety and improve their public speaking presence.
Comments