Fear of public speaking is extremely common. It's often said
that's actually higher up than the fear of death. And with stories of
actors and comedians "dying on stage" - even though that's being
metaphorical - that fear has built up in a lot of people.
But regardless of the cause of your fear of public speaking, there is a way that it can be tackled fast. Which is good news if the fear shows up unexpectedly, just before a critical speech or presentation is due.
You may have heard of the fast phobia cure but dismissed it as quackery. After all, your rational mind asks, how can a fear that you've had for years be dispersed in a matter of minutes?
The quick answer is that it can.
We learn fast - it's part of our survival instinct.
Which means that we can un-learn fast equally well.
Think about it for a minute: your public speaking fear almost certainly arrived quickly. Maybe you were caught unawares and had to make an impromptu presentation. Or, more likely, your mind worked overtime the night before an important speech, causing lack of sleep and a general sense of portending doom before you even stood up.
Then - every time since - you've brought back the same feeling. Or maybe even an intensified version if your subsequent speeches didn't go particularly smoothly.
That's caused by our mind taking shortcuts.
It has to do that, otherwise we'd have to re-learn everything, every time we did it. Which would be a major pain in the neck if we had to work out how to sit down, how to use knives and forks, even how to breathe in and out.
So you've learned a shortcut that determines that whenever there's a possibility of speaking in public, you'll have a sense of panic and maybe overwhelm.
And you've probably practised that a lot - both during the speeches themselves and in the run up to them where your mind traces over everything that could possibly go wrong.
The fast phobia cure sorts this out.
It uses a simple process of harnessing your imagination (which you've already proved can be quite vivid!) to get rid of the shortcut that is triggering your fear of public speaking.
The process involves running a virtual movie in your mind.
But you run the movie backwards. So that it goes from the time where you'd learned to be afraid of speaking in public back to the time when you had no such qualms.
Depending on how intense the fear is, it may take a few rewinds to erase the shortcut your mind currently takes.
There are usually "extras" in the process as well.
Not popcorn - we'll keep that for real movies.
But usually fading the mental image to black and white, speeding it up and often playing something such as circus music over the top of the back to front movie.
A few "plays" like this take the fear level down quite a lot of notches.
Which then means that you can address the idea of speaking in public rationally the next time you have to do it. Without the baggage of all the old fears and worries.
But regardless of the cause of your fear of public speaking, there is a way that it can be tackled fast. Which is good news if the fear shows up unexpectedly, just before a critical speech or presentation is due.
You may have heard of the fast phobia cure but dismissed it as quackery. After all, your rational mind asks, how can a fear that you've had for years be dispersed in a matter of minutes?
The quick answer is that it can.
We learn fast - it's part of our survival instinct.
Which means that we can un-learn fast equally well.
Think about it for a minute: your public speaking fear almost certainly arrived quickly. Maybe you were caught unawares and had to make an impromptu presentation. Or, more likely, your mind worked overtime the night before an important speech, causing lack of sleep and a general sense of portending doom before you even stood up.
Then - every time since - you've brought back the same feeling. Or maybe even an intensified version if your subsequent speeches didn't go particularly smoothly.
That's caused by our mind taking shortcuts.
It has to do that, otherwise we'd have to re-learn everything, every time we did it. Which would be a major pain in the neck if we had to work out how to sit down, how to use knives and forks, even how to breathe in and out.
So you've learned a shortcut that determines that whenever there's a possibility of speaking in public, you'll have a sense of panic and maybe overwhelm.
And you've probably practised that a lot - both during the speeches themselves and in the run up to them where your mind traces over everything that could possibly go wrong.
The fast phobia cure sorts this out.
It uses a simple process of harnessing your imagination (which you've already proved can be quite vivid!) to get rid of the shortcut that is triggering your fear of public speaking.
The process involves running a virtual movie in your mind.
But you run the movie backwards. So that it goes from the time where you'd learned to be afraid of speaking in public back to the time when you had no such qualms.
Depending on how intense the fear is, it may take a few rewinds to erase the shortcut your mind currently takes.
There are usually "extras" in the process as well.
Not popcorn - we'll keep that for real movies.
But usually fading the mental image to black and white, speeding it up and often playing something such as circus music over the top of the back to front movie.
A few "plays" like this take the fear level down quite a lot of notches.
Which then means that you can address the idea of speaking in public rationally the next time you have to do it. Without the baggage of all the old fears and worries.
If you'd like to get rid of your fear of public speaking then check out this review of an excellent version of the fast phobia cure.
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