Hi Gang! Next week we'll talk about speech anxiety and CA or communication apprehension. I t is real, it can be survived and overcome and don't drop just because you have it, ok? Make yourself vulnerable and support each other here by sharing 5 or 6 lines about what happens when you get nervous because you have to stand and speak in front of people!?! Remember: Your teacher's mouth goes really dry (ewww, I get that weird white or lipsticky residue in the corners of my mouth when that happens: Gross!) AND...she can get shaky hands...plus sometimes she loses circulation in her foot and falls down in front of strangers...Aren't you glad you chose my class?HAHA...what happens to you and how do you compensate for it? I bring water whenever I can.......Have a great weekend bloggers!!!!!!!!
46 comments:
Well, My voice gets all shaky and palms get all clammy. (I know, not cute!) But, I try and stay calm... I try to just be myself. But its really hard. You can tell yourself it will be okay and you don't care what others think of you but as soon as I get up there its like an allergic reaction. All the nonsense about me not caring what people think and to just be my quirky self flies out of the window. And then there I am with my rattling voice, counting down the seconds to when its over.
-olisa...
I get really dizzy. Forget anything I memorized to say. hands get cold and sweaty. Um, uh, and, ya become large parts of my communication. I've learned to focus on one point in the back of the crowd at a time. I learn my subjects backwards and forwards and from the middle to either side so it doesn't matter where I start or end they still get all the information, visual cues help keep everything in order. The hand thing I haven't found many ways to solve. Although, when possible I wear a cloth hat that i take off at the beginning of the speech and use both hands to put it on before i walk off stage so I don't have sweaty hands when I have to shake someone's hand.
People have told me that I seem really natural when I'm speaking, but to me it doesn't feel that way at all. You'd think I'd have a relatively easy time with public speaking because I'm an actor, but that is not the case. I'll either get a crazy dry mouth or over-active saliva glands. Watch out front row!! I'm kidding. My hands get sweaty and I feel like I'm talking a mile a minute. All the blood tends to rush to my ears so they look brick red and are burning hot to the touch. Weird, I know. That's why when I have to do a speech or presentation, I generally wear my hair down. So if you ever see me with bright red ears, you'll know I'm nervous or embarrassed!! haha
Wow, I always forget to leave my name. Talking about being nervous kind of makes me nervous! haha
x Rae Wright x
When I have to speak in front of an audience I'm totally nervous. I feel like the room all of sudden gets hot and the walls are closing in on me. It's a weird sensation. I know what I want to say, but it does not come out the way I would like to have talked about it. I'm very bad at telling majority of any story. When I do speak I often stutter of words or they come out incorrectly. I do hate this and I truly hope I can overcome this fear. Well see you all in class on Wednesday.
Valenthia Carlock
Well, My hands gets shaky and voice begins to crack. I am always wondering what people are thinking.
Steven, Wednes Class
When I am nervous, I will start fiddling around with my hair or start getting really impatient standing in front of everyone. I can no longer make any eye contact and will alomost start mumbling and forget what I am supposed to say. At times my hands will get sweaty or I will start to sweat when I am delivering a speech in front of a large crowd. For such cases I like Amanda's tactic of wiping off the sweat, that's pretty funny...The best way I keep myself focused is by trying to be myself like Olisa does. In addition stand behind something like a podium so no one can see my feet tapping or anything else. Also, I try not to make direct eye contact and instead just look directly above the crowd so I don't feel like I am being stared at....So if anyone sees me getting a little impatient or playing with my hair or a pencil/pen, just bare with me, hopefully I will overcome my nervousness soon and still deliver a well speech...(I hope I never get that white residue stuff on my lips, that is kind of gross)
See ya'll in class on Monday...Bhupinder Saini
I have got to be the worst public speaker ever. Half the time I don't even know what I just said, or I can't remember what I was suppose to say. My face and neck turn red. I feel self conscience, like I'm too fat or something somewhere is hanging out. I feel totally judged by everybody.
One time I started laughing at some words that I stumbled over and blacked out. Oh boy, I can't wait to learn something out of this class!
~Lacey M. Schneider
Like deathrae, I have experience as a actor. But I still get stage fright: Will I flub a line? Will I turn left instead of right?
Public speaking is no different for me. I'm always anxious. As I wait my turn to speak, I'm thinking stuff like "maybe the power will go out," or "maybe there will be a fire drill." But, over time, I've also discovered that my anxiety level is governed by how much I know about the subject and how much passion I have for it. I've done a lot of speaking at public hearings over the years and am less fearful in those settings because I'm worked up about the issue. Even so, I'm always nervous; it's only natural.
Charles Bertolette
Wed. class
When I have to stand in front of a group to speak, I tend to speak a little faster than normal, and my voice will sometimes crack. I begin to perspire, and my skin feels much hotter than normal. The closer it comes to the time for me to speak the more confused my thoughts become. Even when I have notes, I tend to lose my train of thought and then the long pauses begin. If there is a podium in front of me, I find myself simultaneously clenching and tapping. I stand there with a death grip on the podium, white knuckled fingers clamped on the sides, while my thumbs tap on the top of the podium. The white-knuckled death grip is comforting, but the tapping is very distracting; as has been pointed out numerous times by friends that were in the audience. One other thing that I find myself doing, as I speak, is wringing my hands and pinching with one hand the meaty part between the thumb and forefinger of the other.
Strange, but true.
ewww eee ewww dun dun dun dunt...
J.A.D. Jackson
SCC Wednesday
Its been some time now since I have made a speech in front of an audience. I would forget how to monitor the speed of my speeches. Sometimes I speak so fast, I go through sections of my speech and skip over other parts because I don't look down at my notes. In addition, I emphasize on points I did not plan to and loose my train of thought. Speeches are still nerve wracking to me.
Trang Khuu
When I get NERVOUS, especially during a speech, I turn apple red, my stomach twist, and my heart beats like I just ran a mile. Sometimes the only sound I hear is my heart racing and I sweat pretty bad. This is why I have been putting this class off for quite sometime now...
-Mayger Vuong
Hi guys...
I have always been scared of making speeches. It's like I will be completely ready and have everything memorized, but it would all change as i get in front of the audience. My heart starts beating really fast and makes my voice quiver. All I can do is hope that nobody can hear the nervousness in my voice but I am pretty sure they can :[. Amanda I can totally realte to you on getting dizzy, which starts making me sick. But I just try to remember all my information and do teh speech the best way I can. Hopefully it will get better as we continue to do more speeches..
Anum
When I get nervous, I have a tendancy to get hyperfocused and my senses go into overdrive. I usually start speaking faster - and that is not good - since I am from the East Coast and speak quicker than the average Californian to begin with! I make quick convulsive movements with my hands to relieve the stress I may be feeling. I usally have to do a quick relaxation exercise to bring down my hyperactive behavior. I also tend to be robotic and official in my speech at times and need to relax more when talking with groups of people. I used to give briefings in the military and I will have to remember that I am delivering a message to a very different crowd than the one I used to deal with.
William
I would have to say the biggest thing for me is my hands start to shake and my heart starts pounding. It's very distracting which usually takes my concentration off my speech. I notice I start speaking very quickly too.
Matt Dillon, Wed.
When I'm nervous, the act of breathing becomes so intense and labored that I lose my breath mid-speach. When this happens, I fill my lungs with as much air as a free diver about to go under water. Or sometimes I just forget to breathe. In both cases, I will nearly suffocate from sheer humiliation.
=)
personally, when i speak within a small group i am usually the most talkative as well as the loudest. however when speaking in front of a large group of people with all eyes on me, i begin to feel anxious, dizzy, light headed, and then begin to stutter and sway back and forth. i try my best to keep eye contact with my audience and try to keep composure until i finish my speech.
When I'm nervous, my voice gets shaky. I'm sure you can hear the lack of confidence pretty well. I try to hide it by speaking slowly and consciously making eye contact, but I imagine my nervousness still comes through. If I'm REALLY nervous, my right leg also starts to involuntarily shake. That used to always happen to me when I had piano recitals.
-Kathleen Farren
I talk very fast. My voice gets shaky and I lose my spot. Somtimes I will Repeat the same thing twice. The more I think about the speech the worse I get so I try to be one of the first ones to do my speech.
Miranda Fuglsang
Well when I was younger I use to be very shy. So speaking in front of groups comfortably wasn't something that exactly came to me very naturally. But now that I am approaching 30, having served six years in the the Army and upon separating, worked as a server for fine dining restaurants. Speaking in front of people really isn't that big of a deal. Unless of course I don't know what I am talking about and that's kinda stressful.
Which raises the question, why am I talking in front of a bunch of people if I don't have any idea as to what I should say? Well above I did mention that I was a sever. And without dragging out a specific example, anyone who has ever worked in retail, sales or restaurants knows, is that sometimes people act and talk about some pretty off the wall crap. And since your responsible for customer service it's a license for some people to hold you hostage while they go on about everything from their always so "fascinating" car ride down, to their Aunt Edna's ass polyps. All of which are subjects that I am woefully ignorant of either by lack of experience or in some cases by choice.
But yeah the best advice in the way to deal with the stress, is to just get more practice in being put on the spot. So as to get better at putting up with those kinds of situations. Other than that, I don't know,
speaking from experience if your not serious about finishing college, chances are you'll be forced to gain experience anyway. Hmmm.... funny how that works out.
No but seriously, just don't think about being scared. Your all's blogs about being terrified in speech class is making me scared just thinking about it, even though I know better.
-Doug
Sandra,
I have read syllabus.
Thank you,
Andrew Roberson
I previously blogged this but am short by one sentence so I am posting this again to include more thought. After reading some of the blogs, I have to agree with William, not only do I speak faster, I also tend to make convulsive movements with my hands in efforts to relieve the stress and the nervousness. Its been some time now since I have made a speech in front of an audience. I would forget how to monitor the speed of my speeches. Sometimes I speak so fast, I go through sections of my speech and skip over other parts because I don't look down at my notes. In addition, I emphasize on points I did not plan to and loose my train of thought. Speeches are still nerve wracking to me.
Trang Khuu
Sandra was on fire with that lecture last night!!! Sandrah
Well class, if you haven't already notices I get quite a anxious when speaking in front of a group. I tend to stubble over words that I would never usually have trouble with. I also can feel my heart beating as if it will burst out of my chest. I think the most amazing part is that I can actually hear my heartbeat. At first it adds to the anxiety, but as the speech goes on the rhythm becomes soothing and seems to drift away. I ran cross country for 2 years, and the feeling you have after you have finally finished a race is amazing. The thing closest to that feeling is how I feel after I have completed a speech. It is amazing!!! All of the anxiety seems to be worth the sacrifice in order to have those minutes of pure joy that the speech is over.
-Leo Novakovskiy
Everyone has different ways to over come when someone has to speak at in front of a group of people. I always tell myself that i am the person speaker and i will just do good. I personally think the 1st two words are hard and then i am good afte that. A times my hands start to shake but this mostly happens when i am talking on a topic which i am not ready for so to aviod this i always talk to myself before talking
Parneet Singh
When I get nervous sometimes I break out in hives, other times,I am just jittery and move alot, other times I talk to fast or skip over material that I really wanted to talk about, such as in our speeches about our parteners I forgot to mention that Yesenia also wants to transfer to sac stat as well, but I get so nerviouse and into what others think that I just go blank. Also you might see my cheeks get red because I fill like its hot in the room, however as I have gotten older and spoke in class for other assignments it has gotten easiear to give speeches, the only tick I have now is talking to fast.
Roxanne Harrington
Comm301 Mondays 7pm to 10pm
Nervousness is the last thing I think about when going up to the speak. For me I think its about breaking that comfort barrier with the class. My voice starts out sluggish and not as excited to speak. I usually over exaggerate my hand gestures hah, and lose eye contact with most of the people in class. I rather look at the corners of the room so if one audience member looks at me, it will look like I am looking at another on the other side of the room. My biggest fear of being nervous is actually the dreaded "UMs" and "Ahs". If I get too nervous I don't say a lot of "Ums" and "Ahs" but I say a long paused UMMmmmmmmm....which seems forever for me. Its probably only 2 seconds in real time but in Jason time its like 5 minutes haha. Anyhow, I will be trying to overcome this Um and Ah habit and give a successful speech!
I get nervous more frequently in interpersonal interaction with people that I am unfamiliar with or in a situation where I am not sure of my role or responsibility.
Public speaking has never really made me nervous. I am a musician and played my first concert in front of 3,000 people and my largest performance was at the Polo Grounds in front of 20,000 people. Even in those situations, I was not nervous of my personal action, I knew how to cover any mistake that was made. I was more worried about the crowd's reaction to the music I wrote. In both situations, the crowd liked the music (or they were lying !!!) the applause was phenomenial and the comments after the shows were all very good (then again, I have never gone to a performer after a show to tell them they suck).
So how do I deal with nervousness? I have confidence in my material, I have confidence in my ability, and I just let me personality take over and perform.
Sean Driscol Monday Night
I find that I only get nervous when I'm not exactly familiar with the topic that I am trying to speak on. My hands don't get sweaty and my voice doesn't tremble, instead, I get really hot. I feel like someone used a shrinking ray on me and put me in an oven. What really helps me deal with my nervousness is having taking sips from my Nalgene bottle, which I fill halfway with ice. I also think that eating an hour and a half before the the presentation helps me remeber my lines. One thing that I always wanted to do before a presentation is scream at the top of my lungs just to cut the tension.
-Javier Pasillas
I get really nervous, i get hot, palms clamy, my mind goes blank and i cant remember what i am supposed to say and i also get blurry vision for some reason. my favorite part is when its over and i can go sit down and watch everyone else. lol -Danielle
I have always had a fear of speaking in front of large groups, which is why I've been putting off this class for two years. Whenever I've been forced into a presentation or speech in the past, I always forget whatever I had planned, and my voice gets really shaky. I used to have even worse anxiety where I would never look at my audience and I would speak very quietly. To cope with my anxiety, I usually try to psych myself out and keep telling myself that it's not a big deal, and better to get it over quickly. I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, but I usually don't write out my speech exactly as I want to say it. I write notes of each point I want to make, and that way it sounds more natural and not like I'm reading off of a piece of paper. I've also noticed that if I keep my eyes moving around the room, I feel less anxious, because then I'm to stare at the floor and distract myself with my own thoughts.
Public speaking has never been a favorite of mine only because nerves take over. I have always been really afraid to get up in front of other's and express or report information to others. When I do have to present a speech, I tend to get nervous just reading about the prompt, when I get up in fornt of the class the usual happens, the face turns red, the Ummms begin,the hands sweat, I will have to pause several times to recollect what I am trying to get across, I tend to figit with my presentation notes,I lose eye contact which will be a focus in the class to work on, and in my mind I can not wait till those minutes are over.
Victoria..See everyone on wed for Intro Speeches...Ahhhh
What happens when i stand infront of the class is my face get's red and i tend to blush when i realize that everyone in the class is looking at me. Also my legs feel like they are getting weak and sometimes if i am really nervous i start sweating i don't know why because i really do not care what people think. I guess deep down inside i really do care what people think apparently.
-johnny-
This is a GOOD ONE. When I get nervous, I think I forget to breath or something, because I get out of breath while talking and find myself gasping for air in mid-sentence. I too get the "shaky" hands at times, depending on how nervous I am. The last speech I gave I just focused on how I was just talking, like normal, but to a larger crowd. My focusing on NOT being nervous seemed to help. I could feel when I would start to feel tense, and I would try to just take a deep breath and pause, then continue. I also tend to tell jokes, which usually lightens things up. Usually it goes by fast, and then I don't feel as bad.
When I get nervous I tend to talk really fast and not think about what I am supposed to say. I lose my train of thought and go blank! I hate when it happens because I might have something important to say and when I get nervous that thought vanishes into thin air and comes back to me when I do not need to say it anymore. My hands get clammy and start to shake little. Feeling nervous is horrible. Hopefully being prepared and confident will diminish the feeling of apprehension a little bit.
//MiGUEL MARQUEZ-SANCHEZ
When I get nervous I Get really HOT like I am having HOt flashes.(yeah I know nothing is hotter then sweating, I really dont sweat I just get HOt) I also start acting Ditsy and might stumble over some words, So I try to do some calming tecniques like playing with my fingers or my jewerly,or taking deep breaths, or laughing. but when I get up and start talking sometimes the butterflies go all away,then I dont have to worry about being nervous. I just have to make sure to speak clearly!
Anna Martinez
when i get nervous i forget my focus and shake......really bad.
drusilla lang
i get really. drusilla lang
When I get nervous I start to stumble on my words and lose my train of thought. I start fidgeting and saying "um, so, uh" I also smile alot and repeat what i say =(. I notice that i look at the ceiling and I start sweating (ewwwwww). My heart beats really fast and I run out of breath. I tend to have a strong start but fizzle out in the middle. Im also too self-conscious and feel like people are constantly judging my appearance.
When I get nervous, my throat gets dry and my hands sometimes gets sweaty and real cold. My whole body gets rigid and I feel so tense that I don't know how to start my speech. I usually get myself ready before a speech but when I get on stage or in front of people, I feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience. Like I'm watching somebody else (mess up)! I'm worried most of the time, that I'll lose where I'm at and mental block will set in and I'll be like paralyzed and look like an idiot! But, I guess this is exactly why I took this class instead of Group Discussion class. So, I can develop my skills and get over my nervousness.
Marie J. Parker
When i get nervous my hands start getting shaky and sweaty. I start taping my feet on the floor. I also start talking about anything and everything. I'm also sure i do other things I'm not aware off. I would like to learned how to control this, but i haven't figure it out just yet. I'm glad I'm taking this class. Yesenia Gonzalez
I lose my train of thought, and forget what I want to say. The best thing for me to do is to take a deep breath, because I have the tendency of talking too much, and too fast like Miranda mentions she does. Or I ad lib, and start saying "um" & "uh", just like amanda or I start repeating myself. The other problem I have when I get nervous is that I loose my focus, and I forget what I wanted to say in the first place, and then it just gets worse from there. If I am unable to regain my composure then I just try to regain my focus. Sometimes I've been known to have a nervous laugh which is very embarrassing, because I am the only one laughing, and I'm sure everyone is wondering what's so funny.
~Ms. Dee Dee Chambers
I already did a post however it was not long enough. I would like to add that after a speech I get shaky. I like to get back to my seat as soon as possible to calm down. When working with a group the worst part for me is having to stand up there while everyone else in the group finishes. I feel like my whole body is shaking and I want to relax.
Miranda Fuglsang
I really dont get nervous, but when i do, my stomACH turns and i feel like i haft to through up.
Yours Truly, Janelle T
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