subject: Hypnosis For Fear Of Public Speaking - Can It Help You To Overcome Your Nerves? [print this page] Hypnosis For Fear Of Public Speaking - Can It Help You To Overcome Your Nerves?
It's said that people fear public speaking more than they worry about death. And whilst that's probably being a bit extremist, there is a grain of truth in the statement. One way that is often suggested as a method to overcome the worry is to use hypnosis for fear of public speaking. So, the question that remains is: does it work?
Deep down, most of us know that our fears aren't totally rational. They're often something we develop when we're younger and then, through habit as much as anything else, we keep hold of them as we grow older.
Although that's not always the case with public speaking as you'll know if you've ever tried to calm down a group of children.
So how does using hypnosis to overcome your fear of public speaking work?
The hypnosis session will usually work on a number of levels.
First, it will try to help you remain calmer when you have to deliver a speech or report. Nerves are not the kind of thing you want to add to your worries about talking out loud to a group of people. So the hypnosis session will give you some useful "crutches" that you can cling on to - mentally of course - whilst you deliver your speech.
Next, there will likely be a series of hypnotic suggestions that will help you to deal with your fear. They're quite likely to be practical suggestions such as directing your talk to just one person in the audience rather than the crowd that actually exists. Pretending in your mind that the situation isn't as daunting as you first thought is a good way of doing this.
There will also be a hypnotic suggestion to practice your speech. This is something you should be doing anyway. Reading your speech out loud may seem silly but it's a good way to make sure that you aren't constantly tripping over your words.
Finally, a good hypnosis session will use something called future pacing to round off the effect of the rest of the suggestions. It will take you forward in time - in your mind's eye of course - to when you have finished your speech. You'll visualize having completed your public speaking assignment, come out of it in tact and with the sight of the audience looking grateful to you for the speech you've just delivered. This kind of thing is done by sportsmen all the time and applies just as much to public speaking assignments.
