Public speaking (also called oratory or oration) is the process or act of performing a speech to a live audience. Public speaking is commonly understood as formal, face-to-face, speaking of a single person to a group of listeners. However, due to the evolution of public speaking, it is modernly viewed as any form of speaking (formally and informally) between an audience and the speaker. Traditionally, public speaking was considered to be a part of the art of persuasion. The act can accomplish particular purposes including to inform, to persuade, and to entertain. Additionally, differing methods, structures, and rules can be utilized according to the speaking situation.
Public speaking was developed in Rome and Greece. Prominent thinkers from these lands influenced the development and evolutionary history of public speaking. Currently, technology continues to transform the art of public speaking through newly available technology such as videoconferencing, multimedia presentations, and other non traditional forms.
Importance of Public speaking
1) Makes you more comfortable around people
One of the worst things about being around other people is those awkward moments when neither of you know what you say or you fumble and say something stupid.
Public speaking is important because it increases your skills at speaking (an activity we do every single day) and thus even when you are with one other person, as opposed to a group, you are less likely to be awkward and more likely to be comfortable and confident.
2) One of a very effective way to display your thoughts
Some people have a very creative mind and have many good ideas and thoughts but they never get a chance to express themselves in front of other people but then public speaking give those people an opportunity to showcase their mindset and spread their thoughts.
3) It will give you an audience
People tend to like new thoughts and it is very well said that “Beautiful mind is always better than a beautiful body”.
Also By standing up in front of people and delivering a talk you can attract like minded people around you. Seth Godin calls this a tribe and I think it is a great concept.
Problems people deal while speaking in public
We all are human beings and humans are not meant to be perfect. We all have our insecurities and which leads to fear and nervousness. This is not something to worry about because I think it’s natural. And if you are fearless or not nervous then you must be over confident which is never proven to be good.
Symptoms like sweaty palms, a racing mind, your heart beating little bit faster or sometimes your legs get a little bit shaky. These are natural signs of you being nervous before a big presentation.
According to the facts around 6.8 million people suffers from anxiety and before a big presentation or something, our anxiety is at its peak.
Symptoms like hot and cold flushes, tightening of the chest or sometimes even you feel a tightening around the throat area. Also your mind does not just race, it snowballs the worries, things get worse and worse in your mind and you get this obsessive thinking that this is going on.
This I believe is more worse that anxiety. They say that anywhere from 15-35% of people will experience a panic attack sometime in life. A panic attack is like intense anxiety – shortness of breath and nausea are common symptoms.
You have probably heard about people vomiting before they need to give a speech, that can be from a panic attack.
A panic attack is sometimes described as anxiety with immense fear. Sometimes with panic attacks people become afraid of their anxiety and so they have these panic attacks about the anxiety that they are going to be having in the future, or the anxiety that they are having in the moment.
Panic attacks can be very debilitating and so the people will avoid situations where they are afraid they are going to have a panic attack or afraid they are going to have anxiety. This is why some people who have panic attacks never leave their house.
They are scared to be put in a situation where they are going to have an attack so this is something that’s very serious.
Again, it is very common when it comes to public speaking but we are obviously looking at this very differently that we would look at the natural stress or just the fluttering of the heart caused by nervousness.
Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which you have trouble sleeping. The night before our big day seem to be very disturbed as our mind keep rotating 10,000 miles and keep asking us to be as perfect as we can.
This happens when you have has a past experience (probably related to public speaking) where it went terrible and for some reason you have these horrible feelings associated with public speaking.So whenever you think a public speaking maybe can be doing it or just thinking about it in the future, you keep going back to this moment in time where it was traumatic for you.You need to deal with that differently to anxiety and the other problems associated with public speaking because we are not dealing with stress in the moment, we are dealing with a past experience.
This is not as common but still does happen with public speaking.
This happens when you get so stressed that it actually leads to depression and you start feeling very down and you don’t want to get out the bed. You don’t want to talk to anyone you obviously don’t give your presentation.
Ways to overcome your fear and Rock
· Rehearse, Rehearse , Rehearse
· Have confidence and not overconfidence
· Do it to achieve a goal
· Focus on your material not on audience
· Try to feel what you are saying
Do your best and leave the rest
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I took some information from:
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_speaking
2) https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/specific-phobias/expert-answers/fear-of-public-speaking/faq-20058416
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SO GUYS THIS WAS ALL ABOUT MY SECOND BLOG. I AM SURE THIS WILL BE USEFUL TO EACH ONE OF YOU AT SOME POINT OF YOUR LIFE. I TRIED TO BE AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE SO THAT YOU GUYS CAN RELATE!!!
