Managing presentation anxiety
Performing in front of a group of other students and your lecturers can be a daunting task.
Presentations cause some students to experience more anxiety than any other method of assessment.
What is Presentation Anxiety?
Presentation anxiety is a response to fear and it presents itself in a number of ways.
Physically, for example: in blushing, shaking, stuttering, sweating, being tongue tied.
Mentally in being muddled, feelings of not making sense, losing the thread.
These feelings are so unpleasant that you actually want to avoid presentations altogether.
What are the causes?
An overwhelming sense of others watching and judging and anxiety that "they think I'm stupid". It is easy for these feelings to spiral into negative thoughts such as "I'm a total failure". Suddenly your sense of self esteem gets confused with your academic performance.
Perfectionism:
Sometimes you can pressure yourselves by having unreasonably high expectations of what you should achieve, particularly if this is the first time you have done a presentation.
Avoidance:
Avoidance makes things worse because you never have the opportunity to test your assumptions. Going through the experience and seeing that you can survive intact will help you build up your confidence for next time.
Past experience:
Particularly if the experience was a negative one, can influence how you might think and feel about a similar experience even though it is in a new context. Being in a situation where others are watching, judging or criticising can trigger feelings of anxiety or rejection associated with those past experiences. As a result you may be over critical of your performance, focusing on everything that went wrong, until you feel you are "no good at it". This sets up a vicious spiral: next time your anxiety levels are even higher and you are less likely to do well.
Lack of confidence:
Lack of self confidence can affect thinking, feelings, behaviour and body language. Labelling yourself unconfident means failing to appreciate the things you do do well. Confidence comes from doing things, having a go, learning from your mistakes and noticing when you do things well.
What can you do about it?
Taking control:
The key to success is to think positively; take control of your stress and anxiety by learning effective techniques to combat it (see 'hoe to de-stress handout').
Problem solving:
- Find a new way to look at the problem. There is always more than one way of seeing things, which means that we may be able to act more effectively by looking at the problem differently...The key is to recognize our thoughts and the way that they have affected our mood and confidence.
- Try to identify the negative thoughts that are triggering the anxiety and challenge them.
Finding a new view point will give you more options and keep your thoughts in perspective. For example:
- how would I think if I felt calmer? or differently?
- what evidence is there that I'm...useless, hopeless etc
- what is the worst that could happen?
- what can I do if it happens?
The run up...
Pigeon hole other anxieties.
This involves consciously organizing your mind to temporarily put on one side all the other issues that concern you. Tell yourself that you will address these issues in due course, but for now you want to focus on the task ahead and give yourself time to prepare.
Practice
The more you do the more you'll feel like doing and the better you are likely to be.
Pretend! Act as if you are not feeling self conscious.
If you make a mistake, use it to help in the future. Don't let it drag you down.
On the day
- Refer back to your breathing exercises and concentrate on using them to defuse your anxieties and reduce the chances of shaking or sweating.
- Think positively, challenging those negative thoughts like "I'm stupid", "I can't do this". Replace them consciously with "I can do this". Remind yourself that what feels like an enormous problem to you probably isn't to those watching.
- A useful technique that can help stop worrying thoughts crowding in is to visualise a "stop sign" or draw a red dot on your work. As soon as you become conscious of your worrying thoughts, concentrate on your "stop" message. This helps keep you focused.
- Focus on the content of your talk. As your turn approaches take some deep breaths letting go of as much tension as is possible. When it's your turn to take centre stage use the adrenaline rush to feel alert and focused.
- If you feel yourself blushing, ignore it and reassure yourself that it will die down once you've got going! Say to yourself that you are not likely to be marked down for turning pink.
- Slow your speech down; it helps you feel in control.
After the presentation
Be encouraging not disparaging to yourself. Don't beat yourself up metaphorically for every mistake you spotted. Maybe the first step is just to survive and be able to stand up in front of a group.
Be kind to yourself and reward your efforts, focusing on your achievement.
Think realistically about what you could have done differently and plan how to improve things next time. Perhaps ask one or two others for constructive feedback.
