Reducing Tension Before Speeches
Reducing Tension. Your body naturally becomes tense when you get ready to give a speech. This tension can cause you to speak too quickly, make you fidgety, or otherwise behave unnaturally. At one point, some people surveyed said that they would rather die than give a speech! This fear of public speaking is common. Fortunately, there are easy exercises you can do to reduce the tension that comes with "stage fright."
Here are some easy-to-do exercises to reduce tension:
Hand squeeze
- Make a fist with your left hand.
- Wrap the fist with your right hand.
- Squeeze the fist tightly for three seconds and hold.
- Switch to the other hand and repeat.
Arm and shoulder stretch
- Slowly extend your arms as wide as possible.
- Hold for three seconds.
- Slowly make ten small circles with your arms.
- Slowly make ten medium circles with your arms.
- Slowly make ten large circles with your arms.
- Reverse directions and repeat.
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Reducing Speech Tension