My Physiological Reactions to Stress of Public Speaking

Hello and welcome to my blog again!✌

Last week we were talking about stage fright on our oratory course. My groupmate and friend Katya gave a brilliant speech on this topic and suggested different methods and techniques how to overcome our fear of public speaking. My stage fright prevents me from enjoying public performances. Katya`s speech gave me a lot of inspiration to work on this problem. So today I`m going to share my fears with you and to start fighting against them step by step. 

Let me begin with my physiological reactions to stress and fear of public speaking.We should realise that all these reactions are natural and healthy to our body. They are part of the body`s Primary Threat Response which allows a human being to take effective action when attacked. Our body perceives public speaking as a stressful situation against which it must fight. So don`t blame yourself for such reactions, because the are expected in case of perfomances in front of the audience.

Different people may experience different physiological reactions, because it`s an individual thing. Nevertheless, one can make a list of the most common reactions. I`ve read such a list in our coursebook to find biological explanation for my personal reactions to public speaking.

When I have to deliver a speech I feel strong trembling in my jaw and nausea. Why do I face these kinds of reactions?

• Strong trembling in my jaw: All my muscles contract throughout my body because of the stress which I experience. My body prepares me to spring into action with a burst of energy. But it doesn`t understand that I don`t have to do anything physical. Instead of active actions I try to stand still and straight in front of the audience. So my muscles begin to tremble, because I make a lot of effort to hold them still. Actually it causes pain to me, as I have sick jaw joint. It trembles really hard in all stressful situations since the time I passed my state exams to finish school. In case of public speaking that leads to problems with articulation and face expression, which isn`t a good thing. I`d really like to minimize this reaction, because it`s very uncomfortable.
• Nausea: During public speaking my digestive system stops working, because my body thinks that food processing isn`t that important in a stressful situation. Any foods which are already in the stomach just sit there and wait for stomach acid and saliva secretions to resume. But there isn`t any acid or saliva secretion! That`s why I feel nausea and other unpleasant things connected with digestive system. I hate that because I`m a kind of a person who faints easily. I`m very scared when I feel strong nausea, because I think that I`m going to faint. Nausea distracts me from public speaking a lot, I can`t be calm and think clearly. And of course still I have to eat something, because without food and energy my condition would be even worse.
  
  
  I`d like to find a solution to my problems connected with physiological reactions. Next time I`ll post some tips which`ll help me to minimize these reactions. At least I hope that they will. What physiological reactions to stress of public speaking do you have?