How many people have given up opportunities for a new job or professional development if the new position calls for a panel interview or presentations ?. Why do so many people dread the thought of public speaking, making speeches, doing exams, giving a musical performance, driving tests or partaking in any kind of public performance? What they may not realise is that fear of each of these is actually ‘performance anxiety’. Some people have changed a much loved job or have not gone on for higher education to avoid facing their fear. There is clearly a good deal of wasted potential for both individuals, and society, due to this fear. Fear of public speaking is reported to be one of the highest fears amongst the population today, with many people experiencing enormous distress as a result of having to ‘perform’ whether that be to a few or many. This fear can also take its’ toll on peoples' effectiveness in the workplace and in other settings as it stops them from fully expressing their thoughts and ideas in front of others. This fear causes problems not only to those who are shy, nervous and socially anxious, but also those who are otherwise seen as confident and outgoing. Many people go to great lengths to avoid speaking up in front of groups, either formally or informally. Do you recognise this scenario?

The main area of concern is the physical feelings that tend to appear when giving a performance, the dry mouth, blushing, tremor in the voice, heart racing and pounding, shallow breathing, sweaty palms and loss of memory. Sound familiar? Symptoms can go all the way through to loss of central vision, complete thought blocking and freezing in total fear, which is enough to stop anybody from ‘performing’. The really interesting thing is the fear often stems from seeing or hearing about someone else’s experience, or having a bad experience yourself at a much earlier age. It is often the ‘school’ experience of speaking in public that people recall, being put on the spot with a question by the teacher and if the answer was wrong the whole class laughing. Something, which as an adult looking back brings the realisation that, this is the way children are. However once that seed has been sown in the unconscious mind so it will continue to cause the fear, so that whenever talking to a group of others the symptoms begin. This serves to re-affirm the memories and cause the problem.
How nice then it is to know that this is a very ‘normal’ physiological reaction caused by the hormone Adrenalin, the hormone that is released for the ‘fight and flight’ response, which has been there to protect us forever. The interesting thing is that it is actually necessary to have Adrenalin in order to give a sharp performance, to be focused and alert, otherwise we might actually fall asleep during our exam, driving test, presentation or speech!

So how can hypnosis help? Well apart from helping to reduce that Adrenalin response to a much more manageable level it can also help in changing our beliefs. Within the session we can learn to have a more external focus, so that we can concentrate on what we are about to do or say and actually learn to focus on the people we are about to speak to, the task in hand. It can give us the opportunity to imagine a positive scenario in which we are focused, alert and able to enjoy the experience and once experienced in the hypnotic state our unconscious mind can change those beliefs, which have ‘perhaps’ held us back for so long. During the relaxed hypnotic state we can see the possibilities that can be ours when we learn to control our Adrenalin and anxiety response we can try out new situations without actually being there and just imagine how it feels to do the things that we have wanted to do but have been too scared to try. A very powerful tool, which can give us back the control we need to take charge of our own lives and bring about changes that we really never thought possible. Learning how to use self-hypnosis to boost our relaxation response and increase self-belief, something, which can be applied anywhere in just ten minutes of spare time and how empowering, that can be.

So if you have ‘a moment in time’ when you know the spotlight will be on you whether it be an exam, presentation, interview, speech, talk, musical performance, acting debut or sporting performance and you worry about how you will feel or the fact that you may freeze in complete terror and feel a fool, know that clinical hypnosis can help and you too can achieve your goals and ambitions in any way you wish.