Question

Think of a time when you were extremely nervous to be in front of a group of people. Describe in detail what you did to cope with this anxiety. What did you learn from this experience that will help you next time you are in a similar situation?

Answer 1

There was a time when I had to present a final project from school. This project had been successful inside my classroom and my teacher asked me to present it in front of all the high school as a part of a special scholar event. I felt happy and proud of myself, but at the same time, I experimented nervousness and anxiety of being in front of so many people.

I followed some advices to cope with anxiety:

1. Think yourself as an expert: By doing this you will encouraging yourself to explain everyone what you are supposed to do; by the same time, doing this will allow you to feel more confident with who you are and what you know.
2. Always look forward: Try to don’t think only in what are you saying, thinking and how do you look like; instead of that focus your attention on the people that are watching and earing you; analyze their gestures and act in order to make them feel comfortable and relaxed because, without realizing, you will be feeling the same way.
3. Before presenting, define what you want to feel: To define inside what is going to happen and how you will be feeling about it could help you to feel less anxious and nervous, this due to you will be feeling that you have already experimented that situation at past.
4. Be yourself: This part could sound obvious, but it is important because if you want to act as another person everything will be harder to you; it is better to be who you are and express those things that you believe in.

What did I learn from my experience that will help me next time I am in a similar situation?

Following those 4 things, I will feel better when I must be in front of a huge audience because to know how to deal with my emotions is always helpful. Thanks to my past experience I learnt that I have to improve my self-esteem and I need to train my oral speech abilities.  I’m sure that everyone has, at least by one time, felt social anxiety, but we all can try to change it in order to improve our social speech’s skills. I will try to remember my past advice to feel more comfortable and even been capable of enjoying my act.

Answer 2

I stood at the front of the class, ready to present my project. I awkwardly looked down, not liking the way everyone looked at me. When the teacher gave her signal, I turned towards the board behind me. It felt much better to talk this way; I didn't know whether eyes were on me or not. I could picture myself practicing my presentation in the mirrior this morning, nobody else in the room besides me. This was so much better than what I thought it would be like. Once done, everyone applauded as I sat down in my seat. For now on, I decided, I will picture myself alone rather than in front of a group of people when proposed with similar situations.