For more than 15 years I have been teaching professionals how to present more clearly and engagingly. And in about three out of four cases people tell me the same thing:
“I would like to get rid of my presentation nerves.”
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. Many professionals struggle with presentation nerves and spend a lot of energy trying to eliminate them. Ironically, that is exactly what keeps them stuck.
The constant focus on “Am I nervous? Can people see it?” keeps you trapped in stories about your nerves instead of helping you move forward.
First: nerves are not the problem
Before we go further, it helps to realize something important: we actually need some nerves.
They make us more alert.
They prepare our body.
They show that we care.
The problem is not the nerves themselves. The problem starts when we begin to fight them.
Why trying to eliminate nerves backfires
If you tell yourself that these sensations are bad and must disappear, your body interprets this as a threat, a problem that needs to be fixed and solved. And your body is very obedient and is going to react to it.
You feel a sensation in your stomach and think: Oh no, this is a problem. Your system reacts by producing even more tension. Instead of calming down, the nervous system adds fuel to the fire.
And once you see nerves as a problem, your body automatically shifts into instinctive reactions: fight, flight or freeze.
During presentations this can show up as:
- working too hard and running out of breath
- standing frozen with your feet glued to the floor
- speaking in a flat or monotonous way
- losing connection with your audience
These reactions increase tension and make presenting harder.
The real trap: the story around the sensation
The sensation itself is not the real problem.
The real trap is the story we attach to it:
“Oh no, I feel nervous.”
“This shouldn’t happen.”
“What will they think?”
Those thoughts add layer upon layer of tension. It becomes like walking through sticky mud — the more you struggle and try to fix it, the more you get trapped.
The first step beyond nerves
Freedom starts when you stop fighting the sensation and allow it to be there — simply as a bodily signal that prepares you for presenting.
When you stop feeding the worrying cloud with stories, something interesting happens. The sensation may still be there, but the charge around it disappears.
You notice you can move, speak and connect again, even though you may feel some of the sensations. You can way more easily handle it, because it is no longer charged.
This is often the first major step in moving beyond presentation nerves:
being able to stay with the sensation without turning it into a problem. Thereby, keeping you from falling in the freeze, fight, flight pitfall.
See a sensation as a helper that prepares you.
Good luck!
If you would like to work more deeply on handling presentation nerves and presenting with more ease, you are very welcome to join my open training Presenting with Impact on Friday 27 of March (1 spot left), where we practice these principles in a small group.
If you prefer to start on your own first, you can also download my free e-book “7 Tension Tamers for Presenters”, with 7 practical, mental and physical ways to reduce your presentation nerves.
You can find both here:
Training
E-book 7 TensionTamers