Tips & tricks staying calm on stage

In yesterdays hatch in this calendar, we learned how stage freight can be explained by the history of humans and we got to know more about the evolutionary aspect on why stepping on to a scene to present in front of other people can make our whole system to ring the alarm bell and telling us that this is something dangerous.

To help you with what you can do yourself to handle the situation when stepping on to a scene (or pressing the button to share your screen in a video meeting) we have collected some tips and tricks that hopefully can help you prepare so you can stay calm when presenting.

Physically test out how to enter the scene and find a way to stand up that that feels comfortable for you.

Pick up what ever you have available (phone, camera, pc) and film yourself. This might feel weird, but remember it is only for yourself. It can help you to hear both the pace and volume of how you speak and move.

If you use words that are complicated or hard to pronounce or sentences with too many clauses it easy to end up stumbling on the words. Try to use words that are both easy to understand for the people listening - and for you to pronounce.

If you are feeling nervous to present in front of a big audience its a good plan to plan to have moment of time before presenting to just lay down and relax your body and mind.

Take a couple of deep breaths and tell yourself positive things.

Move your head from one side to the other, lift your shoulders and stretch your back, legs and arms to get rid of physical tention in your body.

Walk up steady with your head high and with a proud body language. Think about when to use your hands - and when not using them, try to keep your hands together.

To come in to the right mode both for your body and mind try setting up a short ritual that you do before presenting.

Examples can be:

• Stretch your legs, arms and back
• Massage your stomach
• Take a deep breath and hold it
• Breath out with three short out breaths while keeping your lips tight
• Relax in neck and shoulders
• Cross your arms on your chest
• Through your arms up to breath in deep and fast
• Through your arms down to breath out fast
• Massage your jaw
• Walk around and try to notice things you like in the room