This chapter encompassed everything that I learned in my public speaking course last semester. As I mentioned in my first blog about myself, I am a senior and I saved my public speaking course for the very end of my college career due to the fear and anxieties I felt about speaking in front of an audience. I found that my text last semester and some of the tactics mentioned in Chapter 10 relating to speech anxieties gave me an outlet to let the fear of public speaking subside.
I learned in my public speaking course that people fear public speaking MORE than death itself. When I heard this fact from my professor Michelle Zajac I instantly compared my fear of death to that of my anxiety of public speaking. When I did this I realized that I have had more panic and symptoms of anxiety when knowing I had a speech to give in class that day than I had ever had about the possibility of death. Chapter 10 and my past experience with public speaking material taught me that confidence is a key element in overcoming the fear of public speaking.
"Cognitive Restructuring" mentioned on page 288 of our text was the main way I calmed my anxiety of getting up in front of an audience. When I first started my public speaking course all I could see was myself walking up in front of my class and stuttering, or forgetting where I was at in my speech. Basically, all I could see were the worst embarrassing outcomes coming to life in my imagination. My professor put great emphasis on the idea of cognitively restructuring to alter our way of thinking about how we would do up in front of the class. In order to cognitively restructure, I had to stop picturing the worst and start picturing and telling myself that I would do great, and that I had to recognize that what I was fearing wasn't very likely to happen. Organization and research were also a large element, but for me, confidence and cognitively restructuring the way I imagined my speech going had the most positive results relating to my speech anxiety.
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It is interesting you mentioned the idea of people fearing public speaking more than death itself. I have heard and learned this from one of my past professors as well. I get nervous and anxious when I am about to give a speech as well but I definitely fear death more than public speaking. But that is only my perspective.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I learned about cognitive restructuring in my COMM101 class. It was a hard concept for me to actually learn and practice but one that makes sense. I was for sure one of the students, like you, that thought the worst would happen when I got up in front of the class. It was hard not to think about all the bad things that could happen. But once restructured it became a little easier to speak in front of the class. It is also different when you are speaking in front of a class that consists of students who all have been in your shoes before, speaking in front of the class not by choice. But when you are speaking in front of an audience that has not been in the same shoes as I am it is a whole new world, and one in which I need to restructure again.