How to Relax Before Public Speaking: Deep Breathing

Public speaking, for many, turns on their body’s fight or flight reflex. You feel that sense of adrenaline, your muscles tighten up, and both your breathing and heart rate increase. It’s important to calm down before giving a speech. Deep breathing can show you how to relax before public speaking. You don’t want to be too relaxed that you feel sluggish and slow. But you don’t want your nerves to overload your mind and prevent you from remembering your speech and freezing up on stage. The solution is to use relaxation techniques before going on stage to give you the right amount of energy to be your best.

How to relax before public speaking: An easy way to calm down before giving a speech is through going through a set of deep breathing exercises right before you speak.

There are plenty of exercises on the internet that make this process difficult, but it doesn’t have to be.

Here is a simple process to help you out:

1. Breathe in for a 3-second count
2. Hold your breath for 3 seconds
3. Now exhale for a 3-second count
4. Repeat steps 1-3 above, adding one second to each one.

Keep the process going until you feel relaxed.

Need help with your next speech or learning how to relax before public speaking? Email me: eddie@ricespeechwriting.com

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash