A great way to lose anxiety about speaking in public

Saturday saw a group of 8 Transition Stroud folk including myself attending a day's 'Speaking Circle' training.

Photo: coffee break

This is all about standing up in front of an audience and delivering a speech....ugh! Some love this - I do it and do it quite often in relation to Council work and other stuff but it is not really my cup of tea - nerves, anxiety etc - yet I want to share ideas about Transition Stroud, about Green politics and more.....So this course seemed a good way to try and get over some of those fears..

However it's not about techniques to present speeches better - but rather about being authentic and focusing on the most important — the connection between speaker and listeners. This relationship-based approach is about inviting connection rather than trying to connect. It was wonderfully refreshing with speaking exercises all day. One of the websites says of this technique that it "rapidly dissolves speaking anxiety and allows you to reach hearts, minds and souls from a natural place of ease and power."

Certainly by the end of the day it was very wonderful to be able to listen to others talking - and really talking in a compelling way - and also to get up without so much fear - practice is now what I need!

If you are interested in speaking Circles locally call Nicola on 751419.