I loved English at school. I especially loved English when we were studying plays, mainly because our teacher - the wonderful Mrs Shone - really liked us to act them out. Not that everybody in my my Merseyside school enjoyed reading aloud let alone acting out the parts but it was my favourite part of the day. It was after one lesson where we had been reading the “The Wilnslow Boy” by Terence Rattigan, where I had read the part of Sir Robert Morton, the barrister engaged to fight the case on the family’s behalf. I put a lot of energy into reading that part and tried to stifle my Liverpudlian accent to portray this larger than life Barrister and MP. Afterwards Mrs Shone took me to one side and asked whether I had ever considered taking acting further because she thought that I was actually quite good at it. I hadn’t, but from that point on I most certainly did. I became completely consumed with the idea. Reading plays, going to see plays or even just buying the stage newspaper. My mum had other ideas though, she wanted me to join the Royal Navy. I think it was mainly based on the 1970’s TV series “Sailor” which featured HMS Ark Royal and the fact that she liked the uniform. Although to be fair there was hardly a huge amount of job opportunities in Liverpool in the 70s. I did, though, manage to convince her that I should stay on at school to go into the 6th form to study my A levels. Top of my list was an A level in Theatre studies. It’s a long story but I ended up at Art School doing a Creative arts foundation course managing to give the Royal Navy a wide berth. It was while I was at art school that I suffered my first experience of Stage Fright. A lovely couple of guys called Greg Williams and Geoff Thomas had written a musical called Olly and Bonscaroo about a young boy and an Alien. I was cast as the pompous policeman - PC Pythagoras. Some people might say typecast… The show only lasted four nights, we all loved it, the audience loved it and it was full every night. On the last night I was asked if I would do the thank you speech at the end. “of course I will.” Another chance to get in front of an audience. after all, I’d had a song on my own, some great scenes and loads of audience participation. This was different though. This time I was being myself. I had no character to hide behind. In fact I remember the first thing I said was “…and this is me”, eat your heart out Mike Yarwood, and if you’ve never heard of Mike Yarwood then you can google him. Then it hit me. My voice was trembling, my legs were shaking, I was all hot and sweaty and I felt like I just wanted to run away. I was 17 years old when that happened but it gives some idea of the impact that I can remember it 40 years later as if it was yesterday, but that’s the power of fight or flight. Those of us who stand in front of other people and speak or perform in a professional capacity, whether it’s acting, singing or playing a musical instrument learn quite quickly how to deal with the feeling of fight or flight and during three wonderful years at Drama school we were taught breathing technique not only to strengthen our voices but also to be able to deal with the impact of stress on the voice. If speaking in front of other people at work is delivering presentations or speaking up at meetings then there is a strong possibility that you’ve never had the chance to explore the reason why you hate it so much, or why you feel sick before its “your turn” or why you get the urge to throw a sickie rather than deliver that short 15 minute presentation to your Boss. Then maybe we should explore the reasons behind what is happening to you to make you feel that you want to run a mile. So, what is fight or flight? The North West Boroughs Healthcare Foundation Trust website describes it like this… ”It's your body's automatic response to danger – a series of dramatic physical changes designed to give you a burst of energy and strength. Once the danger is over, systems return to normal and you become physiologically relaxed again.” you may not be experiencing a real physical threat but sometimes the pyschological impact can be just as severe. Let’s think about what you experience when you have to stand up in front of others to speak. Do you ever have a dry mouth? Sweaty hands? Racing heart? Shortness of breath? Feel sick? You may experience only one of these or then again you may go through all of them with some extras thrown in. Either way what you are experiencing is fight or flight. So what we need to do is rationalise what is happening and develop a coping strategy so that when it starts to happen we can learn to deal with it. Hmmm, easier said than done I hear you say but it can be done. Lets take a look at a couple of the symptoms: If you’ve suffered from a dry mouth before you speak, you have probably gone through this scenario…you’re waiting your turn, your mouth is dry and you think to yourself ‘I’m really nervous I need a glass of water”. However, as you have perceived a threat to your well being in the form of standing in front of others to speak, it is a psychological threat which in turn kicks in the fight or flight process (also known as the Acute Stress Response). To sum it up, you sense a threat, the body's sympathetic nervous system is activated by the sudden release of hormones. The sympathetic nervous system then stimulates the adrenal glands, triggering the release of catecholamines (including adrenaline and noradrenaline). With the dry mouth, two things happen: firstly, there is a reduced flow of saliva so your mouth feels dry and secondly your breathing rate increases. Now when your breathing rate increases you start to gulp the air in and out through your mouth which also adds to the dry mouth. So it’s not nerves that’s drying your mouth out it’s the adrenaline - or your body’s reaction to it. Your heart begins to beat faster and harder to pump blood containing oxygen and sugar to your major muscles to use for energy. You may feel your heart beating as you breathe more rapidly. Sweating increases and your hands and feet often feel cold as blood supplies are diverted to the brain and muscles. Hairs stand on end as we experience goose pimples. Skin can turn pale. When we experience these and other examples we see them as indicators of our level of nervousness when actually they are indicators of the flight or flight process or the Acute Stress Response kicking in. It’s important to emphasise that this process happens very quickly and is not a conscious decision. There are a few things we can do to help alleviate the stress we are starting to feel because it’s important to understand that the Acute Stress Response is going to happen to a certain degree every time we stand up to speak. We need to embrace the “adrenaline rush” we are experiencing, because that will give us the energy we need to fill the room with our presence. It’s all down to breathing. Breathing is the key. It’s breathing, breathing, breathing! When I’m running Presentation Skills workshops around the world I focus on breathing with everybody I work with. If you get the breathing right then you can start to control everything else that’s going on. The technique I prefer most of all is abdominal breathing, it’s the way you breathe when you’re relaxed, when you’re asleep, when you’re watching tv, in other words when you’re not stressed or anxious. It involves letting the air you breathe in push out your abdomen. close your eyes and make yourself comfortable place both hands gently on your tummy so you can feel the rise and fall of your breath and make sure you're doing it correctly if possible, breathe in and out through your nose, or, if you prefer, in through your nose and out through your mouth if you have a cold, you may need to breathe in and out through your mouth imagine you have a round balloon in your stomach you want to inflate – as you breathe in, imagine the air going down through your lungs and continuing into the stomach, fully inflating the balloon, as you exhale, the balloon deflates If you aim to breathe like this 3 or 4 times a minute you will notice a massive change in the way you feel, as your heart rate slows down and your blood pressure starts to come down. If you start to feel more relaxed and in control then you will find it easier to focus on what it is you are doing and saying. This is just one way to start to take control of stage fright or flight or flight or the Acute Stress Response. Look out for further blogs which will give you some tips, tricks and technique to becoming a great public speaker. “White knuckles, leaky pores and stomach in knots. Yup, he does look pretty bad. Spongebob, you’re afflicted too severe “Oral reportitis.” You know, patients with this disease have been know to physically explode. Ker-Pow! It has been scientifically proven that 85% of speech-related stress can be alleviated if the speaker imagines the audience in their underwear. Everyone will look so silly, you won’t even remember why you’re nervous! Which is why I invented these. Goggle that let you see people in their undies.” So says Sandy Cheeks from The TV show Spongebob Squarepants and she should know…she’s a scientist.