Public speaking: turning anxiety into energy
Pre-presentation anxiety is not an enemy to eliminate: it is energy to channel. Three concrete techniques to make it work for you.
Daniel Jerez Nacache · 2026-07-14
Your heartbeat quickens, your hands sweat, your mind goes blank. It happens before a boardroom talk just as before a wedding toast: the body activates because it perceives exposure to judgement as a risk. The good news is that this activation is the very substance stage presence is made of.
The first technique is relabelling. Instead of telling yourself 'I'm terrified', try 'I'm activated'. Studies on the stress response show that interpreting arousal as a resource concretely improves performance: the body prepares to act, not to flee.
The second is physiological breath control: two short nasal inhales followed by one long mouth exhale, repeated for three cycles, quickly reduce sympathetic nervous system activation. It is the fastest tool you have in the ninety seconds before you step on stage.
The third is shifting focus. Anxiety grows when attention is on you — how you look, what they think of you — and shrinks when it shifts to the audience: what do I want them to understand, feel, do after my talk? A speaker focused on the message is a freer speaker.
None of these techniques eliminates arousal, and that is exactly the point: the goal is not to step on stage calm, but to step on it charged and present. The energy that blocks you today is the same energy that, once channelled, makes a speech memorable.