4 Public Speaking Tips From Neuroscience
“The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.” Sir George Jessel, British jurist
Why do many people get so nervous about speaking in front of a group? To answer that question, it helps to know a little about neuroscience and the evolution of our brains.
Over the millions of years of human evolution, the top priority has always been survival. The parts of our brains that have to do with survival are the most ancient and the most deeply embedded. They run on programs that are almost completely unconscious to the more modern, rational parts of our brains.
While our newer brains are continually adapting to our rapidly changing world, the deeper, more primitive parts of our brains are pretty much operating the same as those of our ancient ancestors.
For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors lived in small, nomadic groups, typically around 50 people. And what was the most crucial thing to their survival? Each other!
So one of the most basic programs hard-wired into our brains is that we are dependent on each other for survival. What would be the most dangerous thing that could happen to our ancestors? Being kicked out of the tribe! It would be nearly impossible to survive on your own.
This social awareness is built into our physiology, way down deep in the oldest parts of the brain. When the non-rational survival brain thinks we are doing something potentially threatening, like speaking in front of people who could kick us out of the “tribe,” cortisol and adrenaline flood our body. These neurotransmitters create all kinds of effects that prepare us to fight or flee, increasing our heart rate and causing us to sweat and shake.
When the survival brain perceives a threat, it actually reduces blood flow to the prefrontal cortex so there is more blood available to the survival brain - which makes it easier to fight or flee but harder to think, speak, or remember. Have you ever had a hard time thinking, speaking, or remembering when speaking in front of a group? That’s why.
So what can we do about these outdated security programs in our brains? Fortunately, we also have an amazing built-in capacity to learn. We just have to understand what is happening and then activate our modern front brain to help those older parts of the brain calm down.
Here are four ways to help our survival brain not see public speaking as such a threat:
Talk to your survival brain - it is always listening. Say something simple, like, “Hey survival brain, I know you’re just trying to keep me safe, and I really appreciate that. But this actually is a safe situation, so I need you to just relax and keep an eye out for something that might be a real threat - that’s the best way you can protect me.”
Think positive, realistic thoughts. Our survival brains are always scanning for threats in our external environment and also picking up cues from our internal environment - our thoughts and feelings. If I’m telling myself, “Public speaking makes me so nervous. What if nobody likes my speech? They probably aren’t going to like me,” that is going to make my survival brain pretty worried. If, on the other hand, I’m saying things like, “This is a friendly group of nice people. Even if I don’t give a perfect speech, it won’t be the end of the world, because this is a great opportunity for practice,” it really helps calm down that part of the brain.
Use positive visualization. Our survival brains actually can’t tell the difference between something happening in real life and something we are just imagining in our minds. That’s why even thinking about something scary can ramp up the stress chemistry in our bodies. We can use this for our benefit by employing positive visualization. An example would be imagining speaking in front of a group and feeling calm and happy. By doing that, we’re training our brains to stay relaxed.
Practice, both in real life and in your imagination. The survival brain is always evaluating whether we are in a familiar, comfortable setting, or an unfamiliar, potentially threatening situation. So the more we practice speaking in front of a group, either in real life or in our imaginations through visualization, the more the survival brain starts to feel like public speaking is a familiar, comfortable situation, and it can relax.
The next time you have an opportunity to speak in front of a group, give one or more of these strategies a try and see if they help you feel more calm and relaxed.
I’d love to hear from you! Please send questions, comments, and suggestions to liz@happybrainlife.com.
Have a beautiful day!
Liz
