If you ever experienced a moment that came with a high amount of stress, you will probably know the feeling of seeing everything going wrong in your head. You imagine yourself having a nervous breakdown. Your hands start shaking, your voice starts trembling, or you don’t even know what to say. If you don’t want to end up like this, then make sure to study this article where David Beckett, the Pitch expert of Amsterdam, tells you how to get your nerves under control.
Where does the fear come from?
The reason we are so scared to go and stand in front of an audience has a deeper reason. It is more than just the failure to deliver a message or the feeling that you are alone and they are with many. According to David it has to do with the primal fear of becoming a social outcast. ‘It actually comes from a feeling that we might end up at the edge of the ‘pack’. In prehistorical times that meant that there was no food. That meant you would die’. Next to this deeper fear is the instinct. The fight-or-flee response it gives us, causes our brain to be only ready to act – not to think.