Hello and welcome.
So you have a presentation to do.
You may be feeling anxious or intimidated or self-conscious or underprepared or just kind of an overall nervousness.
A lot of times we feel this in our bodies as well.
Sometimes we'll feel a pit in our stomachs or our palms will be sweaty or our foreheads will be sweaty or our entire bodies will be sweaty.
Sometimes we even tremble a little bit or we find our leg is bouncing or we're tapping our fingers.
That's okay.
All of this is just information.
Our body is trying to tell us that whatever this presentation is,
It's something important.
And it really doesn't matter how much is riding on this presentation,
So to speak.
It's important at some level,
Whatever that level is.
And so our body is responding physically.
Now,
A certain level of anxiety can be helpful,
Right?
It can help keep us awake and alert and focused.
But it's when it becomes overwhelming that it's really no longer helpful.
So what we're wanting to do today is try to reduce as much of that excess anxiety,
Excess angst,
Excess physical symptoms as we can.
So while you're doing your presentation and even before,
You'll feel a little bit more centered and a little bit more grounded.
So first what we want to do is find either a comfortable seat,
Whether it's sitting down in a chair or on the ground or lying down somewhere on a couch bed on the ground.
Sometimes it feels helpful to stand.
Sometimes it is helpful to pace back and forth slowly.
Whatever it is,
Whatever feels best for you,
Go ahead and get to that place.
And next what we're going to do is really focus on our breath.
So if you feel comfortable,
I invite you to bring one hand to the top of your chest and the other hand to your belly.
And we're just going to start noticing what your breath is feeling like right now.
Are your inhales fairly short?
Are your inhales fairly shallow?
And if you have your hand on your chest and on your belly,
As you're breathing in,
Just take note.
Is only your top hand moving and your bottom hand is staying still?
And if that's the case,
What we want to do is start taking some deeper breaths in,
Right?
We want to use our full lungs here.
And what that does is a few things.
When we take those full deep breaths in slowly through our nose or through our mouth,
Whichever's most comfortable for you today,
It will get more oxygen in our system and it will get more oxygen to our brains.
And in turn,
We'll slow things down a bit.
When we're in the space of nervousness,
Our thoughts tend to swirl a mile a minute,
Right?
Or we can go blank,
Right?
Which also feels scary.
But getting physically more oxygen into our system is very helpful.
It helps regulate our central nervous system.
So doing these deep breaths will eventually slow down our heart rate a bit and just overall calm our systems down.
So again,
Take a few moments here and just notice where your breath is at.
And though it may sound a little funny to practice breathing,
Right,
Something that we're all doing all throughout the day and night,
Every day,
Deep breathing is something that oftentimes we have to be pretty intentional about.
That's what we're doing here.
And this is something that can be used at any time really.
For a presentation,
During your presentation,
Anytime that you're feeling a little bit anxious.
Let's try to focus on our inhale and exhale.
Let's try to keep our inhales to six to eight seconds and pause just briefly at the top and then release slowly through your nose or through your mouth,
Whichever is more comfortable.
And then repeat.
So let's do a few of those here together.
So we'll inhale,
Pause and slowly release.
Trying to empty all of that air from our lungs.
Good.
Let's do it again together.
Inhale in.
Pause and release slowly and fully.
And let's continue this cycle as we continue forward in our practice here today.
And now what we're going to do is focus on the thoughts that are coming in.
And often for many of us,
The thoughts that come in are not the kindest.
Often these thoughts,
The things that we tell ourselves,
We would not tell most other people on the planet,
Particularly when they're having a hard time.
So we want to give ourselves some grace here.
And let's actually shift our attention to what is the intention for this presentation?
What do I want my audience,
However big or small,
To know or to walk away with after my presentation is done?
What to the best of my ability,
Feeling,
Do I want to create in the room?
How do I best get my point or points across?
What is the one thing that I want these folks to know?
So if you find yourself drifting back to some of that more negative self-talk,
Try to catch it and shift your attention back to the intention you have for your presentation.
Another thing we can shift our attention to is thinking about a supportive person,
Either in our lives,
We can use a character from a movie or a book or a TV show who we feel supportive.
And imagine that person's energy being there with us during this presentation.
We can also imagine one of our animals,
One of our pets,
Right?
Where might they be to help support us while we're giving this presentation?
Would this person or pet be right next to us?
Might they be in the front row or the closest seat to us,
Cheering us on,
Supporting us?
Might they be at the back of the table or back of the room?
That's where our eyes land when we need to feel comforted and centered and grounded.
Might this person or this pet be just outside the door and we know that they're there and they're just waiting for us for after the presentation is over.
It's really feeling that comforting energy that's there near us.
So as we're here in our practice,
Continue to breathe,
Continue to notice the depth of the breaths that you're taking.
And what we're going to do,
If you haven't already,
Is release your arms gently down your side and we're going to take our right hand and put it on our left shoulder and we're just going to brush off any excess energy we might have sticking to us.
Imagine as if it's kind of a powder that's on our arms.
We're just going to brush it off right onto the floor.
And when you're ready,
Go ahead and switch sides.
We're going to do the same thing on our right side.
So take our left hand,
Put it on our right shoulder and just brush off any excess energy.
And if it feels right,
Do the same thing on your legs.
Brush off,
Just brush it on the floor.
Perhaps there's some that's feeling accumulated on your shoulders,
Brush those off too.
Let it all fall to the earth and let the earth transmute it into something else.
Just want it off of our bodies.
When you feel like you've brushed off that excess energy,
Go ahead and give your hands a good shake.
Just get off any remaining energy powder that are on your hands.
When you're ready,
Let's go ahead and return to our breath.
Just checking in.
How's my breath feeling now?
Same,
Any different?
And to close our practice today,
Let's take three collective breaths together.
Let's inhale in.
Pause and release.
Good,
Again,
Inhale in.
Pause and release.
And one more together.
Inhale in.
Pause and release.
Pause and release fully.
Remember to take this practice with you,
Even right before your presentation,
In the middle of your presentation.
Feel free to take a deep cleansing breath and release it if you need to reset.
Good,
Again,
Inhale in.
Pause and release.
