How To Conquer Stage fright?

I accidentally started teaching children. One of the basic abilities to face them to have no stage fear. When I started being a guide or just a signboard for children, I had this unfair advantage of the experience of addressing the masses.

One of the most important focus of any soft skill trainer is erasing the stage fear from the minds of his/her trainees. And it is the most difficult task to achieve. Period!

I started to be in stage and talking on a microphone from the age of 6/7. In Kerala, In Madrassas celebration of the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammed is a huge phenomenon. The large rallies of people (Only Men) in the morning, group prayer in the noon(only men) and the cultural events (purely based on religious norms) in the night.

So from the age of 6/7, every male child gets an opportunity to be on stage once in a year. So I had my experience of facing people from early childhood. until the fourth standard, we had the programmes of two madrassas combined. Usually, I never won prizes. After 4 we sold our home and bought a new one at another place, which is in a smaller village than the former. The number of children reduced and it started raining prizes!

Anyway, In school, Upto the 4th standard, I have been to stage 6 times. 4 times for receiving the prizes for getting good scores(LOL, in the later period of education, I have been not so good). Ah Poor me. Then in 4th, We had the grand independence day celebration where the elocution competitions. I forgot the lines of the written, memorized speech in between. That was such a great experience. And in the same year, we had a grand annual festival. We had a drama, a half an hour-long one where I got a chance to speak one dialogue. The whole scene lasted 2 minutes!

Then in my later life, I have been to different types of stages. As a participant in quizzes(Majority), as a quiz master, again in the election(there was one in my 10th standard where there were 3 participants and I won the third place!), and as a teacher.

One memorable experience came in 8th standard. Teachers were pushing me to participate in something. The early active me slowly fading and the introverted me was in the womb. Thus, to crack the shell, I had to participate in something. It was a recitation competition. I couldn't find a poem until the last day. I wrote down from some book. It was called ‘ Rajahamsam’ written by legendary Vayalar Rama Varma. I just had one night to memorize. My kind music teacher gave me the tape recorder/walkman with the cassette. The year was 2008!

I had confidence that Even If I forget the lyrics in the midway I could just finish it and say ‘Thank You’. But when I got into the stage, I felt the fear inside. I just started sloppily. after 5 lines I stuck. There is nothing that comes in my mind. I was repeating the same line for 3/4 times. Then suddenly something happened. The seniors in 11th and 12th standard usually don't come to this type of ‘boring’ competitions. But for my bad luck, they were there. They started to shriek. I went blank. it's so dark. I felt something on my cheeks. The next moment I ran backstage and started crying. my face became red. so read for sure.

I overcame those type of situations to become someone who is managing class of 250+ students. This is how?

when we start to learn a bicycle, we will definitely have accidents. lots of cuts and bruises. If you believe it is a tough job and you are never gonna master it, you won't. When I learn bicycle at the age of 14 and the motorcycle at the age of 23 I have told myself the same. I am never gonna learn these. But I tried I tried I tried.

I met with accidents in both. Serious and not so serious. I once struck a lady who was carrying the fodder from the paddy fields to her cows wit my bicycle.

Damn Me!

So to overcome fear especially stage fear is that you repeatedly do the same. if you have acrophobia go to a high tower and start looking down. repeat this until you become comfortable. If you are fearing the crowd, show up to the stage, seize every opportunity to talk and do you thing until you become master. I am not so perfect with the style. I do not have the ability to lure the audience to my words. But I still try my best. Whenever I get a chance to be in stage, I go there stand there for some time, share my thoughts or whatever I have destined to do and become a critic of myself. Majority of the time I appreciate the effort and criticize heavily that how bad I was.

For my post-graduation, we had the Viva session. I never felt any fear of talking in front of two experienced teachers and answering their questions. I was straight forward and never tried to lie. If I don't know something, I apologetically said ‘ I don't know this, but I will try to learn’. This wasn't my attitude in my childhood. I was arrogant, sensitive and spontaneous. The agility is reduced but I am softened a bit.

So anyone out there fears to talk to a crowd, I bet one thing. It's so easy than handling a one on one conversation. I swear. I am so bad at talking to people. Really, but if it is a crowd I am comfortable. Its an irony!