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Fighting an attack of the nerves

With Dr Simon Raybould, Curved Vision TheatreWe’re in the midst of GCSEs in our house. Of the whole family, there’s only one of us who’s sitting the exams, but we are all nervous! Some of us have more reason than others: nerves are infectious. I’ve heard arguments that it’s to do with pheromones of the nervous person being breathed in by the people around them and I’ve heard people say it’s just down to us interpreting the nervous person’s body-language. Whatever causes it, the effects can be potent.If you’re one of a group of speakers, as often happens in meetings or conferences, you could find yourself suffering from other people’s nerves. So how do you fight this?Well, it’s not easy, to be honest.Part of the answer is easier said than done – just stay focused on what you have to do and ignore other people – but another part is quite straight-forward: stay away. If you can, sit near a window (or door) to keep yourself in a flow of fresher air. This will keep you cool as well as unaffected by pheromones. Sit down, don’t stand, which will make it easier for you to avoid the wind-up activities such as pacing, hopping from leg to leg and so on. Concentrate on your hands: make a point of keeping them open and “floppy” so that there’s no rigidity in the tendons there.You’ll find that keeping the extremity of your hands in this (almost artificially) relaxed state will help hugely to keep the rest of you relaxed. I don’t have the word-limit to explain why here, but you’d be amazed how effective it is.As usual, questions and so on to me at sme@curved-vision.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .