Using Your EQ: Resolving Anxiety Before Your Next Presentation
We all get nervous from time to time, whether it’s a job interview or speaking up about something we care about, or even doing karaoke (as I did for the first time recently).
As someone who recently tried karaoke for the first time -- and it’s a good thing my performance of Lady Marmalade wasn’t recorded ;) -- I’ve found the strategy that Olga discusses is a great way we can move from fear to curiosity. Curiosity is better for our health than fear, which starts the flow of cortisol (the stress hormone) in our body, and it has the added benefit of opening up our neural pathways to learning.
For someone who has a lot of experience speaking, getting up and warbling in front of a crowd (even a friendly one) was a little nerve-wracking, to say the least! If this happens to you from time to time – karaoke or not -- this brief video (2:48) offers a great tip to try next time your knees feel a little wobbly.
Courtesy of Six Seconds, Olga Khazan from The Atlantic describes recent findings that demonstrate the most effective way for you to overcome anxiety isn’t by trying to calm down. Instead, it involves embracing the excitement of your feelings. Using a karaoke performance as an example, it highlights how we can navigate emotions (one of the Eight Competencies of Emotional Intelligence) in real-time.