Confidence Exercise - Swishing

This exercise is great if you have any vivid memories of past speaking 'disasters' that tend to spring to mind whenever you think about speaking in public. Sometimes the root cause of a person's glossophobia can be an event such as the first time they had to speak in front of the class in school and they were laughed at by their classmates.

First, think of a time when you spoke in public but you felt you didn't do a good job, or the first time you ever felt nervous about speaking in public. See everything you saw then, and hear everything you heard. This time, see the image through your own eyes, not as if it is on a TV or cinema screen (i.e. in an associated state).

Begin to feel the nervousness and anxiety that is associated with that situation. Then shrink the image in size until it is very small and place it to one side of your peripheral vision.

Now visualise yourself making a presentation or speech in a very confident manner. This should be dissociated (i.e. on a TV or movie screen - we want to create an ideal internal representation that you will be drawn to rather than one you feel you already have).

You look a million dollars and are filled with confidence; you are on fire - unstoppable! The audience is hanging on to your every word, they laugh at your jokes and look on admiringly - they can't get enough of you. Perhaps your boss is there and looks on approvingly (that promotion is surely just around the corner!). Your voice is powerful, resonant and persuasive and you can hear the audience's laughter and applause.

Make the image technicolour, and make those colours bright and vivid. Bring the image closer and make it bigger, then bigger still. Take away any border that may be there and make it panoramic. Make the sounds loud and crystal clear. Revel in the brilliance of your performance. Bask in the audience's applause and admiration.

Now darken that image, push it very far away in the distance until it is small and dark and replace it with a large version of the negative one. Then click your fingers and say " Wooosh !" as excitedly and enthusiastically as you can. In one second, make the positive, technicolour image hurtle toward you very quickly so that it smashes the old one to bits and completely fills your vision.

Open your eyes for a second to break state, then close them and do the swish once more. Do it again. And again. Do it a dozen times. Every time, imagine the distant, dark picture becoming brighter and rushing towards you like a bullet or an arrow so that it smashes the old, negative one to bits and completely fills your vision. This only works if you do it very quickly, so really make the positive image hurtle towards you like an express train.

I have customers who have learned to do this so effectively that just the mere appearance of negative thoughts in their brain automatically triggers the swish. In effect, you are saying to your brain, ' Don't think that, think this instead !' If it doesn't, click your fingers and say ' Wooosh !' and it will.

Other confidence exercises:

Physiology exercise

Changing States exercise

Positive Visualisation exercise

Scrambling exercise

Confidence Circle exercise

All these exercises are included in the FREE bonus Ebook 'Axe That Anxiety About Speaking In Public' when you buy my E-Manual 'Speak Like A Pro'. Click here for details.

If you feel you need more, we can arrange private, one-to-one sessions where we can improve your confidence using NLP and basic hypnosis during an executive coaching session.