I had an interesting experience at work recently. I am facilitating a 4 hour training course with employees. I have several classes over the next two months. Sometimes when I have to speak in front of people that I don’t know, I feel anxieties. I went into the first session feeling very anxious.
A few minutes into the class, we have to show this video that evokes emotions in a lot of people, it’s a sad video. I don’t know if it was the anxieties I was feeling, the video itself or both but I became emotional after we all watched it as a group. My emotions were very apparent to everyone. I didn’t cry or anything but I was definitely affected by the video. I was affected because it was about cancer, I am a cancer survivor and so it got to me and I shared my personal experience with the group.
Once I got past the emotions, it only took a couple of minutes, I noticed my anxieties went away and I was able to facilitate the entire class and every class I’ve had since then without anxieties. I’ve been thinking about it and have been trying to figure out why the anxieties subsided. I have drilled it down to two possibilities, either the emotions I felt from the video were stronger than my anxieties and put them at bay or, the group seeing me become emotional and still accepting me for it, made me feel some kinda way and put the anxieties at bay.
What do you all think and or do you have any similar experiences with anxieties, public speaking or anything of the sort.