Speaking FreelyOvercoming stage fright and fear of public speaking blogCategory Archives: Stage Fright

  My Zimmer Method approach to helping people to transform stage fright and fear of public speaking has been evolving since 1984.  It began by asking people to stand quietly in front of my acting classes to see if they could just be there at the center of attention.  Most people had great difficulty simply… Read more

  Over several years, I developed a pattern for the process that guides people safely and slowly into healing stage fright so they feel free to share their thoughts and feelings in all kinds of situations.  Even more remarkably, this process awakens in people a powerful and authentic presence that radiates from them.  However, this… Read more

  Stage fright is fear of feeling in front of others.  It is the fear of revealing that you are human and that you have human emotions that are not always positive. It is fear of being seen for who you truly are.  Becoming the center of attention also triggers feelings of shame – shame… Read more

  When you do become the center of attention, there is only one thing to do: try to exit the situation by leaving your body.  If you can’t get out of the situation by avoiding the event, then you try to avoid the sensations felt inside.  The way to avoid the sensations is to leave… Read more

  The secret to healing stage fright is to focus attention into your fear, into the sensations of tension inside your body.  Once you do that, you will find that the experience is not as bad as you expected.  Inside yourself, you can relax into the tension and discover a new, safe ground within your… Read more

   Begin to imagine your stage fright as emotional energy or passion that is not flowing freely through your body, and then you can learn to channel that pent-up passion into a genuine connection with your listeners.  That may sound impossible, but it is what you can learn through The Zimmer Method.  Every symptom of… Read more

  You won’t believe me now, but it’s a good thing to have stage fright.  In fact, the more stage fright you have, the better presenter or performer you can become, and the more potential you have to be a deeply impacting communicator and speaker!   The reason is that you have the feelings.  Your feelings… Read more

  People with fear of public speaking or stage fright are flooded with negative feelings and thoughts that tell them they are not good at speaking.  But the feelings and thoughts are usually more about expectation of perfection than an accurate assessment of their actual talents and abilities.  In other words, because they have fear… Read more

  Shame and perfectionism are interrelated.  Shame is the painful feeling that comes from a deep-seated belief that “I am not good enough.”  It is generated from an unconscious thought that “I AM wrong.”  That means your very Being is not acceptable. Perfectionism is what we do to try to avoid the feelings of shame. … Read more

Once in a while, an idea comes along which changes all the other ideas that I am teaching. I met that idea this week at The UP Experience in Houston.  Among the cadre of sixteen awesome speakers, who were all thought leaders in their fields, was Dr. Brené Brown.  Dr. Brené Brown is a writer, researcher,… Read more