My anxiety setback was awful. I got out of the routine of practicing my social and speaking anxiety maintenance towards the end of last year due to circumstances that needed my attention more. It hit me hard the first week of January. I...
Read moreStepping Stones and Hierarchies
I lived my life feeling overly anxious for many years, too caught up in the cycle of fear to do anything about it. Living a self-limited life. Until the pain of staying where I was, the avoidance and self-induced guilt of not trying to change...
Read moreHow are frantically cleaning house and social/public speaking anxiety related?
Is your home a mess again after all that cleaning for holiday visitors?Why is it that we go all out cleaning for company and not for ourselves when we actually live there? What if you didn’t wait until the last minute to clean and were...
Read moreAre You a Bully or An Ally?
Our lives are like a story constantly unfolding in front of us. And we are continuously narrating the events of this story to ourselves as they evolve. Much like a narrator in a book explains what’s happening in the plot, we talk to ourselves in...
Read moreCognitive Distortions – Are you a Minimizer or Magnifier?
I hosted a follow up call and heard about amazing progress from the members of the Getting Over StageFright workshop group this past September – such as volunteering to speak in front of an auditorium size audience, giving impromptu...
Read moreIf Only I Knew Why This Fear Started, I Could Get Over It.
I’ve heard this hundreds of times – you want to get to the root of your fear and hope it will solve the problem. Unfortunately, it won’t although it doesn’t hurt to explore it. It can get into deep discussions, such as the Nature (Genetics) vs...
Read moreHave You Had Enough? What’s the Worst That Can Happen?
It’s back to school time. I can’t help but remember how painful it was for me for so many years. I spent way too much time trying to figure out which professors assigned presentations and how to get out of them as soon as I saw the syllabus. My...
Read moreTo Medicate or Not to Medicate…that is the Question
Is it a crutch, a stepping stone, or does it depend on the situation? This question has come up often at the workshop and on the follow up calls for decades. Many people report that they don’t like the idea of using a medication as it feels...
Read moreThe Importance of Maintaining Your Progress
Tomorrow morning during my introduction, I will be emphasizing to the group members the importance of maintaining their progress after the workshop. Everyone wants to know “what is the cure, how long will it take?” Unfortunately, there is no...
Read moreCommitment, Acceptance, and Autopilot
Do you “blackout” and can’t remember what you said while speaking? How do you put the “blackout” feeling into perspective? “You need to accept your anxiety about public speaking.” When I first began my journey with overcoming stage...
Read moreWhat Are Your Safety Behaviors? – What Will Be Your First Step?
I’d like to share one of my first steps with you. My “safety behavior” used to be getting to the work conference room early in order to grab a seat right next to the door. I used to worry that I would be called upon to...
Read moreWhat is the Fear of Failure Costing You?
If someone has an irrational fear of say, spiders, or snakes, they would be exposed to them in a safe environment so they can make a new association that snakes aren’t scary. This is what we do at the workshop, facing what we are...
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