Description

Sometimes, there's no getting around it, we have to say something under high-pressure conditions. In these situations our anxiety can really get the better of us.

In this episode we'll cover 5 tips to help you manage your anxiety when speaking unexpectedly.

Remember, it's always worth building your toolbox with more tips and ideas for dealing with anxiety because we never know when it might hit us. In addition, anxiety management tips work in all kinds of situations, not just when you're speaking English, so once you've learned them and built your confidence in them you can start to generally reduce your anxiety everywhere.

Tips

1. Think about what you do to manage anxiety in other areas of your life. Maybe there are things you can just apply to your English and problem solved.
2. Breathe. Breathe deep and purposefully. This calms your nervous system and tricks it into thinking everything is fine, which reduces your anxiety and helps keep your English accessible.
3. Count down from 5. This switches the part of the brain that's working and helps you take action more easily.
4. Invest in a fiddle toy, or something similar. By putting something in your pocket to play with you move your anxiety and leave your brain free to speak.
5. Make yourself a happy place - this takes longer and requires some forethought, preparation and practise. But with practise, this can be quick to access and a fast way to reduce anxiety.

Vocabulary

cavernous - from 'cave', describing a place that is large, often dark and echoey

impending disaster - something bad that is going to happen very soon

your adrenaline spikes - your adrenaline hormone helps you survive tiger attacks...which not many of us experience, 'spike' means a fast and steep rise

diaphragm - the body part in the centre of your body that helps your lungs inflate

Breathing is hands down the best tool - 'hands down' - phrase meaning 'absolutely' or 'definitely'

fidget toys are the bomb - Americanism - anything with 'is the bomb' added at the end means that person thinks that thing is fantastic or brilliant

twiddling - when we fidget or play with something, usually in our hands

think straight - to think clearly

discourse - a long (often one sided) conversation

in a lengthy fashion - phrase meaning in a long-winded way or taking a long time