Fears & Phobias play a very important part in our lives. It protects us; it keeps us safe.
Had our ancestors not been afraid of that sabre tooth tiger we might not be here!
But we are.
Not only are we here, we are alive and kicking and living and doing business in the 21st century.
However, the way we do business has changed from bygone years! Now we have Social Media, PR, Marketing, Advertising, etc. But one of the latest and must participate in methods, and, for some, one of the most terrifying is NETWORKING or MINGLEPHOBIA.
Some people thoroughly enjoy these events. Others would rather mix a ton of cement with a teaspoon than face a room filled with strangers.
STRANGER DANGER!!!
Are you one of the millions of people who suffer from this Stranger Danger ‘affliction’? If you think you are then let me ask you a couple of questions:
- when you hear that word NETWORKING do you come out in a cold sweat?
- Does your heart beat faster?
- Do you get sweaty palms?
- Do your words come out all wrong?
- Do you get what I call Brain Freeze?
- Do you stop in your tracks when you enter that room?
If you answer “Yes” to any or all of the aforementioned then your Fight or Flight stress response has kicked in and you are suffering from Networking Stress/Fear/Phobia and in this instance it is hindering not helping you. It’s keeping you from moving forward to your goal, which is to meet new people, promote yourself and your business, meet new business people with whom you may be able to work with in the future and so on; that’s why you are there.
It may be of some comfort for you to know that most people hate standing in front of others and speaking. For some it’s a natural reaction. You feel ‘naked’ and that you’re a being judged negatively.
Now I could give you a list of lots of things to do to help you through this fear. Such as for example, practical stuff like doing your homework on the people who are going to be there; telling you not to just stay chatting to the people you know; don’t drink too much alcohol; and so on.
But no I’m not going to give you those “useful tips” because you can Google them – they are all there!!
What I will tell you though is that, it’s been proven that a few sessions of Hypnotherapy usually between 3 – 6, will get you over your fear; bring down your Stress Response; boost your confidence easily and effortlessly, thereby enabling you to deliver your speech, give your presentation, participate in your networking event in a calm manner, full of self-assurance and easy. This means you’ve taken back control of those hindering negative emotions and actually you now can enjoy yourself.
Believe it or not, the easiest and most effective technique is based on the simple notion of proper breathing. If your breathing is slow and controlled, you will immediately reduce your blind panic, anxious feelings, thoughts etc.
Here is one of my favourite nice simple little exercises that I call The Balloon Exercise. (Oh if you have a fear of Balloons you can imagine your lungs inflating and deflating)
So here we go:
Sit down and close your eyes;
Place one hand on your tummy and the other on your chest;
You’ll notice when you breathe in your chest inflates and when you breathe out it deflates. Yes?
Well, now take a normal sized slow breath in (using your diaphragm) and imagine a balloon, that happens to be in your favourite colour, in front of you, so when you take a slow controlled breathe in you can see the balloon inflate and as you breathe out slowly see it deflate.
Do this for about 3 minutes and when you’ve finished, in your own time open your eyes.
Notice how much calmer you feel. Practice this exercise at least once a day (more if you’re able). You’ll soon notice how much calmer you feel when you think about that Networking Event, Presentation etc.
On the day of the event do it just before you start.
When you walk into the event, don’t rush in and get what I call “caught up in the whoosh”. Stand your ground firmly, feel your feet on the floor, look straight ahead and focus your eyes on an object, any object, and then focus on your breath coming and going slowly – breathing out what you don’t need or want, and breathing in newness and freshness.
When you feel you’re OK steadily walk into that room, head held high, shoulders back, tummy in, standing tall and start networking/presenting.
Once you know and accept your situation you can deal with it and the sun will shine through and you’ll glow.
