PUBLIC SPEAKING ANXIETY: USING BIOFEEDBACK WHEN THE STAKES ARE HIGH
About a week ago I engaged in a public speaking event that left me really needing to practice what I preach. As I sit here yapping away about the importance of using your coping skills, I was reminded of how hard it is to put these skills into practice — in the moment. My usual tricks like cognitive behavior therapy (reframing my thoughts) & acceptance and commitment therapy (tying my actions back to my values) were seemingly going nowhere — my mind was racing, I was thinking about the worst-case scenario, and I was profusely sweating. These tools (CBT, ACT & other cognitive-based therapeutic tools) advantageous as they are, were putting me even further into my head & further into a repetitive thought pattern. I needed just the opposite—to get out of my head and into my body.
I am sure many of you can relate to the experience (public speaking or not)— when anxiety sets in, it’s hardddd to concentrate: chest pounding, vision narrowing, palms sweating, speech slurring. When you are in the thick of it, the usual cognitive-behavioral-based tools do very little to halt the onset of the physical symptoms (at least this is true for me). With this real-time anxiety-inducing situation at hand, I found myself turning to some alternative ways of coping. Introducing: biofeedback + breathwork.
Psychology, therapy & calming the mind, much to your disbelief, is not just about changing your thoughts. There is a whole slew of body-centered resources (that fall within the scope of psychotherapy) that I’d like to introduce you to. I’ve found these body-based tools to be most effective in slowing down this cascade of uncomfortable feelings. Not only this, these two tools can have a profound long-term effect on the mind and body, helping you to reduce stress levels and improve performance.
If you're someone (note: this is most of us) who experiences nervousness or heightened anxiety before a public speaking event, or any outward-facing type of situation, you’re probably familiar with the physical symptoms that accompany it. They are very similar to a panic attack and include increased heart rate, sweating, shaking, and difficulty breathing— all of which can make it very difficult to stay clear and focused.
About an hour before I was to go on stage, it dawned on me, I remembered I had my Hanu biofeedback device at the bottom of my purse and immediately went to connect it with the app to start practicing breathwork. I went into a room by myself and started to use biofeedback and breathwork techniques to calm my nervous sweats. Allow me to explain how these two things work to combat anxiety:
1. Biofeedback devices are non-invasive wearables that allow you to monitor your body's physiological response to stress; think heart rate, respiration, sweat, temperature & muscle tension… in real-time (!). They give you the beautiful opportunity to look into how your body is responding in the moment, learn, adjust, and eventually control these metrics through breathwork and other relaxation techniques. Biofeedback is often used in professional medical & mental health settings to help doctors determine how their patients' bodies are reacting to stress & and provide real-time solutions. There is a ton of scientific evidence to support the use of biofeedback, and if you are interested in learning more about it, I highly recommend you read this article. Translation: Biofeedback is a way to help you learn how to control your body's reactions. It's kind of like a video game where you get feedback on what you're doing in real time.
2. Breathwork is a powerful technique that can be used while wearing a biofeedback device to help reduce stress, the physical burden of stress & improve mental health. Different emotions produce different breathing patterns. When you are anxious, your breathing becomes irregular, quick, and shallow. When you are calm, your breathing will be steady and “regular”. The connection between breath and mental health is a two-way street, meaning, you can influence breathing through your thoughts, and your thoughts can influence your breathing. You don’t always have the ability to control when anxiety sets in, you can however control how your body physically responds to the anxiety by practicing breathwork techniques. A really simple way to use breathwork to calm your mind and body is to be aware of and change your inhale-exhale ratio (instead of inhaling for a count of three and exhaling for a count of two – the breath pattern you might experience at the height of a panic attack-- you would inhale for a count of 4 and exhale for a count of six--- elongating the exhale). This simple practice will cause your heart rate to slow down and in turn, make you feel more calm. There is a ton of scientific evidence to support the use of breathwork, you can read more about it here.
After incorporating the data from my wearable biofeedback device and using breathwork techniques (literally, for three minutes), I noticed a significant, and rather dramatic, reduction in my pre-speech anxiety. I was frankly blown away at how rapidly just paying attention to my breathwork & the subsequent monitoring of my biofeedback made my body feel more relaxed, centered, and focused. Pretty immediately, I felt like I had access to my thoughts and a clear mind which allowed me to articulate my thoughts more effectively.
As someone who tends to overprepare for things like this, that feeling of going blank and completely forgetting what you are about to say can be incredibly frustrating and scary. I try my best to show up prepared & I do what I need to do to make this happen… And so when it doesn’t, it freaks me out.
One of the most profound things I gathered from this whole public speaking ordeal, and from incorporating the biofeedback + breathwork combo, was just how quickly I was able to regain a sense of control. Truly, in a matter of seconds— my focused attention to breathwork and my biofeedback metrics minimized the feeling of tension in my body. Not only this— I could see it with my own eyes! My actual markers of stress were decreasing right before me. After using these two techniques, I noticed a variety of positive calming effects in the body: my heart rate slowwwwed down back to its normal rate (we love this!), that feeling like my stomach was doing summersaults: gone, my shoulder tension: vanished, and a general feeling of relaxation swept over my body; thanks to my cortisol levels plunging back down to the normal range. All is to say, it is incredibly empowering to realize that you do actually have much more control over your body's physiological response to stress than you probably previously imagined. I could not have thought of a better situation to test my stress response in real time than a public speaking event.
To tie this back to something you’ll find relevant: if you experience panic attacks, or if find yourself needing to engage in any sort of public speaking situation, I highly recommend you learn more about biofeedback and breathwork techniques. My go-to these days for at-home monitoring of my biofeedback metrics is my Hanu device — I wear it like a heart rate monitor & track the metrics on the app. I personally like using the “resonance breathing exercise” which is a timed breathing practice that helps regulate the autonomic nervous system, but there are a variety of breathing exercises and tutorials on the app to help you relax, fall asleep faster, start the day and take control over how you feel.
Biofeedback much to my delight (thanks to Hanu!) is not something that needs to be confined to the doctor's office. You can use (wear) the device at home, or on the go, and view the personalized feedback data right on your phone. You can think of it like a more advanced & immediate responding Apple watch or Oura ring…
The benefits of using biofeedback and breathwork as techniques to monitor stress are clear and the evidence is strong. These tools really work. If you're interested in experiencing these benefits for yourself or learning more about how to get your hands on one of these amazing devices, I encourage you to check out my favorite resource in the game and start incorporating these techniques into your life, asap.
This post was sponsored by Hanu Health. I am grateful for their support in helping me bring you this content. As always, all opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.