Most of us are afraid of something in our lives; for some it is spiders, for others, snakes are their worst nightmare. Some fear dark places and others can't even go outside on their own. But, for many people all over the world, their number one fear is public speaking.

Faced with what we perceive as a threat, sweat might begin to trickle down the forehead and neck, the palms might become wet and all over their body, it might feel like a million pin pricks are jabbing at once. The throat might become as dry as a desert and then close up altogether. As you make your way to the podium, you begin to get dizzy and lightheaded and feel like you are going to faint. This is the experience that many people say that have when they are going to speak in front of a crowd. Doesn't sound like too much fun, but the good news is, there are definitely ways to help someone overcome this fear and one of the more interesting methods involves the use of NLP.

NLP can help you to overcome all kinds of fears by helping to re-train your brain so that you have different responses to things you must face in your life. This works through a process of replacing the negative feelings and images you have about a certain thing with positive ones. While the actual techniques can take quite some time to master and truly change behavior, here is a simple explanation of how NLP can work for you to help overcome fear of public speaking.

First of all, you must target where your fear actually begins. Is it when talking about public speaking, or when you are just about to begin a talk or any other point in between? Once you have identified when your fears begin then you can begin to replace the images and thoughts that habitually enter your mind with ones that will encourage a much more positive outcome.

For instance, maybe you feel that when standing in front of a large crowd, everyone will laugh at you. If so, replace those images and thoughts with ones of people giving you a standing ovation, or better yet, try to replace them with specific events in your life where people were proud of you and you were in total control of the situation. If you do this type of exercise enough times, pretty soon, whenever you think of public speaking, you will feel empowered and instead of feeling fearful, you will feel confidence. Instead of abhorring the thought of public speaking, you will look for situations that will allow you to speak in front of large audiences.

Just think of all that could be accomplished by turning this fear around. You would be available to hold more important positions in organizations. You might be able to earn more money at your current job by offering to train employees in groups. The skill of public speaking is a valuable one that can open up a myriad of valuable opportunities. So, if public speaking ranks number one on your list of fears, rather than simply try to avoid the subject altogether, you might try researching the techniques of NLP to see if it can help you as it has helped countless others overcome this and many other fears. Don't let fear control you, take control of yourself and your life by learning to use NLP to better yourself.

If you enjoyed this article, your will also enjoy our Newsletter. Sign-up for the Inspiration Newsletter and get your free copy of Change Your Mind, Change Your life as a special welcome: Change Your Life