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Abrahams: Visualization desensitizes public speaking anxiety like a flight simulator

Matt Abrahams · How to speak more confidently and persuasively | Matt Abrahams (professor, speaker, author) · Mar 31, 2024 · at 6:51

Stanford communication lecturer Matt Abrahams discusses psychological and somatic strategies for managing speaking anxiety with Lenny Rachitsky.

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“This notion of visualization as a tool of desensitization actually can be very helpful, but you're not visualizing the audience half naked. What you're doing is you're visualizing yourself in that space. You're visualizing the audience responding to you and what you're saying. So just like a pilot might do a flight simulator, Having a visualization can actually really help you feel more comfortable and confident. It literally puts you in the room, even though you're not there.”

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