“What’s wrong with me?!” Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety: Stop Medicalizing Your Fear

How Labeling Public Speaking Anxiety Can Make Fear Worse

by Shifting our thinking, we can transform the ‘symptoms’ of public speaking anxiety into ‘performance energy’: and get more comfortable facing our fears

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According to Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, reframing physical signals like a racing heart or butterflies in your stomach works because you’re not trying to dismiss how you feel. You’re just giving the uncomfortable sensations a new meaning.

Turn Anxiety Into Performance Energy for Better Speaking Confidence

Using terms like public speaking anxiety to describe the experience can unintentionally create a negative relationship with speaking itself. When we label the physical symptoms of fear — like shaky hands or a racing heart — as problems, we start to believe that speaking in public is somehow dangerous.

The truth is, our body’s fight-or-flight responses evolved for real threats — predators, poisons, or snakes. That’s why reactions like wooziness, sweating, or shaking are helpful in dangerous situations: they alert us to take action quickly.

But speaking in public (usually!) isn’t a real threat. That’s why learning to neutralize these feelings and reframe them in a healthier way is such a powerful step toward building speaking confidence and embracing what I call performance energy.

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What colour are your butterflies?

When I was in the store trying on my wedding dress, I spent some time talking to the sales rep about being nervous on my wedding day.

Instead of reinforcing my fears, she re-interpreted them. 

"What color are your butterflies?" she asked. I think I said they were “purple with pink glitter”, at the time!

Even the most seasoned professionals feel some level of public speaking anxiety. A racing heart, shaky voice, or sweaty palms aren’t something you can totally overcome, and even experienced speakers get butterflies. In my previous post on fear-less energy, I wrote about how reframing those negative emotions around speaking can be as simple as reinterpreting anxious butterflies as energy, adrenaline, or excitement. I sometimes refer to it with my clients as, “letting our butterflies give us wings”!

The physical symptoms of anxiety are a natural part of speaking up. When we’re able to accept these sensations, those nerves become a powerful sign that we’re showing up — ready to do the scary things that help us grow. Just like a butterfly, we’ve transformed and we’re ready to accomplish our goals.

The symptoms of fear of public speaking don’t have to disappear for you to succeed in a presentation, meeting, or interview. Shakiness, jitters, or a pounding heart are often part of the process — and that’s okay. I remember when I was in the store trying on my wedding dress, I spent some time talking to the sales rep about being nervous on my wedding day. Instead of reinforcing my fears, she reframed them. “What colour are your butterflies?” she asked. I think I said they were “purple with pink glitter” at the time!

“This is not anxiety — this is determination!”: Adam Grant’s podcast with Lisa Feldman Barrett

I recently listened to an episode of Adam Grant’s ReThinking podcast featuring researcher Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychologist and neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School and Northeastern University. Dr. Barrett, who has won the American Psychological Association Award for her scientific contributions to the study of emotion, shared insights on public speaking anxiety and how we can reinterpret those uncomfortable physical sensations many of us feel before a big event.

According to Dr. Barrett, reframing physical signals like a racing heart works because you’re not trying to dismiss what you’re feeling — you’re simply assigning a more helpful meaning to those sensations. She gave an example from her own experience delivering a TED Talk to thousands of people:

“I could feel my pulse in my fingertips,” she told Adam Grant. “My level of arousal was so high, and I was standing back there with my eyes closed thinking, ‘This is not anxiety. This is determination. This is not anxiety. This is determination. It’s determination. Get your butterflies flying in formation.”

This idea — shifting from anxiety to performance energy — is powerful. Our brains often label high arousal states as anxiety by default, but when we get curious, we can explore those exact same sensations through a more empowering lens.

Performance anxiety vs. performance energy

Many of my clients use the phrase “performance anxiety” or “public speaking anxiety.” It’s a common way to describe those feelings, but when we interpret them as “symptoms” — like a sore throat or a runny nose — we unintentionally create more fear: What’s wrong with me? This shouldn’t be happening!

When we interpret anxious feelings as ‘symptoms’ we end up feeling more fear. When you get curious about these sensations, you can reinterpret them.

Because these physical sensations feel so “medical,” they naturally trigger concern. If you’re sitting at your desk in a meeting and suddenly feel a racing heart, shaky palms, or a rush of adrenaline (especially if you’re about to speak), your first reaction is usually alarm.

But the same physiological response during exercise feels very different. A hard run on the treadmill can leave you dizzy, breathless, or even dry-heaving — yet you associate those sensations with success, not danger. That’s the power of reframing performance anxiety as performance energy: the physical signals don’t change, but the meaning you attach to them does.

Changing Your Relationship with Public Speaking Begins When You Change Your Interpretation of Fear

We’ve all been in situations where we’ve felt those physical sensations of fear or anxiety. Your hands sweat on a roller coaster, or you get butterflies before a big date. But those feelings aren’t symptoms of a condition called public speaking anxiety — they’re signs of excitement, anticipation, or adrenaline.

When you reinterpret the nervous sensations you feel before public speaking, they can shift from anxiety to performance energy.

Channeling that performance energy (and building public speaking self confidence) isn’t about “getting rid of” fear. It’s about choosing how you interpret it. Once you accept those sensations, you create the space to show up with confidence — and start becoming your fear-less self.

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