Neural pathways are a series of connected neurons that send signals from one part of the brain to another. Neurons come in three main types: sensory neurons that are stimulated by our senses, motor neurons that control muscles, and inter-neurons that connect neurons together.
Scientists have now shown, we can rewire the neural pathways that regulate our emotions, thoughts, and reactions. We CAN create new neural pathways in our brains that lead us to compassion, gratitude, and joy instead of anxiety, fear, and anger.
A fear of public speaking can be rewired by changing our neural pathway habits from anxious thoughts with dire negative outcomes to happiness with your thoughts and feelings with positive results.
To oversimplify, I like to use this analogy in conquering public speaking fear. After having coached and trained over a thousand clients for the past thirty-plus years, I found that the conscious mind begins the cycle of anxiety. Prior to age four, we are fearless orators. But imitation, criticism, and lack of encouragement starts the journey of negative feedback and faulty speaking. The neural pathway becomes deeply entrenched in our minds and forms a foundation to build a structure of fear. Every time we are asked to speak publicly our conscious neural pathway goes directly to our subconscious and adds to this structure. Soon we have built a skyscraper of public speaking fear.
The good news is that throughout our lives we can continually create new neural pathways.
Through training, positive feedback and experiences, visualizations and practice the new neural pathways are formed into a palace of gratitude, pleasure, and joy that overrides the skyscraper of anger, anxiety, and fear. Your neural pathways can be rewired and rebuilt with the demolition of the negative into a fearless, optimistic, and pragmatic speaker.
Written by
Bette Elly Klimitz
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