Tips for Coping with Anxiety Before Business Meetings

Flickr image by: Alex Proimos

In this week's podcast we're responding to the following question: "My husband has been getting very anxious before big business meetings lately, to the point where he’s been getting stomach aches and a racing heart beat. Now he’s starting to worry about the anxiety, which causes more anxiety (as we all know). Do you have any prevention strategies that I can share with him?"

Points covered in this podcast include:

Often when we start to anticipate anxiety before speaking in public, or before business meetings, it's because we've had a prior negative experience.

Why We Get Anticipatory Anxiety

When we've had one uncomfortable experience the mind tries to protect us by creating a sense of aversion or avoidance. In a sense, the mind is checking us and it's asking “Are you sure you really want to do this again?” “Remember, it didn’t feel so good last time.”

And so we will begin to feel uneasy, or develop nagging anxiety, and then we find ourselves caught in a loop of  fear of the fear where we start to experience nervous anticipation of an upcoming event.

Knowing and understanding that your mind is actually seeking to protect you can help relieve the feelings of anxiety a little.

Tools and Techniques To Help You Enter a Meeting Feeling Calm

We also need tools and techniques to help us feel more comfortable, more calm and more in control.

Here are some of our favourites:

The Calm Point

This is a very simple technique that is surprisingly effective for overcoming feelings of anxiety.

Here’s how to do it: take the thumb of your right hand and press it into the centre of the palm of your left hand and hold it there firmly for about a minute while you take slow, deep, steady breaths.

The calm point is discreet and perfect for using in situations like meetings, it's also my technique of choice for visits to the dentist. I can lay in the dentist chair keeping my breathing steady and holding the calm point throughout my visit and it helps me to feel calm and relaxed.

Bach Flowers Rescue Remedy

Sipping water with Rescue Remedy (available from Nelsons and Amazon) is a gentle natural way to calm feelings of nervousness and anxiety.

You can also get Rescue Remedy in a small spray bottle that you can keep in your pocket. You can use it any time feelings of anticipatory anxiety arise.

Rescue Remedy is available via the link below on Amazon. We will receive a small commission from Amazon if you get your Rescue Remedy via Anxiety Slayer which helps us cover our podcast production costs. Thank you for your support.

Bach Rescue Remedy Original Natural Stress Relief Flower Essence, Dropper, 20 ml

EFT Tapping for Specific Fears and “What If” Thoughts

If you find yourself dreading meetings and having negative predictions or unwelcome “what if this happens” thoughts you can use EFT Tapping to dispel your worries and help yourself feel relaxed and resourceful. You can find out how to use EFT Tapping via our Introductory EFT Teleclass or our more in-depth audio program: EFT for Anxiety Relief.

For more tips on coping with anxiety before a meeting please listen to the full podcast below:

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