The experience of giving a TEDx talk was even more than I had bargained for. Although I 
felt confident about my message, in the back of my mind somewhere was the fear that I
would forget what I was going to say and stand their looking like an idiot. A common fear I know when public speaking, don’t you agree? The worst for me was not the fact I could flub on stage, but that I would be filmed and I would not have control over who would see this video.
So, I got up and started my speech and…don’t you know it, about a minute or 2 later…it happened…I went blank and completely forgot where I was going and what I had planned to say.
I heard my inner critic start to panic, but in a split second unlike times in my past, instead of diving into the panic I watched my mind at work and it immediately delivered all that I needed – I found myself acting without having to plan. I opened my mouth and let whatever words needed to come out and before I finished my sentence, I realized that I was back on track in the flow of my talk. I had instinctively tuned into the same energy that I was referring to in my talk. I went back to my center, smoothly accepting where I was using the mind/body connection to accept myself, breathe and just take a simple pause. And, it worked!
Instead of looking like a flub, the audience saw and heard a pregnant pause, and, according to some who had heard me practice earlier, the pause positively impacted my speech. Go figure!
So my lesson from this: If we’re creating personal sustainability, then we can be there for ourselves in a moment of need. By cultivating our energy , we can use it as a tool, to support ourselves and go beyond our mind’s fears.
Challenge: See if you can find that moment of acceptance and pause when you’re not sure where you’re going and call on your internal resources to move beyond a program of fear.
Check out my Tedx talk below! And if you’re interested in doing something about building your Qi, here’s a great way to start…
