Here is a book for everyone who dreads speaking in public.

MARK SCHULMAN - CONQUERING LIFE'S STAGE FRIGHT

Stage fright is one of the human psyche's deepest fears. Over half of British adults name public speaking as their greatest fear, even greater than heights and snakes. Laurence Olivier learned to adapt to it, as have actors Salma Hayek and Hugh Grant. Musicians such as Paul McCartney and Adele have battled it and learned to cope. Playing Scared is Sara Solovitch's journey into the myriad causes of stage fright and the equally diverse ways we can overcome it. As a young child, Sara studied piano and fell in love with music. As a teen, she played Bach and Mozart at her hometown's annual music festival, but was overwhelmed by stage fright, which led her to give up aspirations of becoming a professional pianist. In her late fifties, Sara gave herself a one-year deadline to tame performance anxiety and play before an audience. She resumed music lessons, while exploring meditation, exposure therapy, cognitive therapy, biofeedback and beta blockers, among many other remedies. She practiced performing in airports, hospitals and retirement homes. Finally, the day before her sixtieth birthday, she gave a formal recital for an audience of fifty. Using her own journey as inspiration, Sara has written a thoughtful and insightful cultural history of performance anxiety and a tribute to pursuing personal growth at any age.

'In The Spotlight is a dynamic workbook for the anxious presenter or performer! Short, easy-to-understand chapters with succinct summaries and powerful action steps, make this book a must-read!' Anthony Robbins, author of Awaken the Giant Within and Unlimited Power. Are you tired of suffering from stage fright? Have you had enough of feeling terrified of speaking or performing in front of others, and trying to avoid it at all costs? If so, In The SpotLight is perfect for you! It reveals the principles, methods and strategies that can help you get beyond stage fright and create a whole new possibility for comfortable and confident speaking and performing. It will also help you if you are self-conscious and uncomfortable in any social situation.

Never before has the problem of stage fright been so eloquently examined; 40 interviews with some of the most highly-accomplished public figures shed light on this affliction, offering tips from their own experiences for overcoming it. Jason Alexander, Mose Allison, Maya Angelou, David Brenner, Peter Coyote, Olympia Dukakis, Richard Lewis, and many more sound off about their trials with stage fright, candidly discussing their fears and insecurities with life in the public eye and ultimately revealing the various paths they followed to overcoming them. Stage fright sufferers from all walks of life--whether a high school freshman nervous about an oral presentation or a professional baseball player with the eyes of the world on his bat--will find consolation by understanding the commonality of their problem, as well as helpful information to finally shed their inhibitions.

Best-selling Author Janet Esposito brings more than a decade of experience helping people learn to speak and perform with calm and confidence. In Getting Over Stage Fright, Janet offers a new, holistic approach to this age-old problem, sharing a wide array of principles and practices to help you create the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being you need to get beyond your speaking or performing fear. This book is especially helpful to those who have moderate to high levels of performance anxiety, though it can also help those who have a milder case of the jitters. It will help you in all types of speaking or performing situations, ranging from the most casual to the most formal. It will also help you reduce and better manage any anticipatory anxiety you have before stepping up to speak or perform.

The hidden brain is the voice in our ear when we make the most important decisions in our lives—but we’re never aware of it. The hidden brain decides whom we fall in love with and whom we hate. It tells us to vote for the white candidate and convict the dark-skinned defendant, to hire the thin woman but pay her less than the man doing the same job. It can direct us to safety when disaster strikes and move us to extraordinary acts of altruism. But it can also be manipulated to turn an ordinary person into a suicide terrorist or a group of bystanders into a mob. In a series of compulsively readable narratives, Shankar Vedantam journeys through the latest discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science to uncover the darkest corner of our minds and its decisive impact on the choices we make as individuals and as a society. Filled with fascinating characters, dramatic storytelling, and cutting-edge science, this is an engrossing exploration of the secrets our brains keep from us—and how they are revealed.