Fifteen years ago, I was asked by my school teacher to give a 1-minute speech for the English class. Those days, it felt terrifying to be called upon in-front of the class to deliver such speech. The topic was about myself – more or less like the ice-breakers we deliver here at the Toastmasters. Being in a school and the ‘studious environment’, I worked with my mother to put together a short speech about myself just to accommodate in for the 1 minute that was allotted to me.
I was called upon by the English teacher to deliver the speech in front of the class. As soon as I came on stage to recite my speech, my mind started to freeze. I felt like things were just blanking out for no fault of my own. As I started to speak about myself – in that fit of nervousness, I forgot what I had to say next. I was perplexed and confused on how to handle the situation. At that moment, when I had forgotten the rest of my speech, I stood there saying….Um…Eh very loudly not knowing what to say next. And I was asked to move back to my place.
As years went by, I often came across elocution competitions and on the spot speech competitions, at my school given by people for an annual contest that would happen every year. I would often think and wonder, how those people had the confidence to deliver their speeches on the spot so fluently and eloquently. I was of the notion that they might have been born with that talent. Little did I know that I was facing what I now refer to as the - mental block.
So what is a mental block?
A mental block is a psychological barrier that temporarily prevents individuals from thinking clearly, recalling information, or processing new ideas. They act as "invisible barriers" often caused by stress, high-pressure environments, or mental exhaustion.
Just picture for a moment, a young 6 grader – who has never delivered a speech. As I stand in-front of the class, I have what I refer to as performance anxiety – which is at its peak. At the same time, I have sudden rapid thoughts in my mind such as ‘ What if I don’t recall the whole speech’ ‘What will people think about me’ ‘See I think I can see someone laughing at me’. With my mind focusing on what people will think about me, I lose the trust in myself and what I have already prepared and my entire body and mind goes to a defensive state. I feel frozen and terrified.
Yes, that’s what a mental block does. Just in any situation, perceived as a threat – our amygdala which is in our brain triggers that ‘fight and flight response’ that causes our entire body and mind to react in a way that bring the entire system into a defensive status. That is the primeval instinct we are born with. However, we do not have to always respond in the same to every threat we encounter in our life. There is a way out of this, and let me tell you what I did to overcome this.
Over the years, while I did excel academically and scored the highest marks, I continued to suffer from this mental block. I was determined to find a way out to get over it, whilst I was facing other challenges in school. There was a family friend of mine, who mentioned something referred to as the Toastmasters. At first, I was wondering what exactly is this – does everybody get a Toast at the club, or is it a club to train all the Toastmasters who raise the toast at weddings?
In the midst of all the arduous tasks and exams in school, it just went off as another distant dream. However, once I had moved to the 11th standard – when I had more extra time in hand, I was determined to check more about this.
Upon the recommendation of our family friend, my dad took me to attend one of the Gavel Club meetings hosted at the Keerti Restaurant in Sharjah. I was taken aback and amazed to see a professional meeting setup at the restaurant. As people of my age in school started flocking in at the venue, I was also surprised to see some well-known people known of at the elocution competitions at this meeting. As the meeting started, and the proceedings followed – I felt delighted to see people giving speeches and taking on many of the roles we know of today as – Ah Counter, Grammarian, Timer. More so, I was also fascinated about this particular segment called the Table Topics. And this was one segment, where the Table Topics Masters called upon me to deliver a speech on the spot. I was given 30 seconds to think and begin. When I started to speak, I spoke for sometime and my mind froze. I felt disappointed as I was facing the same mental block I encountered years ago, and felt like a failure on the stage. As usual, I said ‘Eh’, “um’ ‘and then it it is’ and couldn’t recollect what to say next. The audience however did not react and was supportive. They clapped for me as I at least made an attempt to speak on the spot.
In the next meetings following, I volunteered to take this role specifically everytime, to overcome the fear of public speaking and get over the mental block. Every time, I went onto stage, as usual my mind went blank and I couldn’t say anything further. I kept doing this for about 5-6 instances. In the 7th or 8th time, my mind started to think more clearly and I was able to process ideas a bit better.
I started to notice the difference. What seemed to be impossible earlier, now seemed to attainable. How did this happen?
As I kept taking on this Table Topic Speaker role, what I sub-consciously did was re-wired my brain to turn what was perceived as a threat into an opportunity. Over the course of taking up this role, my brain recognized these patterns, and soon considered delivering impromptu speeches in public as normal. In addition, taking up the roles of Grammarian, Timer and Ah Counter, sharpened my focus not only on people’s speeches but also on myself too as I started to be more focused on how I could improvise myself better. As I continued my Toastmasters journey in Goa and later Sharjah, I was fascinated to know that there were people just like me who were eager to get rid of their mental block, and this gave me further confidence in myself and my abilities.
Today, I have not only delivered speeches, table topics in Toastmasters, I have even delivered trainings at my office. Recently, I even delivered a virtual session to more than 2000+ Partner and Directors of our Middle East Firm spread across 5 countries in the Gulf region.
If someone had told me a few years ago that I would one day be confidently speaking to such a large audience, I probably wouldn’t have believed them. But Toastmasters helped me break through that mental barrier and discover a confidence I never knew existed
So to all our new members and budding Toastmasters, I leave you with this message: treat this platform as your training ground. Speak whenever you get the chance, challenge yourself, and keep improving one speech at a time.
Because the person you are when you give your first speech… and the person you will become after your tenth, twentieth, or fiftieth speech… will be someone you may not even recognize today.
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