Exercises for
Individuals or Small Groups
on
Befriending Fear
and The Inward Journey
Befriending Fear
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Group work: Choose one person to serve as facilitator. Choose a timekeeper. You have about an hour for this exercise. The facilitator will invite participants to introduce themselves and identify their greatest fear or anxiety about speaking without a script. The facilitator will then read the Purpose followed by the group reading together the Centering Reading. Individual work: Make a list of the personal fears or anxieties about speaking without a script.
Purpose (for group work): To explore, in this safe place, how my fears and anxieties effect my public speaking and to identify the personal strengths I bring to public speaking.
Centering Reading (for group work):
Having listened to your names and acknowledging the fears or anxieties you have shared,
I pledge to support and encourage you in the time we are together.
Group work: Take turns reading the following quotations. Pause briefly after each reading before continuing. Note in your mind the quotations that speak most directly to your fears or anxieties about speaking without a script.
Individual work: Reading the following quotations. Pause briefly after each reading before continuing. Note in your mind the quotations that speak most directly to your fears or anxieties about speaking without a script.
Quotations
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. I John 4:20
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to
look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the
next thing that comes along.' Eleanor Roosevelt
I've learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. . . believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom - how great is that? Soledad O'Brien
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Francis of Assisi
Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay.Thich Nhat Hanh
Too much self-centered attitude, you see, brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering. Dalai Lama
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. Salvador Dali
I believe that every single event in life that happens is an opportunity to choose love over fear.
Oprah Winfrey
I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. J. K. Rowling
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Swami Vivekananda
Always do what you are afraid to do. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. Rosa Parks
4) Sharing (for group) (select a timekeeper who will give a signal before the 2-minute limit is reached): Taking turns, each person will share the quotation that spoke to them most clearly about their own fears or anxieties about public speaking or public speaking without a manuscript. (each person should speak for only one or two minutes).
5) Identify and speak aloud your strength as a public speaker (individual or group) Work alone for about 3 minutes listing some of your positive characteristics that make you a good communicator. Think of why people listen to you in a private setting---is it your humor, your sincerity, your willingness to be self-revealing, your knowledge of a subject, your passion, your compassion? Now order and speak these aloud to yourself or in front of mirror. If in a group, stand up and share your strength (2 to 4 minutes each).
6) Closing affirmations and reflections (for group). As they are moved, each person
will share their personal reflections on the session (no more than a minute).
What was helpful? What might be improve?
7) Closing Words (for groups read in unison)
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us."
Marianne Williamson
Purpose (for group work): To explore, in this safe place, how my fears and anxieties effect my public speaking and to identify the personal strengths I bring to public speaking.
Centering Reading (for group work):
Having listened to your names and acknowledging the fears or anxieties you have shared,
I pledge to support and encourage you in the time we are together.
Group work: Take turns reading the following quotations. Pause briefly after each reading before continuing. Note in your mind the quotations that speak most directly to your fears or anxieties about speaking without a script.
Individual work: Reading the following quotations. Pause briefly after each reading before continuing. Note in your mind the quotations that speak most directly to your fears or anxieties about speaking without a script.
Quotations
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. I John 4:20
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to
look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the
next thing that comes along.' Eleanor Roosevelt
I've learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. . . believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom - how great is that? Soledad O'Brien
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Francis of Assisi
Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay.Thich Nhat Hanh
Too much self-centered attitude, you see, brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering. Dalai Lama
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. Salvador Dali
I believe that every single event in life that happens is an opportunity to choose love over fear.
Oprah Winfrey
I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. J. K. Rowling
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Swami Vivekananda
Always do what you are afraid to do. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. Rosa Parks
4) Sharing (for group) (select a timekeeper who will give a signal before the 2-minute limit is reached): Taking turns, each person will share the quotation that spoke to them most clearly about their own fears or anxieties about public speaking or public speaking without a manuscript. (each person should speak for only one or two minutes).
5) Identify and speak aloud your strength as a public speaker (individual or group) Work alone for about 3 minutes listing some of your positive characteristics that make you a good communicator. Think of why people listen to you in a private setting---is it your humor, your sincerity, your willingness to be self-revealing, your knowledge of a subject, your passion, your compassion? Now order and speak these aloud to yourself or in front of mirror. If in a group, stand up and share your strength (2 to 4 minutes each).
6) Closing affirmations and reflections (for group). As they are moved, each person
will share their personal reflections on the session (no more than a minute).
What was helpful? What might be improve?
7) Closing Words (for groups read in unison)
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us."
Marianne Williamson
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Your Inward Journey
toward
Speaking by Heart
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Group work: Choose one person to serve as facilitator. Choose a timekeeper. You have about an hour for this exercise.. The facilitator will invite participants to introduce themselves in no more than one minute. The facilitator will then read the Purpose followed by the group reading together the Centering Reading.
Individual work: In a few brief sentences answer the question: Who am I? And, what is the purpose of my life?
Purpose (for group work): To explore, in this safe place, how your self-identity (Who I am and what is the purpose of my life) is reflected in your image of yourself as a public speaker.
Centering Reading (for group work):
Having listened to your names and acknowledging the fears or anxieties you have shared,
I pledge to support and encourage you in the time we are together.
Introductions (for group work): Group members will briefly share the answer to the question
Who am I and what is the purpose of my life? (max two minutes each).
Group work: Take turns reading the following quotations. Pause briefly after each reading before continuing. Note in your mind the quotations that speak most directly to your identity as a pubic speaker.
Individual work: Reading the following quotations. Pause briefly after each reading before continuing. Note in your mind the quotations that speak most directly to you as a pubic speaker.
Love takes off the mask we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.
James Baldwin
And he whose soul is flat---the sky --will cave in on him by and by. Edna St. Vincent Millay
To insist that I must be only what I am now is a restriction which human nature must abhor. Rabbi Abraham Heschel
For there our captors asked us for song, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion! How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” Psalm 137
There is no way to peace, peace is the way. Rev. A.J. Mustie
I can lay no claim to goodness until I can prove that mean people have not made me mean. Barbara Kingsolver
Today they tell me I’m going to Chiapas, to lead the people on a march. When we get to the roadblock, there will be armed paramilitaries… My fear disappears when I begin to speak in these situations, without raising my voice. Patria Jimenez
If you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
Isaiah 58:10
When society is made up of men (sic) who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love and, consequently, it is held together by a violent and abusive authority.
Thomas Merton
Questions for Reflection: Read aloud the following questions:
Which, if any, of the above quotes do you like and why? What can you do (or do you do) on a regular basis that brings you to the calm center of your being? What connection do you see between your “inward journey” and speaking publicly? Now sit silently together for a minute.
For Group: Proceed to discuss both the quotations and questions, remembering to share the time fairly. Each person will have the chance to speak uninterrupted for up to 5 minutes in response to the quotations and questions. Let each person speak when they’re ready (popcorn style, so don’t call on folks). If a person can’t speak the whole 5 minutes, that’s okay. When they’re done go on to the next person who wishes to speak. When each person who wants to speak has had an opportunity, then open the floor for discussion. End the discussion leaving about 5 minutes for check-out and closing. Please keep the ground rules in mind.
Brief check-out: Facilitator asks folks what they liked in the session and what is their most important “take-away”.
Closing Words: Polish your heart for a day or two, make that mirror your book of contemplation. Rumi
Session by Stephen Shick, Nov. 2014. Quotations from his book Be the Change.