what do you do when you're nervous?

I blush. Like a bloody tomato, excuse the pun. It's horrifying. Don't you find the more you think about it, the worse it becomes? Hopefully with age I will start to worry less and blush less. In the meantime, this is my absolute most favourite opinion on blushing from Oscar Wilde in a A Woman of No Importance:

I can usually feel the warm flush start in my neck and move its way up to the roots of my hair. And as much as I can feel it, everyone can see it. Sometimes I wish I had a better way of externalising my nerves. Like knocking my knees or tapping my feet. Those you can hide behind a lecturn or any handy piece of furniture. You can hardly hide your FACE when giving a presentation now can you? And I need to learn to get over myself. No-one listens to what the Red Faced Girl is saying, they are trying to ignore the RED FACE. 

Here are a few nifty solutions I've found:

- imagine everyone naked
This does not help at all. If anything, it makes the nervousness worse because then I can't concentrate (I wonder if Mr Blogs has a hairy chest under that trendy Polo shirt? Does Miss Soap wear a Wonderbra, her bangers are always so perky...)
- take a few deep breaths
Although it does slow the heart rate down, this only works before the scary event/presentation. I find it impossible to stop talking for long enough to breathe deeply and get the required result
- be prepared
This definitely does help, especially if your presentation/interview has the possibility of uncomfortable questions at the end. Knowing your stuff also builds confidence. Confidence equals reduced Red Face Factor
- psychological treatments and medication
No. Just no.
- organic remedies
Like Rescue remedy and Prozen (an all natural version of Prozac). I think I have become immune to these remedies after 5 years of hair-raising varsity exams, 3 years of being an anxiety-ridden, exhausted article clerk and then nearly 2 years of being a wife. That last one was a joke. Mostly.
- positive affirmations like repeating "I can do this."
This helped the Hub enormously when he wrote, and passed, his last Board exam. Me, not so much. Although I do like the way Sheldon Cooper is calmed by "Soft Kitty".