The game Anomia takes what happens to you when you’re public speaking…and makes it fun.

Anomia is when you can’t think of a word that is well known to you. Anomia is a language disorder caused by brain damage.

It is similar to something we all have experience with: tip of the tongue phenomenon.

Tip of the tongue phenomenon can be be induced by stress, which is the reason this game is engaging and fun.

In the game, when you and another player both have a card flipped in the same category, the first person to name an item in that category wins the point.

The stakes of needing to name a word quickly causes a stress reaction, which makes it hard to access your memory.

All of a sudden recalling the name of a pop song or doughnut flavour becomes extremely difficult.

(I lost this game last Christmas because I could not name a professional golfer. I work in the sports industry 🙈)

While playing a game, this phenomenon is fun.

While public speaking, it can erode our confidence.

This is what I hear from my clients:

• “It’s like my mind goes blank.”
• “I don’t feel like myself. I’m not articulate.”
• “It’s the same stuff I talk about everyday and I can’t trust myself to remember it.”

To solve this problem you do not need to become smarter or have a larger vocabulary.

You need to learn to manage the stress of public speaking so you can access all the information you already have.

This can look like:

• Improving your self-talk
• Using breathing techniques
• Gaining a more realistic perspective on what is at stake when you’re public speaking

You can also practice using these techniques to remain calm while playing Anomia!