How to handle stage fear?

Stage fear haunts even those professionals who are highly qualified in their own respective fields and have wide ranging experience. However, when it comes to standing up before a crowd and talking, it is a different story. They become tongue tied, sweat a great deal, use wrong words in the wrong place, make grammatical errors in their sentences, become fidgity and even shiver. All these will vanish with constant effort and regular practice. All the above symptoms are because of the over consciousness about their own self and the preoccupation regarding how well they are performing and what others are thinking about their appearance, speech, mannerisms, dress code, voice etc. One of the easiest exercise for the beginners who aspire to become public speakers or who want to make a presentation is to spend 10 to 15 minutes time everyday reading the newspaper aloud standing in front of a mirror. This way you will learn to break the ice on having to speak aloud before a crowd. When you are reading in front of a mirror you can change you can watch yourself and your posture and make necessary changes to present yourself as a confident speaker. There are lot of techniques and tools one can use just not to over come their stage fear but also can excel as public speakers. I am hoping to share in the coming days, some of the techniques those helped me in the early days.