Raising your hand in class is scary, not dangerous. Learn the difference and you’ll do more.

Nerves do not distinguish between risk to your body and risk to your standing. Speaking up triggers the same alarm as genuine danger, which is why your hands shake over something that cannot hurt you. The feeling is real and the threat behind it is not, and those two facts can sit together.

Ask what the actual worst outcome is, in concrete terms. Usually it is a moment of awkwardness that nobody else will remember by evening. Do the scary and harmless thing once a week on purpose, and the range of what you are willing to attempt widens on its own.