Embrace the Stage Fright

 

Image: ‘Bethlehem 2008’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54604085@N00/338780690
Found on flickrcc.net

Scientific American, Mind & Brain, 60-Second Science, January 15, 2014

“…new research finds that people who try to relax away their performance anxiety actually mess up more than folks who just give in to the excitement. The study is in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. [Alison Wood Brooks,Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement]

Interesting article which taps into the notion that emotions can be re interpreted, re-framed and therefore affect us in a more productive/positive way. The issue may not necessarily be the actual experience of “excitement” but how we perceive it. If we perceive it as negative (“this is bad/ I should not be feeling this/ this means i am no good/etc”) it may transform into anxiety and interfere negatively with our performance. If we are able to reinterpret it into something positive (“I feel this because it is important to me/because i want to do well and this is a positive attitude/ because i am a fallible human being like everyone else/ because my body is trying to help me, even if it ineffectively  triggers my “fight or flight” response/ etc) the sensation may develop into positive excitement, alertness and we will work around it and with it. We may then not try to hide it but incorporate it into our performance in honest and creative ways. Or it may eventually fade off as we are able to put our attention outside of our bodies, on whatever is happening around us, or in the content of our performance. Hypnotherapy offers techniques which encourage the mental rehearsal of all these options utilising all the many sensorial modalities to our own individual maximum potential.