Description
What if there were common beliefs you thought were TRUE that were making it even harder to soften your stage fright?
I’m going to share the big 3 that kept me stuck in a shame spiral of “I must be broken because I should be over this by now”.
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MYTH 1: That you shouldn’t be feeling the sensations related to performance anxiety.
Most of the physical feelings we experience when we’re on stage are exactly what we’d expect from a rise in adrenaline, a very normal response to an unfamiliar, unnerving or exciting thing.
Accepting that this response is normal and not a personal failure was so helpful for me.
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MYTH 2: That practicing more means I should be able to get everything right in a performance.
I wish someone had told me that you can only practice performing while you’re performing because there are so many elements about the context that are wildly different.
The biggest one? You’re alone in one (or in front of your teacher perhaps) and you’re being watched by others in another.
Expecting yourself and your voice to behave the same when the situation (and your perception of it) is so different is very unfair.
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MYTH 3: That you can get rid of stage fright simply by performing more.
Hey, this works for some people but in my experience, not for most.
For many of us we get in a cycle of feeling anxious, hearing and feeling the negative impact that has on our voice and performance, shaming ourself for that and avoiding getting back on stage for weeks (if not months or years).
And this is because it’s important that we work on untangling the beliefs underneath our fear.
Stories of perfectionism, failure, being judged or rejected, being perceived as too much or arrogant or annoying and the fear that we don’t belong or aren’t good enough (y’know those fun ones).
Working on these beliefs between performances was a game changer for how I felt on stage.