Stage Fright: What It Is, Symptoms And How To Overcome It
It is increasingly evident that the psychological factor has a determining weight in the performance of all those activities that involve achieve a performance level or an external evaluation In sports, art, or even work or academic practice, an optimal mental state can help, while a poor one will always limit us.
The influence of psychology here is so evident that we have intuitively created certain colloquial expressions to refer to these phenomena: filling up with the ball, going out on a high, being a pineapple, being on a roll… or the famous stage fright
Stage fright is a state of high physiological activation that occurs before a performance, or any type of activity. that involves the presence or evaluation of an audience There are artists who claim that it is impossible to make a good representation without that “fear”, and it is true that a certain level of activation is required to carry out any task. That is to say, the more activation, the better performance up to a certain point, where performance begins to decrease if this activation continues to increase, drawing an inverted U if it were represented graphically.
This point is known as the optimal activation level, and it’s different for every artist. In other words, there will be those who give the best version of themselves with an activation of 80 out of 100, and those who need not to exceed 65. To limit this level of activation, there are different relaxation and activation techniques, depending on what the need to cover.
The most useful relaxation technique in these cases is breathing. Executing controlled breathing We can reduce those extra keystrokes that can ruin our performance, or make us not enjoy its performance. Furthermore, by paying attention to the phases of said breathing and the movements of the different organs involved in it, we prevent cognitive anxiety, and we prevent our attention from directing anticipatory or blaming thoughts (“I’m going to make a mistake,” “I always do something wrong.” this part, etc.”).
Training breathing in controlled environments (rehearsals, at home…) will help us automate this technique, being able to put it into practice quickly at any time we might need it, such as before giving a concert or playing an important match.
However, although excess is usually the most common cause of activation problems, it is worth insisting that a defect in it can be just as damaging (in a piece that we have always mastered perfectly, or in a match against the last in the table), so It is worth taking into account the existence of activation techniques perhaps more rudimentary but just as necessary.
However, and honoring the colloquial name of this evil, we must not fail to pay attention to its most emotional component: fear.
The role of fear
Fear, as a good emotion, is not bad in itself. It is adaptive, selected to intervene in the survival of the species, allowing us to flee or fight against threats to our lives. However, in our species there has been a cultural selection that coexists with the natural one, and now fear is triggered in situations for which it was not designed. A job interview, an exam, a performance…
That is why, although relaxation techniques help, it is usually good to go further, unravel what thoughts, what preconceived ideas maintain that fear. The fear of failing can be related to one’s own self-esteem or it may have a social function (fear of being judged, of being rejected) in which case it is advisable to restructure those ideas, break the relationships between one’s own self-esteem and the performance of a specific task, between said performance and our place in society. .
