Stage fright: Fear of shame?

In In the first part of this blog post on stage fright we have taken a look at the effects and background of stage fright. I think that it is very important to first understand what is going on in our brains and bodies, and then in the second step to apply the really right and appropriate tools to banish these irritating reactions forever! And that's exactly what this blog post is about – how to overcome nervousness. So what can you do to get the dreaded and unloved stage fright under control?

Outsmarting shame with stage fright

Stage fright is basically nothing more than barriers in your head that you have erected yourself. Tear them down fearlessly! To do this, you should know that you can grow internally if you lay new nerve pathways and simply decide that you just don't want to feel that inner shame that we often feel before performances. You can outsmart this shame if you bring out your inner child and thus activate your limbic brain. This is basically the only really effective way to cure your stage fright - and in record time.

One of my coaching clients, let's call her Michaela, had a very specific problem. Her career in a large company had been very steep and positive so far. Now, however, a new boss had come and before him, the capable head of a specialist department regularly communicated herself. "When he sits in the group, when I give a lecture in front of my colleagues and present something, I totally fail," she told me. I'm so ashamed of it... she said desperately. She, who had never had stage fright, was now totally shaken by it with all the familiar symptoms such as trembling legs, emptiness in the head, much higher pitch than usual. In short, presenting yourself and your topic confidently looks different. It was particularly bad that she also felt this stage fright in a personal conversation with her supervisor and was thus no longer able to convincingly present her projects and ideas. Michaela looked at me desperately and waited for lengthy, healing exercises that I would assign to her. To her great surprise, I didn't have anything like that up my sleeve.

Goofing around against stage fright

I knew it wouldn't make sense to change their beliefs. This process would be far too lengthy. In this situation, we needed a first aid plan. There is, and it's called BLÖDELN. Yes, intense goofing around before every performance or before every important conversation relaxes and loosens up the muscles. And above all, it mentally reprograms anyone who fools around to "play". So I advised Michaela to fool around every time she had to enter her boss's office, in a quiet place where no one could surprise her. Preferably in front of a mirror to be able to laugh at yourself, which is even more relaxing! Michaela was surprised, she had imagined a completely different program, but in her desperation she wanted to try everything.

A few days later, she called me euphorically. Before the next appointment with her boss, she had snorted and neighed like a horse in the bathroom, made faces at herself and jumped around like a dervish. "I was so excited about my own silliness, I didn't want to stop," she said, fascinated. Then she walked into the meeting – with her hair still a little disheveled from jumping – and presented in an equally firm voice. This time the boss's eyebrows stayed down and did not rise disapprovingly, he of course felt this new strength immediately and was unconsciously impressed.

Goofing around is really the magic word to release inner inhibitions. But there are even more ways to deal with stage fright.

Consciously relaxing dampens stage fright

I also call stage fright perfectly audible stress. There are also some tricks to make it no longer acoustically perceptible. Such as conscious relaxation, which you may be able to achieve again and again in the car on the way to an appointment or performance by breathing calmly. As a second measure, you can fully concentrate on your voice. Since it represents audible body language, it is the number one traitor of your high tension from stage fright.

Unfortunately, we don't notice tension in our own voice so easily. However, our audience perceives them very sensitively immediately. For such cases, I recommend using "Sense Focusing" to solve this audible stress in time.

How "Sense Focusing" works

"Sense Focusing" allows you to escape the influence of the outside in every situation, to get out of the eternal reaction, to switch off the unconscious inner "autopilot" and to take over the helm yourself. „ Sense Focusing" is based on the biological interrelationship between active, conscious body awareness ("feeling") and the release of tense muscles. If you know how to use this, you will be able to get any stress under control in a short time, even under difficult performance conditions. Pause for a few seconds. Stand upright and load both feet evenly (or sit without leaning, straighten up and keep both feet in good contact with the ground). Now consciously feel how much weight is on your left and right feet (when sitting: on your feet and buttocks). Experience how your shoulders now let go of your shoulders as if by themselves - and how muscles in your face are also noticeably loosening somewhere.

Stage fright – in a nutshell

Finally, here is an overview of what exactly you can do to really get your stage fright under control:

• Outsmart shame – there's no reason to be ashamed of anything.
• Let your inner child out, it wants to play calmly and freely, also and especially on stage.
• Fool around – please be sure BEFORE your appearances and presentations.
• Relax by breathing consciously in the run-up to your performance.
• Practice Sense Focusing to loosen up your muscles.
• Take a firm stance, "root" yourself in the floor in your thoughts and only speak when you have made direct eye contact with your audience and the room has become really quiet and ready for you.

Fear of speaking, increased nervousness and stage fright block valuable energy, which you better invest in active dialogue with your audience. In this article, you have learned about the background and strategies on how you can appear in front of your audience in the future with composure, calm and pleasant curiosity about the benevolent reactions of your audience.

You

Arno Fischbacher

 

P.S.: I look forward to your comments and thoughts:

What strategies do you think are particularly effective against misguided shame? Have you ever actively fooled around before a presentation? What is your best "recipe" for stage fright? Write your thoughts and experiences as a comment! I look forward to your contributions!

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Read Also:

• Is the voice coach himself still nervous?
• Perform confidently, but how?
• How to get your stage fright under control (Part 1)

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The author:

Arno Fischbacher is a business voice coach and rhetoric expert, speaker and author. He prepares executives and employees of the top companies in Germany and Austria for negotiations, presentations and media appearances. Fischbacher is the author of several books, past president of the German Speakers Association (GSA) Austria, chairman of the European Network of Voice Experts, stimme.at.

If you would like to learn more about specific training opportunities with Arno Fischbacher, make an appointment here free information talk.

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