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Cutting Edge Ways to Eliminate Stage Fright...Forever!

Energy-based techniques to calm your brain and body

By Jane Beard, Principle, InVisible Light
It might surprise you to know that the chest -pounding, stomach- turning, mouth-drying symptoms of stage fright aren’t signs that something's wrong with you. Quite the opposite! They’re signs that your body is doing exactly what it evolved to do: protect you from predators. You’re experiencing the fight, flight, or freeze syndrome you learned about in 8th grade biology.

This Guide offers a quick take on the physiology of fear, so you can stop being anxious about being anxious. You’ll get some direct links to cutting edge techniques with a good track record of changing the way the brain and the body react to life’s circumstances, so you can practically flip a switch from fear to calm.

A Simplified Lesson in Brains. Before you experience another bout of stage fright, understand what's going on in your body. The human brain evolved over centuries, but one part remains pretty much unchanged. Sometimes called the mid-brain, it’s job is to spot and avoid danger. It has other jobs, of course – but the bottom line job of the mid-brain is to defend us from predators.

When the mid-brain identifies a possible predator, it sends chemicals out in a flash. It makes your breath shallow, so you won’t noisily gulp air and give away your location. It dries up your saliva, so you can’t inhale and choke yourself as you run for cover. It pushes all the blood from your brain and internal organs to your heart to grab as much oxygen as possible. Then it shoots it to your feet and hands, so you can punch or run your way out of danger.

That’s not all. The mid-brain changes how you hear, so you are super attentive to frequencies that could signal someone sneaking up on you or the whiz of a sharp projectile missile. Your eyesight changes, too -- the better to spot sudden movement, and whether the eyes of the predator are on you, or the other guy. It pumps all of the available adrenalin out so you have the extra power you need to do whatever you need – using up all twenty seconds worth of juice in one jolt.

It was a brilliant system when we lived in the forest. It’s less resourceful in the conference room. When you have stage fright and think you can’t hear, see, think or breathe well, YOU'RE RIGHT! That middle range where the human voice is heard really is reduced. The faces that look at you from the audience really do look like predators to your mid-brain.That brain fog you feel? It’s real. The blood that was powering the smart front brain as you drove to work this morning is now in your heart, pumping blood out to the very feet that now are trying to make you walk off the stage, out of the auditorium, and back to your car – away from the “predators.” In short, it’s how you are wired.

Action Steps
  • Stop beating yourself up. You aren’t crazy. There’s nothing wrong with you. Your body is doing exactly what it was designed to do. You can’t “will” this away. But you CAN work with your mid-brain to calm it down, before, during and after you get an attack of stage fright. I recommend: let it be okay that your brain is trying to help you. Even that change in perspective can be enough to keep fear from escalating into panic.
  • In the midst of an attack, consciously trick your mid-brain by changing your breathing. In full fear mode, the mid-brain makes us breathe shallowly, and hold our breath on the inhale. To experience this, try this exercise now: Inhale shallowly on the count of 3, and hold your breath for 2 counts. Now exhale on the count of 3. Repeat 3 times, making sure not to stop between breaths. Now check into how you’re feeling…which should be a bit anxious. Now, let’s reverse the pattern. Inhale on the count of 4, immediately exhale on the count of 4 and pause with nothing in your lungs for 2. Repeat the inhale/exhale/pause pattern 3 times more. Notice that you feel calmer now. I recommend: practice this calming breath before you need it. It will be easier to call on whenever you are anxious, whether stage fright is the cause or not.
  • There’s a new field, called energy psychology (EP) or emotional neuroplasticity, which allows you quickly to essentially re-wire the way your brain and body process trauma and stressors like speaking in public. Many of the techniques used are based on traditional acupuncture/acupressure teachings. They’re easy to learn and do on yourself…and usually produce real results, quickly. For a great article on current research, go to the August 2008 issue of the journal Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training. Increasing numbers of studies are showing that EP produces quick, long-lasting results. My experience is that it’s really effective for stage fright in particular. I recommend: check out the film, Try It On Everything, which shows real people using one of the most well-known EP techniques, called EFT (or Emotional Freedom Technique). You’ll get a good idea of what EFT does, and how to do it for yourself.
  • ·Check out some free resources so you can try EP on your stage fright issues. Get a free, downloadable booklet on EFT You can get a basic handout about one of my favorite techniques, TAT, or Tapas Acupressure Technique I also love a technique called Be Set Free Fast because it can be done silently and privately, even in the midst of a crowd. I recommend: play around with one of these techniques before your next presentation.

Tips and Tactics

There are three aspects of EP work for stage fright that I really like. First, you don’t have to believe in them in order for them to work. Skeptics seem to get the same results as people who embrace non-traditional health solutions. Second, you don’t have to re-experience your stage fright in order to shift it. Third, you can use this work prior to possible stage fright, as well as in the midst of it.

Even if you decide not to investigate these and other techniques for changing the way your brain and body perceive danger, you can benefit from something as simple as the breathing technique outlined above. That puts stage fright more in your control – in a direct and simple way. Also, remember that, no matter what your body and brain may think (“this is a jungle and we’re about to be eaten”) most audiences actually want you to succeed. They want to leave your talk with something cool to put into action on the other end. When you find yourself with thoughts like, “They're dying for me to stumble” – or some other, less kind version of that thought – remember that what most of them most REALLY want is a workable idea, a new perspective or something else they can use to make themselves look good later on.

So stop telling yourself you're nuts. Listen to your body. Find ways to gently let it know that the jungle isn't out there – it's in your imagination.

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