By Acting Teacher, Lauren Letherer
Hi lovely people,
I just wanted to talk to you about fear. Stage fright can be one of the main things that can derail any career. In my 20’s my fear of performing and auditioning eclipsed almost everything else.
All my training and coaching literally disappeared when I went into a room to audition.
I was paralyzed in terror. It is one of the reasons why I stopped acting for many years.
But when I started researching and asking for help, I learned many ways to calm that crazy mind and started enjoying doing what I loved.
Just one of the things I was told by a psychologist was once your brain starts spinning in terror, trying to control that by just willing it to stop is hardly helpful.
Interestingly, the body physically will react to extreme excitement and fear in the same way. Think about it, when you are waiting to go on stage or if you are being chased by a mugger. Your body goes through some of the same changes ie: rapid heartbeat, sweating, shallow breaths, shaking. Your body is reacting thinking of fight or flight. (But the good news is- you won’t die by walking onto a stage.)
So a genius way to get ahold of your scared freaked-out thoughts is to just repeat this over and over: I am so excited, I am so excited, I am so excited. It will literally change the moment, and honestly make it fun. It is a way of tricking your mind into thinking something wonderful is coming.. which basically it is.
Of course, there are tons of ways to overcome performance anxiety, but that is just one of the things that has helped me.
I am great at dealing with fear, mostly because I had to overcome my many years of terror.
So if that is one of the things holding you back from your dream?
Let’s talk about it.
Lauren
Your turn - What about you? What are some of your techniques, to get over your fear? What are some of the moments you've experienced, being taken over by stage fright? Or how did this technique work for you? Comment below - I'd love to hear from you!
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