Last Updated on April 4, 2023 by Paul Hradek
“Even The Losers…Stage Fright Anxiety part” introduced the idea of Stage Fright. This second part details just some of the techniques therapists can introduce to clients to help guide them over this phobia.
Firstly, we need to understand the context of how they do their Stage Fright e.g. some of the questions therapists might ask are:
- How many people would be fine to present to one person, but not, say 10? Where is the cutoff point for you?
- Is presenting online different to presenting in person?
- Does it matter WHO you’re talking to and about WHAT?
Remember – everyone feels some sort of nerves before public speaking or performing – it is natural. I have read a few articles where performers such as Jon Bon Jovi and Robbie Williams both have said they feel a bit sick before they go on stage. But would we ever know that, if they hadn’t told us?
I would like to tell you a brief story about a parachute jump I did. The only one in fact. In those days I was scared of heights. I was strapped onto a professional, as it was a tandem jump and even though all I wanted to do was ask the pilot to take me back down to the ground, I knew I was in “now or never” territory. As we shuffled from the back to the front of the plane and I eventually hung out the open plane door, I was petrified and wondered how I was going to get through this. Eventually, we jumped, and as I struggled to breathe the cold air, I began panicking. But I remembered thinking that at least the fact I couldn’t breathe meant I wasn’t worried about the height situation! Then, I got my breathing under control and looked down at the breathtaking (literally, earlier!) view laid out below. Then a strange thing happened and I started to enjoy it. I later found out that there is a phrase known as “relaxing into the fear” and that was what I was doing.
This all relates to performance work, as once you start presenting or doing something, you will probably find you enjoy it.
What I started doing without even realising is pretending to be someone who loves presenting. I didn’t want to give people the satisfaction of thinking they made me feel nervous or anxious. So I learnt how to pretend I wasn’t.
For example, you can pretend you’re a rock star when you’re presenting, and imagine your charisma transmitting to the audience so they will hang off your every word.
Many Rock stars are quite quiet off-stage and have a different persona when they’re on stage. They step into a different personality on stage. The technique is called embodiment. You will probably have heard of the old “Fake it till you make it” phrase. I fake being someone else who likes presenting and make the whole presentation into a game.
Another thing we can work on is “disassociating” whilst we present. This is where we trigger a kind of out-of-body experience while you present, so it is like you are watching yourself give a presentation.
Lastly, if you like comedy, throw a few jokes out to the crowd. If people laugh, it eases the atmosphere. If they don’t laugh, make a joke about people not laughing. As Bob Monkhouse said “People used to laugh when I said I wanted to be a comedian. They’re not laughing now.’
Lastly, remember – – even if you are the most charismatic speaker in the history of the world, some people still won’t be listening. They might be looking at you, but they’ll be thinking “What’s for dinner?”, “When is the next ep of Strictly on?”, “When’s the next bank holiday?” etc etc. When we realise this, why do we need to feel anxious, when some people aren’t even concentrating on us?
There are many other things we can do to help Stage Fright; it really depends on what we find will work for you. If you want help working on your Stage Fright issues, or other issues please contact me:
https://paulhradek.co.uk/contact/
or via https://www.facebook.com/PaulHradekCognitiveHypnotherapy
or via https://www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/hypnotherapists/paul-hradek