7 Ways to Overcome Performance Anxiety

Public speaking can be a bigger fear than financial ruin, sickness or death. But even if it isn’t your biggest fear, it’s likely you’ve experienced performance anxiety at some point in your life. Even though much of what contributes to stage fright is psychological, there are ways to adjust your frame of mind, physiology and environment to help you relax so you can perform at your best.

Control your breathing

One often overlooked way to adjust your mood is to regulate your breathing. Deeper and slower breathing helps slow your physiology to a calm, relaxed and controlled level while also helping you feel more centered. It also increases oxygen flow to the blood and reduces muscular tension.

When we’re upset, excited or nervous, our breathing becomes fast and shallow — also known as shoulder breathing. However when we are relaxed, breathing originates from lower in your chest and is supported with your diaphragm.

In private coaching we work on diaphragmatic breathing, developing greater breath capacity, breathing through words and making sure that whatever your technique, it isn’t a distraction to the audience.

The more diaphragmatic your breathing, the greater your breath support. And if you have long sentences, dramatic copy or large words to articulate, breath support becomes all that more important.

Shift anxiety into excitement

Shift your focus and re-frame your performance. Turn fear and anxiety into fun and excitement. Instead of asking, “What if I fail?” focus on what is exciting about the message you are delivering, the impact you will make, how you are helping others and how passionate you are about your topic.

We typically embrace things that we are looking forward to and tend to have greater positive expectancy for the outcome. Inner dialogue shifts from what could go wrong to what will make an impact and how exciting it will feel, allowing us to dive deeper into the moment.

In private coaching we work on asking yourself constructive questions that reshape and re-channel your mindset to help deliver a smooth, poised and compelling message that is focused on your audience.

A few questions you could ask yourself are, “What is exciting and fun about this?” How do I want my audience to feel? What is the emotion I’m trying to convey? Why am I passionate about in this?”

The idea is to come up with questions that relieve pressure and shift your attention on the moment at hand and your audience rather than any level of anxiety surrounding it.

Skip the Venti Triple Shot Blonde Roast

For introverts a cup of coffee before a high-pressure meeting could mean disaster. Caffeine not only overstimulates introverts, but also makes them anxious, jittery, and unable to concentrate on the task at hand.

I learned this the hard way while doing morning radio. Back then I was a night owl, which made it even more difficult. And since my days started at 4am I turned to coffee to wake up. After all, only does a morning radio host need to be awake at ungodly hours, but it is essential to actually sound awake and sharp when delivering the morning’s news.

I wrongly assumed caffeine would quickly propel me to that perfect awake and alert sound. In actuality, it shot my energy through the roof and it instead propelled me beyond that sweet spot and into a realm of uncontrollable over the top energy. At that point it became difficult to reign in. When over-caffeinated I came across as jarring to morning listeners who were just waking up.

Tip: If you require a shot of caffeine opt for a hot tea instead.

Tea has less caffeine than coffee, can achieve the same level of alertness and even has health benefits. Chamomile tea even has a calming effect if you are dealing with anxiety.

Mint teas give your pipes a more pleasurable sound, along with keeping you hydrated. While others help relieve nasal congestion, calm your nervous system and improve circulation.

Stay on the stage.

You’re either on the stage or in the audience, you can’t be in both. If your mind is “in the audience” you become self-conscious, seeing yourself, hearing yourself and being overly self-critical. Being “in the audience” and not on the stage further contributes to anxiety, stress, and pressure. As a performer your attention should stay 110% on stage, performing in a way that connects deeply with your audience.

Focus on meeting the audience where they’re at.

Instead of thinking about your own feelings and emotions, focus on your audience and how it will receive your message. Match your tone to the emotions that you want your audience to feel. In private coaching we identify emotional goals for the audience and placing ourselves in the corresponding state of mind. For instance, if you want to reassure your audience, you would first feel reassured yourself. This shift not only helps you sound more reassuring in your delivery, but also shifts your focus from yourself to asking questions such as, “Who is in the room? Why are they here? What do they need? and How can I serve them with my message?”

Stay in the present

Stage fright distracts us from the present moment and places our attention on the future and on the things we wish to avoid.

Stay intensely in the present moment. As if your life depended on it. Place all your energy on staying in the now and not letting your mind get too far ahead of your message. If you are experiencing stage fright, your mind is picturing future events going poorly.

Leave the performance space briefly

Change your surroundings to ease your senses. Leave and come back. Step away for a bit. Remove yourself from the performance area which can be filled with tension and anxiety. Sometimes it is more difficult to shake anxiety when we are surrounded by the things that are making us nervous. In these situations, we need to leave the area for a bit, get centered, relaxed, refocused and then return your performance area.

Find a private space, perhaps a backroom or stairwell, where you can be alone with your energy to center yourself and focus. If you cannot find a private indoor room, step outside. Sometimes fresh air or sunlight can help calm us. Naturally, you would remain mindful of the time constraints of your session.

Leaving the area is also beneficial in preventing your anxiety from bleeding onto others in such a way that makes them nervous. This is especially helpful if you are conducting an interview.

Once you are mentally prepared it could be a good idea to step into your performance area, visualize your performance going well and run-through and rehearse your performance. Fill your mind with images of you performing flawlessly against your performance backdrop.

Find your zen

Meditation isn’t for everyone and it’s not always possible or practical in the moments before going on stage, but it can certainly help to meditate during the days leading up to your performance. Meditation helps to calm and center you while visualizing a flawless performance.

Since our nervous systems can’t tell the difference between an experience vividly imagined and one actually experienced, meditation allows ours brains and nervous systems to experience our performance before it is actually delivered. Mental imagery helps toward controlling your focus, stay on stage, stay in the present, get excited and connect with your audience.

Remember that everything in the physical world was at first a thought. Meditation takes you to the level of thought where you can create an outcome as you wish — before it happens in the physical world. And without limitation.

After you meditate, your brain and nervous system will have literally experienced your desired outcome, helping you relax and feel more confident when facing it in the physical world.

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