Rocket Fuel - Overcoming Stage Fright & Performance Anxiety

Greetings Inside Timer family!

Hello,

My name is Chris Asad and today I'm going to share a simple practice with you that you can use to overcome stage fright.

This can be especially valuable if you have to give a public speaking engagement or a presentation at work.

This can even be useful if you're going to have a hard conversation and you feel some kind of nerves about it,

But really anywhere where you're putting yourself out there,

Where you're stepping out into a public-facing offering of your gifts,

Of your voice,

Of your magic,

And you feel nerves about it.

You feel that common sensation known as performance anxiety,

Stage fright,

Butterflies,

Whatever you want to call it.

It's not a fun experience and I know because I used to have debilitating stage fright when I first started playing music 20 some years ago.

So much so that there were many points where I wanted to quit because I would often wake up the day of a performance with a knot in my stomach,

A lump in my throat,

Tight,

I wouldn't be able to eat the whole entire day,

And then even when it came time to give the performance I was so tight that I would often make mistakes that I didn't really have any reason to make,

But just because I was tense,

I was nervous,

I was in my head.

And that's really the key distinction that I learned that changed everything for me some 20 years ago from an acting coach by the name of Josh Peiss was that what happens when we go to give a talk,

To give a performance,

When we step out on a stage is literally just the movement of energy.

It's the movement of atoms and this is coming from someone whose father was a physicist who studied with Einstein and who had this aha moment that,

Oh,

This thing that happens in the body is actually natural.

Our body is preparing to do the thing,

To give the talk,

To give the transmission.

This sensation that happens when we are about to do something like that is literally rocket fuel.

Now,

The tricky part is what happens up here is usually not so supportive.

Because our brain is designed to protect us from the perceived danger of doing the thing that's out of our comfort zone,

The narrative in our heads is often negative.

It'll often say something like,

You're going to mess up.

What if this happens?

Don't do it.

You're not prepared enough.

What if they don't like it,

Et cetera,

Et cetera.

You probably have your familiar,

Usual flavor of this.

And the point is that's an indication that you're in the head and your mind is trying to do what it thinks it's meant to do,

Which is protect you from perceived danger.

But the thing is giving a talk,

Even if you were to mess up completely,

Isn't walking into a dark alley at night.

It isn't walking into a dark forest where there's animals on the prowl.

It's just doing something that's a little bit out of your comfort zone potentially,

Or that is going to require some expanded version of you.

So that's the real key is that we want to stay out of our heads and in the bodies.

And if you're anything like me,

You know that actually trying to make this go away by breathing it away,

By affirming it away,

By ignoring it,

Doesn't actually work.

It actually just gets worse because we're dissociating from what's happening in our bodies.

And so we feel kind of conflicted,

Disconnected,

And that inner tension actually grows.

So the simple shift that changed everything for me is that you actually want to embrace the energy.

You want to allow it,

You want to welcome it,

And you want to,

As best as you can,

Stay in the body.

And how do you do that?

By just tuning into the five senses,

What you see,

What you hear,

Your feet on the ground,

The clothes on your skin,

Just any way that you can access a more embodied experience of being in your body,

Being in your experience,

And welcoming this energy in trust that it's actually your body doing exactly what it's meant to do.

There's nothing wrong.

It's supporting you,

Getting ready to support you,

To give the talk,

To give the performance,

To share your gifts,

To make an impact,

To offer that transmission.

And so all we really want to do is stay out of the mind as much as we can,

Stay in the body,

Allow that energy to rise as rocket fuel.

And as I started doing this,

The most interesting thing happened,

Which was that the more I was feeling before a performance,

The more I would sense,

Oh,

This is going to be a good one.

This is going to be an amazing one.

I can feel there's a lot of fuel building in my system.

It completely changed the game for me.

And I have all the faith that it can do the same for you.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

All right.

Much love.

I hope this helps.

And I'll see you again soon.