Having performance anxiety, or what is commonly known as stage fright, is a natural occurrence. Your brain instinctively triggers fear or nervousness when faced with people you barely know. However, it is recommended that you find ways to help you overcome this feeling and be a better performer. These are some tips to help you reduce your stage anxiety.
1. Seek Medical Treatments and Supplements
You can use medical supplements like CBD edibles to help you reduce the feeling of anxiety when performing. CBD is known to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression. Using this type of medical supplement will reduce your fear of performing. CBD is a known herb that helps people work more under pressure by drastically reducing anxiety. You can also seek your doctor’s advice on what other medical treatments to use that would help you deal with performance anxiety.
2. Try Some Breathing and Relaxation Exercises
Practice breathing and relaxation exercises before going on stage to perform. The breathing exercises in the video below can help calm and relax your nerves.
You can simply sit in a corner for about 10 minutes and take in regular gulps of air while slowly letting it out. Clear your mind of any distracting or negative thoughts while doing this. You’d discover you feel better and invigorated to perform without being anxious. These breathing and relaxation exercises have a calming effect that dissipates any feeling of anxiety before performing.
3. Drown Out the Faces and Voices Around You
One of the major reasons why people get performance anxiety is because they start to focus on the faces staring back at them while on stage. A simple trick is staring above the heads of the spectators while performing. A lot of people find it hard to make eye contact during conversations. It leads them to stutter, fidget, and appear nervous.
It’s the same on stage if you’re not used to making eye contact. Wearing shades could help, while you also focus on your performance and drown out the voices around you. While this helps reduce anxiety, learning to make eye contact with your audience remains important.
4. Eliminate Negative Thoughts
When you’re so focused on things going wrong, you only scare yourself and increase anxiety. Refuse to think of things that will diminish your confidence and create fear. Instead, focus on positive affirmations and believe that you are going to give a wonderful performance. Believe in the hard work you’ve put into practice, and allow yourself to shine.
Tap into your inner purpose of becoming a star performer and use that to your advantage. Remember that renowned performers don’t let stage fright ruin their performances. The key is visualizing success and eliminating fear.
5. Be Mindful of Your Diet
Right before performing, watch what you eat. Don’t take in too much sugar or caffeine on the day you’re performing. Surely, you don’t want to go on stage hungry and without the vigor needed to perform. However, don’t go for meals with high fat and heavy carbohydrates. They only tire you out easily. Instead, eat something whole and low-fat like yogurt, beans, whole grain pasta, etc.