Recent times have been a generous witness of various types of phobias. With the emergence of a highly competitive, opportunity and skill-driven environment, people from all walks of life need to prove exceptional and extraordinary in every task they perform. This extravagance is deemed necessary to meet a successful lifestyle’s standards. This performance pressure has been the inciting incident for the onset of various conditions of excessive and unnaturalistic fear. Among this group, the most common and widely found phobia is something known as Stage Phobia.
In layman’s terms, Stage Phobia is a subset of phobia wherein a person is overly afraid and frightened to face a meeting or perform in the presence of a large audience or crowd that tends to put them under the spotlight. A more clinical definition of the term would require expert assistance. Sometimes even actors and theater performers whose entire professional life revolves around the stage once faced this unconditional fear.
However, it is not a condition that requires excessive medication or clinical treatment. There is ample availability of tips for stage fright. In case of critical anxiety situations, it becomes indispensable to consult an authorized clinical physician or counselor. However, handling minor cases or instances of the same can be extremely feasible with the availability of tips for stage fright.
Here are a few helpful pointers on how to get rid of stage fright!
- Thorough Practice:
There is nothing better than having thorough practice with your presentation’s content to eliminate your stage phobia. This easy step’s repetition can contribute to building positive, unwavering confidence. Though time-consuming, it can yield perfect and satisfactory results if implemented with dexterity. Having your practice sessions with a loved one, is advisable. Sometimes even recording yourself on the camera can work wonders. The more you practice, the better prepared you are for your final showdown on the stage.
- Visualize Success:
Before taking the stage, one performance-related technique that is frequently used by businessmen, athletes, and other performers is to picture how successful the given performance will be. You should picture your presentation going flawlessly and the audience leaning in to hear every word you say with keen interest. When you enter the stage picturing this, you’re more likely to experience excitement than anxiety.
- Breathing and Relaxation Techniques:
Excessive anxiety or nervousness can result in symptoms like shortness of breath or occasionally, rapid, shallow breathing. Such circumstances require that you remain calm and composed. Even though it’s simpler said than done, by following a few straightforward steps, the process can be controlled. Ten slow, deep breaths from your lower abdomen while concentrating. This helps you to decompress. If at all possible, practicing a few gentle yoga poses can also be beneficial. Today, different health innovations can be used in conjunction with anxiety-reduction app designs.
- Visualize Failure:
Anxiety frequently develops out of a fear of the unknown. Playing the “what if” game is one well-liked trick. Imagine every possible scenario, then ask yourself, “What if that goes wrong?” What could possibly go wrong? Accepting the possibility of failure can occasionally reduce anxiety as you come to terms with the fact that the “worst that could happen” is actually not that bad.
- Break Down the Presentation:
One of the best tips for stage fright is time manipulation. In this case, you can break down the 30 minutes of the presentation into little 5 minutes. This way, you will have six 5 minutes in your head, and your task will be to easily go through each of these 5 minutes individually, one at a time, making minimal mistakes. This way, you can deliver a smooth presentation and get over it before you even know it.
- Keep your mistakes to yourself:
One of the common mistakes is to share your mistakes with a wide range of people. This technique may not be very feasible. It can have various disadvantages. For one, people might use it as your weakness for personal gain, or in some cases, knowledge of your mistakes can draw more attention to it than the other positive elements of your presentation, leading to negative points. Thus, it is advisable to keep your mistakes to yourself.
- Have a Focal Point:
One major pro is to have a simple, straightforward agenda. Anxiety-induced stage fright can lead to blabbing and diverging from the main point of your presentation. To avoid it, it is better to set a clear focal point, i.e., clarity about the content of your performance and the effect it aims to establish. Focusing on it will help you converge your mind and pay less attention to the anxiety-inducing elements in the audience.
- Eating Habits:
A majorly compromised phenomenon when it comes to stage phobia is that of eating habits. It may sound unrealistic, but the food we eat greatly influences our moods and emotions. High sugar and caffeine intake is said to increase our anxiety and make us more nervous and scared. Also, fast and junk food, low in fiber and various other nutrients, can be detrimental to our physical and mental stability. Though having delayed symptoms, they start to impart their negative and destructive properties to our health and well-being from the very onset of their consumption.
Above are some of the best tips that can be implemented to overcome stage phobia. Stage Phobia is not only a recognized but also a widely found condition. Therefore, there is no need to be ashamed or pity yourself for having faced one. There is a need for a more vocalized society for the same. However, if implemented to perfection, these tips for stage fright can be very effective and easily applicable, and adaptable.
