Stage Fright
I am not going to go into a lengthy explanation of why and how stage fright happens, the main focus here will be what we can do to prevent stage fright from happening.
I will lay out the two best techniques I believe are the best for dealing with stage fright, that I am aware of, they are PSTEC and EFT.
I will mention other approaches but using these two techniques alone can make an incredible difference to stage fright and how you experience it.
List the Stage Fright events and attributes
I highly recommend you first make four lists. The lists are ...
... 1. Possible events from the past which caused this fear in you
… 2. Think of the present day situations which bring about the stage fright experience for you. That is list the type of events which cause stage fright for you e.g. being asked to speak in a meeting. Basically we are looking for what triggers off these feelings of stage fright in you.
... 3. The physiological experiences you have when thinking about performing or when you are actually experiencing a stage fright situation.
Above you listed the type of situation which today might bring about the stage fright experience, and the resulting feelings which happen when in that stage fright experience. So here list the resulting feelings associated with the stage fright experience. e.g. tightness in throat, shaky voice, hard to breathe properly.
...4. The consequences and emotional effects should things go wrong . These are the consequences you believe you would experience if things went wrong, like ridicule and criticism and the resultant emotions of these consequences, like sadness, depressed, feeling like a failure etc the possible regrets.
To sum up, list: Events from the past, the triggers , the negative feelings, the and the emotional consequences .... relating to what, for you, bring about the stage fright experience.
PSTEC
Pstec is a free program you can pick up here www.pstec.org .
When you visit www.pstec.org click on the link “Your FREE Tools” on the left-hand side column of the website. There you will be taken to an opt in page where you fill in your email details and are sent the free program. Please don't let the fact that you have to opt in and give your email address put you off. Tim is a genuine block and the real deal, and of course you can opt out of receiving follow-up emails at any time.
You will then have a link to download the basic package. Download the basic package, read and listen to the instructions given.
Pstec is somewhat complicated to explain as to how it works.
… So how does it work?...
Keep in mind this is my understanding of how it works, I am not trained in pstec other than reading and using it, but for what it is worth here is my understanding.
Firstly It is a process developed by a man called Tim Phizackerly, a highly gifted therapist, amongst other things.
The actual process works, amongst other things, by re-patterning your thinking and emotional response to previously troubling reactions to situations you would rather respond differently to.
It thus enables you, once you have gone through the pstec process, to react to previously troubling situations in a more appropriate and positive way, as you want to react and be.
This is an extremely over simplification of how it works and if you want a deeper understanding please click this link to read more http://www.pstec.org/definition.php , here you will get a more in depth and fuller explanation. Here is the link again... http://www.pstec.org/definition.php
You might have to go through the process a few times to reach your desired outcome, but sometimes changes can be very quick and result in the first time through the process.
Everybody is different and it is a relatively easy thing to do, in as much you just listen along. It is easy to do but will require your attention and active involvement, so this is not a hypnotic process, you do need to apply your attention and do stuff.
...How to use it...
Using pstec to cure stage fright might be just as simple as imagining you are on stage and think of that which concerns you the most when appearing on stage. It could be of freezing up, forgetting the words or lyrics if you are singing, all the people staring at you. Imagine the worse case scenario.
The idea here is to bring the worst that could possibly happen to you on stage so that you elicit the stage fright feelings to the max so the pstec track can work effectively on this issue. You will only have to be feeling these terrible feelings for a short time so it is worth it.
Also I would suggest you refer back to the lists you made earlier and work on the most severe events, triggers, feelings and negative emotional consequences.
It pays to be thorough here , you might just need to go through the above process of imagining the worst once and the problem will be solved. You might have more things to work on though, so it pays to be more thorough.
Don't get overwhelmed by it all, just make a list which feels right for you.
There is no rush here all you need to do is approach this in an organised simple manner. That is why making out lists are useful you just need to refer to the list and work through each event, trigger, feeling or emotional consequence in a structured and organised manner.
I would start with the first event you can remember from childhood which caused the most severe feeling of stage fright and work on this using the eft and pstec processes.
This might be all you need to do to take care of the most overwhelming aspects of stage fright.
Human beings, being not simple “things”, have much going on with in us on a behavioral and psychological level. There might be more to work on, more layers to the problem of the stage fright we experience. In other words there might be more work to do than just the main event so that's where you go back to the list and work on other areas which might be causing the stage fright.
The important thing is not to get overwhelmed or despondent about what might have to be done, as I say you might deal with your stage fright by just working on the main event from childhood, but there may be more work needed to do than that.
Everybody is different and it is a relatively easy thing to do, in as much as you just listen along. It is easy to do but will require your attention and active involvement, so this is not a hypnotic process, you do need to apply your attention and do stuff.
Using pstec to cure stage fright might be just as simple as imagining you are on stage and think of that which concerns you the most when appearing on stage. It could be of freezing up, forgetting the words or lyrics if you are singing, all the people staring at you. Imagine the worse case scenario.
The idea here is to bring the worst that could possibly happen to you on stage so that you elicit the stage fright feelings to the max so the pstec track can work effectively on this issue. You will only have to be feeling these terrible feelings for a short time so it is worth it.
Also I would suggest you refer back to the lists you made earlier and work on the most severe events, triggers, feelings and negative emotional consequences.
It pays to be thorough here , you might just need to go through the above process of imagining the worst once and the problem will be solved. You might have more things to work on though, so it pays to be more thorough.
I would start with the first event you can remember from childhood which caused the most severe feeling of stage fright and work on this first.
EFT
EFT is an offshoot or further development of TFT, TFT stands for thought field therapy and EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique.
The following may sound a bit out there if this is the first time you have heard of EFT but I would ask you to go with it and try it out, I sincerely hope you give EFT a go.
The cause of any emotional problem from a bodies electromagnetic and meridian view point is the same . What happens is at the time of experiencing an emotional up set, for example a stage fright experience there is a disruption ( basically a disturbance and mix up ) in the bodies' energy and meridian system. This plays out later when similar situations are experienced.
By experiencing the same, or similar emotionally upsetting situations, there will be a similar firing off in the bodies' energy system resulting in the physical, mental and emotional reactions known as stage fright.
By applying eft successfully to the problem in question we are negating or discharging the emotional charge from our energy system, which was previously associated with such experiences.
That is a somewhat simplified explanation of what happens but from the tft and eft perspective negative emotional experiences are the result of a disturbance in the bodies electomagnetic or meridian system whilst undergoing that negative emotional experience.
So the process of actually tapping these points when recalling the emotionally upsetting experience or the types of emotions and feelings relating to that emotional experience you want to sort out, corrects this disruption in the bodies' energy system.
As simple and surprising as it sounds it works, works well and there is substantial scientific proof now for it doing so.
To find out about EFT I recommend you visit Gary Craig's site at https://www.emofree.com/ and scroll down on that page where you will see a box entitled "Gold Standard EFT Tapping Tutorial" there you will find flags of different Countries in that box, click on one of the flags depending on what language you speak; and that will take you to to the Gold Standard EFT part of that site. https://www.emofree.com/english/eft-tapping-tutorial-en.html
At the top left of that page you will find the "Official EFT tutorial". There are folders with + signs which you open up for more information. You will find the practical tutorial in the folder entitled "Part I " fourth document down entitled "How to do the EFT Tapping Basics- The Basic Recipe".
After that you will be able to apply eft to the events and emotions relevant to you, as necessary to overcome stage fright. It is at this point you refer back to the lists you made earlier and I would suggest you work on the most severe events, triggers, feelings and negative emotional consequences first.
By that I mean think of the worst events which you believe has caused your stage fright. Also think of the most severe emotions you experience when having stage fright .
It is also good to work on the first bad physical feeling which arises when you are beginning to have stage fright, the first physical feeling might be tightness around the throat for example, but do whatever it is for you.
So you can word the set up statement to suit each of these things you are working on, and also the reminder phrase as well. This will make more sense as you go through the training from the emofree website.
Examples of set up statements and reminder phrases: Set up statement for ...
An event... “Even though I was laughed at by my next door neighbors as a child for saying something stupid I completely love and accept myself...”
Reminder phrase:
“looking stupid”
A trigger: Set up statement...
“Even though I fear talking in a meeting I completely love and accept myself...”
Reminder phrase:
“Talking in a meeting”
Negative Emotional consequences: Set up statement...
“Even though I fear being ridiculed should my singing performance not go as well as I hope I completely love and accept myself...”
Reminder phrase:
“The ridicule”
… the most important thing I can say about this is to really get in touch with the feelings of having stage fright, not so much as just saying the set up statement and reminder phrase in a passive non involved way. You need to really feel what you feel when experiencing stage fright, or what you have felt previously.
There is so much more that can be said about stage fright and how to deal with it. I believe you will find these two techniques along with gradual desensitization are the best there are. Gradual desensitization should happen naturally as you progress through performance situations. The audiences will increase over time but even performing to a few at first will get you used to it.