Stage Fright

I get it that there are plenty of neurofeedback approaches which are driven by symptoms, and there may be one that can tell you exactly what to train for stage fright, but our system prefers to take a broader look at a client’s complete experience, identify a variety of things that he/she would like to change (if he/she thought it was possible), look at their brain patterns in a fairly comprehensive way and seek to shift the stable balance in their brains into a new and more functional way. If you do that, in most cases the stage-fright (whether it is anxiety-based or performance-based or whatever) will be resolved along with many other things.

An additional approach is to do some alpha theta sessions with visualization. In the beginning of the session (the piano music) let yourself get into the stillness/presence alpha state. When the girl starts singing, begin to visualize: See yourself, as if in a video and feel yourself in a situation where you were asked to speak in public and crashed. Remember it in as much detail as you can in the video, right up to the point where you realize you’ll have to speak to the group and begin to feel afraid. Realize that this is a script you have written and encoded in your subconscious and thus you can change the script. As soon as you feel the fear, slowly blow out all your air as you count seven seconds, seeing if you can completely empty your lungs by the end of the count. Then let the breath come back in and count 3 seconds. No-one needs notice what you are doing–even if there are people around you. Feel your body relax and recognize that you know more than enough about your topic as you breathe again. Do it again as you hear yourself being introduced, feeling the confidence you would feel if you were talking to a single person. Notice as you step to the front that you feel very different from how you usually feel. Pick someone in the audience and start talking to that person. Switch to another, then another as it feels right, just talking to each one about whatever you are saying. Continue until you are ready to finish (you can collapse the time in your visualization). Finish your topic and ask for questions. Listen to what is being asked, take your time and answer clearly. When you are finished, just let your mind drift as the girl’s song ends and into the male voice chanting and through to the end of the session. Go where your brain takes you. Don’t think, don’t try, don’t judge.

Do a few sessions in a row if you wish and feel the new program being encoded into your subsconscious, gaining confidence each time. Using something like the breathing as a trigger (don’t forget to count) prepares you to do the same thing when you are actually in the situation coming up.

Don’t expect miracles, but give yourself credit for improvements you make. The more you practice, the better you’ll get. Especially without the expectation of disaster.