Performance anxiety: understanding and managing stage fright

Performance anxiety or "stage fright" is an intense feeling of fear coupled with strong physical sensations that most performers experience at some point in their career. It is important to understand that a certain degree of anxiety is needed to optimise performance. However, too much anxiety can become debilitating and actually impact on your ability to perform, leading to overwhelm and, if unaddressed, eventually burnout. The Stress Performance Curve below illustrates this.

Performance anxiety is very common in performing arts professionals. It is believed that nearly 80% musicians experience performance anxiety at some point in their career. Performance anxiety is thought to be linked to areas relating to our sense of social identity and belonging in society and the associated fears of judgment of rejection that can often arise when we feel exposed (e.g. when performing on a stage).

The Performance Anxiety Cycle

There are certain factors that can increase your risk of experiencing performance anxiety, including:

• If you experience anxiety in everyday life and can become anxious about everyday situations;

• previous memories of upsetting or disappointing performances;

• If the performance is labelled as "make or break" or "high profile";

• You are performing in front of people you admire or who are high profile in the field;

• You have not had much time to prepare or you are performing something new or with new people;

• You are experiencing ongoing life stressors (not necessarily related to your performance);

• You consider yourself generally a perfectionist and have really high (somewhat unrealistic) and rigid standards for yourself that are difficult to sustain.

If any of the above resonates with you, it is likely that these factors will have an impact on how you see yourself in the world and generate negative core beliefs about yourself that can become activated when a trigger situation arises, leading to the typical thoughts-feelings-physical sensations-behaviour cycle of performance anxiety, which can lead to avoidance strategies as an attempt to minimise the uncomfortable feelings. Whilst avoidance can help in creating temporarily relief from the anxiety feeling and physical sensations, overtime it makes the anxiety worst because performing becomes even more scary, reinforcing the cycle.

© Psychology Brighton

Helpful strategies

The good news here is that there are strategies that can help manage performance anxiety both in the short and long term.

1. Preparation

   What you do in the weeks or days before a performance can have a significant impact on how you feel on the day. If part of your worries are about not knowing the material enough for instance, make sure that you are setting aside regular practice so that you can familiarise yourself with the piece. Remember, a lot of playing an instrument works on muscle memory, so practice is indeed very important but do watch out for perfectionism.

   
   

   You can also book yourself some sessions with a trusted teacher or field expert to refresh your technique so that you can optimise your chances of a good performance.

   
   

   Try to adopt a consistent approach towards each performance. Labelling particular performances as "important" or "make or break" can exponentially increase the pressure you feel about performing and increase your risk of experiencing performance anxiety. Yes, there will be some performances that objectively carry more career risks. However, if you remember the curve above, too much anxiety can ultimately impact on your performance so it is important to try and minimise the pressure. Sometimes the moments that we think are "make or break" might not necessarily be.

   
   

2. Techniques to help on the day

   Make sure you integrate a physical warm up before your performance. Warming up your muscles and doing physical exercises aimed at warming up your body can be a helpful way of feeling more grounded and dissipating the uncomfortable bodily sensations that come with anxiety. This can also help with any discomfort during the performance.

   
   

   Learn some breathing techniques. Anxiety often affects our breathing, so doing something active to regulate your breathing rhythm can be helpful with the physical sensations of anxiety. Exercises like the square breathing for example can be a helpful way to regulate your breathing. In this exercise, you imagine following the four sides of a square, breathing out for 4 seconds, holding your breath for 4, breathing in for 4 and holding your breath for 4. Do this for a few minutes whilst you are getting ready for your performance.

   
   

3. Get further help

   Sometimes, in spite of your best efforts, performance anxiety might carry on because perhaps it has some roots in past experiences. If your performance anxiety is becoming debilitating, it is important to seek out further support. We offer tailored psychological therapy for performing arts professionals.

   
   

Get in touch for further support