Stagefright

Before any performer in any area of entertainment steps on stage we all experience some kind of feeling that we don’t feel in other normal areas of our life, some people feel very excited, others feel nervous but they control it, others feel massive rushes of adrenalin raging through their veins, others report a feeling that they describe as an outer body experience, although some of these feelings may make you feel slightly uncomfortable for a short time they are all perfectly natural responses that your body feels is right for you in preparation for what you are about to do, but there is one other response that just the sound of its name can fill a performer with dread and ice cold fear, Stagefright, just knowing of its existence has been enough to destroy some peoples careers as many years of performance with no stagefright ever is no guarantee that you are one of the lucky ones that has slipped through the net and will never experience it, ex Beatle guitarist Paul Mc Cartney has spoken before about his dark times with it and American singer Barry Manilow has said in the past that quite often he is physically sick backstage just before his performance begins.
So why is it given this name? How can someone be afraid of a stage, after all a stage is just a raised platform made out of wood, why would we be afraid of some wood? The feelings of out of control axiety must be caused by something else, it certainly is a fear but not of a stage, it is the fear of failure, this is a deep feeling that can cripple people and can stop people from achieving things in all areas of life, not just performance, we feel that if we try something and we fail that people will laugh at us so rather than have to go through this humiliating experience we decide to not even attempt the thing in the first place because then we will be safe, we will be in our “comfort zone” whether your act consists of magic card tricks, mind reading, coin tricks or big illusions you may have felt feelings at one time or another of stagefright, symptoms include fast pulse, sweaty hands, dry mouth, shaky knees, tight throat, sickness, headache, stammering, speaking more and faster than usual, being totally silent, all of these are signs of stagefright, but if you feel any of the above have no fear, there are certain things that you can do to calm these negative thoughts and feelings and even eliminate them altogether.
All negative thoughts and feelings first start in the mind, therefore, if we learn to control our mind we will then have learned to control our body. Before you go on stage take some private quiet time out for yourself, now sit really calm, relax, lower your shoulders so that you have no tension in your neck, now close your eyes and visualize a picture of yourself walking on stage looking totally relaxed with the audience giving you the loudest round of applause that you have ever received, next, you perform your first trick and of course it is a faultless performance, once again you receive rapturous applause, now you perform your next trick and so on all the way through to the end of your show, these must not be just quick flickering thoughts, you must see in your mind the clearest images that you have ever visualised, see all the images in full colour, also, imagine what all your props feel like in every trick, hear all of the sounds you will hear during your act, although this is a calming exercise for you as you will not be able to think of anything going wrong when you are concentrating on everything going right there is actually an even more powerful reason for doing this visualisation exercise, what you are doing is running through a rehearsal of your show but in this rehearsal the whole show goes perfect, you are in effect, influencing the future to your advantage.
If the subject of creative visualisation is new to you you may find it difficult to concentrate on your images for the length of time that you would like in the early stages but with regular practice you will find that you begin to see your images for longer and longer periods of time, and remember, you can also go through the exercise at home in the chair, in bed, on the train, in fact anywhere that you have the chance to”go into the silence”you can rehearse your act which is of course perfect everytime.
I have practiced creative visualisation for more than twenty five years now and I can tell you in total honesty that it works, this method of mind control is so powerful that you may well feel like a new person when you begin to practice it but I will give you some words of caution, you must be careful about concentrating on negative images as these scenarios will just as easily become reality.
If the subject of creative visualisation interests you there are endless books and dvd`s on sale on the internet, just search on”self improvement”
Stagefright??what stagefright.

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