Performance Anxiety Performance Anxiety is a consciousness that instead of helping holds back performance. Performance anxiety is a kind of phobia that is practiced by a performer at the time of/ or before his performance. Performance anxiety varies from person to person. Mostly every person experiences it differently. Before giving a performance, some people have a light “butterfly” feeling in their abdomen.<1>Some people start feeling jumpy. Others start vomiting. Some other symptoms of performance anxiety are shivering, perspiring, lack of concentration, dry mouth, etc. Performance anxiety is a widely known problem.
Actually, there is not a clear solution for the people who practice performance anxiety. There may be some following reasons that are responsible for performance anxiety.
Reasons of performance anxiety: · Phobia of failure.
· Performer’s psychological settlement.
· Social conditioning prohibitions.
· Lack of preparedness of performing.
· Inadequate knowledge about the performance.
Practical methods for treating performance anxiety: Consider a room for practicing: In thisroom you can experiment with different kinds of "self talk," by visualization methods. <1>
Learn to let go: At the time of performance, if you make a fault you should let it go and concentrate on the present.
Allow yourself to fail: A performance is not the end of the world. If you feel that faults would not kill you, and try to give yourself the freedom to take risks in your performance, you may be surprised and realize a new independence in your performances.
You will have to experiment with a lot of methods to find the solutions to your own situation. These methods may help you in overcoming performance anxiety.
Reference: 1.Blair Tindall, Better playing through chemistry (october 17,2004).