Stage Fright (eBook)

40 Stars Tell You How They Beat America's #1 Fear

Mick Berry, Michael Edelstein (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF

2009 | 1. Auflage
256 Seiten
See Sharp Press (Verlag)
978-1-884365-52-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Never before has the problem of stage fright been so eloquently examined, 40 interviews with some of the most highly-accomplished public figures shed light on this affliction, offering tips from their own experiences for overcoming it. Jason Alexander, Mose Allison, Maya Angelou, David Brenner, Peter Coyote, Olympia Dukakis, Richard Lewis, and many more sound off about their trials with stage fright, candidly discussing their fears and insecurities with life in the public eye and ultimately revealing the various paths they followed to overcoming them. Stage fright sufferers from all walks of life-whether a high school freshman nervous about an oral presentation or a professional baseball player with the eyes of the world on his bat-will find consolation by understanding the commonality of their problem, as well as helpful information to finally shed their inhibitions.

Textauszug

How You Can Beat Stage Fright

Stage fright is America's #1 fear, greater than the fear of death. Virtually everyone who has spoken or performed in public has felt it. Many others avoid public performing-or asking a question at a lecture or in a classroom-to avoid it. Jumpiness, fidgeting, profuse sweating, gut-wrenching bouts of self-doubt, acute self-consciousness, nausea, vomiting, and nervous, botched performances are some of its symptoms. Comedian Mark Schiff describes one of his worst bouts with it (at Caesar's Palace): 'My brain went dead. I got frozen, and I started hyperventilating. . . . I almost bolted off the stage.'

Fortunately there are effective ways to beat stage fright. Foremost is the cognitive-behavioral approach to banishing anxiety problems. Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), the precursor to all other cognitive-behavioral therapies, is our foundation in this chapter.

Briefly stated, stage fright is not produced by public speaking or public performing. Speaking or performing do not have the power to frighten you. Circumstances do not make you anxious. Rather, you induce stage fright in yourself with the thoughts, beliefs, and ideas in your very own head.

How to Give Yourself Stage Fright

Stage fright-inducing self-messages have several common features:

They almost always emanate from musts: 'I must do well or I'm no good.' 'The audience must like me, otherwise I'm a hopeless loser.' 'I must not feel anxious, if I do feel anxious I won't be able to stand it.' 'I must not appear anxious or go blank. If I do, I'll be a laughing stock.' 'I absolutely must perform well, or my life will be ruined.' These are absolutistic, take-no-prisoners demands (and mostly self-demands). Since we're all fallible humans who make mistakes and easily worry, musts are quite common. Yet they are a recipe for self-induced anxiety, and that anxiety contributes to poor performance.

Musts are often coupled with awfulizing: 'I must do well. It would be awful if I don't.' 'It would be terrible if the audience doesn't like me.' 'It would be horrible if I appear anxious.' In other words, it would be hellish if things don't go as they must. This failure to see things in perspective, to exaggerate the consequences of doing poorly to infinity, lies at the core of your anxiety.

Demanding acceptance by an audience. You tell yourself: 'I must be liked by the audience. It will be awful if I'm not. If they don't like me, it'll prove I'm a total failure.' Notice that these thoughts make your self-worth dependent on an external factor. Equating your value as a person with your performance and/or acceptance by an audience increases pressure dramatically, thus amplifying the anxiety produced via musts and awfulizing.

Perfectionism rubs salt in the wounds: 'I must do well or even outstandingly well. In fact, I must do as well as...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.5.2009
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Briefe / Präsentation / Rhetorik
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Tanzen / Tanzsport
• Themenwelt: Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Lexikon / Chroniken
• Themenwelt: Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Wörterbuch / Fremdsprachen
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
• ISBN-10: 1-884365-52-3 / 1884365523
• ISBN-13: 978-1-884365-52-2 / 9781884365522