Why stage fright? – The Nervous System

The first workshop that I wrote and shared was about stage fright (often referred to in music circles as music performance anxiety or MPA) and I’ve recently been thinking about why I chose this topic. 

I wrote the workshop when I was married and before I got unwell with MS.  I wrote it when I was still constantly in a state of fight or flight, (also currently referred to as freeze or fawn and I expect more “f’s” will be added in time).  So for this mulling I will refer to it as being in a sympathetic nervous system state.

I didn’t know that I was living in a sympathetic nervous system state because I had spent almost all of my life in that place. The place where you’re being vigilant for danger, where you’re on edge because your nervous system doesn’t feel safe. 

I only realised I had been that way almost the whole time when I got settled into my new home.  Probably in 2023 to 2024.  

I realised, as I sat looking at my lovely fire, feeling totally safe and like I wasn’t having to perform to make sure the world was safe for me or worry about other people or how they were or what they might be thinking about me…. I realised then that I could maybe, almost, start to switch off. 

And I thought I had written the workshop to help other people

I thought I’d written the workshop to help other people but of course we always create the work that we need.  

I attract a lot of singers and speakers who are nervous about using their voices. I also work with people who are professional voice users who are either being brave and trying something new or have hit a wall/problem and don’t know how to get past it. All of this means that I work with a lot of people who are in an agitated state with their sympathetic nerves activated.  

I knew about how to work with this because I had done so much research into it for myself as well as for them. 

The Nervous System

I was taught a lovely description of the nervous system that I’ll try to share with you now.  I learned it when I attended an online course about Somatic Experiencing

https://www.seauk.org.uk/ and https://www.somaticexperiencing.com/ 

The autonomic nervous system has always been described to me as being made up of two parts.  (I bet there’s more to it but no one has gone that far with me).  There is the sympathetic nervous system, which is the fight or flight (freeze or fawn) state and there is the parasympathetic system, which is the rest and digest state.

Another way to put it is that when you’re stressed or afraid your sympathetic nervous system is in charge and when you’re calm and chilled your parasympathetic nervous system is in charge. 

The sympathetic nervous system is fast to react.  Something happens and our body reacts immediately.   The parasympathetic nervous system is slower to activate.  

On this course they described the sympathetic nervous system as being like a rocket.  They then described the parasympathetic nervous system as being like a parachute that brings you down to earth again. 

The idea from that training (the small part I attended) was that when were are triggered we want to be able to calm ourselves.   We want to be able to find the parachute to bring us back down when our sympathetic nervous system has rocketed us up. 

 Stage Fright Workshop 

I knew that I would have a great tool kit of tips and tricks to share to help calm the nervous system so I read some more books and gleaned more info and then put together a workshop which is entirely practical. 

As a fidgety person I find interactive presentations much easier to stay engaged with so there was never any question of my workshop not being interactive.  

I use techniques I have learned in  loads of different places, including spoken voice workshops, NLP training, in clowning workshops

I’m going to force myself to make some videos now where I’ll share some of the techniques.  I hope you find them helpful.

If you want to learn more about calming your nervous system, either when singing, speaking or in life more generally get in touch or book a drop in lesson. 

or you can contact me here- Contact – Rebecca Schwarz Singing Lessons

I actually wrote about my stage fright workshop after the first time I presented it. You can read about it here https://rebeccaschwarz.co.uk/stage-fright/

What I find crazy is I didn’t realise how brave I was being at that time.  I knew my marriage was over but we hadn’t told the kids so not only was I about the step into the scariest and bravest time of my life but I was pretending to my kids that everything was ok.   

When I shared the workshop at ICVT 2022 I was in very early days of my MS meds and I was flushing all of the time.  I had a fabulous time in Vienna but the heat almost broke me. I spent so much time sitting in the shade rubbing ice cubes all over my face and neck.  

It feels more than a bit ironic that I look back at those times as times when I was very very triggered. In a strong sympathetic nervous state!