Abracadabra! Turn your jitters into flow.
Some people love the thrill of scary movies or insane roller-coaster rides, experiences that hijack the amygdala, the almond-shaped lumps of cells that play a key role in activating our body’s chemical response to stress. The heart, lungs, and hormones join in the fun, which disables the frontal lobes of your brain. The fight-or-flight response gets activated and wrecks rational, reasoned actions. In other words, you lose control of your conscious brain and responses.
Why does this thrill not work on the stage?
Because thrill and jitters are not the same. Both settings evoke fear and anxiety. However, the key distinction lies in the actual vs. perceived threat and the level of control you have over the situation. In horror movies, you can safely confront and process the fear; in other words, you can escape or control your exposure because it’s fictional, whereas stage fright involves an actual social situation where you feel vulnerable and exposed to judgment.
When we experience high stress, our adrenaline spikes, making us run or freeze. Adrenaline is a hormone that triggers the thrill, the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response. Its purpose is to get us out of a situation that’s gone wrong. It prepares us for action by increasing our heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate while also heightening our mental focus and alertness. Those who suffer from stage fright know these feelings and effects too well -you freeze since you can’t run away.
Upon entering the stage, you want to be able to create flow. During a flow state, your brain releases hormones and neurotransmitters, including dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins, which enhance peak performance. You don’t want a thrill. You want balance and deep immersion.
Some people advise you to recognize your fear consciously. Accept it without judgment and resistance, be courageous, and reframe it as energy. Great suggestion; however, there’s only one problem: you can’t exchange jitters for flow in an instant, like an outfit backstage. Changing anxious energy into peak performance upon entering the stage is, therefore, a deception.
Just to clarify, a little adrenaline is good to keep you alert. It’s the over-produced amount that will interfere with your potential best performance. How, then, do we convert fear into flow?
Flow requires preparation. You need a balance between energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment. When reaching this condition, by building technique, learning and studying your repertoire, rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing, etc., you’ll float in the triangle (see illustration) and experience flow.
Flow comes from preparation, while thrill and jitters are a reaction.
To find flow during performance, you need to increase your happy hormones -dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, and serotonin before you get on the stage.
This can be easily accomplished by some simple lifestyle choices, changes, or additions.
-Practice the use of positive language
-Strive for excellence instead of perfection
-List your accomplishments and the challenges you have overcome
-Practice meditation or yoga to calm the nervous system
-Eat a balanced diet
-Get your sleep
-Practice gratitude
-Add regular physical activity to your daily schedule
-Spend time outdoors
-Find awe
These activities will develop your ability to find flow and boost your chances to perform at your best.
Try to find joy in these efforts themselves, not from the reward (of finding flow). Research shows that finding joy in executing these activities produces more dopamine than doing it for a reward.
Abracadabra! You got flow.