Help for performance anxiety or stage fright with homeopathy.
“If human beings would learn from an early age not to care what other people say, we would all be a much happier bunch”.
Said Joseph Calleja the wonderful lyric tenor with a big voice and a big heart.
Indeed, if only!
ON STAGE FRIGHT
One hears it is estimated that more than 50 per-cent of all musicians, singers suffer from some anxiety symptoms in concerts and rehearsals. Anxious, simply because they, want to do well, …..in front of a public.
This wanting to do well triggers stage fright, performance anxiety. It is a fear of being perceived in a bad light in front of others. Artists, politicians, scholars, businessmen, and all those who regularly come under the spotlight know this feeling very well.
Some anxiety is natural and can even increase the chance of an excellent performance. The adrenalin surge, this positive excitement, leads to an enhanced, tuned up emotional state. This is the desired for “good” stage fright that can actually enable an artist to produce the best possible performance.
Alas this is more often not the case, because when one is at the center of attention this increased adrenalin production can also produce the same ‘flight or fight’ reaction as when being under threat, or attack.
Results can be fast pulse and breathing, dry mouth or a ‘lump in the throat’, trembling hands or lips and voice, excessive perspiration, nausea and even reduction in sight at times.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO OVERCOME IT?
As anxiety increases, the attention is focused on trying to overcome it. Now, a vicious circle begins, drawing energy away from the task at hand and then one may become even less capable of logical thinking, presence of mind or concentration. Trying to stop it is like preventing a pressure cooker release steam, which is obviously to be avoided. The symptoms cannot be mastered on the mental plane alone.
A CHALLENGE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTIST
Every one of us can experience these reflexes with variable intensity, but for a performing artist the consequences of the issue are way more severe. Facing the distressing symptoms of stage fright for a musician, or a singer, in fact anyone stepping on a stage is a serious challenge. All the while presenting a real threat to the clarity of any performance.
Don’t think veteran artists or musicians who have been playing with orchestras for over 20 years are immune either. Stage fright often does not just go away, it may rear its ugly head time and time again.
The jitters can happen when playing or singing, and the number of years as a professional does not necessarily mean reduction of performance anxiety. It is common knowledge that a certain world class pianist, after a 50-year brilliant career, is giving fewer and fewer concerts because of stage fright.
The worst case scenario is when an artist would rather withdraw altogether from giving performances, step down from the music profession than face debilitating stage fright.
The wretched jitters sometimes give the impression of being just the shadow of oneself. So, what is the poor musician, singer, artist to do? Take tranquilizers, then eventually find they are not able to do without them? Or imitate some performers who can’t go on stage without being stuffed with beta blockers?
HOMEOPATHY TO THE RESCUE
Would it not be better to learn how to manage stressful situations? Easier said than done, but I would like to present homeopathy as a one of the methods of management.
Homeopathic remedies do not act as sedatives in a chemical way, suppressing anything within the body. Instead they stimulate the natural mechanisms of repair and build in resilience. A well selected remedy, reduces the distressing symptoms of performance anxiety simply by enhancing your ability to cope with it.
SOME REMEDY SUGGESTIONS
Let’s look at some of the remedies that may help. If you feel drained of courage literally frozen with fear, unable to concentrate, feeling lethargic, dull, trembling, and feel your legs would not carry you to the stage, you seize up both physically and mentally, then you will benefit from Gelsemium the classic stage fright remedy.
On the other hand if you are feeling restless, fidgety with anxiety, you tremble, your sense of time is distorted, your mind races with wild thoughts and you feel you must have something sugary, but are feeling nauseous and would stay as far as possible from the radiator, then Argentum Nitricum is the remedy you need.
If the anxiety suddenly appear out of nowhere with strong palpitations, you are very thirsty, full of forebodings, think you might die, in other words you are having a panic attack then reach out for Aconite a most marvelous aid in panicky states.
That famous ‘lump in the throat’ sensation, when a singer can only give much less during a performance than he/she knows she is capable of. Some old grief comes up at the same time you want to sigh and sigh, then the your remedy is Ignatia.
Having a small homeopathic kit is preferable than going through the unpleasant symptoms and at worst cancelling an engagements in the last minute because you feel you simply can’t go through with it.
Imagine, traditional prescribing is giving a tranquilizer for anxiety, whereas homeopathic prescribing is selecting the right remedy for the sufferer’s particular form of (stage) anxiety.
In depth homeopathic prescribing, matching the remedy to the symptoms is a more complicated process, which can only be established during the homeopathic consultation.
Do give homeopathy a try, to find your equilibrium, so your joy, your love of singing, making music can shine again.