Did you know that John Lennon played live thousands of times during his career, and vomited each time before hand? Stage fright is a feat some people deem worse than death, and the following video by TED-Ed is aimed at finding out why.
Humans are social creatures. We care about what others think whether we like it or not. And it’s the biggest cause of fears associated with speaking or performing live.
Your conscious mind perceives a live performance or public speech, however the rest of your brain perceives the possible consequences. It’s the ‘fight or flight’ scenario that is found everywhere in nature. Your brain is very much in tune with the law of the jungle, so it’s going to prepare your body for an attack. It means either run for your life or fight to the death, which is the trigger for the feeling of ‘stage fright’.
From this we can deduct that stage fright is natural and inevitable, but it’s how we deal with it that’s important. Like anything in life practice makes perfect, although there are a couple more things you can do to counter your nerves. You’ll need to watch the video below to find out exactly what.
