Legal doping for your performance!
COLUMN Nervous before a public appearance? It doesn't necessarily have to be negative. Communications consultant and public speaking coach Martina Vogel explains why stage fright can also have positive effects.Nausea spreads, the heart races, hands and knees tremble and the whole body is drenched in sweat. What sounds like the symptoms of a severe flu is actually what artists, presenters and speakers alike are afraid of: Stage fright.It strikes mercilessly, makes life - and especially the performance - difficult and can affect anyone. But stage fright also has its good sides and can help you achieve top performance.But first things first: Medically speaking, stage fright is a remnant of our past as hunter-gatherers. If we find ourselves in a threatening situation, the body sends a message to the cerebral cortex: Attention! It's about to get uncomfortable! The brain immediately ensures that the stress hormone adrenaline is released, which activates our readiness to flee: the pupils dilate, oxygen consumption increases, the muscles tense. The message: run away quickly before you are eaten by the wild animal - here: the audience.In medical terms, stage fright is therefore an anxiety reaction. Admittedly, that sounds anything but productive. But in the right dosage, this chemical communication between brain and body acts like brain doping. Because when you have stage fright, your ability to concentrate and your attention span increase in addition to your nervousness. From this point of view, stage fright is a positive thing, because body and mind are fully engaged.And between us: without this adrenaline rush, most concerts and speeches would be pretty lame. Therefore, my tip: make friends with stage fright! Because anyone who resents the symptoms or even fights against them only intensifies them. However, if we accept this evolutionary reflex and learn that it's absolutely okay if our hands shake a bit or a few hectic spots appear on our cheeks, the tension will subside much more quickly. So learn to really enjoy the spotlight with the legal doping agent stage fright!
