Date: Tuesday, November 13th, 2012
I took a bit of a hiatus on my blogging and risk taking to focus on performance anxiety - the other aspect of my independent study. A large part of my research has come from speaking with Ms. Sara Kamin, the performance anxiety instructor at Seneca college. After studying her class notes, here are some of my findings:
In order to perform well, most people come up with their own pre-performance routine. This optimally includes physical and mental actions that are specific to that person's needs. For example, I will show some of the techniques I personally like.
1) Depending on how I'm feeling, I may dance, meditate, go for a walk, or do jumping jacks. This can either help to calm your physical symptoms or get you more excited.
2) At some point before I perform, I may visualize my performance going well in detail. It is well documented that the brain cannot tell the difference between visualizing with emotion and detail versus actually performing the activity. Therefore, visualization creates neural pathways in the brain that actually make it easier for you to perform.
3) Guadagnoli & Lee published a paper called Challenge Point: A Framework for Conceptualizing the Effects of Various Practice Conditions in Motor Learning which discusses ways to prevent automaticity in performance. One major thing that I have taken from my research in performance anxiety is that often anxiety can manifest itself as disinterest and lack of motivation! Therefore, creating little challenges for yourself when performing can not only energize you during the most routine of performances, but can also help you focus and calm you down.
For example, to calm yourself down, you may focus solely on the phrasing of a piece so that you have no attention left to focus on the audience. Conversely, to energize yourself, you may perform a piece in a less comfortable key, or while standing if you usually sit.
4) Lastly, Sara talked to me in detail about creating internal, versus external goals. Having an internal goal such as a challenge point (point 3), increases your chance of success and gives you the opportunity to be able to achieve your goals no matter what happens. For example, if i decide to set my challenge as singing in an uncomfortable key, I have a much higher chance of reaching my goal than if my goal is to have 600 people attend my show. In the first case, I can be satisfied whether 600 people attend or no one attends, whereas with the external goal, I can only be satisfied if something happens that is largely out of my control.
Do you have a pre-performance routine?
Could this relate to any type of risk taking? Could this actually relate to any action?
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