The science of stage fright and how to overcome it Mikael Cho
Palms sweaty,
heart racing,
stomach in knots.
You can’t cry for help.
Not only is your throat
too tight to breathe,
but it’d be so embarrassing.
No, you aren’t being stalked by a monster,
you’re speaking in public,
a fate some deem worse than death.
See, when you’re dead, you feel nothing;
at a podium, you feel stage fright.
But at some point
we’ve all had to communicate
in front of people,
so you have to try and overcome it.
To start, understand what stage fright is.
Humans, social animals that we are,
are wired to worry about reputation.
Public speaking can threaten it.
Before a speech, you fret,
“What if people think I’m
awful and I’m an idiot?”
That fear of being seen as an awful idiot
is a threat reaction
from a primitive part of your brain
that’s very hard to control.
It’s the fight or flight response,
a self-protective process
seen in a range of animals,
most of which don’t give speeches.
But we have a wise partner
in the study of freaking out.
Charles Darwin tested fight or flight
at the London Zoo snake exhibit.
He wrote in his diary,
“My will and reason were powerless
against the imagination of a danger
which had never been experienced.”
He concluded that his response
was an ancient reaction unaffected
by the nuances of modern civilization.
So, to your conscious modern mind,
it’s a speech.
To the rest of your brain,
built up to code
with the law of the jungle,
when you perceive
the possible consequences
of blowing a speech,
it’s time to run for your life
or fight to the death.
Your hypothalamus, common
to all vertebrates,
triggers your pituitary gland to secrete
the hormone ACTH,
making your adrenal gland
shoot adrenaline into your blood.
Your neck and back tense up, you slouch.
Your legs and hand shake
as your muscles prepare for attack.
You sweat.
Your blood pressure jumps.
Your digestion shuts down
to maximize the delivery of nutrients
and oxygen to muscles and vital organs,
so you get dry mouth, butterflies.
Your pupils dilate,
it’s hard to read anything up close,
like your notes,
but long range is easy.
That’s how stage fright works.
How do we fight it?
First, perspective.
This isn’t all in your head.
It’s a natural, hormonal,
full body reaction
by an autonomic nervous
system on autopilot.
And genetics play a huge
role in social anxiety.
John Lennon played live
thousands of times.
Each time he vomited beforehand.
Some people are just wired
to feel more scared performing in public.
Since stage fright
is natural and inevitable,
focus on what you can control.
Practice a lot,
starting long before
in an environment similar
to the real performance.
Practicing any task
increases your familiarity
and reduces anxiety,
so when it’s time to speak in public,
you’re confident in yourself
and the task at hand.
Steve Jobs rehearsed his epic speeches
for hundreds of hours,
starting weeks in advance.
If you know what you’re saying,
you’ll feed off the crowd’s energy
instead of letting your hypothalamus
convince your body it’s about to be lunch
for a pack of predators.
But hey, the vertebrate hypothalamus
has had millions of years
more practice than you.
Just before you go on stage,
it’s time to fight dirty
and trick your brain.
Stretch your arms up and breath deeply.
This makes your hypothalamus trigger
a relaxation response.
Stage fright usually hits hardest
right before a presentation,
so take that last minute
to stretch and breathe.
You approach the Mic, voice clear,
body relaxed.
Your well-prepared speech
convinces the wild crowd
you’re a charismatic genius.
How?
You didn’t overcome stage fright,
you adapted to it.
And to the fact that no matter
how civilized you may seem,
in part of your brain,
you’re still a wild animal,
a profound, well-spoken wild animal.