You’ve got your presentation off pat, but the jitters strike right before you step in front of the audience.
A lot of people get stage fright, also known as performance anxiety. Sometimes it’s debilitating, with sweating, trembling, palpitations and mental paralysis. Some people have mental blocks regularly, lowering their quality of life.
“These blockages occur automatically in the subconscious,” says Ute Gietzen-Wieland, a business and mental coach. They’re basically bouts of anxiety that can appear at all sorts of moments, such as exam nerves, fear of flying and stage fright. The people affected perform far below their potential as a result.
“The problem can’t be solved, for example, by taking anti-anxiety drugs before a public appearance or exam,” says Bernhard Tille, a neuro-linguistic programmer and non-medical psychotherapist, adding that it’s often impossible to avoid the critical situations – which wouldn’t be a solution anyway. “Rather, it’s important to understand where mental blocks come from.”
To do this, start by writing down how you feel in a blockage-causing situation and what exactly you’re afraid of. Not being liked? Being laughed at?
“The cause of a mental block is often an undigested childhood experience,” says Cora Besser-Siegmund, a psychologist and psychotherapist. It can be so oppressive and traumatic that it entrenches itself in the subconscious and triggers mental blocks even decades later.
She cites an example: An accomplished pianist had a “blackout” during a concert and couldn’t continue. Psychological coaching pinpointed the cause. The blackout occurred while she was playing long forte passages, which subconsciously reminded her of a quarrel she had had as a child with her father, a shift worker who wanted to sleep while she played the piano.
Mental blocks can also arise from negative thinking, for example believing you’re unable to do something. The fear of failure then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“Coaching helps in many cases to break a mental block,” Tille notes. Sometimes, however, therapy is necessary, he says. In cognitive behavioural therapy, the therapist can help the patient uncover subconscious negative thoughts and reprogramme them into positive ones. And special breathing techniques can facilitate relaxation at stressful moments.
Another way to overcome mental blocks, developed in Germany, is known as wingwave. “A special coaching method, it aims to tackle stress where it originates, namely the brain – or more precisely in the limbic system,” says Gietzen-Wieland.
First the client describes the situation that sets off the mental block. A test then identifies stress triggers and lingering emotions, enabling the coach to expose the problem. Next, the coach deliberately brings the client into the mental block and starts the mental training.
“The brain is divided into a logical and an emotional half. The wingwave mental exercises link the two halves,” Besser-Siegmund explains. It’s made clear to clients who – emotionally – are afraid of performing before an audience that their fear is unfounded since they – logically – know they’re able to deliver the performance.
“Wingwave coaching typically requires three to five one-hour sessions,” she says.
If you suffer from a mental block, you shouldn’t wait too long before tackling it. “The sooner you confront it, the better,” says Gietzen-Wieland, pointing out that mental blocks sap vital energy, which adversely affects well-being. – dpa
