So basically, I was wondering how come stage fright, stress, anxiety and negative emotions in general, which occur (even days) before doing something you deem important, like your acting performance in front of hundreds of people or even something on a smaller scale, like asking someone you very much like out, in, I'd say, a great majority of cases, do not manifest negative outcomes? So your performance ends up great and the person you asked out accepts joyfully, even though you were petrified and full of fears of it ending badly.

If you ask public performers of all kinds, almost every one of them will tell you they have stage fright and stress before a big show. Yet, it all ends very well. How come? I'm sure everyone experienced this too.

Negative emotions are alarms that something isn't right, aren't they? One should engage in an activity only when feeling good in order to achieve wanted results. How can we explain stage fright then?

We can see in this question for an example how fear can be and is a great manifesting force, and yet, it seems it isn't, because things we fear might happen don't happen.

Your thoughts?

asked 14 Jun '18, 11:16

Marin's gravatar image

Marin
1.8k735

edited 14 Jun '18, 11:18


If you ask public performers of all kinds, almost every one of them will tell you they have stage fright and stress before a big show. Yet, it all ends very well. How come?

Fear and Joy are actually very similar emotional states to each other.

It's Fear/Joy and Apathy that are actually opposites.

See "Where does apathy fit into the Emotional Guidance Scale and how does a person get out of that feeling?" to understand why.

  • If you are in Joy over something, you have a lot of energy flowing towards the object of your attention and, at the same time, you have Little resistance to the flow.

  • If you are in Fear over something, you have a lot of energy flowing towards the object of your attention but, at the same time, you have A Lot Of resistance to the flow.

All it takes is a slight tweaking of that resistance (e.g. as the performer gets into their practiced "flow" state on stage) for that fear to be transformed into joy.

And, not only that, but the watching audience automatically makes the performer into a focal point for their own energy flows, and so the performer experiences an even greater "thrill" as a result.

link

answered 14 Jun '18, 13:21

Stingray's gravatar image

Stingray
93.7k22141372

edited 14 Jun '18, 13:23

Makes sense, thanks again!

(16 Jun '18, 18:34) Marin
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