Sensitive people and performance anxiety
In my experience, the people who struggle the most with performance anxiety are musicians who identify as sensitive people.
Here’s why I think that is.
Us sensitive types are primed to think about other people’s feelings, which leads us to two kinds of behaviour:
We like to do things that make other people happy. (If left unchecked, this can lead to people-pleasing.)
We do not like to do things that make other people unhappy. (If left unchecked, that can lead to task avoidance.)
So how does this relate to our music?
Sensitive types want a guarantee that that their music is going to make other people happy before they decide to play. Similarly, if there’s even a chance that their playing could potentially make someone feel uncomfortable — either because the audience doesn’t like the song they’re performing or if they make a mistake while playing and it ruins the audience’s experience — they won’t take that risk!
If that’s you, I encourage you to think of two things.
First, start to acknowledge how much other people’s responses are weighing into your decision on whether you will share your gift or not, and ask yourself if you want other people’s potential responses to have that much ownership over the decisions you make.
Second, I think there’s some benefit in acknowledging that it may not be the performance itself that you’re afraid of but rather the response to your performance. Being able to distinguish those two things can help you remove your anxiety from the stage or camera itself and put that anxiety more in its rightful place.
If you found this helpful and would like to learn more about how I overcame the fear of other people’s responses, let me know and I can write a follow-up post!