Stage Fright: Solved

written by Dave Burns

I’ve played cello since I was 6. My relationship to the instrument has always felt somewhat tangled.

I always adored the sound of the cello, and have deeply treasured the moments when what I played mirrored the music that I heard in my mind. But two great pains also plagued me for nearly two decades of my playing.

The first was the inner conflict that inevitably emerges when a somewhat free-spirited soul encounters the need for disciplined practice. The second, and ultimately more painful challenge, was the experience of what most people refer to as “performance anxiety,” “or “stage fright.”

Even when I did manage to at least temporarily pull myself together and practice enough to fully prepare for a performance, the moment I took my seat before an audience my body filled up with a heart-pounding tension that only worsened the more I tried to calm it.

Shaking hands, sweaty palms, hot face, cold fingers, scattered mind — these symptoms not only prevented me from fully enjoying *any* solo performance throughout the bulk of my musical career, they also weakened, substantively, the quality of my public playing.

Those sweet moments of unity between hand and ear that sometimes graced practice sessions, and make all the work of musical study worthwhile, could never be shared with an audience, no matter how small or unconditionally approving that audience might be.

This painful pattern persisted in the face of meditation practices, breathing techniques, and pre-performance rituals learned from professionals. Performance anxiety poisoned both my experience, and my listeners’ experience, of the cello for 18 years, prior to coming accross EmRes.

Because I was no longer playing cello professionally when I encountered this work, I focused my first EmRes sessions on other things — anger in relationship, fear in business, etc. All of that work proved highly impactful.

But then I had the privilege of learning how to apply the EmRes technique to myself, with no facilitator. This learning happened to coincide, very sadly, with the death of my grandmother.

I brought my cello to her funeral to play a piece of Bach as my offering to honor her passing. When the moment to play approached, all the familiar sensations of stage fright flooded my body, despite all the most compelling internal admonishments I could summon on such a day to “get out of the way and just play for her.”

I closed my eyes and applied the practice of solo EmRes I’d learned for less than two minutes. 100% of the anxiety dissolved.

When I opened my eyes, it was time to play, and I experienced what it’s like to play music, for hundreds of people, with simple presence and zero fear of either body or mind,, for the first time in over 18 years of performing. (And, as a result, I was able to play at the peak of my ability, like I only ever had before in the privacy of my practice room.)

I’ve performed again since then, and the old agonies of stage fright have never once returned. A lifetime of performance anxiety was permanently eradicated by a 90-second practice built on this almost impossibly simple body-centered approach to emotional regulation. I cannot recommend this technique enough.

Dave Burns is a transformational coach, angel investor, conscious business advisor, and essayist. Today his work and writing center on the interplay between ancient wisdom and modern practicality. www.dave-burns.com