‘To be or not to be.. The rabbit caught in the headlights’ Sarah Collier November 2009
‘To be or not to be.. The rabbit caught in the headlights’
Sarah Collier November 2009
“I have been there, I have looked over the edge, and I have returned” Sir Laurence Olivier wrote these words in his autobiography about how he coped with his stage fright. Many actors, singers and performers have experienced anxiety or stage fright at one point in their career. Stephen Fry famously ran away from his West End production of Cell Mates after only the 4th night when he received mixed reviews for his performance, which lead to making him feel inadequate as an actor. He left the country and only got in touch with his friends and family a week after the whole incident had taken place to ask for help. He was later diagnosed with bipolar.
Many people have times in their lives when they feel inadequate or mistrusting of themselves– the ‘stage fright effect’ of a day when you are suddenly questioning yourself ‘Did I lock the front door this morning?’ Did I turn my styling tongs off?’ ‘Have I left the oven or iron on?’ that dreaded feeling rising up from the pit of your stomach, the clenched jaw, sweaty palms getting more and more pronounced when you think what might happen due to your ‘so called’ carelessness.
I remember ‘have I left the iron on?’ being one of my mother’s favourite especially when we were about to leave for our annual summer holiday and the house had to be shut up for those two weeks. My father would tell her that she should not be so silly and anyway it was too late to go back and check as we would miss the ferry. She would sit quietly in the front of the car for the next half hour mulling over all the possibilities that might happen as a result, and only relax once my brother and I started telling silly jokes.
Most people are able to combat the situation by working out strategies in their head about how they are able to double check that everything is in order. However something might happen that causes the issue to become bigger and bigger in the persons mind and if it is not dealt with efficiently has the potential to cause havoc on their daily life and routine.
Many people suggest that the best way to combat anxiety is to start yoga, mediate or take up physical exercise in order to clear the mind of doubt and confusion. This is a great idea if you can find an hour and half to yourself each day. However there are other simpler solutions to hand that can help. By learning simple techniques such as how to control your breath correctly or learning to focus the mind on a dominate idea – anyone has the capability to help cure themselves of that ‘rabbit caught in the headlight’ or ‘stage fright’ effect which can cripple a person belief in themselves and what they truly capable of doing.