I feel like I’m outing myself publicly by posting about this weird technique I came up with to help with my Lampenfieber (’stage-fright’, literally translates as Lamp fever from German). In case it helps any of you, then it will have been worth the embarrassment.
Lampenfieber isn’t always what we think it is
Some people experience it as fear or anxiety, other lucky performers experience it as excitement. It presents itself in all sorts of ways for different performers in different situations but it is always characterized by running-thoughts. I’ve found that the content of those thoughts is specific to the performer and can be either positive and inspirational (excitement-based) or negative and damaging (fear-based).
We should ultimately be training towards balance
Clearly, it would be nice to have our obsessive thoughts be positive and inspirational. Performers who are lucky enough to have trained this, yes- trained it, fall into the category of experiencing Lampenfieber as excitement. And when you experience the inevitable hit of performance chemicals in the body, it is good to have trained your brain to experience them as excitement.
However, it isn’t healthy to put your body through this, especially in a fest job when you perform several nights a week and need to be fresh the next morning at 10 am. Or hell, you just want to avoid the classic symptoms of an adrenal dump: PSD (Post Show Depression), and the general feeling of being hit by a truck.
The body experiences fear and excitement the same way and you will always pay on the back end for that big addicting surge of adrenaline. This is especially true if you have a heavy performance and rehearsal schedule. And anyway, another question for thought-
Are you more focused, intentional, and grounded when you are excited or calm?
How the Brenda Technique can Help
Who is Brenda?
Go with me on this. I made my running thoughts into a very concerned, anxious, and needy middle-aged character and named her Brenda. Over the years, Brenda has become a vibrantly detailed personality. She has never missed a performance. She is my number one fan who just wants me to succeed and protect me in any way she knows how.
Unfortunately, poor Brenda doesn’t understand how to help me. She is well meaning, but she really is a big ole panicky emotionally-inept drama queen. **She thinks the stage is a terrifying place where any misstep or failure will end in painful death, people hating you, likely starvation, having your visa revoked for being bad at singing and financial ruin. She tends to exaggerate and only understands the world in terms of worst-case scenarios.
Brenda is annoying and distracting when I am trying to perform. Honestly I’ve tried to get Brenda banned from the theater, but she shows up no matter what. I’ve had to accept that she will be there to see me through each and every performance. And that has become okay because I’ve realised something very important about Brenda:
She is just trying to protect me.
She is a fight or flight mechanism gone wrong, misplaced alarm system in my body set off by all of the adrenal functions that naturally go along with performance.
Respect your Brenda
I calm Brenda down by giving her cool-headed loving attention she deserves. When she is just a little rumble in the back row, I give her a little acknowledgement and genuinely thank her for being there. I think: ‘Oh there’s Brenda out there in the Zuschauerraum tonight. Glad she’s letting me be the one on stage performing.’
When she is really loud, I still remember to treat her with kind respect because I’ve learned the hard way that fighting with her just makes here louder. Questioning her helps when she’s really in a mood.
The Psychology behind the Brenda
Personifying your running-thoughts helps in 3 ways:
- Brenda is not me. Because I don’t identify with Brenda, I can have separation from her and her crazy anxiety.
- Because I have some distance from Brenda and her anxious thoughts, I can question them, get them calmed down, and not engage with them. Sometimes the distance even gives me the clarity of mind to notice patterns that I can learn from. For example, I worry a lot about forgetting text. So, I’ve learned to practice it more to care for Brenda a little better on performance nights.
- Not engaging with anxious running thoughts helps keep my body calm and reduces my body’s reaction to those thoughts. No adrenal rollercoaster means a better 10 am rehearsal the next day and less burnout.
Who is your Brenda?
Comment below, write or tag me on Instagram @marthaeasonsoprano - tell me about your personal Brenda. Pro-tip, pick a good name.
I discovered Brenda as a coping mechanism to happily get through the 50+ performances a season since working as a fest singer in Germany. Because of the few performance opportunities in the USA, I’ve helped a few of my 1:1 coaching clients with solutions like the Brenda Technique. If you want to learn more or are interested in building a career in Europe, you can register for a coaching here.
Awesome free resource: