How do I stop myself from feeling hot and sweating under stress?
Im in a band and we have practices every once in a while. For some reason, last year I played a wrong note and my face went all red. Since then, there is this issue I have about worrying that I am blushing. It got worse and now I sweat and blush really bad. People sometimes ask my if im okay and I say yes. Its not the fact that I made a mistake that is causing this, its the fact that I cant help my blushing and sweating. I usually arrive at practice, think about the fact that I’ll blush, and as soon as I play a note, my face goes red and I start to get really hot.
ps. Ive tried the not thinking about it, It doesnt work. Ive gone into practice a basket-case however, and Ive come out without blushing once. Im confused and I just never want to blush again.
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4 Answers
Try wearing baggier clothes and drinking lots of water before you perform – this will keep the body temperature down and will thus help with the redness if you should blush; even a mini-fan or just taking deep breaths before you perform could help as your skin will be a lot cooler so you’ll be less likely to turn pink. I think the key factor is just to relax and calm your nerves; you’ve got nothing to worry or get embarrassed about, so just enjoy yourself. Also, with the sweating problem, try anti-persperant deoderant. This could also help with the blushing as you’ll feel more confident about your problem and will calm down. I know you said not thinking about it doesn’t work, but try not to dwell on it or overthink it. This will help calm you down and will lower the blushing. Blushing and sweating isn’t uncommon in performers; I think you’ll find most musicians go pink/sweat from the effort they’re putting in to their performance.
You know mistakes happen and even the most seasoned artist has bad days every now and again, you just need to know how to deal with it when it happens. Try relaxation techniques, research ‘anchors’ in the field of NLP. An anchor is something physical you do to bring about a particular state of mind. For example when your on your way to a practice, you do a specific thing, like pinch your wrist, this brings about a state of relaxed confidence, or motivation. (you need to research and find your own anchors)
Try doing something before practice that puts you in a good state of mind…you see where I’m going, train your mind to disassociate with the stress and tension that youve come to connect with band practice.
Good luck!
Your doctor can give you medication to help with the sweating, but as you’ve figured out on your own, the blushing and sweating comes from an anxiety response to unexpectedly calling attention to yourself in what you perceive is a negative way. Meditation can help, but one of the things that would probably help the most is Cognitive Behavior Therapy to learn how to control the blush.
Practice messing up and controlling the blush when you mess up. Do it over and over, until you get bored with it, and don’t blush when you miss a note. It’s weird how well this can work.
light clothing, anti-persperant deodorant, showers and relax! Good Luck!
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