S6E05 - Performance Anxiety for Practitioners: How to somatically shift the stress of ‘showing up’

School of Embodied Arts Podcast with Jenna Ward

Have you ever felt a subtle sense of anxiety in the lead-up to a ‘performance’?

Maybe in the hours, days, or weeks before you had to show up and coach, speak, facilitate or express yourself to the world.

Performance anxiety, for practitioners, is common.

I know this place myself. After coming back from a 6-month break in coaching after the birth of my first child, I noticed a resurgence of performance anxiety before coaching sessions and teaching calls. It was an old experience that returned strongly. All aspects of my coaching ‘performance’ were impacted, coaching, teaching, selling/enrolling clients, and expression.

Performance anxiety doesn’t feel good. It’s not useful, or sustainable.

It draws our attention and energy away from that which we truly desire-intimacy & vulnerability in the way we show up.

So how do we relax our performance anxiety? How do we shift it into something more fruitful?

In today’s podcast, we’re unpacking performance anxiety to understand:

• How performance anxiety has/does show up for me
• The (often unexamined) internal expectations holding our adrenals ransom
• The role of ‘professionalism’ & what shape it creates somatically
• What I (now) do instead
• The practices I use before & after a coaching ‘performance’ to shift anxiety into intimacy

Anyone who experiences subtle or strong performance anxiety will enjoy this podcast. If you’re a coach/practitioner working in somatic ways, then you even more so.

--------------

Resources mentioned in this podcast:

• Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
• 2022 Excellence In Coaching Celebration
• Primal Feminine Flow - An at-home, feminine embodiment movement practice to resensitize the body
• Feminine Embodiment Coaching - an emotional embodiment & vulnerability-based professional training for coaches
• School of Embodied Arts
• Leave a podcast review on iTunes here
• Thought or reflection to share? Leave a comment on Instagram here

--------------

Find Jenna on the following platforms:

Website: http://jennaward.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennaward.co/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennawardco/

We hope you enjoyed today’s podcast. Make sure you subscribe so you’ll be updated when new episodes become available. Also, it would be greatly appreciated if you would take a few moments to leave your feedback. Simply click on “ratings and reviews” then “write a review” on iTunes to get started. Your reviews are so helpful in making future episodes even better. We would also appreciate it if you share the podcast with your friends or anyone who you think might enjoy these episodes. The School of the Embodied Arts podcast is also available on Spotify.