This runs almost directly counter to everything I said last Thursday, but on the other hand I use both techniques, so they’re clearly compatible in reality. Paradoxes. Fun stuff.
(I actually spoke about this to some students last week, and suggested today’s technique for low-moderate nerves/anxiety, and Thursday’s technique for moderate-high anxiety.)
So here’s the thing: nerves and excitement, physiologically, are quite similar in the body. And if you’re persistent, and stubborn, you can actually train yourself to react to nerves as though they were excitement.
It goes like this: Something big is coming up, and you’re nervous about it. Every time you think of it, you get a thrill of nerves in your chest, or a clench in your stomach, or something. What you do is, every time you feel that in your body, every time you catch yourself thinking about how nervous you’re feeling, you stop, and you correct yourself: No, I’m not nervous, I’m excited.
It sounds so stupid, I know, and it doesn’t work (in my experience) for moderate+ nerves/anxiety, but for low-grade nerves? If you’re committed and correct yourself every single time, eventually, you’ll find yourself looking forward to the thing that used to make you nervous with actual excitement.
How do I know? Because this is the literal method I used in high school to train myself out of feeling nervous about public speaking 🙂
So there you go: a simple, weird, kind of counter-intuitive trick that actually, truly works.
Just remember: You’re not nervous. You’re excited. 😉