Here is some more "food for thought" which I am sending out in the months between my regular In The SpotLight newsletters. These are excerpts taken from past newsletters I have written that still have much relevance today.
I would love to guide and support you in working on this challenge in this upcoming year. Please consider my Getting Over Stage Fright workshop and/or some personal coaching if you would like my guidance in learning how to transform this fear.
Enjoy!
Janet
Past newsletters are archived at www.performanceanxiety.com/newsletter_main.htm.
 
""Anything really valuable takes time to develop. Patience, patience, patience."
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
Practicing Patience and Persistence
A common feeling I hear expressed by many who are working on changing their fearful experience of speaking or performing is deep frustration that the changes are not happening fast enough or completely enough. I understand the feeling of impatience as I have experienced it quite a lot in my lifetime as well, both around speaking anxiety as well as around other facets of life that I want to be different than they are in that moment. I was thinking about this issue recently after reading a book on meditation (Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana - see my resource section at www.performanceanxiety.com/books_tapes.htm.)
This author states quite matter-of-factly that to really get proficient at mindfulness meditation, you need to practice daily and expect it will take a few years to really integrate it more fully into your life. When I read this, it felt so true. We want our desires to come to fruition pretty quickly and easily without having to devote too much time and effort to make the deeper changes happen.
The truth is, our ways of being - around speaking and performing as well as how we approach life in general - are pretty deeply conditioned and ingrained within us and it takes a diligent, committed effort to change these patterns over time. I might add that much of the progress I have seen in reducing my own speaking anxiety is a function of a broader effort towards personal growth and not just specific to this issue. I think it is important to take a broader and deeper view of this issue and not simply see it as an isolated component of your life that needs eradicating.
So, my realization as I sit down to do my meditation each morning is that in order to cultivate a deeper, long-lasting, pervasive change, we must devote some regular, ongoing attention to what we want to change and choose a method that will help move us steadily along the path towards transformation. If we want to transform our feelings and reactions to public speaking and performing, we need to consider ways to devote time and attention on a regular basis (weekly, if not daily) to focus on and more deeply integrate the process of change.
Some of that practice may be what I refer to as "inner work" - e.g., reading, journaling, meditating, yoga, relaxation, listening to inspiring CDs, getting some coaching, etc. And the other part of the practice I refer to as "outer work" is how you apply what you are learning in the outer world - e.g., applying the principles and methods you are learning as you engage in speaking or performing situations out in the world (and looking for opportunities if they are not readily available in your life, such as joining Toastmasters or a similar group for performers for ongoing practice in a safe environment.)
Even with the regular practice of both "inner" and "outer" work, it is still important to practice patience as you move along this journey, as frustration only hinders your change process and never truly supports your growth. Persistence and patience, however, are a winning combination in the process of making desired changes.
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Janet Esposito, M.S.W.
In The Spotlight
PO Box 494
Bridgewater, CT06752
860-210-1499
jesposito@performanceanxiety.com
www.performanceanxiety.com
Copyright 2012, Janet E. Esposito, All Rights Reserved
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