• A weakness of character
• Lack of nerve
• Lack of courage
• Something to be ashamed about.

• A natural physiological reaction to a stressful situation
• Performing live is a strssful situation.

The body reacts to stress in different ways and some people respond differently. Stage anxiety results from a large shot of adrenaline. Some people get a bigger shot than others. Sometimes the adrenaline can be so overwhelming that the body either wants to leave the situation (Flight), or to respond with anger (Fight) or freezes (Panic).

It was frustrating and I knew it was unhealthy and these thoughts created a second layer of anxiety. I became anxious about the anxiety. I got adrenaline rushes worrying about how many adrenaline rushes I was having. I was upset that they wouldn't go away. All these second-layer effects just produced more adrenaline. They made occasional adrenaline rushes into almost continuous anxiety, disrupting my sleep and making me miserable.

Because stress hormones arouse the nervous system, If you feel anxious and try to get rid of it, you can make it worse. Being angry at your anxiety, being upset about it or frustrated by it, wanting to get away from it, being worried about what the anxiety is doing to your health — all of these emotions about your anxiety simply add even more stress hormones to your system.

I learned to manage it with three tools: First, I stopped referring to the jolts as "anxiety" or "dread." I used more neutral terms like adrenaline jolts or adrenaline rushes. This was, I believe, an important first step because it lead to the next two.

The second step was accepting the fact that anyone in their right mind is going to have rushes of adrenaline when they think about performing live. In other words, it wasn't a sign something was wrong.

And third, I reasoned that as long as I had these rushes, maybe I could put them to good use. I tried several things.

Originally, I decided that each adrenaline jolt would be my cue to go over the performance and lyrics in my head. That worked pretty well. I stopped dreading the rushes and stopped trying to avoid having them. An adrenaline rush became a welcome opportunity to make sure I knew exactly what I was going to do. This directly countered my main fear — that I would freeze or be able to play or sing infrontof an audience.

Over time, I tried several things, all of them sharing the same basic theme: using the rush rather than rejecting it.

The one that worked best was that every time I got an adrenaline jolt, I would say to myself, "I will give them (the audience) a great performance." That's what I wanted to go through my head as I stood in front of an audience.

I practiced that thought over and over whenever I experienced an adrenaline rush. And while I practiced saying this to myself, I imagined saying it to myself while looking at the audience, so the audience became associated with that thought. The audience became a trigger for that thought.

So every time I got a jolt, I would say to myself, "I will make them really feel my performance!" And thanks to the jolt, I said it with extra intensity.

The reason this worked so well is that anxiety, worry, insecurity — these are "pulling away" emotions. Anxiety includes the impulse to run away, hide, withdraw, pull back, etc.

My heartfelt desire to make them feel the music was important directly countered my anxiety because desire displaces fear. Remember that and you may not need to remember anything else. Desire can overrun and override fear. Desire is a "reaching toward" emotion. Desire is moving toward, seeking, taking possession of, aggressing.

Desire moves toward. Anxiety moves away.

You will find that the best antidote for anxiety is a strong desire. The more intense the anxiety, the stronger your desire must be to successfully counter it. And while you can't make yourself desire something you really don't care about, you can intensify your sincere desires. You can fan the flames and make your desire burn hot by thinking about why you want it.