I bet you have been a performer all of your life. Did you ever sing the ABC song to your grandparents when you were 3? We start performing at a very young age, and without any anxiety, fear, or embarrassment. Do you remember how proud you were to sing for them? No fears, just accomplishing it by only one action: Just Do It!
So, when do we develop fear of singing in front of others? I doubt I could pin point it to any one situation. Most likely it was when we started elementary school. Someone, maybe a music teacher, a parent, or maybe a bully unintentionally started teasing you about your singing. I told my 2 year old son he was singing flat one day in the car! I am SO sorry! Did I scar him from music the rest of his life? At the time, I knew I shouldn’t have said that, but I couldn’t take it back. (Words can hurt and damage). Now I have to forgive myself!
As you can see, and maybe reflect back; that even innocently we are told something negative and we have to live with it. We bury these words deep. Somewhere they get stuck in us, in our body’s energy systems. We think and say they don’t bother us, but they do. And then these innocent negative comments come back to us over and over. If they trigger you, you know you are affected by them. Some hurt us emotionally, some don’t. Or at least, we don’t consciously think they do. (Those are the emotions that do not trigger any response from you).
Yes, our perception of what we have heard from others starts to build our core beliefs. Now we believe we are not good enough. (This doesn’t apply to singing only)! We take these core beliefs well into our adult life, and they become our core values. Now we adapt these limiting and false beliefs into other aspects of our lives, such as relationships, business, and work.
We build a box, we all have one. It’s called the comfort zone. And we live our life within the confounds of our beliefs with the 4 straight lines around them. Occasionally we step outside the boundaries. It is scary, and very stretchy. But we do it anyway, and guess what? You find that you were able to do it, it may have even been fun, but it was a learning experience. You made your comfort zone a bigger box. And with each step of doing something you fear, you grow! And you are safe!
Rinse and repeat. What is beyond those 4 straight lines is something greater than where you are now! I guarantee you will be safe!