You're standing on the field/court/stage, teeth clenched, muscles tense or shaking, a primal scream stirring in your belly and a tinge of heaviness in your heart. You've made your third consecutive mistake, and the urge to let out the wild beast within is overwhelming.

 

Too much emotion is the enemy of every performer. Broken or thrown equipment and a XXXX vocabulary are a few of our most popular responses when our emotions get the better of us.

 

Once anger comes knocking, defeat is usually not far behind. Anger is never pretty, is seldom productive, and almost always embarrassing. Therefore, anger is an opponent, so you need to devise a strategy to defeat it.

 

WHAT IS ANGER?

 

Anger, quite simply, is an emotion that stirs inside and erupts in stressful situations when THINGS DON’T GO THE WAY WE WANT or EXPECT.

 

Fact: we all have the propensity to get mad, be it on the performing arena, the road or at the local supermarket. Unfortunately for some people, anger becomes a way of life. I’m sure you know of a person who goes through life seemingly angry at the world. They're not a lot of fun!

 

I'm sure you also know people who seem just the opposite: calm, cool and collected. Believe me, these people get angry as well. They've just learned how to overcome it and maintain their composure. So there is hope for you too!

 

One thing that most people are not aware of is that…

 

ANGER IS OFTEN A DEFLECTION OF SADNESS.

 

Think about it, there are really only 2 pure emotions in life…happiness and sadness. But because we are often not taught, encouraged or have the space to freely express our sadness, that is cry, our sadness gets deflected to either anger or anxiety. You might also agree with me when I say that, generally, men will deflect their sadness to anger, whereas women will deflect it to anxiety.

 

No matter if you are feeling sad, angry or anxious, the body will always respond and let us know we are not happy, in some way. When things happen in our world, we have thoughts and judgements around the situation, however these are often so fast and automatic that we don’t even register that we’ve had them. However, these thoughts will lead to physiological responses and so our body will always help us take notice.

 

Therefore listening to our body is the first step in acknowledging and managing the emotions and related thoughts that often sabotage our performances.

 

So let’s get you to be more in tune with what YOUR body is telling you when emotions stir. An easy way to do this is by…

 

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