Managing Stage Fright and Adrenaline
- Valentina Carlile DO
- 3 days ago
- 1 min read
Adrenaline drops the body into a "fight or flight" survival state. The brain senses danger, leading to poor visual tracking, a racing heart, shallow breathing, and automated muscle tightening around the throat.
Breaking the Reflex Cycle: When a performer is terrified or over-stimulated by adrenaline, their gaze often shifts rapidly, and they lose stable visual tracking. This directly triggers tension in the deep neck muscles right behind the skull. Because those neck muscles share a neural pathway with the larynx, the throat immediately clamps up.
Calming the Vestibular System: By intentionally executing controlled VOR tracking drills right before going on stage, the performer sends a powerful "safety" signal back to the central nervous system.
The Result: Stabilizing the eyes and calming the inner ear tricks the brain into dropping out of fight-or-flight mode. This lowers the heart rate, relaxes the jaw, and ensures the actor can access their full vocal range even under intense performance anxiety.
From the VocalPro® perspective, VOR training is not used to eliminate emotion or adrenaline, but rather to enhance the performer's ability to remain organized and functional while the nervous system is experiencing a high level of activation.
The goal is not to feel less emotional or less excited, but to maintain effective performance despite the presence of emotion, pressure, and physiological arousal.
Valentina Carlile - Osteopath specializing in Osteopathy for Voice and Speech Disorders since 2002. For information and bookings, visit the Contact page.
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