For Day 1 of their Mental Health Week Mini Series Alex and Helen tackle the topic of Anxiety. As two anxious people, they discuss how anxiety exhibits itself most commonly in their lives and how they try to handle it.

Over-practicing

For both of us over-practicing is a common way our anxiety exhibits itself. We always feel like there’s more to do, meaning we practice more than is healthy and do ourselves damage in the long run. How do we combat over-practicing?

• Be strict. Set yourself time limits, trust that the practice session you’ve done has been beneficial and remember how crucial rest is.
• Set boundaries within the practice. For example, today’s practice session is on coloratura in one specific piece. If you see something else that needs to be worked on, write it down and know that you will address it in another practice session in the future.
• Not all practice needs to be singing out loud. Preparing scores, reading libretti, and mental practice sessions are all excellent ways of honing your craft without pushing your voice past its limits.

Over-performing

Our anxiety means that when we take to the stage we’re so desperate for people to feel the emotions of our character and we’re so desperate to know that we’re doing a good job that our bodies are a total ball of tension. How do we combat this tendency to over-try and over-perform?

• Alex’s teacher reminds him that our job is to invite people into our world, not to push out into their world. It is not easy but it requires us to not care about the audience reaction.
• Alex schedules moments of reflection and relaxation in arias and pieces to try and stop himself from embodying so much tension. Helen adds to this that it’s crucial to practice these moments of relaxation in order to build trust and security, it’s not something you can only attempt in a performance.

Over-thinking

Anxiety can result in us finding social situations rather stressful and rapidly over-thinking, in particular in relation to rehearsal experiences. We can often quite quickly misinterpret comments and feedback, looking as quickly as possible for any underlying criticism in order to combat it. How do we deal with this over-thinking?

• For Helen, meditation is a great tool to combat anxiety. For Alex, yoga offers a similar release. Both practices have the opportunity to connect to the breath, taking you out of your brain and into your body.
• Helen suggests talking to herself like she would to a friend, recommending perhaps some gentle exercise, doing something she enjoys, or having an early night.
• Helen and Alex also talk about how important it is to share. Although Alex finds it hard to share, they both know that when they say their anxious thoughts out loud, they feel more able to recognise their anxious thought patterns and see things as they actually are.

Helen and Alex want to remind you that you’re not alone.

If you feel you’re suffering with Anxiety and you’re not sure where to turn, please feel free to talk to us here on the podcast. We’re here to help. We also highly recommend considering sharing such thoughts with close friends and family. If you don’t feel able to just yet, we suggest writing down some of the thoughts and concerns you’re having as a first step with the aim to building up to speaking to someone you trust. Later this week Alex and Helen will talk about therapy and medication, two additional methods to help treat the effects of anxiety.

Episode edited and produced by Daisy Grant Productions.

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