You Don’t Need to Be Calm to Perform Well: Performance Anxiety and the Nervous System 911 Help

Show Notes

What happens in your body when you know you are about to be seen, speak, present, or be evaluated?

Your heart may race. Your breath may shorten. Your hands may become unsteady. Your thoughts may move faster.

We often interpret these sensations as evidence that we are too anxious to perform well. In this episode, Ana Mael offers another way of understanding them: your nervous system recognizes that attention is coming, and it is mobilizing.

You do not have to eliminate performance anxiety before you can speak clearly, think well, or trust what you know. A racing heart does not cancel your clarity. Sweaty hands do not cancel your knowledge. A tightened belly does not cancel your wisdom.

Alertness and competence can exist together.

Instead of waiting to become perfectly calm, what changes when you allow your body’s energy to come with you?

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About Ana Mael

Ana Mael is a somatic trauma practitioner whose work is shaped by lived experience of war and unrecognized historical trauma. She specializes in supporting survivors of violence, displacement, and systemic harm through nervous system stabilization and dignity-centered healing.

She is the author of The Trauma We Don’t Talk About and the founder of the Somatic Trauma Recovery Center. Her work integrates somatic practice, trauma recovery, and justice-centered awareness to help survivors reclaim identity, self-trust, and sovereignty.

Learn more about her work at the Somatic Trauma Recovery Center:
https://www.somatictraumarecoverycenter.com/

Chapters

(00:00:00) - A moment of attention is preparation for a presentation

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] There are moments when you know you're about to be seen, to speak, to present, to be evaluated. [00:00:14] And something in your body tightens. [00:00:17] Your heart may beat faster. [00:00:21] Your breath may shorten. [00:00:26] Your thoughts may begin to race ahead. [00:00:32] This is not weakness. [00:00:35] This is a nervous system recognizing that attention is coming. [00:00:43] Being watched has always mattered to humans. [00:00:49] Belonging has always mattered. [00:00:53] Being acknowledged has always mattered. [00:00:59] Of course. [00:01:00] Your body becomes alert. [00:01:03] It is trying to help you do well. [00:01:08] If your hands feel unsteady, it doesn't mean you're incapable. [00:01:18] It means your body is mobilizing. [00:01:24] You don't need to eliminate this feeling to perform well. [00:01:32] You don't need to wait until you're perfectly calm. [00:01:39] Let your body carry some of that energy. [00:01:45] It can move with you instead of against you. [00:01:54] A, uh, racing heart doesn't cancel your clarity. [00:02:01] Sweaty hands doesn't cancel your, um, knowledge. [00:02:10] Tightened belly doesn't cancel, um, your wisdom, alertness, and competence can exist together. [00:02:28] Let the heartbeat come with you. [00:02:35] Let alertness accompany, uh, your competence.

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You Don’t Need to Be Calm to Perform Well: Performance Anxiety and the Nervous System 911 Help

Show Notes

Chapters

Episode Transcript

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