Whether you're an actor, musician, model or singer we have all probably experienced some type of audition anxiety. These times are stressful because we have so much on our mind like "how do I look?", "what if I forget my lines?", "what if I play the wrong note?", and so much more. We tend to linger into the negative affirmations when we are overly stressed and don't know what to do. However, I am here to share my experiences in hopes of providing help to anyone who wants it!
My first audition was when I was sixteen, and I was beyond anxious. I had never auditioned for a play in my life but I really wanted to do this because it was a big push for me to get out of my comfort zone and acting was something that I had always wanted to do. Before the actual audition I had every negative affirmation going in my head and it was doing nothing but literally killing my self-esteem. So, something that helped me with that was taking a step back and looking at my values and motivations. I knew that this passion of mine was something that meant the world to me, and I was so tired of being afraid of trying something different. I was heavily motivated by the people who actually were the main ones putting me down. The people who told me I was too shy or too quiet to even be in a play were the ones who motivated and drove me to do it.
Second, I would say to breathe and be mindful when you are about to step into the room for the actual audition. It may sound cliché but breathing exercises and doing a small warm-up before the audition has helped me to relax my nerves and regain my focus. You can easily find breathing exercises online, but even just taking three deep breaths and exhaling will do you some justice.
Third, when you are leaving the audition room you may notice that those horrible thoughts are starting to creep back up into your head. For example, "They definitely noticed I skipped a line.", "I was so bad, I know I will not get cast", "I should have rehearsed more.". If you allow yourself to do nothing but criticize and shame yourself, you will be super depressed. During these times it is critical to not linger on your mistakes. Just take note of them and work on them for future auditions. There have been countless times when I have cried my eyes out after an audition, and just beat myself up for messing up. This will cause you to be so discouraged that you may not even want to audition for anything anymore. So, I say you take the failures as learning experiences, use mindfulness and positive affirmations.
I hope these tips helped! Please feel free to share your experiences with dealing with audition anxiety below!
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