One Tip To Calm Down Before Your Next Open Mic

Nervous? Me too. But I’ve found one thing the other night that really helped me calm down.

I’ve recently started performing at my local open mic night, and oh man, I get anxious.

My heart rate skyrockets, I can’t look anyone in the eyes, and my ability to speak at a normal speed disappears.

But at the most recent open mic I went to, I did a lot better because I remembered the advice my friends kept telling me:

BREATHE

“Take a deep breath!” one of my friends would shout when she noticed I was wavering.

At first I didn’t get it — like duh, of course I’m breathing, and of course I’m breathing as deep as I can.

But this last open mic I decided beforehand that I would test the theory and consciously take big deep breaths before and during my performance.

When the lady running the show asked “Are you ready to go on?” I took that as my queue to start slowing down my breathing.

I told her I needed to tune for a second, and consciously did it slowly, giving myself time for a few slowww breaths.

Getting on the stage, I still felt my heart jump into a higher gear. But rather than staying that way, it kind of tapered off as I took my time with…