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Musical performance anxiety can be reframed as a meaningful part of the human condition and lived experience.

We may confront core existential pillars—freedom, isolation, meaning, and finitude—on the high-stakes stage.

We can embrace struggle through will to power to forge authentic self-fulfillment rather than seek perfection.

Whereas traditional psychology often views music performance anxiety (MPA) as a set of symptoms, a biologically “hardwired” evolutionary reaction, or the consequence of cognitive distortions, the existential-phenomenological psychologist understands MPA as a subjective, meaningfully inherent aspect of the human condition. Rather than a disorder to be cured, stage fright is viewed as a part of the experiential whole of performing for others.

In phenomenology, we explore and dwell within the subjective “lived experience” of performing music. This does not only include the rewarding aspects of joy that come from sharing music in a public setting, but also the difficult aspects of anxiety, worry, and fear. Fully embracing the raw experience of public performance in its entirety, and embracing both the joyous and difficult aspects of public performance, offers us an appreciation of the rich, textured, and complex realities of public performance.

Public performance brings both bliss and fear that we can experience as a shift in the experience of time. The temporality of our lived experience can feel like it is slowing down with anticipation, or speeding up with loss of control. This state of fluid temporality can feel disorienting and fearful. It can also bring us feelings of freedom and bliss.

We can also experience anticipatory dread that comes from a hyper-reflexive awareness of ourselves........

© Psychology Today