Performance and Creativity

As a performer, you already know that all art begins in the mind. Your subconscious mind is easily and endlessly creative – it’s just that unhelpful patterns of behavior can develop over time, which get in the way of you achieving your full potential. Hypnotherapy can help you to change those patterns of behavior for good.

Whether you are an actor, a singer, a musician or a dancer, if you are involved in the performing arts in any way, you will know that there are times when you need some extra help. Perhaps you suffer from stage fright, or feel you could do with more self-confidence when you start to sing. Perhaps you feel you have reached a plateau, and you want to take your performance to the next level. Or maybe you just want to be more disciplined and focused when it comes to practising your instrument or your choreography.

Of course, we all know that “practice makes perfect”, but sometimes, going over the same routines in the same old way can do more harm than good. It can embed bad habits, or worse, create boredom and resentment, which can have a damaging effect on your art. At these times, you need to address the psychological as well as the physical aspects of your performance.

First of all, it’s important to stress that hypnosis isn’t magic. There is no way to hypnotize someone to become a concert pianist or an award-winning actor if they’ve never played the piano or got up on stage before! Whatever area of the performing arts you’re involved in, there is really is no substitute for tuition and practice if you want to be any good. What self hypnosis and hypnotherapy can do for you, however, is improve your ability to learn and make positive, permanent changes at a very deep level.

Our therapeutic approaches are based on the very latest psychological and neurological research. One of the most important discoveries of modern brain science is that, contrary to popular belief, we continue to lay down new brain cells and neurological connections throughout our lives. Our experiences literally shape the structure of our brains, which in turn changes the nature of our thought processes. Hypnosis is a way of taking direct control of this natural process and turning it to our advantage.

Another important discovery is that learning is actually enhanced when certain regions of the brain are inactive. Interestingly, these same regions are only fully developed around the age of 21 – this is why children learn at a much faster rate than adults. Hypnosis reduces activity in these brain regions, creating the optimum state for learning.

Using these insights, our team of professional hypnotherapists have developed therapeutic approaches that address the specific challenges associated with the performing arts.

Performance anxiety, or stage fright, is an all-too-familiar experience for many actors and musicians. Just like any type of anxiety, this is simply a release of adrenaline into the system, preparing the body for fight or flight. Of course, if channeled correctly, a little adrenaline can be a good thing, helping to add energy and conviction to a performance – many actors feel that their stage fright actually helps them. Over time, however, stage fright can have a very detrimental effect on the quality of your performance and even your physical health.

Once the subconscious mind has identified the performing environment as a source of stress, it will continue to activate the anxiety response every time you are in this environment. This very quickly becomes a vicious circle, since every time you feel anxiety you are reinforcing the message that you have something to be anxious about. Worse still, the flood of adrenaline into your system switches off the parts of your mind that you need in order to give a good performance of any kind. It’s very difficult to play the guitar or piano, for instance, if you are literally shaking with nerves.

Hypnotherapy can help to eliminate stage fright by updating the subconscious mind with new information, helping it to recognize the performing environment as one in which you can feel relaxed and confident. It’s also a wonderful way of helping you to visualize success in your chosen art. As we’ve already said, there is no substitute for practice when it comes to the performing arts – but it’s not just about practicing physically! Mental rehearsal is just as important, if not more so. Hypnotherapy can help you to build up positive expectations of success through vivid mental rehearsal, making actual success in performance much more likely. The same techniques can be used to boost motivation or increase focus and discipline in your practice.

Our subconscious minds are easily and effortlessly creative – it’s part of our natural inheritance as human beings. However, various factors often conspire to stifle that natural creativity over time. These can be anything from anxiety or emotional trauma, to a fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. Physical factors such as fatigue or illness can also get in the way of delivering a good performance.

The good news is that the subconscious mind doesn’t stop being creative, it’s just that the line of communication has been temporarily blocked. Hypnosis works directly with the subconscious mind, delivering positive suggestions and messages in such a way that they bypass the rational, thinking parts of our minds, the parts which sometimes act as a “censor” and inhibit our best performances.

Hypnosis goes straight to the most creative part of your mind and helps you to get in touch with your inner actor, singer or musician, giving you the tools to enrich all of your performances.

As a performer you’ve already experienced the hypnotic state many times already. The hypnotic state can be defined as a narrowing of the focus of attention, so any time you’ve been really involved in your acting, singing, dancing or playing, you’ve been in a “trance”. Psychologists sometimes refer to this as the “flow state”, when all of your mental resources and the activity you’re involved in somehow become one, and everything just seems to flow. At these times, the most magical performances can occur. Hypnotic rehearsal can help you to achieve that flow state on a more regular basis.

Visiting a therapist in person has obvious benefits, but the effectiveness of our hypnotherapy recordings should not to be underestimated. The ideas and suggestions in our recordings have been especially designed to help you achieve your performance goals, so regular listening can really help you to absorb those messages at a very deep level. Once that happens, change can be very swift and dramatic indeed.