How to Turn Performance Anxiety into Creative Excitement: Building the Bridge Between Fear and Flow

Have you ever been told to “just turn your anxiety into excitement” before stepping onto the stage? I have—and it made me furious! Not because it wasn’t well-intended advice, but because it made me feel like I was double-failing. First, I was stuck in panic to begin with. And then, why couldn’t I just flip the switch if excitement and anxiety were supposedly the same physiological state? Well, it turns out the answer is more soulful than scientific.

One Reaction, Two Realities

It’s true that anxiety and excitement can feel identical in the body. But energetically, they carry completely different frequencies. One wants to escape the situation; the other wants to be deeply present.

The Space Between Anxiety and Excitement

Anxiety is your nervous system reacting to a perceived threat. In the case of performance anxiety, the threat is emotional, a fear of:

• being seen as imperfect
• vulnerability
• feelings of unworthiness or being less than others

But the feeling itself isn’t the problem. The real problem is the urge to escape it, to avoid feeling it, to fight it, or to blame it for “getting in the way.” Sound familiar?

When your body perceives a threat, it automatically moves to protect you by activating one of the four survival responses: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. And when physical escape isn’t possible, we often disappear in other ways: mentally, emotionally, or even spiritually.

And here’s the difference: while anxiety pulls you out of yourself, excitement pulls you deeper in. Anxiety disconnects and causes spiritual absence. Excitement is rooted in presence, in the desire to feel, explore, be playful, and curious. That presence is the foundation of self-trust. Because when you are present, you can feel your body, lean on your training, and allow something greater to move through you. There’s an abyss between anxiety and excitement. And you can’t simply leap from one side to the other. You have to build a bridge.

Building the Bridge

• Cultivate Deep Presence in Your Body (Outside of Performing)

Slow down and find activities that help you be yourself from the inside out. Choose something that engages your senses like smell, touch, sound, or movement because consciously connecting to your senses signals relaxation to your nervous system.

When we get anxious, our life-force escapes the body and we become trapped in the head, thinking, analyzing, over-controlling. The way back is through sensation. Deep breathing, scents, gentle movement, and intentional rituals can all be ways to come home to yourself. You can take a warm bath and add a few drops of your favorite essential oil. As you soak, notice the temperature, the fragrance, and the way your muscles relax. Or go for a mindful walk barefoot and feel the ground beneath your feet. What matters isn’t what you do, but how present you are while doing it. Because you can take a beautiful bath with rose petals and still be stuck in anxious thoughts or you can take that same bath and use it as a ritual to reconnect with yourself. The more consistently you cultivate presence in everyday life, the easier it becomes to bring that presence onto the stage.

• Explore Difficult Emotions with Curiosity

As you start creating presence-based rituals, notice the resistance that arises. Thoughts, emotions, or a sense of urgency will try to snap you out of stillness and back into survival mode. You might feel the sudden need to check your phone, complete a task, or mentally escape.

That’s because if your nervous system is used to functioning in survival, stillness can feel unsafe or unfamiliar. Here’s how you know:

• If you’re in fight mode, you may get irritated by the idea of slowing down.
• If you’re in flight mode, you may want to escape into busyness.
• If you’re in freeze mode, you may feel numb, bored, or disconnected.
• If you’re in fawn mode, you might focus on doing it “perfectly” rather than authentically.

Awareness is the key. Begin noticing what shows up, and instead of judging it, get curious.
What is this feeling trying to tell you?

The more you can stay with yourself through discomfort, the more resilience and emotional capacity you build. And that’s exactly how you transform fear into creative fuel.

• Shift the Inner Script

Performance anxiety isn’t really about the performance. It’s about the story you’re telling yourself. Catch any thoughts that anticipate failure, judgment, or humiliation. Replace them with words that are loving, courageous, and supportive:

• “I am safe.”
• “I choose feeling over thinking.”
• “I can hold all of this.”
• “I trust myself.”

It’s not about feeling calm all the time. It’s about learning how to stay with yourself in those intense moments and letting those emotions flow through you rather than fighting them.

By doing so, you unlock a deeper power: the ability to be fully present and channel the anxiousness into your focus and purpose. This is how you build the bridge between anxiety and excitement, becoming not just an empowered artist, but an emotionally resilient human being capable of facing any challenge.

The New Paradigm

True artistic brilliance doesn’t come from avoiding anxiety. It comes from transmuting it into presence, into depth, into power. So next time — before the jitters even rise:

• Pause
• Breathe
• Feel
• Speak kindly to yourself
• And choose presence. Choose to stay. Choose to feel.

Because that’s how you cross the bridge. From fear to freedom. From survival… to soul.