“I’m happy to share my TEDx panic story and how I did it anyway. Thirty minutes before the event, I completely forgot my lines. My brain glitched from trying to paint and recall a script at the same time. Backstage, I paced around a table, whispering my lines over and over, daring myself to go on stage and paint between the paragraphs, even though that was never how I had imagined it in my mind.
Afterwards, I had to tame the frustrated perfectionist voice in my head and instead congratulate myself for trying, for showing up, and for learning something new from the experience.”
Key takeaway: When we‘re nervous our logical, frontal cortex is less effective and can result in our mind going blank. Physical movement can help you get back into your logical brain. Celebration is important to counteract our negativity bias - be kind to yourself and see how far you have travelled.