by Gwen Alyssa

Do you ever feel those sweaty palms coming on or notice your hands start to shake or you simply forget your lines? What about feeling self conscious and not “in the moment”? As a fulltime model and actor for over 15 years now, this STILL happens to me! Maybe not as much as when I first started, but, alas, I am not immune to it. 
 

From my own experience, I share with you here, 3 helpful tips to help you get rid of those nerves on jobs and auditions:

• Breathe baby breathe. Yes, simple enough, but when we get nervous we forget to do this. To loosen up, breathe at least 3 deep breaths BEFORE your audition or job (when it is  right before your time to be on set), and then breathe when you GET on the set or in the audition room right before you start. By breathing through our noses, our  blood pressure by bringing more nitric oxide into the body, lowers blood pressure and decreases our stress helping us to relax. It is medically proven.
• Know you are the ONE. If you have the job, they are already convinced you are the right person and know you can do the job with effortless ease, so feel your power and remember that! If you are on an audition, know that your agent or casting director believes you have the ability or talent to get the job as well. Finally, if you are on an audition, the client WANTS YOU to be the right person!!!! That’s right. They want to stop fast-forwarding that audition tape, and say, “there! That’s the person!!!!!!” So know that is you and BE that person!
• Get “on” the other person. This just means, when on a job or an audition, commonly there are so many other variables present that the client is concentrating on that you are just a small piece of the pie. That being said, if there is another actor you have dialog with, concentrate on them and LISTEN to them, not yourself. Also, remember, there are many other THINGS they are looking at like the camera angles, the set etc. You are not the only thing that is important to them. In fact, if you have the job, in their eyes you are the BEST already, and just need to do your thing!

So breathing, changing your thinking a bit, and directing your attention elsewhere can help tremendously in audition and job scenarios when those nerves seem to get the best of us. Good luck to all of you and keep up the hard work!  

Please try one of these and let me know how it goes, and share with your friends!!!!

With love, Gwen Alyssa 

www.gwenalyssa.com