Every summer, I spend one week entirely devoted to piano performance at pianoSonoma, a chamber music festival that brings together serious amateur musicians like myself with world-class professional musicians for a week of collaboration and performance in the beautiful Green Music Center, at Sonoma State University. The festival is led by founders and co-artistic directors, Jessica and Michael Shinn. I helped Michael and Jessica start the festival in 2011 and have participated in nearly every summer session since then. Over the years, many of the same artists and participants attend the festival and a beautiful community has emerged. It was here that I learned valuable lessons in how to go out of your comfort zone with a positive mindset.
A week at pianoSonoma involves daily lessons, coachings, and workshops designed to help us master a work of chamber music and perform it with our artist at a concert on Friday. My piece this year was the Mozart Sonata in D for Two Pianos that I played with my amazing piano teacher, Peter Dugan. This is the only time of the year when I perform in public and it involves a lot of hard work on my part to feel ready and up to the challenge of making great music with a great artist.
First and foremost, spending a week performing music is definitely out of my comfort zone! Our artists encouraged us to stretch ourselves to capture new learning and have a great experience, along with creating a good “product”. I kept these ideas in mind throughout my lessons and I felt ready to perform.
Then came the final dress rehearsal on Thursday… I flubbed my opening notes and my confidence went down the drain. The fear of performing swept over me and I seriously questioned my ability to perform the piece and wondered why I was putting myself through this!
In fact, my Thursday jitters are not new. (Many of my friends at the festival had a similar experience so I was in good company!). A few years ago, the same thing happened at pianoSonoma, and I wrote a blog post on how I turned around my mindset with some helpful pointers from my book, Creative Success Now. This time, I decided to put into practice the many lessons I have learned at the Happiness Studies Academy, including the holistic 5-part SPIRE model of well-being.
Thus, on Friday morning, I arrived at the Green Center early to get myself ready to perform. Rather than devote my morning to practicing before the concert, I engaged in a series of steps, backed by research, that helped me to embrace my challenges and get out of my comfort zone with a positive mindset.
1. Meditation
I have a daily meditation practice that I do every morning so I started my day meditating and simply observing my breath. Every time my heart started to beat too fast, I took a deep breath and reminded myself how grateful I was for the opportunity to play music in a beautiful hall on a concert grand piano with my wonderful piano teacher while sharing this music with my beloved pianoSonoma community. I felt a lot calmer and more positive and grounded after my 30-minutes of meditating. In fact, the research shows that daily meditation enhances one’s positive emotions.
2. Journaling
My morning routine also involves journaling and that helped a lot too! Journaling is another research-based practice that can boost your happiness and health.
First, I contextualized my experience at the Thursday dress rehearsal and realized that many aspects of the performance went really well. Peter and I were in sync throughout the performance and made some beautiful music together. I then recalled the advice from one of the artists to “forget the notes and focus on the vibe”. The vibe of this piece is “total joy,” so in my journaling, I reminded myself that my job was to convey that joy to the audience.
I also reminded myself that I was really prepared! I began learning the piece in the spring and I practiced a lot before coming to the festival so I was really prepared for the learning and the experience.
3. Focus on the “Vibe” with Visual Markers
I then did a little practicing, playing through the piece twice and highlighting the challenging passages. I also wrote the word “JOY” on every other page of my score and “SMILE” on the other pages to remind myself of the “vibe” and not worry if I missed a few motes. As I played through the piece with my marked-up score, I really felt the joy as I played.
4. Reframe Anxiety as Excitement
One of the best mental reframes I learned in my happiness studies was that anxiety and excitement are twin emotions. When you start to feel anxious , you remind yourself that you are excited about something that is important to you. The research indicates that those who reappraise pre-performance anxiety as excitement do much better than those who tell themselves to relax.
So when my heart began fluttering, I reframed that feeling as excitement about my performance. That really helped too!
At this point, I felt ready to perform and went backstage 10 minutes before I was scheduled to go on.
5. Community Support
Our community is incredibly supportive. As I left the auditorium to go backstage, all my friends high-fived me, told me “You’ve got this!” or “You go, girl!” and I felt so much love. That also helped me to overcome my fear and reminded me that I wanted to do my best for my piano teacher and for my friends and family. No wonder I felt so good! Having social support is another research-based indicator of happiness.
6. Movement
Exercise and movement are another way to relieve stress and improve your mood. So the first thing I did when I went backstage was some yoga stretching to get my body relaxed and ready to go.
7. Visualization
I then closed my eyes and visualized the first page of the piece and ran through it in my mind. That helped me to get into performance mode. Visualization can also help to increase optimism and enhance positive emotions.
I was ready to perform and walked out on stage ready to share the joy of Mozart!
The result?
The performance was a blast!
I focused on the word “JOY” and smiled throughout my performance. All those hours of practicing helped my confidence and I was truly in flow as Peter and I made gorgeous, joyous music together on those exquisite Yamaha pianos! We were in sync throughout and it was a great experience all around. And it was so gratifying to hear the applause at the end of our performance and to know that I brought joy to these wonderful people.
SPIRE and the Positive Mindset
The next day, I captured my learning from this experience and realized that it hit all 5 SPIRE elements, the multi-dimensional model of wellbeing from the Happiness Studies Academy.
No wonder I felt so great after my performance!
S: spiritual well-being through meditation and flow
Spiritual well-being means that you cultivate mindfulness, as well as experience flow.
Not only did my morning meditation help me to harness mindfulness but, I was also present in the moment and experiencing flow as I played.
P: physical well-being through exercise and the mind/body connection
My pre-performance stretches helped me to feel grounded and relaxed in my body. I also experienced the “mind-body” connection by reframing stress as excitement!
I: intellectual well-being through deep learning
The whole week was a deep learning experience, along with my own process of resetting my mindset.
R: relational well-being through social support
I felt deeply connected to my community, and my peers’ encouraging words helped fuel my pre-performance excitement
E: emotional well-being through positive emotions
I was able to overcome difficult emotions and tap into pleasurable and positive emotions which made me more creative, collaborative, and confident!
So the next time you doubt your ability to rise to a new challenge while getting out of your comfort zone, try some of these strategies to reframe your thinking and prepare your mind and body for a great experience!