Journal Entry 18: Setting

Think about settings that have had a strong effect on you. Where were you once very hot or very cold or very scared? What place made you feel especially safe and happy? Pick a setting that had an effect on you and describe it using your five senses. What did you see? Hear? Smell? Taste? Touch?

The stage. Any stage. Any stage in front of a lot of people staring at me. Standing on the stage makes me feel super nervous and uncomfortable. I really hate going onstage, especially going onstage alone. I hate the feeling of all the eyes on me. When I face the audiences, I can see everyone staring at me, and it totally freaks me out. I've tried all of the tricks such as imagining the audiences naked and all that, but it never worked for me, and it only made me even more nervous. I can't hear anything at all and it's like I'm in a trance or something, and all I can hear is my blood pumping trough my ears and feeling like my brain will explode and my heart will stop beating from all the pressure. I can pratically taste the food I ate for the last meal. Once, I made the mistake of eating a huge cake before a speech, and I felt so sick I threw up after I finished my speech! When I'm onstage, I feel really cold one second and shiver all over, but also feel very hot the other second and feel my whole face burn. I really hate stages.