Helen Nanjira Mazuva-Gregory
Must Have Beauty Pageant Tips
Nerves…Nerves…Nerves...
(TRAINING THOSE BUTTERFLIES)
By: Helen Mazuva “Miss Millennium Namibia 2000”
Getting those nervous butterflies to work for you
We’ve all felt them. And I still feel them and sometimes they give me a kick to do well, but it’s about controlling them. Nerves are those pesky butterflies that pop into our tummies when we’re right in the middle of something important like a pageant interview. Sometimes they make us a little queasy. Sometimes a little giddy! As one performer I met once told me that if you don’t have some sense of nervousness, you‘ve lost your “spark. It’s just a matter of making that surge of adrenaline work for you. There are two relatively easy ways in which to do this.
Controlling breathing is the first method I will share with you.
Breathing is crucial to life. When we become nervous, scared, or feel on guard, our rate and rhythm may change in such a way as to diminish our oxygen capacity and retain carbon dioxide. Not a good thing. So controlling your breathing is the answer and it goes something like this:
Inhale through the nose slowly
counting to 10
If you can only make it to 6,
that’s OK
Just remember your number, you
will have to exhale the same count.
You exhale through your mouth
pursed lips.
Repeat as necessary
Generally it will take 10-20 sets
to begin to feel the effect and 20-40 sets to fell really tranquil
The important thing is to remember
to focus and directly control your rhythm and the rate of breathing. It
won’t work if you breathe too fast, or exhale through your nose.
Secondly is Directed Relaxation
Those of us who don’t take yoga and relaxation classes might just invent our own way to relax ourselves, by taking our mind on a dream land. Think of being alone in a room with your family or people your comfortable with, instead of thinking about the event itself that making you nervous and to take your focus on that to take the adrenaline away from you. And please have your own corner and stop talking to nervous contestants as they will only increase your situation