Coaching practices for How to Calm Nerves Before Event

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I’m about to walk in and my heart is pounding, hands cold, mind racing
• Right before the big moment I’m wired and shaking and I keep telling myself to calm down and relax, which never works and just makes me more frantic that I can’t
• Right before I walk into the presentation I’m jittery and small, and I want a quiet minute on my own to physically settle into feeling steady and grounded, so all the prep I did actually shows up instead of getting swallowed by nerves.
• I’ve got the big presentation (or the hard conversation) in a few minutes and I can feel my heart already pounding
• Every time I face the hard thing I get so wound up beforehand that I’m half-shot before I even start, and I’ve got nothing steady to hold onto going in or coming out

Practices that may help

1. Havening to clear pre-performance anxiety
   Run a short havening sequence before a high-stakes event to lower physiological anxiety.
   Self-Havening: Calming the Nervous System Through Touch
2. Reappraise anxiety as excitement before high-stakes performance
   Tell yourself "I’m excited" rather than "I’m nervous" — the physiology is the same, the performance effect is not.
   Choking Under Pressure, Made Practical
3. Set your posture before high-stakes moments
   Take a private moment to settle into a confident posture before a presentation or hard talk.
   Posture and Confidence, Honestly Explained
4. Pre-performance heart-focused breathing
   Use 2–5 minutes of slow, heart-centered breathing before high-stakes moments to enter them calmer and sharper.
   Heart Rate Variability Training, Made Practical
5. Anchor the growth zone with a comfort ritual
   Pair stretch activities with a brief comfort ritual before and after to keep the nervous system regulated.
   The Comfort Zone Model: How to Grow Without Burning Out
6. Create a pre-performance ritual that includes posture
   A consistent pre-performance ritual — including posture — reduces anxiety and improves performance more reliably than any single element.
   Power Posing Revisited
7. Standardize the duration of your routine
   Fix the length of your pre-performance sequence so timing does not become a pressure variable.
   Pre-Performance Routines, Made Practical
8. Reappraise physiological arousal as activation, not anxiety
   Tell yourself "I’m excited" rather than "I’m nervous" — the physiology is identical; the label changes performance.
   The Clutch State: Performing Under Pressure
9. De-activation Strategies for Over-Arousal
   Use targeted techniques to reduce arousal when anxiety or over-activation is undermining performance.
   The Yerkes-Dodson Law: Finding Your Optimal Performance Zone
10. Write about your worries before a high-stakes performance
    Offload performance anxiety by writing it out in full immediately before the event.
    Choking Under Pressure, Made Practical

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