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You're stepping onto the stage, amidst opening night flurry and last minute stage directions. In the audience are the director you'd like to work with, the reviewer everyone listens to, and your first acting coach. The blood pumps in your ears, your heart is racing, and your throat is so dry you can't possibly speak your lines. Every muscle is tense and you want to run.

It's called the "fight or flight" response. It's also called stage fright. stage fright comes in many different forms. For some, it's a nervous energy that disappears as soon as they begin performing, or a familiar sensation that's always under the surface but feels manageable most of the time. For others, it's so debilitating that they can't get through an audition to even be part of a performance.

stage fright has huge repercussions to the health and well-being of the performer.

Dr. Louise Montello of Musicians Wellness, Inc. has worked with injured, blocked and anxious performers for many years, and has developed a rich set of tools that we can use in moments of stress and anxiety.

One of her most powerful techniques, from the Yoga tradition, is breath. Breath is a key link between the mind and the body. Our body's autonomic nervous system is made up of the parasympathetic nervous system (related to relaxation, creativity and awareness) and the sympathetic nervous system (related to analytical thinking and action). When we're in "fight or flight" mode, our sympathetic nervous systems are in charge, and our bodies, minds and emotions are locked into battle with an imaginary enemy (while our creative expression gets caught in the crossfire).

Deep breathing and the specific techniques that will be described in this article can reawaken your parasympathetic nervous system.

Note: In yogic breathing exercises, it's important to always breathe in and out through the nose.

1. Diaphragmatic breathing ("belly breathing")

Why? It allows you to move more air into your body and also to send more stale air out on the exhalation.

How? practice this type of breathing while holding your hands on your belly, to feel it expand as you inhale, and contract as you exhale. Your back and sides should expand and contract as well. Watch a baby sleeping to get a really good demonstration of belly breathing.

2. Even breathing

Why? Will smooth out your breathing and help you to feel grounded.

How? Breathe in and out for the same number of counts.

3. Two-to-one breathing

Why? Since exhalation is associated with the parasympathetic nervous system (related to relaxation, creativity and awareness), long exhalations also help to induce relaxation. This exercise is helpful in times of great stress (i.e. auditions).

How? Breathe in for a certain number of counts, and then breathe out for twice as many counts (count evenly in your own time), pushing the breath out from the belly.

4. Alternate nostril breathing

Why? By alternately breathing through our right nostril (connected to our sympathetic nervous system) and our left nostril (connected to our parasympathetic nervous system), we can balance our entire autonomic nervous system.

How? To prepare for this exercise, clear your nostrils by breathing in and out quickly several times in a row (another technique called "cleansing breath"). now, fold the index finger and middle finger of the right hand into the palm, and use the thumb to close your right nostril and your ring finger to close your left nostril.

Begin by inhaling through both nostrils. Then breathe out through one nostril, while blocking the other, and then switch and breathe in through the other nostril.

After three complete breaths, exhale without switching sides, and do three more breaths. This means you're now inhaling on the opposite side that you started from.

now rest and breathe deeply and evenly through both nostrils for a few minutes. Then repeat that cycle two more times (with a rest in between), so you've done three cycles in total.

You'll be amazed at the difference these simple breathing exercises can make, with a few short minutes of practice every day. Then, at times of stress, you'll have a valuable tool to support your performance, and all your creative dreams.

Copyright 2005, Linda Dessau. All rights reserved.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. Visit www.preparingforperformance.com for more help with performance anxiety.

Are you trying to get rid of food cravings and having no luck? Are you plagued by sugar cravings and chocolate cravings? Do you snack more times in the day than is good for you? Would you like to reduce the amount of food you eat during your meals? Why do you have to go on a strict diet and spoil all the fun? Recent research shows that cravings may well be due to a sort of food addiction to certain chemicals contained in food but it has to be proven scientifically.

In the meantime.. craving food is much more widespread than craving nicotine, alcohol and other substances. Maybe one of the reasons you might feel like you are craving food is because you are craving the missing nutrients. It is unfortunate that craving food is part of what comes with taking certain types of medications. Also maybe the person (female) who craves food is pregnant; craving food is a symptom of being pregnant. My favourite craving food is a peanut butter and cool ranch dorito sandwich. Vitamins and minerals and healthy omega 3 fats can also help you feel more energetic and you may get out and walk or exercise more often. Here are five tips that I have found useful to get rid of food cravings:-

1.If I wake up at night and am heading for the fridge, a glass of water placed strategically helps to stop me in my tracks!

2. I try to eat fruit before a main meal - let us say about half an hour beforehand. This helps to fill me up.

3. I brush my teeth straight after eating- this helps me to stop snacking afterwards- i.e. having a piece of chocolate. The minty taste of toothpaste seems to reduce my food cravings.

4. All the gurus tell you to eat slowly- well so slowly in fact that they say it takes about twenty minutes for the stomach to tell your brain that it is full! Imagine waiting 20 minutes between one helping and another! As this is hardly practical, I would just suggest you eat slowly.

5. Everybody tells us that we should NOT be doing another activity while we are eating. Why? Because apparently eating in the car or while watching TV distracts us so that we tend to eat more than if we were just giving all our attention to eating. Setting the table and making the meal an occasion helps as well.

If you want to really get to grips with a guaranteed diet and get rid of these food cravings ,visit the site below which will give you a lot of information to help you stop your food addiction and the inside scoop on dieting.

Robert Locke is an Internet Marketer specializing in Health, Wellness and Fitness.

If you want to really get to grips with a guaranteed diet and get rid of these food cravings, visit the site below which will give you a lot of information to help you stop your food addiction. http://www.usfreeads.com/785319-cls.html

Have you ever dreamt about sailing away to adventure in your own sailboat and exploring the oceans of this beautiful planet of ours? The excitement, the freedom, the sheer joy of sailing and visiting the myriad exotic places along the way? Hawaii, The Caribbean, San Blas Islands, South America, The Galapagos Islands, Marquesas, French Polynesia, Tonga, and on to New Zealand and Australia. These are but a few and the list is endless.

Can you feel the excitement, following months of planning, of finally setting off on yur first pasage? The exultation of leaving port for the first time on the first leg of your adventure of a lifetime? Believe me it is a wonderful feeling setting off, knowing that you have months ahead of you to sail the oceans with absolutely no restrictions, free to sail where your fancy takes you. And, as you leave behind you, all those limitations of land living - work, the day to day affairs, traffic congestion, city living, pollution and more - a weight will lift away from you and it will be replaced, slowly at first, by a growing and wondeful sense of freedom. As you take the first drafts of fesh air deep into your lungs, filling them to the bottom, you will come to realise their is no substitute in this world for it.

If this is your dream, or you are already planning your adventure, or already doing it, then you will gain benefit from my '101 Dollar Saving Tips for Sailors'. Most of us are on a budget and would like to save where we can. My '101 Dollar Saving Tips for Sailors' could save you hundreds, even thousands of dollars during the duration of your voyage. Many of 'The Tips' are things you would never think about before setting sail, but have been gathered together during my four year voyage of sailing 'The Dream' to all the exotic destinations mentioned above.

I have two reasons for encouraging you to begin your odyssey, and the first is that so many folks spend their life dreaming about it but for a whole host of reasons, never get around to beginning. This is very sad - to miss out on one of the most wonderful life experience one could hope for just because they cannot pass that first mental hurdle - my job is to help you get over that.

Secondly, and this is tied into Global Warming and Climate Change. There may be a time coming in the future when a tip like this may be more restricted. We have little control over this in the short term, but we do know right now that we can set sail knowing the weather is still our friend, and are able to visit all of these wonderful destinations.

So now is the time to begin and start your planning - remember the great Nike tag line? 'Do it Now', don't put it off - you will never regret beginning and then you will wonder why you never started sooner.

vincent bossley is a publisher and lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. He has is own website http://www.sailboat2adventure.com for cruising sailors, sailors planning their lifetime adventure, armchair sailors, virtual sailors and in fact anyone who has ever dreamed of sailing the oceans of this beautiful planet of ours. You can find him on http://www.sailboat2adventure.com