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Hi Don,
Dry mouth and shaky bow are two of the real challenges that I don’t know if I’ve found a really compelling solution for. There are some physical things you can do, of course, like breathing with your nose, etc.
But since it’s part of the stress response, one of the most helpful physiological things you can do is to get better at managing the physical aspect of nerves with diaphragmatic breathing. The other thing is mental, and so if you can quiet your thoughts, and refocus your attention away from dry mouth and worries about how this will affect your performance to other things – such as remembering times when you’ve had great performances and how that felt, for instance – this can help keep the stress response from escalating and making things worse. I know it may not sound like enough, but these are probably the two most helpful things you can practice getting better at, so that over time, it becomes less a part of what you worry about, and starts occurring less often as well.
I’ve tried to get a search function for the forum to work, but haven’t had much luck so far. It seems to be an issue with the theme I’m using. I agree that this function is sorely needed though, and am hoping to find a working solution for version 3.0 of the course (which I’m working on now, and is a free upgrade for lifetime folks). I don’t know how long it will take to get this sorted out, but I do intend to have a search field for the next edition!
Noa
