If you’ve ever had athlete performance anxiety or felt nervous before a big game, race, or competition, you’ve probably been told to “just calm down” or “take deep breaths and relax.”
But what if that advice is actually working against you?
Research by psychologist Alison Wood Brooks at Harvard Business School reveals something counterintuitive: athletes who re-frame their anxiety as excitement perform significantly better than those who try to calm themselves down.
The Problem with "Calm Down"
When you feel nervous before competition (increased heart rate, butterflies in your stomach, heightened alertness) most athletes interpret this as a bad sign. You think something’s wrong, so you try to eliminate the feeling through calming techniques.
But actually your body is preparing to perform.
That physiological response isn’t anxiety in the negative sense. It’s your challenge response! Your mobilizing energy, sharpening focus, and getting you ready to rise to the occasion.
The problem isn’t the feeling. The problem is how you’re interpreting it.
Anxiety and Excitement Are the Same Thing
This is the key insight from Brooks’ research: anxiety and excitement are physiologically identical.
Both states involve:
- Increased heart rate
- Heightened alertness
- Energy mobilization
- Sharpened focus
- Activation of your sympathetic nervous system
The only difference is your interpretation.
When you label that feeling as “I’m nervous,” you activate a threat response. Your brain interprets the situation as dangerous, which undermines confidence and performance.
When you label the exact same feeling as “I’m excited” or “I’m ready,” you activate a challenge response. Your brain interprets the situation as an opportunity, which enhances focus and performance.
The Research: Reframing Works
In Brooks’ studies, participants who told themselves “I am excited” before stressful tasks (public speaking, difficult tests, performances) performed measurably better than those who told themselves “I am calm.”
Why? Because trying to go from high arousal (nervous) to low arousal (calm) is physiologically difficult. Your body is already ramped up.
However going from high arousal (nervous) to high arousal (excited) is just a mental reframe. Same body state, different interpretation.
For athletes, this means your pre-game butterflies aren’t a warning sign that you’re unprepared. They’re a sign that your body knows something important is about to happen and it’s getting you ready.
How to Apply This Before Competition
Next time you feel nervous before competition, try this:
Instead of: “I need to calm down. These nerves are bad.” Try: “I’m feeling ready. My body is preparing me to perform.”
Instead of: “I’m so nervous, what if I mess up?” Try: “This energy means I care about this. I’m excited to see what I can do.”
Instead of: Deep breathing to reduce arousal Try: Channeling that arousal into focus and intensity
You’re not eliminating the feeling, you’re reinterpreting it as helpful rather than harmful.
Trust Your Stress Response
Your body’s stress response evolved to help you perform under pressure, not to sabotage you. When you’re facing a challenge that matters, your biology kicks in to give you:
Energy to sustain effort
Focus to narrow attention on what matters
Strength through increased muscle activation
Speed through faster reaction times
Athletes who learn to trust their stress response rather than fight it perform better under pressure, recover more effectively from setbacks, and handle competition with greater confidence.
The goal isn’t to eliminate nerves. It’s to reframe them as a resource.
Beyond Competition: Pain and Stress Reprocessing
This principle extends beyond pre-game jitters. How you interpret physical discomfort, training fatigue, and injury recovery affects your actual physiological response.
Athletes who view training discomfort as their body adapting (challenge) recover better than those who view it as their body breaking down (threat).
This is part of what’s called pain and stress reprocessing. It’s changing your psychological relationship with stress, discomfort, and challenge to improve both mental and physical outcomes.
As a massage therapist with 12 years of sports massage experience, I work with athletes to address both the physical restrictions that limit performance (tight hip flexors, trigger points, compensation patterns) and the mindset patterns that create unnecessary struggle.
Ready to Optimize Both Your Body and Mindset?
If you’re an athlete dealing with:
Performance anxiety that affects your competition results
Chronic pain or injuries that limit training
Compensation patterns from years of sport-specific movement
Fear of re-injury after setbacks
I can help you address the physical restrictions through therapeutic massage, gua sha, cupping, and corrective exercises. I also help you reframe your relationship with stress, discomfort, and challenge.
Join a free AcuWellness session where we discuss stress management, nervous system regulation, and pain reprocessing as a community: www.kimskim.com/events
Learn more about stress reframing: Sign up for my free 6-email series on transforming your relationship with stress:
About the Author
I’m a licensed massage therapist with 12 years of experience specializing in chronic pain and sports injuries. I integrate therapeutic massage, corrective exercise, AcuDetox, and pain reprocessing to help clients achieve lasting relief.
Whether you’re an athlete recovering from injury or dealing with chronic pain, I’m here to help you understand what’s happening in your body and find a path forward.