A psychologist's tip for performance anxiety: 'pretend flush' your mistakes away
Psychologist Cindra Kamphoff offers strategies for managing nerves before high-stakes moments like a race or job interview, including visualizing mistakes being flushed away.
Written by EGazette’s AI. The facts are drawn from cited sources; the analysis is the AI’s own.
For people worried about stumbling before a high-stakes event — a race, a presentation, a job interview — psychologist Cindra Kamphoff offers a set of creative strategies aimed at easing jitters and building in-the-moment confidence, according to NPR.
One of the techniques described involves mentally “pretend flushing” a mistake away, a visualization exercise intended to help a person let go of an error quickly rather than dwelling on it and compounding anxiety during a performance.
NPR's report frames the approach as part of a broader set of tools Kamphoff recommends for managing performance anxiety in moments that carry high personal stakes, whether athletic, professional or academic.
The report did not detail every technique in full, but situates the “pretend flush” idea within a wider conversation about mental preparation and in-the-moment coping strategies that athletes and professionals can use when nerves threaten to affect performance.
Performance anxiety is a common experience, and visualization techniques have long been used by psychologists working with athletes and professionals facing high-pressure situations.
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