Page 129 - How to Shine on Stage

playfulness and inhibits analytical processing, which facilitates the onset
of flow (Biasutti & Frezza, 2009).

3.4 Resilience as a Strategy for Coping with Stress
in Musicians
The concept of mental resilience is commonly used to discuss how an in-
dividual (or group of individuals) withstands important stressors or chal-
lenges threatening their functioning, development, or well-being, or how
they respond to them (Kegelaers, 2019; Masten, 2014). Research demon- 127
strates that resilience reflects a psychological state that emerges over time
and as a result of a dynamic interaction between the protective resourc-
es which can be divided into those related to personality (e.g. assessments
of challenges, optimism, self-efficacy, commitment, etc.) and those relat-
ed to environment (e.g. social support, psychological climate, etc.) (Bryan
et al., 2019; Sarkar & Fletcher, 2014). Over the last decade, the construct
of resilience has attracted attention of the performance psychology ex-
ploring education (Hartley, 2011), the military (Crane et al., 2012), po-
lice work (van der Meulen et al., 2018), sports (Kegelaers & Wylleman, Psychological Well-Being in Musicians
2019), and the visual arts (Siddins et al., 2016), among other areas. Stud-
ies in these areas suggest the role of resilience as an important psycholog-
ical characteristic for the achievement of optimal mental health (Hu et
al., 2015; Kegelaers et al., 2021). Margaret S. Osborne et al. (2014) found
resilience to be a critical psychological feature of protection against the
negative consequences of performance anxiety in musicians. Kegelaers
et al. (2021) suggest that classical musicians may face an increased risk of
mental health problems compared to the general population due to sig-
nificant professional challenges and stressors, and that their mental re-
silience is a significant determinant in this matter. An important finding
of their research was that symptoms of depression/anxiety as a conse-
quence of occupational stress are relatively common in musicians. On
top of that, music students had significantly more symptoms compared
to professional musicians. Resilience and general physical health have
been found to have a negative correlation with mental health problems.
The results reinforce the need for further research into mental health is-
sues in music students and provide preliminary evidence on the impor-
tance of psychological resilience in classical musicians.

3.5 Psychological Well-Being in Musicians
In the last several years, there has been a growing effort to promote
musical performance success through deliberate and systematic en-
hancement of physical and psychological well-being in music students