ActorSelfCoach

In these weeks of Strikes, SAG AFTRA and WGA, there are opportunities for us all. To participate. To negotiate. To get Creative about solutions.

And...

To worry. To feel Desperate. If you notice that you are feeling a lot of negative emotions, this is human. But if the emotion is generally Desperation, you likely want to find one that feels better.  Much better.

In this podcast, there is a strategy to interrupt the path your primitive brain will always revert to, and step into a Feeling you would rather experience.

Much better than Desperation.

Here we are. This is how we make progress in our industry. We work together, we organize together, and we strike. Together. And we will have Thoughts about this. About our career. Our industry. Our bottom line. Some thoughts will be negative. That is OK. We are always ready to be ready. This is what we do.

Take a moment.  Look at the thoughts.  And then decide how you Want to Feel going forward.  The SAG-AFTRA strike is a fact in our lives.  A circumstance.  What we Do with that fact is up to us.  

Use this time for You.  Decide how you are able to support the union, if you are a member.  And decide that the union will be stronger on the other side of this.

So will you.

There is immediate pleasure. For sure, that is fun. And there is delayed pleasure... gratification that derives potency from the very fact that you have to ... wait for it... We Humans, We Actors, need both.  This is certainly the case with auditions.  The work we put into them may pay off immediately.  A job is booked.  

Or.  The work may pay off later, in unexpected ways.  

We never know how any work will be received.  Or when we might benefit.  So it can be beautiful to enjoy the doing of the work itself.  And try not to judge any path to pleasure, especially our own.

The pleasures of our work are just a part of the whole of us.  We are built for these, and much more.

We often go outside ourselves for answers. This podcast is an invitation to go inside and use your internal wisdom. No one knows you better than you. The simple questions here can open up any feeling you are experiencing, tell you Why you are Feeling This Way, and give you direction.

Use your Power.  Find your Own Wisdom.  Then, ACT.

Every actor has a Zone of Genius. This is the space in which you deliver excellence. You know when you are 'on'. You know when you are 'in the zone'. Take the time to Recognize yours. Knowing, with confidence, where you excel will be immeasurably helpful when life circumstances, casting, rehearsals, call backs, performances, don't go the way you expected. It is not helpful to get down on yourself. You can note what worked, what didn't, and move on. But if you find yourself lingering there, in a negative space, go to what you know. Your zone of Genius is with you.

Regardless.

This is Pride Month, where LGBTQAi+ and more celebrate and share their joy. And that joy, embracing it, feeling it yourself, witnessing it, is contagious. Use some of this energy to think about your own pride as an actor.

When was the last time you were proud of your work?  Are you proud today?  

And for auditions, what would change if you felt pride, before you entered the room, or pushed 'send'?

Maybe everything.

Our human behavior is our skill set as actors. We observe ourselves, observe others, learn, use what we learn when we need it. But being observers of humanity can lead to a great deal of information coming into our heads. You may feel confused. About any choice as an actor. Or anything in your off stage life. This podcast will teach you the one question to ask yourself to get out of confusion. Because life, events, instructions.... can be confusing.

That never means we have to be.

This is the second in our series about dealing with some common negative emotions. Overwhelm. It can all Seem Too Much sometimes. And we do this to ourselves. Overwhelm is a story that we tell ourselves. We are creative. We can tell a better story.

This podcast will give you a way to handle Overwhelm for good.  Overwhelm will still invade our emotions as life and the world happens around us.  But now you will have a way through it.

Not our favorite emotion. Powerful in plays, in the Bard, in riveting moments in film and beyond. Truly unpleasant in our lives. It flares uninvited. This is human. So what do we do now? How do we live and thrive with negative emotions?

We go inside.  And here's the good news.  We can interrupt Jealousy before we act on it.  And here's the better news.  We can train our brains to move through Jealousy much faster.  

If you have an actor problem. Or a human problem. Or just have something that is vexing you.. The Think Slow, Act Fast idea is a great way to resolve it for you. Because at the heart of most problems is what you are thinking about them. This is where the solution lies. Slow does not mean forever. Or lingering indulgently over something (or someone). It means being intentional.

Then. You can Act Fast because you decided with intention.

We don't need this all the time. But when we do, it is a Great Concept to know.