NOTE: This episode was recorded while I was on a walk with my dogs so you will hear “neighborhood noise” — planes, cars, poop bags, etc. The written portion of this article is a lightly edited transcript, so it may seem more informal than usual.
Hello, and welcome back to The Aligned Actor Podcast. I’m Amy Schloerb, your friendly fellow actor and mindfulness and mindset coach. And this is the podcast where I share practical mindfulness tips and mindset shifts to help us all thrive in our full actor lives.
Because actor life, as we all know, is a roller coaster. It is full of ups and downs, twists and turns. We never know what’s coming next. And it can really wreak havoc on our nervous system.
The entertainment industry is not set up to be a supportive, welcoming, nurturing environment. To say the least. So it really falls on us to take care of ourselves, to support our physical, mental, and emotional health, so that we can stay strong and can stay in this business.
Because this really is a business and we deserve to thrive in it even though it is a business and it’s our artistry and it feels so personal because we’re putting ourselves out there as artists.
I was at the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Conservatory this weekend for their weekend intensive. I teach classes there. I’m also a member. I take classes there. I really have enjoyed being a part of that organization that’s run through SAG-AFTRA and it’s fantastic. I can’t say enough good things about it.
And they had their weekend intensive recently in August. And one of the panelists at a panel that I attended mentioned how acting is one of the only professions where, as artists, we are not removed from our art.
We are the product. There is no separation between us and the product. It’s not like, “Oh, I’m a painter and I paint on a canvas and then that canvas is separate from me and I get to display it somewhere.”
It’s very different, right, as actors. We are our product in the end. And then everything in our industry, all the rejection, all the uncertainty, all of that kind of stuff —
[Pause for dog noise] In case I hadn’t already said it, we are out on a walk and talk again this episode. And my dogs have things to say today about other dogs in our neighborhood. So that is the lovely soundscape that you’re getting as we do this episode.
So anyway, where were we?
There is no separation between us as artists and the product we produce.
And that then can make everything within our industry feel more personal, and hurt more, and wreak all that much more havoc on our nervous systems.
Which is why we need to be taking care of ourselves.
And the topic that I want to talk about today, and again, because this is just a walk and talk, we’re not going to get super deep into this. This is kind of my preliminary thoughts on this topic. I want to do a deeper dive on it later. So this is really just to whet your appetite.
So at the conservatory this weekend, I taught a class on actor energy. I taught a class where the title of it was, Energy for Your Actor Life. And the idea behind it was, there is so much of actor life that is energetically exhausting.
We’re exhausted. Friends, there’s so much that we have to do. There’s so much about being an actor that is physically exhausting, mentally exhausting, and emotionally exhausting.
And so the point of the class was to identify those things and then to figure out ways that we can get energy back into our systems so that we have enough energy to do all the wonderful things that we want to do as actors.
Something really interesting came up in this class where I started to realize, and I kind of already knew this, but it was very abundantly clear from the types of answers I was getting from the participants that one of the most exhausting things about being an actor are thoughts.
The types of thoughts that we’re thinking about our career and about the industry.
So the point of this episode is just to kind of get you starting to gently consider your thoughts. Your thoughts about yourself as an actor, your thoughts about the industry at large. Are they giving you energy or are they draining your energy?
So let me give you some examples. If you have recently been having the thought, “AI is going to take all our jobs, we’re screwed.” Does that thought give you energy as an actor? Or does it take your energy away?
Does it make you want to get up and like, “Yeah, I’m going to go do a class and I’m going to, you know, put together some scenes and I want to produce my own content and I want to do my own stuff. I’m really excited to like get myself out there!”
Or does it make you go, “Well, if AI is coming for all of us anyway, oh God, what’s the point even? I’m going to sit on my couch.” It’s stressful to think about. It’s stressful to think about AI coming for our jobs and that maybe there won’t be a place for us anymore or what does our landscape look like, right?
That’s stressful. That stress tanks our energy. It takes away from our energy. It’s energetically exhausting to think about that constantly and be stressed about it.
So that’s just one example. Another example, what about,”They only watch the first 15 seconds of the self-tape.” Okay. So does that thought give you energy as an actor? Does that make you go, “Yeah, they only watched the first 15 seconds, so I’m going to go kick butt at my whole self-tape!”
Or, does thinking that thought make you go, “Oh, what’s even the point? I mean, I guess I’ll get it done because I’ve got to get it done, but like, ugh. Why? It’s not fair.” Because it’s not fair. I get it. That thought feels very unfair. I understand that.
I would push back on it, though, that that is mind reading. That is projection. We don’t actually know. We don’t know. And we will never know how much or how little — and it’s not our business, frankly — how much or how little of our self-tape casting watches. It’s just out of our control completely.
And continuing to feed that thought energy is energetically expensive and energetically exhausting. It’s tiring to keep thinking that, to keep stressing about it, right? So that’s another one.
And then...I thought I had a third one. But now I’m not remembering it.
So anyway, you get the idea here. And if that third idea, that third example comes to me, I will let you know. But you get the point. The point is, I want you to start thinking through and sort of just opening your awareness to the thoughts that you’re having about yourself as an actor, about your career, about the industry at large.
And just start asking yourself, when you catch yourself thinking something like, “They only watched the first 15 seconds,” just notice what that does to your energy. Does it make your energy go up or down?
Because I don’t know you, maybe thinking that thought makes your energy go up. I have no idea.
Oh, I thought of the third example. So the third example of a thought that I’m guessing probably takes away from your energy and is energetically exhausting — “Why didn’t I book it?”
That is a question that cannot be answered.
And when we have a question that cannot be answered, our brain won’t let it go. Because our brains like to close loops. Our brains like satisfying conclusions and answers. I
t’s kind of like when a song is stuck in your head and you can’t get it out and you never get to hear the end of the song and you’re like just tortured by it for a long time.
That thought becomes an earworm in the same sort of way. Because there’s no answer to it. There’s no answer to why you didn’t book. You’ll never know. You will never, ever know.
And your brain is going to continually try to answer it. And it’s going to answer it probably with more thoughts that are energetically exhausting. Such as, “I wasn’t good enough. They didn’t like my work. They only watched the first 15 seconds anyway, so of course they didn’t get to see how great I was.”
All these thoughts are exhausting because they’re stressful. They stress our nervous system. Our nervous system gets activated, and then that’s a lot for our bodies to handle. So all these thoughts are tiring.
So, your homework, should you choose to accept it, is to just be on the lookout for thoughts that are energetically exhausting.
When you think about yourself as an actor, when you think about your career, is that thought that you’re having tiring? Does it drain your energy? Or does it give you energy?
That’s what I want you to be on the lookout for. And there are plenty of thoughts that you could be thinking about your career and about the industry that could be giving you energy.
Just the other day in my wonderful audition technique class with John M. Keating, he was talking about how he’s seen an uptick in coaching sessions that he’s had with people and auditions that he’s been getting for himself. So he’s kind of excited.
He’s like, “I’m excited because the landscape for this fall, I think it’s going to be good. I think we’re coming back. I think things are on the rise.”
And so that, the idea of like, “Hey, maybe the contraction is turning back into an expansion!” That’s an energizing thought to be thinking as an actor. There’s more and more shows and auditions out there. Things are picking up again from the pandemic, from the strikes. That’s an energizing thought.
And of course, everybody’s going to be different in what is an energizing thought versus an energy draining thought. But just be on the lookout for which thoughts are draining your energy? Which thoughts are energizing you? Keep an eye out for that.
And again, we’re going to do, you know, this is sort of the rough draft episode because it’s a walk and talk, so we’ll get into this more.
But for now, just be asking yourself the question, “Is this thought that I’m having about myself as an actor, is it giving me energy or is it taking away from my energy?”
And I would encourage you, if it’s taking away from your energy, if it’s draining your energy, I would encourage you to start the process of gently letting it go. And the way that you do that, it’s easier than you think.
You basically cut that thought off. You say, “Okay, that’s a thought that’s draining my energy.” That’s step one. You just sort of identify it.
And then step two is to decide that you’re no longer going to give energy to that thought. So if it’s a thought about “AI is going to take over everything,” you can say, “Okay, yep, I’m no longer available, I no longer have the energy for that thought. I’m not going to give energy to that thought.”
And instead, you think about anything else.
And for now, I’m not asking you to like completely do a 180 on it where it’s like, “Ha, there is no AI. We don’t have to worry about it at all. Everything’s going to be great and sunshine and roses and kittens.”
But instead, maybe just recite your phone number backwards in your mind. Or name all the instances of the color red that you see around you.
Anything to bring yourself back to the present moment. Anything to distract your mind from the thought that you’re no longer energetically available for.
If the thought is exhausting and you don’t want to give it any more energy, you just need to fill your brain with anything else.
So that’s what I have for you today. This was a very loose, informal, casual episode. And thank you so much for joining me.
As always, you can find out more about me and my work on my website, thealignedactor.com. And I will see you next time. Bye!
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