It is my firm belief that mindfulness is a tool that can be like a balm for so many of the things that challenge us the most as actors, and one of my goals with my work is to demystify mindfulness and make it as simple and accessible as possible for you.
To that end, we are starting a series on The Aligned Actor Podcast!
In this series we’re going to do a deep dive on mindfulness.
Mindfulness has the power to completely transform you as an actor both in how you approach your craft and your career. From calming your nerves to remaining fully present in a scene to increasing your emotional intelligence and range to perhaps most importantly, allowing you to handle anything that the entertainment industry throws at you without burning out.
Living Under Constant Threat
The entertainment industry regularly wreaks havoc on our nervous systems.
Work is unpredictable — we have to say ready for auditions at anytime and sometimes it’s slow for no apparent reason.
Rejection is a cultural norm – whether it’s an audition we didn’t book, or our series getting cancelled, or the fact that The Academy keeps nominating and giving awards to those other guys.
This business is not a meritocracy, so you can be an incredibly talented, established actor and still face work instability and rejection regularly, all of which has the potential to leave you questioning “Am I good enough?”
Our confidence, our sense-of-self, and our very identity as actors is continuously threatened and can be harmed by all this uncertainty and rejection.
No matter how well we intellectually understand ideas like…
“You can’t book every job.”
“Book the room, not the job.”
“Avails are a sign that you are so close!”
“They just went in another direction.”
…we are still a human beings, in human bodies, regularly facing uncertainty and rejection, and all of that takes a toll on our nervous system and can trigger very real primal, survival reactions within us.
For our cave-dwelling ancestors, rejection literally meant death. To be turned away by your group meant you were on your own to deal with finding food and staying safe from predators. Our brains haven’t evolved all that much since those days, so there are parts of our brains that still perceive any form of rejection as a threat to our survival.
Additionally, for us as actors, the professional uncertainty and rejection we face IS tied to our survival. We need money to survive, so slow times, dry spells, and changes in the entertainment industry all threaten our survival within this profession.
Sure, we can have day jobs and other sources of income, but there’s still a very real threat to our identity as actors because many of us still hold the belief that “If I’m not making a living from acting, I’m not really an actor.”
A New (Old) Hope
But hope is not lost, friends. Just because the entertainment industry wreaks havoc on our nervous system doesn’t mean we just have to take it.
Mindfulness has been around for thousands of years and offers a scientifically proven way to soothe and fortify our nervous systems. It can act like a balm for all the challenges of Actor Life.
Mindfulness can help us soothe the stress response triggered by uncertainty and rejection.
Mindfulness can help us sit with (and get comfortable with) all the uncomfortable feelings that arise in this roller coaster of a career.
Mindfulness can help us recognize that thoughts like “I’m not really an actor if I’m not making a living from acting” is just a thought and we get to decide if we want to believe it.
Mindfulness can help us stay focused on why we chose this career in the first place – our love of acting and our deep desire to tell stories and play characters and impact an audience.
And so much more.
Let’s Learn and Practice
So we’re going to learn and practice mindfulness together in this series.
We’re going to learn what mindfulness is.
We’re going to let go of common misconceptions about mindfulness that often get in the way of starting or sticking with a practice.
We’re going to break mindfulness down into its micro steps so you really understand what’s going on in a formal mindfulness meditation and completely demystify the process for yourself.
We’re going to put a simple story to your mindfulness practice because as actors, we love stories and human beings actually understand things better through story.
We’re going to talk about all the many benefits of mindfulness for actors.
We’re going to practice mindfulness — A LOT! (so you can learn by doing!)
And we’re gonna start right now by defining and practicing mindfulness…
Mindfulness is a special way of paying attention to the present moment with kind curiosity.
So let’s take just a second and do that together now. Tune into whatever is happening in your present moment with curiosity and kindness.
Where are you?
What are you doing?
What, if anything, do you see…hear…feel…smell…taste?
Before I asked you to tune into your present moment, were you somewhere else? Off in the future or the past? Just gently notice, remembering that mindfulness is a judgement-free zone of kind curiosity.
And that’s it. That’s mindfulness. It’s simple. Maybe WAY simpler than you were thinking, because there are a lot of misconceptions about mindfulness that get in our way, which we will get into in a future episode.
But for now, STAY HERE in this present moment with this simple definition of mindfulness - paying attention to the present moment with kind curiosity — which is what we’re going to practice in the next episode.
Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks!
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The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit
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I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life.
🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series.
🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives.
💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools.
🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗
