Latest / The Aligned Actor / Walk & Talk: Exhausting Thoughts

Transcript

Walk & Talk: Exhausting Thoughts · The Aligned Actor

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome back to The Aligned Actor Podcast.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Amy Schloerb, your friendly fellow actor and mindfulness and mindset coach.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the podcast where I share practical mindfulness tips and mindset shifts
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: to help us all thrive in our full actor lives.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because actor life, as we all know, is a roller coaster.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is full of ups and downs, twists and turns.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We never know what's coming next.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it can really wreak havoc on our nervous system.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: The entertainment industry is not set up to be a supportive, welcoming, nurturing environment.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: To say the least.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it really falls on us to take care of ourselves,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: to support our physical, mental,
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: and emotional health so that we can stay strong and can stay in this business.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because this really is a business and we deserve to thrive in it even though it is
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: a business and it's our artistry and it feels so personal
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: because we're putting ourselves out there as artists.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was at the Los Angeles
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let me back up.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was at the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Conservatory this weekend for their weekend intensive.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I teach classes there.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also a member.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I take classes there.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I really have enjoyed being a part of that organization that's run through SAG
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: and it's fantastic.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I can't say enough good things about it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they had their weekend intensive recently in August.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the, what was it that she said?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's a business.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: The whole thing is a business.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, one of the panelists at a panel that I attended mentioned how acting is one of
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: the only professions where, as artists, we are not removed from our art.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's the product.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is no separation between us and the product.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like, oh,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a painter and I paint on a canvas and then that canvas is separate from me
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: and I get to display it somewhere.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's very different, right, as actors.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: We are our product in the end.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be very,
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: then everything in our industry,
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: all the rejection,
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: all the uncertainty, all of that kind of stuff, doggy, let's be nice.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Good girl.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you be nice too.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: In case I hadn't already said it, we are out on a walk and talk again this episode.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And my dogs have things to say today about other dogs in our neighborhood.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that is the lovely soundscape that you're getting as we do this episode.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, where were we?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we are, there is no separation between us as artists and the product we produce.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that then can make everything within our industry feel more personal
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: and hurt more and wreak all that much more havoc on our nervous systems.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Which is why,
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: this is a very long intro to this episode,
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Which is why we need to be taking care of ourselves.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the topic that I want to talk about today,
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: and again,
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: because this is just a walk and talk, we're not going to get super deep into this.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of my preliminary thoughts on this topic.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want to do a deeper dive on it later.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So this is really just to whet your appetite.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So at the conservatory this weekend, I taught a class on actor energy.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: I taught a class where the title of it was, Energy for Your Actor Life.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea behind it was, there is so much of actor life that is energetically exhausting.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're exhausted.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Friends, there's so much that we have to do.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much about being an actor that is physically exhausting,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: mentally exhausting, and emotionally exhausting.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so the point of the class was to identify those things and then
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: to figure out ways that we can get energy back into our systems so
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: that we have enough energy to do all the wonderful things that we want to do
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: as actors.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Something really interesting came up in this class where I started to realize,
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: and I kind of already knew this,
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: but it was very abundantly clear from the types of answers I was getting from
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: The participants that one of the most exhausting things about being
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: an actor are thoughts.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the types of thoughts that we're thinking about our career and about the industry.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the point of this episode is just to kind of get you starting
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: to gently Consider your thoughts and your thoughts about yourself as an actor,
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: your thoughts about the industry at large.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Are they giving you energy or are they draining your energy?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So let me give you some examples.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you have recently been having the thought, AI is going to take all our jobs, we're screwed.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Does that thought give you energy as an actor?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or does it take your energy away?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Does it make you want to get up and like, yeah,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go do a class and I'm going to,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: put together some scenes and I want to produce my own content and I want
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: to do my own stuff.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited to like get myself out there.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or does it make you go,
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: well, if AI is coming for all of us anyway, oh God, what's the point even?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to sit on my couch.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's stressful to think about, there's another dog.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's stressful to think about AI coming for our jobs and that maybe there won't be,
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: hey, stop that little girl.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there won't be a place for us anymore or what does our landscape look like, right?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's stressful.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: That stress tanks our energy.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: It takes away from our energy.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's energetically exhausting to think about that constantly and be stressed about it.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just one example.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Another example, what about...
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: They only watch the first 15 seconds of the self-tape.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So does that...
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Give you energy as an actor?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make you go, yeah,
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: they only watched the first 15 seconds,
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: so I'm going to go kick butt at my whole self-tape.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or, does thinking that thought make you go, oh, what's even the point?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I guess I'll get it done because I've got to get it done, but like, I just, so, why?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not fair.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not fair.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: That thought feels very unfair.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would push back on it, though, that that is mind reading.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: That is projection.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: We don't actually know.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we will never know how much or how little.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's some big noises.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Give me just a second.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, we will never know.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not our business, frankly.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: How much or how little of our self-tape casting watches.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's just out of our control completely.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And continuing to feed that thought energy is energetically expensive
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: and energetically exhausting.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's tiring to keep thinking that, to keep stressing about it, right?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's another one.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then...
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whoops, come on doggies.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, come on doggies.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Good doggies.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then, I thought I had a third one.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: But now I'm not remembering it.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, you get the idea here.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if that third idea, that third example comes to me, I will let you know.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: But you get the point.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: The point is, I want you to start thinking through
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And sort of just opening your awareness to the thoughts that you're having
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: about yourself as an actor, about your career, about the industry at large.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And just start asking yourself,
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: when you catch yourself thinking something like,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: they only watched the first 15 seconds, just notice what that does to your energy.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Does it make your energy go up or down?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't know you, maybe thinking that thought makes your energy go up.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I thought of the third example.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the third example of a thought that I'm guessing probably takes away
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: from your energy is energetically exhausting.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't I book it?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is a question that cannot be answered.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when we have a question that cannot be answered, our brain won't let it go.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because our brains like to close loops.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Our brains like satisfying conclusions and answers.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like when a song is stuck in your head and you can't get it out
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: and you never get to hear the end of the song and you're like just tortured by it
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: for a long time.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: That thought becomes an earworm in the same sort of way.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's no answer to it.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's no answer to why you didn't book.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never know.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: You will never, ever know.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And your brain is going to continually try to answer it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's going to answer it probably with more thoughts that are energetically exhausting.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Such as, I wasn't good enough.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't like my work.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: They only watched the first 15 seconds anyway,
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: so of course they didn't get to see how great I was.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: All these thoughts are exhausting because they're stressful.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: They stress our nervous system.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Our nervous system gets activated, and then that's a lot for our bodies to handle.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: So all these thoughts are tiring.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, your homework,
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: should you choose to accept it,
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: is to just be on the lookout for thoughts
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: that are energetically exhausting.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: When you think about yourself as an actor,
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: when you think about your career,
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: is that thought that you're having
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: tiring?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Does it drain your energy?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or does it give you energy?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I want you to be on the lookout for.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And there are plenty of thoughts that you could be thinking about your career and
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: about the industry that could be giving you energy.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just the other day in my wonderful audition technique class with John M.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Keating, he was talking about how he's seen an uptick in coaching sessions.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: That he's had with people and auditions that he's been getting for himself.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: So he's kind of excited.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm excited because the landscape for this fall, I think it's going to be good.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're coming back.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think things are on the rise.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so that, the idea of like, hey, maybe the contraction is turning back into an expansion.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's an energizing thought to be thinking as an actor.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's more and more shows and auditions out there.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Things are picking up again from the pandemic, from the strikes.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's an energizing thought.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And of course,
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: everybody's going to be different in what is an energizing thought versus
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: an energy draining thought.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: But just be on the lookout for Which thoughts are draining your energy?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Which thoughts are energizing you?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Keep an eye out for that.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And again,
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to do,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: this is sort of the rough draft episode, the very cash, that's short for casual.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Episode about this topic because it's a walk and talk.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're out.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's been a lot of dog noise.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's probably been a lot of airplane noise and leaf blower type noise.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll get into this more.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: But for now,
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: just be asking yourself the question,
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: is this thought that I'm having about myself as an actor,
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: is it giving me energy or is it taking away from my energy?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I would encourage you,
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: if it's taking away from your energy,
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: if it's draining your energy,
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to start the process of gently letting it go.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that you do that, it's easier than you think.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: You basically cut that thought off.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: You say, okay, that's a thought that's draining my energy.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's step one.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: You just sort of identify it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then step two, Is to decide that you're no longer going to give energy to that thought.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's a thought about AI is going to,
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: you know, take over everything, you can say, okay, yep, I'm no longer available.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I no longer have the energy for that thought.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to give energy to that thought.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And instead, you think about anything else.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And for now,
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to like completely do a 180 on it where it's like,
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: ha, there is no AI.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to worry about it at all.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everything's going to be great and sunshine and roses and kittens.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, maybe just...
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Recite your phone number backwards in your mind.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Or start,
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: name all the instances of the color red that you see around you.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Anything to bring yourself back to the present moment.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Anything to distract your mind from
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: The thought that you're no longer energetically available for.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: If the thought is exhausting and you don't want to give it any more energy,
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: you just need to fill your brain with anything else.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I have for you today.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: This was a very loose, informal, cash episode.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you so much for joining me.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: As always, you can find out more about me and my work on my website, thealignedactor.com.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I will see you next time.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Bye!