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Actor Life is F-ing Stressful · The Aligned Actor

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome 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 offer practical mindfulness tools and mindset shifts
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: to help us all thrive in our full actor lives.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Basically,
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to stay aligned with who you are,
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: what you want, and why you choose to be an actor.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that you can make it in an industry that will constantly test you on each
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: and every one of those ideas.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because actor life, as we know, as I say all the time on this podcast, it's a roller coaster.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and sometimes full on loopy loops.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way that we are going to survive in this business long term and be able
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: to continually stay aligned with those questions.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: What do I want?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And why do I keep getting up in the morning and choosing to be an actor?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: The only way we're going to stay aligned with all that and survive
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: in this industry is if we're taking care of ourselves inside and out.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And finding effective ways to handle all of the stress,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: all of the havoc that the entertainment industry wreaks on our nervous systems,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: finding a way to handle and roll with all of that.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because actor life is a stressful rollercoaster.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And stress has become so normalized in our culture and so normalized for us
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: as actors that we often ignore its signs and symptoms until they majorly,
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: majorly disrupt our lives.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: We get sick.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But mindfulness,
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: fortunately,
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  SPEAKER_00: can help us recognize and actually do something to alleviate our stress
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: before we completely burn out and get sick,
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: end up in the hospital, all that not-so-fun stuff.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, this is a benefit of mindfulness for humans in general.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: All humans benefit from the stress-relieving benefits of mindfulness, not just actors.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: But stress for actors is on a whole other level.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Constant uncertainty.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Relentless rejection.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: An unpredictable urgency.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: They all absolutely wreak havoc on our nervous systems,
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  SPEAKER_00: flooding our bodies and minds with stress and tension.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: It is not fun, friends, but it is just part of being an actor.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about the uncertainty of never knowing if our next audition is a day away.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or a month away.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or a year away.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: But we always have to stay ready.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hurry up and wait.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Be ready.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Be ready all the time for opportunity.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because opportunity could come knocking on your door at any moment.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not there.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to be constantly ready for it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Waiting to hear if you booked it.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's uncertain.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Did I book it?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Did I not?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Waiting to hear that limbo period, that is always stressful.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Never knowing if your scene will make it to the final cut or if you'll end up on
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: the cutting room floor.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So even after we've booked the job,
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: we've filmed the job,
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: we don't even know if we're going to be able to say like,
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: hey, look, here's an example of me being an actor.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Look at my work.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's uncertain.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's stressful to live in that uncertainty.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: The uncertainty of always wondering if this will be your last job.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not fun.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: The uncertainty of constantly thinking that there is something more
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: that you could be doing to further your career.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: What could I be doing more?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Am I doing enough?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Am I enough?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: All those questions.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: We just have this uncertainty all the time.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about the rejection of not booking.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Again.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: The rejection of getting dropped by your agent.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: The rejection of your pilot not getting picked up or your series getting canceled.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: The rejection of getting snubbed at nomination time despite everyone in
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: the entertainment industry saying that you gave the performance of your career.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or how about aging out of roles that were once considered your bread and butter.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's the unpredictable urgency.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Of putting together a self-tape in 24 to 48 hours.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or the unpredictable urgency of like, oh,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: now I have to find last-minute childcare because I have
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: a commercial audition tomorrow.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: The uncertainty,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: not the uncertainty, sorry,
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: the unpredictable urgency,
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: that's the topic I'm on,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: of rearranging your work schedule so that you can be on a 10 a.m. Zoom callback.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: We never know when it's gonna happen,
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: but it's like, when it hits, you're like, oh, oh, I gotta go, I gotta go now.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is urgent.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Getting that last minute rewrite that you have to memorize immediately.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Unpredictable urgency.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Having to rebook your family's summer travel plans because you booked something, yay!
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: But now we have to rearrange everything.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or because production added filming days to your shooting schedule.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it is stress on stress, on stress, on stress, on stress, on stress, on stress.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And look, I don't say any of this by way of complaining.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: We are not complaining.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: We choose this.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: We chose this career.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: We choose this career continuously over and over and over again, year after year after year.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: But everything that I just listed,
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: those are legitimately stressful situations that just keep compounding
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: on each other.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's no wonder That many of us feel overloaded in this career.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So just cut yourself a little bit of slack.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is not easy to be an actor.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately,
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: a regular mindfulness practice is a major,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: major antidote to the stress of actor life.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mindfulness can help us learn to respond to these situations,
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: the unpredictable urgency,
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: the relentless rejection, the Uncertainty that just happens all the time.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: We can respond to all of those situations with the calm presence of
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: an Obi-Wan Kenobi instead of the depressing energy of maybe an Eeyore
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: the frantic energy of a Chicken Little.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god,
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  SPEAKER_00: the sky is falling because I have to do an audition and I have
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: to change everything around.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got some things to move around in my schedule.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I can handle it.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to figure it out.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: it activated my nervous system a little bit,
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: knowing that I have to get this done, you know, fairly quickly.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I can handle it, right?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because within only a few minutes of focused attention on our breath,
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: We can activate the relaxation response in the body.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So our parasympathetic nervous system,
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: that rest and digest,
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: maybe as you've heard it called,
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: that part comes online and it moves us out of fight or flight mode,
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: which I feel like is what often gets triggered by these types of situations.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, I have an audition.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in fight or flight mode because I got to get it done.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a second.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let me take a breath.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let me practice mindfulness for just a second.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't take long at all.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: As I've said before on this podcast,
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: a calm body and mind is better able to remain grounded and problem solve and plan in
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: the midst of all the uncertainty,
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: dealing with all the rejection, dealing with all the urgency of actor life.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why we are learning and practicing mindfulness together.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, remember, mindfulness doesn't have to take a long time or look a certain way.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can simply count your inhales and exhales up to 10.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And even doing just that will be enough to bring you back to the present moment,
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: feeling just a little bit more calm in your body and mind.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you know what?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just go ahead and practice that together.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So just sit comfortably.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your eyes open if you want to.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to keep my eyes open and we're just going to count our inhales and exhales up to 10.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to count one on the inhale,
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  SPEAKER_00: two to exhale,
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  SPEAKER_00: three to inhale,
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  SPEAKER_00: four to exhale,
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  SPEAKER_00: five to inhale,
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  SPEAKER_00: Six to exhale.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Seven to inhale.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Eight to exhale.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Nine to inhale.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: 10 to exhale.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I definitely feel a little calmer in my body.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I always get kind of activated when I record podcasts, and that's good.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of want to be in that activated,
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: excited, I have things to tell you that I want to share with you, energy.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: But anytime I practice mindfulness,
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm glad we did it at the end here,
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: where it's like, okay,
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: now I can just be a little bit more relaxed,
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: move on with my day after recording this podcast.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's what I have for you today.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining me.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you found this content helpful and inspiring,
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I would be so honored if you would leave a comment on my Substack,
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: leave a comment on the YouTube video,
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: leave a comment or a review on like Apple Podcasts or Spotify
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: or wherever you found this content.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Also share it with your actor pals because I really want more and more people
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: to benefit from mindfulness and understand how beneficial mindfulness can be.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Especially for us as actors and dealing with all the uncertainty and the rejection
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: and the... What was the third one?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, Amy.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's your own content for crying out loud.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Remember your points.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uncertainty, rejection, and... Oh, uncertainty, rejection...
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: I should cut this out.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, dear.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Am I going to be brave and leave it in or am I going to cut it out?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have it up here.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uncertainty, rejection, and urgency.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Urgency, right?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is such a huge one as actors.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: We always got to get things done immediately.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, can't believe I forgot that one.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: But hey, I'm human.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: It happens.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, thank you so much for joining me and I will see you next time.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.