The Rules of Engagement

The Rules of Engagement

There are rules in every business. Until you are in the position to change the rules it is best you adhere to them. It is assumed that you know the rules for the acting business, but in case you don’t here they are: know your lines, show up on time and don’t cause trouble.

It sounds simple enough. It’s only a problem if: you find these rules to be an infringement on your personal rights or if you believe you have the right to give your opinion and take advantage of someone else’s responsibility and patience. It’s only a problem if you are concealing your fears of knowing how to translate or interpret the director by taking a personal stand or disagreeing with an interpretation or vision. Don't forget that behaving badly is just an indicator that you have a lack of knowledge and are trying to conceal it.

There’s no doubt that there are those in your life who will behave badly. As we discussed earlier that should be a chance for you to become aware of their pain. But, far to often we take their behaving badly as a call for us to defend ourselves from their translation of personal pain. Behaving badly is always wrong. But, taking it upon yourself to be the instrument of right and wrong could prove fatal to your career. It is best to allow someones behaving badly to be your opportunity to show compassion. That compassion will come back to you in career enhancing ways, of this I am sure.

It should be noted that those people in your life that cause you the most pain, inflict on you the most grief, take from you the most focus are, ironically, the most important teachers you will have in your life. They are the ones who have the most to offer you in terms of growth and development. If someone has the power to make you crazy then they hold the key to the knowledge you need to make your life better. They are teachers only if you appreciate their unknowing effort to strengthen you ability to be your best you. One day they will lose the ability to push your buttons and on that day you will find someone who calls you a friend.

The Best You Position

As we have discussed, the “best you” position is the actor’s emotional state of being focused, aware and accountable for his actions. It is the actor’s emotional and presentational control of his effect on other people. It is the divine you. It is the position you are in when you are in Talent.

People who “push your buttons” can become the practice fields for control of your physical and emotional state. How terrible it would be to admit that your bad behavior could be predicted and motivated by others. How terrible it would be to know that you have made yourself vulnerable by your patterns of behavior. You have given out your own defense secrets that allow for your own defeat.

If you are working within your “best you” position, this will not happen.

Your Habits

There are many external things that you use to change your physical or emotional states. Unfortunately, many of these things have become habits that permit you to remain unfocused, unaware and unaccountable. Habits are rarely supportive of your growth. Habits are things you have allowed to maintain a sense of control without your being aware or responsible to that control.

It is important that you become aware of the habits you have developed to try and change your physical and emotional states of unhappiness. You may have the habit of using drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, food or other outside substances to do this. However, you run the risk of being at the mercy of outside stimuli that will eventually require you to pay a price. That price may be more that you are willing to pay.

There are physical habits that you have that support your negative physical and emotional states. Habits like lying down while watching TV or slouching while you’re in acting class. Perhaps you slump while you read. You may actually sit while learning your lines. (I’ll talk about that later.) These may be some of the physical habits you have that may need to be changed as part of your overall plan to take control of your physical and emotional states.

Your habits are the unconscious way that you allow your physical body to manipulate you and keep you from awareness, focus and accountability. These habits allow your passions to be unchecked. A habit, by definition, is an action done without thought. Your habits must be reviewed and placed into awareness. Your habits must be evaluated as to their function and purpose. If you have habits that keep you from action or allow you to neglect or abuse any of the major areas of your life, then, they must be addressed.

Become aware of how your body placement is used in your everyday life and activities. Become aware of habits that allow your body to suck your energy away from your control. Be aware of when your body is using your energy at its peak of ability.

Become aware of what this peak energy performance level means to you. Know how it feels when you are "on." Notice how it feels to be physically grounded. (Grounded is a term referring to your physical body being connected to the earth allowing you a constant source of power.) To be grounded means you are firmly planted to the earth and this placement results in strength and direction, both mentally and physically.

You must always be clear about the opposing agendas operating within the two parts of you; the physical you which is your vessel, your body, the place where your life energy resides. And, the spiritual you. The spiritual you is the you in relationship to the universe. It is the you of All That Is. It is the you that is searching for comfort, peace and joy. And, it is the you searching for a reunion with the power and bounty of the universe. The spiritual you is always seeking answers to what you do not understand. This lack of knowledge is what causes you fear. It is that part of you that reasons and holds logic and strives for truth and acceptance. It is that part of you that is searching for compassion while also battling the other you for control of your life energy.

The conflict between the two parts of you are what define your passion. Passion is pain. It is the desire to understand your relation to the world and the conflicts that quest for knowledge intensifies.

The Process of Achievement

The following is what I believe are the critical ingredients to the process of achievement in a successful professional acting career. The process requires you become aware of your current operating procedure; meaning your habits. This process can be yours if you take control of your habits and their effect on you. Don't forget that a habit, negative or positive, is dangerous to you if it functions without your direct approval. Do not let the habit of justifying your abilities in relation to your competitive reality keep you in a darkness of denial as to who and what you have to offer to an audience. Remember, the audience, knowing it or not, is counting on you to use your energy to free them from dis-ease.

• Learn what things need to be done to get you where you want to go as an
actor.

• Commit yourself to being prepared with the talents necessary to
be competitive in any given storytelling arena.

• Accept that some of your talents may need to be strengthened.

• Remember the four D’s: desire, dedication, determination and discipline.

• Create a plan of action and evaluate the results frequently.

• Systematically evaluate your actions make sure they are working for you.

• Maintain awareness of your own patterns of behavior and your corresponding
physical and emotional states.

• Take total control and responsibility for “the best you” presentation.

• Accept that no one can cause you to fail in your quest for a successful
professional acting career except you.

• Defy the odds by accepting them as in your favor.

• Hold yourself responsible for your “behaving badly” in all areas of your
life.

• Remember that your negative thoughts are controlled by your body position
through feeling states.

• Know how to change your body positions to stop internal dialogue that is tring to justify your loss of the physical control of your life energy.

• Change the frequency level of your energy’s vibrations to support the
positive power of the law of attraction.

• Make sure you approach each day with a commitment to create the actions
that will result in the "no responses" needed before the "yes responses" can come your way.

• Find joy in the process, knowing that the skills needed to create emotional
posturing for your character to “behave badly” in make believe are the same skills that give you the freedom from behaving badly in reality.

Balance: Your Peak Energy Performance Level

Balance is that physical place where talents reside. It is the physical feeling that you go to as you start doing something you know how to do well. Such as tennis, that physical place you go just before you serve the ball. Or dancing, that physical place you go to just before you step onto the dance floor. It could be the moment just before you walk onto the stage as a character. It could be the moment just before the action cue is called for film or television. It is the moment that you take knowledge and turn it into electrical energy and send that energy to the areas of your physical body that will be needed for the talent (task) at hand.

I call balance the key to your Peak Energy Performance Level. I believe that your peak energy performance level is based on your physical control level for each of your talents. Stand up and put yourself in the physical control position for different talents that have a muscle memory position. Perhaps a well rehearsed monologue or the feeling from a well rehearsed scene from a play you have taken to talent. Your Peak Energy Performance Level is using the process of talent to achieve a feeling for the effort’s starting point (to date). That feeling is where you go to each time you begin a specific talent. This is now what I call the balance position of intensity you take yourself physically each time you begin the effort.

As you know, Talent (with a capital T)is a place that you can go to by transferring knowledge to electrical energy. The power of this transfer is enhanced through repetition. Once it has left the conscious mind to become electrical impulses it resides in the muscles of your body needed for the activity. This is a physical process. It is known as muscle memory.

That muscle memory becomes a specific feeling associated with a specific talent(activity). By going to the feeling this muscle memory creates,you bypass the brain’s ability to shortcut your effort by inserting negative thoughts. Think of each of your talents as a software program for your computer, the brain. Each of your talents have an ability to convert all of your computer’s (i.e. brain) ability to focus on a specific talent (activity). All you need to do is know how to bring up the program. In other words, you need to know how you physically activate each of your talents. When that happens, only those things that are applicable to that specific talent (your personal software program) will be used at the highest energy control level to date; that is your Peak Energy Performance Level for that specific talent. The ability to go to that feeling to activate the talent (activity) is key to making the feeling stronger, therefore, the talent stronger.

When you go to your Peak Energy Performance Level (talent level to date) for a given talent then you are taking that talent (activity) to the place I call Talent. In this place of Talent no outside fear can, or will, be an issue. No unrelated thoughts will get in the way of the talent (personal software program) that you have activated. Your Peak Energy Performance Level (energy capacity to date) is the balance you use to take control of your energy through physical and mental focus. This understanding is important in developing new talents and enhancing current talents.

Energy

This balance position can also be used to practice taking control of your fear and pain in all areas of your life. It can be the action that, through physical repetition, creates a talent for controlling your physical and emotional states. Your life energy is in your contro. Happiness is about understanding your life energy and your ability to control its function.

Energy is your product as an actor. Your energy is the life force that you share with your audience, in make believe, that will guide the audience to peace and hope. Happiness is not about living in the past nor is it about the future. Happiness is about the present. Happiness is about living life in this moment… now this one… and this one. Happiness and joy can only be found in the present moment.

Therefore, the Joy of Life is directly related to the emotional and physical states under your control at any given moment. You know that there is only now in the reality of time. How you enjoy it is totally, and without question, up to you.

There should be no belief in your heart that allows for cruelty, violence, defeat, dishonesty, or any other negative quality that keeps you from being “the best you”. Don’t let your life energy be focused on pointless pursuits of revenge, judgments, or other justifications for your non action control your destiny and your zest for life.

Evaluate your perceptions of life and how they manifest themselves physically. Become physically aware of how you perceive each specific event in your life. How you use this knowledge will determine where you will be a month from now. It will determine where you will be six months from now. It will determine where you will be six years from now. Given that your life energy and how you use it is your product as an actor you must know how it works for you. You must know how it works in you. You must take control of your life energy. You can accept that this control is fundamental to your life as a person and as a performer. Your life energy is used by your mindless creature or your enlightened spirit. Don't forget it will be your internal dialogue that will tell you which part of you is using the energy. Your knowledge quest begins by translating your thoughts and there for the control of your life energy.

I will leave you today with this analogy for living. At any moment in your life, as long as breath is in your body and your life is still in the present your garden of life can be tilled. Flowers can be planted and the weeds can be pulled. If the process of cultivating your garden cannot be enjoyed then the garden itself will never feed your heart or strengthen your soul. Live every day knowing that you are the garden that brings joy, peace and happiness to the landscape of your destiny.

Do not let habits define you. Do not let your life be left on auto pilot. Hold fast to the control of your destiny. Do not leave it to chance. Your job as an actor is far too important to be left to chance.

Have a wonderful week and remember it is the now that matters. Habits rob you of the awareness of your now and take away from you a great deal of joy from this miracle called living.

I wish you well,
Russ

Using Make Believe in Reality

Using Make Believe
in Reality

Make believe is a place with no real fear. Make believe is a place where no matter what happens there can be no real pain or real suffering attached. Otherwise it would not be make believe.

It is your goal as an actor to create a character that will impact on the reality of your life by the character’s impact on the reality of the audience’s life. The impact happens in that place called make believe. Make believe can only exist if talent has been achieved.

The place called make believe is caused by the outward directional flow of your life energy in Talent.

Pretending and being are two different things. The ability "to be" the character requires that you have created a talent for the character. This is done by acquiring the knowledge of who and what the character is and then doing the repetitions that create its talent. If you circumvent this process and responsibility you are making acting something it is not. The actor creates, through interpretation,the physical and emotional reality of his character. The actor can then leave those emotions behind at will.

It should be one of your goals as an actor to allow the character you are playing to behave badly while you stay in talent. The character is allowed to behave badly in make believe. You are not.

Your Right to Behave Badly

You have the birth right to behave as you choose. You have the gift of making choices that you wish to make. There are consequences for all the choices that you make. Perhaps your choices are made with the belief supported by "an eye for an eye." But, know this. An eye for an eye is a metaphor and is a lesson that must be understood before it becomes literal. Just as might makes right is a metaphor for understanding right is truth. Therefore, right (truth) is might. Do not allow yourself the luxury of becoming a victim to ignorance. Justifying your bad behavior with "your right" circumvents your understanding of right as truth. If this is how you allow yourself to think you will lose the quest toward growth and wisdom.

No matter what it is that upsets you, no matter what belief of yours has been challenged, no matter what wrongs you feel have been done to you, it is your response to those situations that are important. Your response will either give you the power and the strength to maintain your physical control or it will take you out of control and allow a mindless victim (the creature) to use your physical being for defense. Without awareness your physical response may get out of control and your mind may justify your accompanying behavior with a belief that supports your right to behave badly. We are all guilty, at times, of finding our selves in an irrational emotional state. A key to personal growth and success is to know how to be cognoscente of the state, physical and emotional, before it takes control of your mind. Or, at least, letting your irrational internal dialogue clue you that you have lost control of your life energy.

Practice being aware when you are trapped in a physical and emotional state of irrational behavior. Once aware, practice the process of talent needed to free you from that state. Being physically depressed and having internal dialogue of unhappiness, worthlessness, useless, suicidal, etc., are all thoughts programmed to play in your brain to keep your body in a fight and flight physical posture. You do not need to be imprisoned by this physical control. Awareness, focus and accountability are the keys to activating the process of change. Change comes from altering your perception of your circumstance by making a literal physical change. That physical change must be repeated until the thoughts do not return. It is the same process used to acquire a talent.

It’s interesting to note that when someone is prescribed drugs for depression or emotional disorders it is the perception that the drug attempts to alter. You can change your emotional states without drugs by using your physical body to redirect your perceptions. You can find health, happiness, and security in all the areas of your life by commanding your body work for, not against, you.

The causes for your non supportive emotional thoughts are the result of your debilitating physical states. We know non supportive activated thoughts are used to keep control of our body and energy. We also know it is our physical position that keeps us in a depressed state. This lack of physical control locks us into a state where it appears we are unable to change our body position and mental focus.

Change the actual body position by redirecting your life energy to your blood supply to activate the power of you muscles. Simulate the physical position of going to a talent you already possess. Use that power and knowledge to override your "creatures" instinctive need to protect the body. Reactivate the physical "on" position each time the thoughts return. Do this until the thoughts stop. Develop a talent for being in control of your mind and body.

The Power of Forgiveness

It is said that time heals all things. You will usually forgive someone’s wrong behavior toward you because deep down you want to. You know everyone is capable of making foolish mistakes. You also know that the power to forgive is the greatest power in the world.

Forgiveness is far more important to the forgiver than to the forgiven. Anything that cannot be forgiven becomes a power over you. It becomes a source of physical attachment that can lock you in a negative position allowing a rehashing of the negative thoughts and feelings associated to an event or memory of pain.

If you have said, “He pushed my buttons”, or, “She knew exactly what she was doing to set me off”, then, you are saying that you have made yourself vulnerable to reacting to those certain behaviors. You are saying that you are vulnerable because certain beliefs you hold can be used to take you out of control.

Your Personal Security System

The actor’s personal security system is based on how he/she allows their emotional behavior to be protected against unwanted activation. The actor wants to ensure that his personal security system does not have a breach. A breach would result if the actor allows the thought such as ‘they knew what they were doing’ or ‘they knew how the actor would respond’ or ‘they set the actor up to react this way’ to support the actor’s lack of emotional control. No one wants their emotional control to be predictable or open to manipulation. This breach would mean the actor has given his/her defense secrets out allowing for their own defeat. Any known breach that has not been removed or disarmed means that the actor is self-sabotaging.

To say, “They had no right” or “how could they do that to me” are statements of naivete. It suggest a certain knowledge that all people do things without thinking and that all people do things out of anger or all people do certain things out of revenge. But, people behave badly because it is part of the human condition.

That is also why we tell our stories. We need to constantly remind each other of our behaviors. We need to remind ourselves of how we will always answer for the choices we make, one way or another. Your patterns of behavior should always support your goals. If they don’t, your patterns must change.

The change can be supported when the person or source of some of your behavior has been recognized and forgiven. The person or source then becomes dis empowered through forgiveness. There is no legitimate excuse for your “behaving badly." You must become aware of what behaving badly means in your life. You must become aware of why your behaving badly is tolerated by you or by others around you. Be careful of the motives of those who allow you to behave in this manner. Ask them why they tolerate it. You first can ask yourself why you tolerate that behavior in them. You want to avoid others who will support your right to behave badly. You should want to know why they don't avoid you.

A Story

A longtime friend related an experience she had while rehearsing an off-Broadway play in New York. She said she left the play because of artistic differences. Having had artistic differences myself I wanted to hear more about why she would leave the most important acting job of her career. There are, after all, certain rules that we follow as actors. She explained that her major speech in the play was being staged during rehearsal. The director, well-known later as an award-winning film director, had her give the bulk of her speech upstage. After the rehearsal she began to get angry about her being purposely upstaged.

She interpreted the director’s staging as a personal attack on her talent as an actor. She demanded that her blocking be changed or she would leave the show. The director refused to change it and she walked. She explained that she was forced to take this action and stand up for herself. She knew that this was an important job but "there comes a time when standing up for what is right is worth more." I had listened to her tell the story. I watched as other actors, none of whom had ever gotten as far in their careers, applauded her actions and support her position.

Several questions came to my mind. What happened to the rule that the director is always right? What about her responsibility to the other cast members? What of her responsibility to herself? What was so wrong about what the director did that gave her the right to “behave badly?"

Everyone involved in that show has gone on to find a successful professional acting career. Some have become household names. To this day my friend still holds to her right to do what she did. She has since left the business and using this story of "being right" to justify her departure. It is a pity. She was, and probably still is, a wonderful actress.

No one, especially me, would question someone’s right to do anything they feel compelled to do. However, when you do, you must know there will be a price to pay. There is no justifiable excuse for behaving badly in relation to your career or in any other area of your life. Behaving badly does not have to be a component in standing up for yourself or your true beliefs. You can take a strong position but it is your physical and emotional control that will win the debate. You will never win by allowing your passion to override your logic.

I repeat: “You will never win by allowing your passion to override your logic.”

During the week become aware of your physical placement and your emotional behavior in response to actions you take. Become aware of those around you who support or allow you to "behave badly." Be aware of your friends and colleagues as they inter act with you or others. How are you behaving in relation to their behavior. Do you support there right to behave badly? You are responsible for what you do with your time from the physical and emotional reality of your life. You may find that many of your thoughts result from not taking control of your physical placement.

Have a great week.

I wish you well,
Russ

Emotional State Recognition

There are two ways to recognize your emotional states. They are through your physical body and your internal dialogue. These two primary sources of awareness can be used to affect techniques to change your emotional states. You already know these techniques as an actor. If I said there was a person who was depressed you could tell me the physical presentation of his body, the possibilities of his physical positions and general emotional state. If I said the person was anxious you could come up with those physical presentations as well. Actors use this technique in order to create the physical world in which the character's are living. You can do this because, as an actor, you are familiar with emotional states and their corresponding physical presentation. You can do this because you are connected to your nervous system.

The nervous system is an intricate and fascinating connection of millions of nerve endings and neurotransmitters. All of these nerve endings respond to stimuli. The stimuli are based on pressure points. These pressure points are created by a physical closed and down position or an open and up position. These body positions cause the energy vibrations to shift. Your life energy frequency is then low or high depending on which position has been activated. And, as you know, the law of attraction draws the like frequency to it.

You can stop your negative feelings from taking you to an internal dialogue of despair. You can do this by changing your physical state. You do this by adjusting the down pressure points on your nervous system. These pressure points control the response to pain. Know this, pain is caused by the down position points. The resulting negative internal dialogue are caused by the down position as well.

Change your physical position and can change your internal dialogue. Therefore, being aware of these pressure points are key to changing your feelings and resulting emotional states (internal dialogue.)

Is it that simple? In theory the answer is yes, in application, no. What gets in the way? Well, let’s see. You know the physical body uses life energy to protect the vessel; to keep the vessel protected. This is done in order to preserve energy for survival. These same low frequencies, however, will often draw to the body continued circumstances of defocus. These same low frequencies attract life events that distract from your intended focus, awareness and accountability. Thus, the Law of Attraction.

By being consciously aware of your up/open and down/closed physical positions you allow yourself the choice to change how you think and feel. You can use your power as an actor to activate this choice.

Changing your Emotional State

Your ability to alter a negative physical position is often based on the circumstance of a given emotional state and the power of the beliefs that are controlling that circumstance. Read that again. Your ability to alter a negative physical position is often based on the circumstance of a given emotional state and the power of the beliefs that are controlling that circumstance. If the emotional level of a down/closed state is high enough the ability to use logic and common sense to change the physical position can be so demanding of justification that taking control of what is happening can be seemingly impossible.

Your physical self and your spiritual/intellectual self work independently of each other due to their different agendas in life. However, they use the same physical process to achieve their desired results. The physical body, once taken to a state of despair, will pull down into itself. The nerve endings will become pinched and physical pain will register. The cause of the pain will be instantly analyzed by your five senses. Is the source of this pain/discomfort something you see? Is it something you hear? Is it something you feel? Is it something you taste? Is it something you smell?

It is at this point an answer, in the form of internal dialogue, will be processed through your belief system. The resulting internal dialogue will put the body's life energy in a fight or flight position in order to protect the vessel. Once the brain is supporting the body’s fight or flight state, the ability to instantly change the occurring feelings and thoughts becomes difficult and logic is usually bypassed.

It is during this time that your auto pilot is guiding you toward becoming a victim. You will then begin to respond unconsciously through beliefs and fears that you have held from the past. You do not want to allow your mind to have access to the auto pilot of your emotions. This can only spell disaster.

Therefore, you need to be clear of the physical process that is used by the duality of your being. The down closed physical position causes pressure on the nerve endings sending impulses to the brain for clarification of source. It is important to be clear about that last sentence. The brain instantly uses the five senses to insure that the impulse/physical feelings are not caused by real danger.

If the brain establishes that there is no real physical danger, the impulse (down/closed feeling) goes to the tape bank of your recorded life events in that emotional/physical state. These life events have been recorded as memory; real or imagined. Each of the memories has a life belief connected to it. The down/closed feeling (based on it's passion level) will now connect with the same passion level recording file. The brain goes to the brain’s file (recorded memories) of the most recent event recorded in that particular pain level. Remember, these down pressure points come in varying levels of intensity. The current down position will attach itself to the corresponding emotional levels recorded in your mind. The memory recording will activate the belief or beliefs you hold that justified the last life event recorded in this (emotionally defined) file.

If, however, the current circumstance does not connect to the most recent recorded experience in that emotional level file, the brain search will continue to move on to the previous recorded life event based on the down position level that has been activated. This search will continue instantaneously until the brain finds a pain event and a belief justification that connects to the current circumstance. The resulting memory source activates internal dialogue of justification.

Every life event resulting in pain or pleasure is experienced at a certain level of intensity. Each of these levels of intensity have their on recorded location in your mind. The levels of intensity correspond to frequencies that result in positive high frequencies or negative low frequencies. Each results in a memory and each memory has an order based on the French scenes of your life. The top memory in each emotional file is the latest life event and then the memories (connected to emotional states and beliefs) go in descending order.

Each of these emotional files continue to gain strength as each life event/memory is experienced. Internal dialogue responses are based on the beliefs that can be activated by these experiences. Once you are aware of the connections between your physical down pressure will you be able to change to a positive (up/open) physical circumstance switching off your negative mental responses (internal dialogue). I repeat, you do this by putting the physical body in an open-end talent position. You do this the same way you put a character you are playing into his physical reality. The choice is up to you.

The down and closed physical position (caused by an external stimuli) can override logic and the ability to stop trying to justify the source of the fear/pain. The resulting internal dialogue becomes the source of bad behavior. The physical feeling and its corresponding level of intensity can keep your life energy in a negative frequency defense position. When this happens you have lost control of your focus and internal dialogue. Your actual physical response impacts your energy transmission and the law of attraction is now working against you. You must be aware of when you are behaving badly. What behavior do you use to insult, degrade, overpower, demean, show outrage, offense, or any other personal affront that you believe has been inflicted on you.

Behaving Badly

Behaving badly not only affects your relationships with others, it more importantly affects your relationship with yourself. It is a form of self-abuse that results in negative choices. It allows your internal dialogue to support your outrage. This usually results in a personal price you do not want to pay.

You can stop the internal dialogue that supports this behavior by removing the physical pressure (down position) causing the negative feelings. It is impossible to change your state of mind while the body is still in the down and closed position. You can not simply think yourself out of a negative emotional state.

As long as your physical body is in a down position and putting pressure on your nerve endings your emotional state will control your perception (internal dialogue of justification). This happens even though it is not logical to be depressed and it is not logical to have a running dialogue of pain and despair. It is, however, logical for your mindless physical body (the creature) to try and defocus you from diverting energy from the body’s primary objective… physical survival.

Remember, your body does not respond to your thoughts. You body does not care how terrible your thoughts are or how unhappy you find yourself. Your body will try to commandeer your energy, and thoughts, at all costs. You do not want this to be the way you live your life.

You can control your physical body by taking personal power over your physical down and closed position. This personal power over yourself is called Talent.

This actual physical change removes the pressure points on the nervous system and thus eliminates the body’s need to determine the source of the pain. By cutting off the body’s desire to hold on to its fight or flight response system, you cut off the body’s instinct to control your energy vibrations at a low frequency.

There are times when your physical body may be in real physical danger. Once put on notice by the downward pressure on the nervous system the body will, and should, activate your five senses for analysis. When this happens the danger will become clear and appropriate actions can be taken. Real danger is clear and the response logical. This is not true with imagined danger.

Learning how to avoid behaving badly is a key to finding and keeping your success. You have the power to control the pain elements of your life. You can practice how to can change your emotional state (internal dialogue) by repositioning the body from the down/closed physical position to the up/open physical position. Remember, a physical feeling is just that until it has been identified by your brain. If the internal dialogue that comes is negative and non-supportive of your life goals and self worth then you must change the feeling and, as a result, the internal dialogue will change. If the negative thoughts return right away then use more physical power to change the feeling. Move, run, laugh... anything that will change your physical feeling from down and closed to up and open.

I call this repositioning going to BaseMax™. It is a term that I will explain later. This, however, can only happen if you use focus, awareness and accountability in your quest for growth through understanding how your vessel (body and energy) work.

Body Position Awareness

As an actor you know how to take your physical body in make believe to a depressed physical state. Therefore, you can also recognize the depressed state in your normal life so that you can change your physical position as needed to keep control of your own growth and happiness. To recognize your emotional states do a systematic check of your body’s physical positions and corresponding thoughts. You must become aware of how your body is working rather than just unconsciously responding to the results.

If you can be aware of the techniques that you use to change the body position for your character’s emotional purposes you can do it for yourself in reality. You might think that creating a character is different from creating your own emotions. You may think it is just simulation and artificial. That is not true. It is your power to use and you must take advantage of that ability.

The control of your physical and emotional state, just like those of characters you create, must be taken to a talent level. That means acquiring the knowledge of how your body works and putting that knowledge into physical repetition. Once this repetition has been converted to muscle memory the path to talent is secure.

If what you are thinking (internal dialogue) in non-supportive to your hope for the future then it must be changed. Nothing is more demoralizing than listening to the same tapes play over and over in your mind. You must have the power to turn off those tapes and make new more supportive ones. New tapes that support you can only come from the up and open physical position. Take advantage of negative internal dialogue to switch your physical position to the up position thus stopping the thoughts that you do not want.

Practice this during the week. I'm sure there will be many opportunities for you to stop internal dialogue that you do not want. Create a talent for being in the up physical position and enjoy the thoughts that come with it. They will empower you and lead you much faster to the success that you desire in all the areas of your life.

Have a great week. I wish you well.
Russ

Your Body's Instinctive Need to Protect Itself

Your Body’s Instinctive
Need to Protect Itself

You can learn to control the use of your energy by understanding your body’s instinctive need to protect you physically. In order to protect you physically, the body keeps your life energy at a low frequency. By keeping your energy at a low frequency it senses it is keeping your energy in reserve. Your body is content as long as it feels your life energy is locked inside of you for possible physical defense. Don’t forget, the body does not care what you think. Your body is content in tricking you into holding on to useless thoughts of fear or worthlessness. It will support making illogical thoughts appear logical. Anything to control your energy for defense.

Mastering perception is the tool that you can use to take on this battle between your physical body and your mental and emotional states. You must decide that it is your desire to have the dedication and determination to control your states of mind. You also want to use discipline to take control of your state of mind. As an actor state of mind is very important. One of your main responsibilities is to play the different emotional states that make up the character’s life within the story. It is the actor’s responsibility to allow the character to behave badly within the story but not be required to behave badly himself to get to the characters physical and emotional states. As an actor you bring your best you so that in make believe the character can behave badly.

You may sometimes let your feelings, and resulting thoughts, be controlled by circumstances that come from outside of you. You may believe that something must happen in your life to make you feel good. You believe that you need to have a good audition to feel good or you might have to be working on a project that you think is valuable that makes you feel good. Or you believe the state of the economy determines how you feel. Or you believe that your emotional states are determined by how other people treat you. If this is true, it is not a good place to be.

If your thoughts are controlling your feeling, this is not what you want. No matter what situation or circumstance you find yourself in, from a feeling of lack or winning the lottery, you can control how you feel and how your emotional states respond to your life circumstance. This is because you can control the choices that you make. You can control your perceptions. Once you understand the brain and body connection you can control your emotional states by changing the vibration of your feelings. Once you gain this understanding, you will find many of the goals you have set for yourself, personally and professionally, will begin to happen almost like magic.

This is true because you will be tapping into the law of attraction. You will be using this knowledge to draw from the universe the positive energy that you desire. Note: There is a side effect that could come your way. Once this energy connection happens you can expect obstacles to come your way. The physical body will not give away its power with grace. It will recognize that its power is being controlled by your desire for growth. It will fight back.

Unexpected Obstacles

One good way to realize that things are really going well and that you are tapping into the universal flow of energy is the realization that certain areas of your life begin to become de-focused, often by seemingly unrelated situations. That is because once you have learned how to tap into the universal flow of energy by changing your perception and physical vibrations, many of your life fears will appear. These distractions in your life should be expected. It’s what I believe is your creature, that instinctive need inside you to survive, realizing your life energy is flowing out and making it feel vulnerable. This feeling by the physical part of you is being compelled to action.

Every time you decide to change your life and take action your own physical body will begin to work against you. It will make an effort to use your energy frequencies to attract negative circumstances. At this point, it may appear that life itself is working against you. Your emotional states may be challenged from every front. What is happening is you life energy is converting certain personal fears, which have been locked in your muscle tissue for safe keeping, by activating internal dialogue thereby putting the physical body in a fight or flight position. This unexplained de-focusing appears to be your choosing. It is not. It is illogical and therefore something that is working against you in your own reality.

When this happens some of the obstacles may be bypassed but others must be confronted right away. If you fall short and behave badly, the obstacles can defeat you and the universal flow of energy can be closed off. To prevent this derailing from success become aware that an obstacle can only defeat you by the way you respond to it. If an obstacle appears to be defeating you there are tactics you can use to remove the obstacle.

Why would you want to awaken a sleeping beast inside in order to find success? The answer is because it is part of life’s plan. Spiritual and professional growth requires that you go through this process. It is this process that separates those who will from those who won’t.

It is by addressing these obstacles that appear to be coming out of nowhere that will lead you to control. You will be confronted with illogical choices. You might even find that your illogical thoughts are becoming logical. If this happens you are running on a frequency that is controlled by your body and its desire to keep it away from progress. You are always capable of changing the frequency of your life energy transmission by addressing your internal dialogue and accompanying low energy feeling with focus, awareness, and accountability. The simplicity of the change is remarkable once understood. Remember, the only one who can change how you feel and think is you and you alone.

Accepting Perception as Choice

Many people who have had success in the acting profession still end up tragically. This happens because they never learned to control and manage their own emotional states. They most likely were not aware of how their feelings were working against them to attract disaster. Most people do not understand why they are filled with thoughts of doom and gloom. In their despair many turn to drugs, alcohol, sex or a combination in order to produce temporary states of positive feelings. These techniques are used by millions of people in all walks of life. These people are looking in all the wrong places to find the answers to their negative emotional states. Using outside stimuli to change internal states will always fail. You must know how to avoid being a victim of your own fears. This is done with your understanding of the vibrations that you use to operate your life energy.

Here’s an example of someone who changed her internal dialogue which was supporting a low frequency, fear induced, body controlled energy base. She changed her perception in order to take control of her energy. Taking over her energy vibration then dictated the frequency of her life transmission. She began to use the law of attraction to work for her and as a result changed her life and circumstance in a more positive direction.

I met Mary Warren when I first moved to New York City after finishing graduate school in theater. She was introduced to me as a speech teacher by Joan D’Incecco, the casting director for the soap opera All My Children. Having been raised in the south, and getting my BA and MA degrees from a southern university, it became clear to me, after many uncontrolled emotional states, that perhaps I should work on a more mid-American speech pattern.

I became her student and while studying with Mary we also became friends. I learned that she, as a young woman, had come to New York to become an actress. At the age of 20 she married a young actor and, after several years of trying to survive in New York, they moved to Philadelphia where he became successful with an advertising agency. After 30 years of marriage and two grown children, Mary found herself being left behind for a younger woman. For over ten years after her divorce she was bitter and self-pitying.

One day she decided she did not want to continue being unhappy. She was fed up with the loneliness and self loathing that filled her internal dialogue. She decided to change her perception and began to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She then took the actions necessary to do it. She changed the vibration of her life energy.

At sixty years of age Mary sold everything she had and moved back to New York City. She took an apartment in Manhattan and set out to teach speech, a passion she had acquired over the years. I was her first student. She later became successful within the acting and corporate communities. She has had a play produced and sitcom pilot designed from her life. At 80, she completed and marketed a book and a tape series based on her techniques for the voice and the power of speech in today’s world.

Mary had obstacles, to be sure, but she made the decision to change her perception of life. She made a decision to take control of the internal dialogue that was draining her of the pleasures of living. With awareness, she was altering her feelings and changing her energy vibration. She was making the law of attraction work for her. She was now transmitting and receiving at a frequency of energy that had the potential of growth and achievement. She began creating the feelings she wanted rather than letting her negative feelings trick her into negative thoughts. She stopped letting her feelings drive her behavior and instead engaged her desired beliefs by action.

During a serious bout with her eyes, which left her blind in one, Mary drew on her knowledge that she had the choice to turn this obstacle into an experience of strength or let it be the end of the line. Needless to say, she chose the former. When we were celebrating her 80th birthday at Sardi’s in New York, I was reminded of her battle to take control of her destiny and choose zest for life as her motto.

Mary is just one example but many people have found the reason they needed to change come to them from some catastrophic event. I think Mary and many others would tell you that they wished they had taken control years earlier.

It’s difficult to behave well all the time and it is even more difficult to ignore that other people and situations are getting the best of you. There are times when behaving badly appears to be the only option left. That is not true. Behaving badly or being the best you is, and always will be, your choice.

By understanding the concept of the law of attraction and how it physiologically applies to the human condition, you, too, can manage and control your emotional states.

First, however, you have to have the desire to change. Success is going to come from discovering what you want and what it takes to make the changes necessary to get it. The changes begin in you. Your career actions, once you have identified these, will be more effective and the results will be bigger and more impacting. You will be thinking and feeling at the same level of expectation. This requires that you begin to understand your life energy and how it works with the rest of the world.

Over the next week spend time being aware of your physical feelings. You will do this by becoming aware of your internal dialogue. When you are having thoughts of unhappiness of distress stop the thought and become aware of how your body feels. Those slumped shoulders and listless arms and legs are responding to a low physical vibration. Change it. Up your voltage. Move faster. Get up and do something that needs to be done. Clean your apartment in record speed. Reorganize your closet. Do anything that forces your body to work at a higher frequency. What you will notice is that your internal dialogue changes. You stop talking to yourself about things that can only keep you sad. You can stop the internal dialogue that is keeping you from controlling your life energy.

Your life energy is what you sell as an actor. Therefore, you must know how it works; both for and against you.

Have a good week and energize yourself with knowledge; physically and mentally.

I wish you well,
Russ