Non Supportive Will
Your non-supportive will refer to your constant need to be right. It is often difficult to admit when you are wrong. With the power of your mind, however, you can appreciate the gift of a mistake recognized. For this is the process of growth. Growth cannot happen without mistakes as guides. It is the secret of success; all success. Your mind knows this secret. The universe knows this secret. Within this knowledge lies the personal freedom to forgive yourself for being human. It is this path of action that allows the universe to answer you desires.

You can change your non-supportive will instantly once you learn how to override the thought, “I know I can but I don’t want to.” Once you are at this stage you will find yourself “behaving badly” with full knowledge. When this stage occurs, you may find yourself taking a stand for things you do not believe in. You may defend “behaving badly” with such conviction that even your worse critics will believe you are justified in your behavior. Some people, even family and friends may well be the focus of your “bad behavior” but, for some reason they will support this behavior and will defend you. As you get this unexpected support you still know on some level that you are wrong. You will know that your behavior is an old pattern that you have been working to change. You hopefully will know that your effort to change your state is at the crossroads of possibility.

Awareness of your non-supportive will is critical at this stage. At this stage your ability to change is imminent and within your control. Your mind will be like the little angel sitting on your shoulder waiting for you to realize that you know you are the only one who can make the change. It is with this awareness that you can begin to recognize the degree to which your body is manipulating your behavior. It is this stage of awareness you realize you are on the verge of letting you mind take over. You are on the verge of going to your mind for strength and guidance. Now you are on the verge of total access to the power of the universe.

It is still your personal freedom to defend the fears that keep you from the controlled focus, awareness, and accountability necessary for change. You can share the process toward change you are going through with others in your life. Give others permission to make you aware of negative behavioral patterns you are allowing yourself to use. Let others be free to tell you the behavior is non supportive and what you are doing is a mistake. These mistakes can then be recognized as gifts.

What you want is the destiny you choose for yourself, not the destiny that may have been chosen for you. Remember, you need a belief system that will make your life better. It is better to believe that there is a reason for life rather than not. It is better to believe that you can be what ever you are willing to be than not. It serves no purpose to believe anything that does not support the growth and well-being of your life.

Make this journey called life a journey of joy. This is the actor’s mission. Practice focusing on the things that give you strength and joy. Ask questions that lead to empowerment. Reach out with your talents, through Talent, and bring the healing energy of “all that is” to others. Reach out to those whose current awareness or state of mind is dependent on the storyteller to give them a respite from their pain.

Don’t forget, you have within you the power to do and be anything that you choose to be. The question you need to be asking is what are the things that may be standing in the way of that power? That power is created with the techniques you use to guide you to the knowledge of a talent. The knowledge of that talent will then, through physical repetition of practice, become muscle memory. Once this knowledge of a talent has become muscle memory the ability to tap into that knowledge overrides the thinking process and becomes that place of Talent. Once in this place of Talent, you are connected to “all that is”. At this place of Talent you will be in control of your universal spiritual self. Your life energy will be radiating out of your body at a frequency that will reach out to touch, comfort, and support the life energies of others who are drawn to the safety of your energy vibrations.

The Payoff of Controlled Focus
When the actor is at the frequency levels of energy vibration in the Talent position he affects the audience. Talent holds the audience’s energy in a position of comfort. Your Talent position has freed the audience’s life energy from feeling the need to defend their vessel. You, as an actor in Talent, have elevated your audience to their mind status. Their brain can now do a systems check of their physical being. Their brain is now free to repair and heal their bodies. This only happens during the period that the actor is in Talent. The audience is not consciously aware that they have allowed their energy to go to this level of universal miracle.

It is a divine process. This very powerful process is evidence that life is not only about the physical plane but also about the spiritual plane. It proves that we are not alone but are all a part of “all that is”. This is our connection with eternity. Once the power of Talent is under your conscious control your creature can not retract your life energy for its instinctive need to protect your vessel. In the position of Talent, the actor has sent his life energy through the energy transmission of vibrations to connect to the life energy of the audience. Each audience member can then connect by attuning their own energy vibrations. This is done unconsciously by the audience. When the actor takes the audience to the mind status they can experience this miracle of the universe. The power of the mind is the angel we all possess to off-set our earthly creature. The actor has the unique ability to take an audience there when he is in that place called Talent.

Your goal is to learn how to align your body and brain through mediating the relationship with them. Therefore, ask questions about a specific plan of attack for your career. Make sure the questions are multifaceted and have options built into the answers. There will always be times of despair, loneliness, pain and suffering. This is true no matter how successful you become at managing your physical and emotional states. This is true no matter how successful you are at directing your future with your mind. To avoid those times would be to avoid life itself. There can be no highs if there are no lows.

Your goal is to take control so that the time it takes you to change your emotional and physical state and to learn the lessons from those experiences as quickly as possible. Your time in grief, in despair, and in depression is briefer. You get the lessons quicker. Some of your greatest upsets or losses can serve as the driving force you need to make a critical change in your life. These times of despair are part of the journey that helps you become aware that you need to make a change that will result in personal growth and awareness.

No matter what path you have set for yourself, you are still going to be living with others whose journeys are different from yours. That means that their needs will sometimes collide with your own. That means that their negative energy frequencies may shift you to the same negative frequency. It can happen is a split second and then can be justified with beliefs of despair or fear instantaneously.

During those times if you allow others to “behave badly” without your taking the personal victim status, you will not be shifted down to their negative energy frequencies. In times of impending negative energy vibrations try to look for the benefits of every experience. This will open you up to the flow of positive life energy. Look at the beauty of the earth and the beauty of the people in it. But most importantly of all, look for the beauty in yourself.

The Process of Focus
The process of focus is the system by which we pay conscious attention to the environment. We tend to delete or seem to ignore most of the things that are going on around us at any given time. We are consciously attending to a limited amount of the possible stimuli around us. Therefore, we need to make ourselves aware of the reasons we are choosing to focus on the things we do.

Many of the things you delete or ignore may be of far greater value to you than the limited things you narrow your focus on. Because of this narrow selection process you find things that reinforce your limited views of the world. Sometimes you focus on certain things and give them more importance than they deserve. You may be making them more important in order to support your own feelings of unhappiness or lack. What you choose to focus on are those things that support your belief system.

Ironically, if your belief system is full of negatives, you may seldom focus on those things that could give you power. You may not be using the focus that will give you strength and support your desire to be a better person. You may not be using the focus that will give you the where with all to achieve the goals that will lead you to a successful professional acting career and a successful life. To that end, focusing on those things that lead to pleasure is better than focusing on those things that lead to pain.

Practice focusing on things that make your life more enjoyable. Start to focus right now on things that make you joyful. Those in our circle of friends and family might also be affected by your joyful state of positive high energy vibrations.

Talent for Talents
A Talent for talents is what you will need for each of your job responsibilities as an actor. The number of talents needed to support your career is relative to your specific circumstances. Talents reside in that positive state of mind you have achieved with focus, control and knowledge. Talent is that state of mind and body created when your spiritual side is in control of your brain functions. This results in your body and brain being in the “best you” position.

The process for controlled focus can create miracles. Whereas uncontrolled focus uses your fears to support your instinctive need to keep your life energy for survival. I believe that when we use our mind with controlled focus we are being supported by divine energy. Your life, through controlled focus, should be learning how to avoid hiding behind religion or other drugs as a quick fix. You have life questions that could be driving your life rather than circumstances of living that need to be justified. Anything that you truly understand you cannot fear. Living is about being alive. I believe that being alive is about learning from our good and our bad experiences. Living is about learning how to make choices based on wisdom rather than based on feelings.

As a storyteller your life should be about learning how to use the power of focus to give you strength. Learning is about creating talents that can be used in that place called Talent and that gives our lives meaning and purpose. If you have no talent for the process of focus you can’t change all those annoying things you do as a being human. It will put you at great advantage if you can develop talents in all seven areas of your life to make success in those areas possible. If you can focus your mind through talent you will be working with logic and expectation. You will be working with focus and power. You will have the power of controlled high energy. At this place of Talent you will be able to transmit and receive an energy vibration level that easily creates change and results.

To advocate for a negative situation at any level of your life makes you a poor navigator of your fate. In Ghost Busters 2 there are more negative thoughts controlling life energy than positive thoughts. The result drew everyone to the same polarization that they had allowed, by choice, to take control. No matter what someone else’s position may be, the only important thing for you to know is how they justify their position. What you want to know is what the ramifications of their position have on you. By understanding someone else’s position you support your minds ability to operate the brain to your advantage. Taking the judgmental side of positions may appear to be more fun at the moment but the accumulation of these judgmental views will ultimately take you down and keep you down. Being down has an effect on the whole scheme of things.

If you focus only in the professional area of your life this lack of focus on the other areas will make your success empty at best. The journey to a successful professional acting career must be as enjoyable as getting there. And, if by some chance of fate you never get to the success you desire your journey will still be fun. Be joyful and know that the now must be filled with love, happiness, expectation, anticipation and peace.

Have a wonderful week.
I wish you well,
Russ

Behavioral Patterns Reflect State of Mind

Behavioral Patterns Reflect State of Mind
Here is what I would like for you to do this week. Watch people with whom you come into contact on a regular basis. How many of them do you know their real state of mind? Start making notes about these people as to how they interact with you and how you interact with them. How often do you find yourself sensing that something is wrong but avoiding asking in fear that they may tell you. Take notes as to why you chose to avoid asking. Acknowledge anything that brings beauty and compassion to you as a human being. Take note of acts of kindness or compassion by others to you or to someone else. Become aware of which part of you is living in the present moment. Take note of your life circumstances as your brain is being controlled by your mind. Take note of your behavioral patterns at this time. Then take note of your behavioral patterns when you are being controlled by your brain as it does not acknowledge those things of beauty. You'll know this by your thought patterns of frustration and annoyance. It is often difficult to catch yourself in these states of mind as the illogic of your thoughts gets in the way. But, give it a try anyway. Train your mind to override your brains desire to act selfishly rather than under the selfless control of your mind.

Then as we discussed in my last blog practice changing your focus with physical control. When you are in a negative state of mind, change it physically first. When you are in a negative state of mind step outside of yourself and acknowledge it. You can commit to focusing on a positive state of mind with the support of positive physical responses. You do it for characters that you play so do it for yourself. Remember, a negative state of mind means the brain is working at survival levels under your creature’s control. It is being supported by the body being in a down and closed position activating the negative energy cycle. A positive state of mind means you have made a conscious effort to let your spirit guide your thoughts and actions. Then your physical body is in harmony with your emotional well being.

Disengage any thoughts of despair or displeasure by quickly changing your physical position and go back to the power of the mind through the use of the spirit. You can focus on what you choose to focus on. Work to avoid giving focus to the selfish side of your life. Work on the physical feelings that allow you to focus only on the things that are supportive of “the best you”.

The Physical Reality of Your State of Mind
Your current goal is to find out what is working and what is not working in each of the seven areas of your life. As we have discussed your finding true success is about the journey. The means to that end should be filled with joy and gratitude. The ultimate human failure is achieving all the things you believe would make you happy and still find that happiness has eluded you. Happiness must be in the now. How you physically feel and consciously think from day to day determines the quality of your life. When your mind is in control then you are more interested in understanding the mystery of life than in fearing the obstacles of life. Make a list of those things in your emotional life, financial life, intellectual life, personal life, physical life, professional and spiritual life that cause you discomfort and then work to change them. Make sure you are using your mind to do the evaluations. That fascinating miracle of universal communication between the body and brain will keep your focus and help keep you from surrendering to your fears.

Automatic Pilot
Every fear that manifests itself in doubt, anxiety, anger, frustration, worthlessness, poor me, aggression, distrust, dishonesty, or any other definable expression of illogic is, unfortunately, your choice. However, it may be a choice made without awareness, accountability or desired focus.

You need to be aware when you are working on automatic pilot in order to avoid letting it run your life from day to day. When you live by automatic pilot you risk basking in mediocrity, self-pity and the world of “if only”. Turning off your automatic pilot allows you to take charge of your life and take stock of what works and what doesn’t work.

Begin the process of change by understanding the minds process of accountability. Train yourself to always be aware of your response in any situation in order for the process of accountability to take hold. By doing this you become aware of fears you from taking control of your thoughts. Always remember that fear is based on lack of knowledge. You need not dwell on what you don't know. You need only to recognize the fears that manifest themselves in thought. Then you can start the process of acquiring the knowledge needed to eleminate the fear. This can not be done when you live your life on automatic pilot.

If you have chosen not to consciously identify your fears you are surrendering your own demons to your creature to use at will. These demons are your literal fears that can be used by your creature (the of the earth side of you) to control your responses and undermine your efforts to be “the best you”. Your “best you” is possible only when you are aware, accountable and have a clear and defined focus. The “best you” holds you responsible for the feelings and thoughts you inspire in others.

Remember, there is only one way to eliminate a specific fear. Classify it. Give it a name. Once it has a name learn everything there is to know about it. Strip its power with knowledge. Don't forget, your physical body protects itself instinctively with the seemingly indiscriminate use of your feelings and thoughts. This happens when you you let your automatic pilot go unchecked by the conscious focus of your mind. This control of your internal dialogue is your magical power to health, happiness and security.

Any persisting feeling that indicates that there may be a problem with the physical body itself should be addressed. By now you should be aware that negative physical feelings are designed to defocus you from action. Unchecked, they force the unfocused brain to support the negative feeling with doubt and negative beliefs. The longer you allow the negative thoughts to maintain their negative low frequency feeling the longer you can expect the same in return.

Your emotions, good or bad, are the result of the subject matter of your focus. That subject matter has been processed and evaluated by your brain using the files from your personal belief system. If you leave your brain on automatic pilot you can certainly be sure that your body will be working overtime to find negative memories to get its instinctive needs met at any cost. Only your mind can stop this control of your life energy.

Your body is the instrument you play as a performer. You want to get yourself off of automatic pilot and use your mind as the internal arbitrator between your body and spirit. Without this arbitrator function you will never get to the place where you can allow your energy to be used to create and maintain Talent. It is only in that place called Talent that your physical body is connected to the universal flow of energy.

Personal Freedom
Let's take one more look at personal freedom. Personal freedom is your right to choose to support illogic. Personal freedom is your right to do, say, think, defend and hang on to beliefs that do not support logic. Your personal freedom is your ability to “behave badly” at will. Your right to personal freedom often allow choices that maintain a negative energy frequency.

Perhaps this question, “What keeps me from changing my focus when I know that the position I am taking will lead to more pain?” Or this question: “How can I take my illogical thoughts and disempower them to insure my effort to be a better person, to be “the best me” and to achieve my desire to be a successful professional actor?” The “best you” scenario means you have accepted responsibility for your actions and choices with the use of your mind.

What if you know an internal battle is happening but something inside of you won’t let you begin the process of action or change? What if you hear yourself say, “So what?” What if you hear yourself say, “Even if it works I’m not going to free myself from my judgmental thoughts”, or “I’ll lose my sense of identity.” "I tried but got nowhere." These thoughts are screaming to you to change. Your thoughts of defiance or doubt can randomly activate areas of the brain where tapes of past negative events reside. These tapes (memories) can be activated by the brain resulting in beliefs that support negative feelings of fear, doubt, panic, worthlessness and on and on and on. The body can choose an instinctive frequency that, left unchallenged by your controlled focus, can activate these areas of your belief system so that the internal dialogue matches the physical feeling in order to maintain control of your life energy.

It is often your right of personal freedom that keeps you from being aware of negative frequencies. Use your personal freedom to get control of your world. It is your choice to let your right to personal freedom choose logic over illogic. You have the power to understand the needs of both the body and the spirit. You can trust your brain to work in your best interest if you know how to reach your mind at a moment’s notice.

It should be reaffirming to know you have a mind waiting to be your guide. You have a mind that is eager to bring your universal spirit and physical body into partnership. Many people never connect with their mind because they do not make this separation. You can connect to your mind because you know it cannot exist in a negative energy frequency. Your mind can only works effectively on a positive energy frequency. When you understand this separation you will realize that your mind is a safe place where you can accept the power of the universe.

Your mind is not a thing. Like Talent the mind is a place. Learn the path to your mind. You want to develop a talent for trusting and supporting the mind. You want your mind to be your comfort place. You want to go to your mind when you sense doubt about your actions and their results. It is through your mind that you can evaluate what you truly want and how you must go about getting it. The mind does not deal with blame. You want to accept and control the power of your mind. You alone have the power to take your brain functions from the control of your body. This is accomplished through controlled focus, awareness, accountability and logic. When you are in that place called “the mind” you are in communication with “all that is." You are not in that place when the actions you are taking are not working. You are not in that place when the thoughts you are thinking are not supportive of your goals and desires. Once you learn to identify when you are “behaving badly” and when your uncontrolled focus is leading you down a one-way street your communication with your mind can put you back on the path to true personal freedom; happiness.

Controlling your Brain with your Mind.

Feeling and Thinking

The experiences you have in life come in two forms. First, what you’re physically feeling at any given moment and second, how you are translating those feelings into thoughts. Most are related to our senses. How we feel at the moment. Many things can affect your state of mind. What you have eaten is one example. Let’s say a large meal does not agree with you. Let’s say you had too much to drink. Let’s say you got a sun burn. These external stimuli induce physical feelings that demand attention and focus. You might ask yourself how you could have put yourself into this predicament. How your senses are commanding focus can deeply affect your state of mind. What is your state of mind? Your state of mind is how your thoughts are affecting your well being.

It is interesting how today’s bid by advertisers to convince you to eat or do anything you want has become acceptable because they constantly reinforce the desire for immediate pleasure. There is a life lesson here. You might want to analyze the Madison Avenue approach to control of your focus. This knowledge might give you a career edge.

Your state of mind is controlled by what you are focusing on and the corresponding beliefs activated by that focus. Your internal dialogue is activated in order to answer a feeling your body is generating. And, that in turn activates the law of attraction. Your thoughts and feelings combined will draw to you the same. As we have discussed misery loves company.

Being able to control your focus is a powerful ability. Having a talent for something is the path to controlling your focus. Often, however, having a talent and being able to activate that talent to take control of your focus are often two different things. I had a friend. He was a wonderful actor who was filled with demons. He tried to keep his demons at bay with drink. I remember at one performance it was 7:40 for an 8 o’clock curtain. The stage manager was called to my friend’s dressing room. We were doing Camelot and he was playing Merlin. He was drunk. There was no understudy and the cast feared my friend, may he rest in peace, would not be able to go on. The stage manager, being a seasoned professional, told the other actors to leave the dressing room. He took control. With the help of the actor's dresser, the stage manager put makeup on my friend, dressed him and took him to his stage entrance.

Many of the younger performers watched in disbelief as the actor, unable to stand alone or say anything intelligible was pushed onto the stage on cue and Merlin took over. He never missed a beat and with unquestionable skill held the audience in the palm of his hand. As soon as the actor would leave the stage, the stage manager would be on hand to catch him before he fell in a drunken stupor to the floor. What would persuade a producer to hire an actor with these demons? Many well-known actors have had this ability until eventually they got to the point where they never make it to the theater to be given the opportunity to override their demons with talent based focus. That place called Talent is what allows these exceptional and tormented people to change their focus to the point they take total control over their brains and bodies. How sad that this ability to focus, through talent, could not come into play before the demon's antiseptic was used. How sad to know so much, to be able to create so much and yet, not be able to control the fears that clutch the heart. Especially when the answer was at his grasp.

Thinking and feeling are two different things. Often we say I feel this or I feel that but once the feeling has been converted to source it is no longer a feeling it has become a thought. Feelings are just that, feelings. They can be caused by many things. When a feeling is converted to thought there is often the chance that the interpretation is incorrect. The true source of the feeling, if left undetected, usually remains unresolved. Thoughts derived from those feelings convert those feelings to the arena of fact. Even though a feeling converted to thought is still subjective (nonprovable) it is still telling the brain something that it will attempt to make reality. Any feeling that we have that is converted to a thought that does not support our hope for the future should be given little weight and focused effort should be made to change the feeling, thereby removing the need for that feeling to be justified.

The Fear Bypass Technique

Another dear friend of mine was diagnosed with lymphoma and began chemotherapy even though the prognosis was not good. Less than a month later she received word that her eldest son had AIDS and was in the final stages. It was during the 80's when AIDs was the homosexual disease. Like many homosexual children her son had moved away rather than face the fear of being hated by those he loved. By the time his mother had been told he had been given only a few months to live. His immune system was gone and he was ravaged with several opportunistic diseases. My friend’s immune system was also greatly impaired and she was forbidden by her doctors and her son’s doctors from going to his side. For my friend this would not do. She asked her doctor what it would take to be allowed to go to her son. She was told she would have to be cancer free and her immune system would have to be normal. Within one month my friend was diagnosed cancer free and off she went to be with her son until his death.

For over 30 years her cancer never returned. She died at age 89 having dedicated the remainder of her life serving as a hospice worker giving comfort and love to others dying of AIDs. Primarialy those without the benefit of caring and supportive families. She did this miraculous feat with the power of focus. She used the power of her mind and the instructions to her brain as her fear bypass technique.

Look at your own life and reflect on those times when you wanted something so badly you willed it to be. Everyone has had these experiences where their focus gave them the ability to make something extraordinary happen. Yet, at other times even the simplest of desires seem impossible to achieve.

Remember, as a human being you are given the birth right to be all that you choose to be. But, be assured, it is about choice. When you choose to take advantage of that birth right you must take the actions necessary for that seemingly magical experience to happen. But, know this, it is a physiological process and the only miracle aspect is accepting the power to activate the process. Decide what you want to focus on daily, because that is where your power, or lack of it, is going to come. And, when in doubt as to where to put your focus (non-supportive internal dialogue) then focus on beauty. Anything around you that you find beautiful will pull positive focus to your brain as beauty is of the mind. Just give it a chance.

Modeling the Best

Along with controlling your focus, modeling the best is a key to the acceleration of your quest for success through focus. It is called the Paradigm Theory. If you study the path of people who are successful in any area of life, you will discover that the same process for success is followed. The process or recipe for the success will include the four D's; desire, dedication, determination and discipline. They are used through focus to change what you are doing to seek a more positive result.

The patterns used by successful people follow the same formula for success. That formula is based on recognizing a need for change in the way you approach your life. If the change you make does not give you the results you want then change your focus and actions again. Do not expect to continue to do the same things and get different results. Successful people have the ability to change focus and actions as often as necessary in order to get the results they seek.

Discipline is the structure for the process of success. The process of discipline is the use of time to focus on a consistent and conscious basis. The process of discipline allows for the gathering of knowledge and the physical repetitions of that knowledge to achieve talent. Most careers have discipline (use of time) structured into their curriculum. Acting does not. Therefore, you must create a discipline (use of time) that will result in the progress you desire.

Process of Your Focus

The brain is the ultimate computer. It has the capacity to do all things human. It holds the answers to everything or it holds the answers to nothing. It can be instructed to do anything positive or negative based on the input and focus of the individual. Remember, if you believe you have access to the information of the universe, you do. If you don’t believe it, you don’t. This means that you have accepted the power of the brain's potential to be directed by the mind or you haven’t. It means that you believe that every brain has the potential to be guided toward great things or they don’t. This means that it is your choice to believe or disbelieve the power of your brain controlled by your mind. Don't confuse the brain with the mind. One is an organ of the body the other is that organ in use for the greater good of the individual.

The Power of Questions

The focus of your thoughts becomes fundamental in the operation of your brain so that your mind can work for best results. A key to finding information that you need to know resides in the ability to ask questions of yourself. Therefore, a great deal depends on the questions you ask. That’s right, the answers you need to become what you want are based on the questions that you ask yourself. You must learn how to ask those questions.

As you know controlled focus brings with it powerful and positive thoughts. You must focus on questions that support your goals. You want to focus on getting answers to action based life questions. Avoid asking “why” questions. Why based questions cause the brain to search out theory rather than substance. With well presented, action based questions, the brain can do research on a subconscious as well as conscious level. Your brain, directed with mind questions, will work 24/7 to find you the answers you need. It is best to give the brain something to do or it will find thoughts that may destroy you power of discipline.

Questions that support “can’t do” thinking must be deleted from your computer. “Can’t do” thinking is your delete key for action. Remember, the brain will not override thoughts just because they are not in your best interest. Your brain works to prove you right no matter how illogical your thought process might be. When you say, “I can’t get a job”, you have given specific instructions to your brain. You may have been actively working on ways to get a job but thoughts may still undermine those efforts. That is why you want to ask yourself questions from the action position such as how, what, when, and where questions. Ask yourself questions that lead your brain, being instructed by the mind, to seek out solutions… not blame. Do not allow yourself to ask "I can try" questions. Try based questions hinder the evaluation process and presupposes that your results are already doubtful.

Don’t ask lousy questions or you’ll get lousy answers. What is a lousy question? Any question that ignores logic, clarity, purpose or fairness. Better quality questions will result in better quality answers. Ask questions that lead to workable solutions and bring with them health, happiness, and security. When you get upset it is usually because you are asking a question based on focus that does not empower you. You are asking questions designed to work you into a frenzy of doubt and worthlessness.

Ask questions that are powerful enough to get you to your desired goal. In order to feel unhappy you must focus on those things that make you unhappy. So, in order to feel happy, you must focus on those things that make you happy. Ask questions that will give you supported direction. “What can I do right now to create action in my acting career?” “What things can I do today to prepare myself for positive action in my acting career?” “What ways can I motivate myself to be in that 2% of successful actors rather than the 98% who are not?” "What things can do right now to bring happiness and joy into my life?"

Your Mind vs. Your Brain
The Focus Master

Using focus to control your physical and emotional states requires developing a talent for focus. My friend who tried to drink away his demons to escape the pain of his life could become stone cold sober, by using his talent to live in the character’s pain-free world. Yet, he could not use that talent to enjoy his own life. He might have been missing an understanding of the communication with the brain through the use of the mind. He might have been missing aligning the goals and agendas of both the body and spirit.

The mind is the connection between the body and the spirit’s desire to fulfill personal agendas in relation to love, joy, peace and harmony. It works both on a conscious and an unconscious level. It is through the use of the mind, as an open and agreeable mediator, that talent is achieved. It is the mind that can assure that the law of attraction is working for you.

The brain is a physical organ. It is like a liver or a kidney. It is the mechanism used for the thought process. It is the nuts and bolts of your energy control center. If left to its own devices it works for survival at any cost. I believe that without the mind’s intervention your brain would work without logic or compassion. When you are feeling lousy and you are having corresponding negative thoughts you have created a circumstance where the physical body has taken on the brain's agenda. Your life energy is being used to protect your vessel. Depression would be an example of the body’s use of your life energy for survival. Depression is the result of any number of outside stimuli or fears as a catalyst. It takes very little to get depressed. There are plenty of things around you to draw your focus to the misery of the world. Your body can do it instantly shifting your energy to a frequency that attracts negative thoughts and like circumstances.

Letting the physical body have control of the brain is a tremendous mistake. After all, the focus of the mind is working toward your best interest. Take your creature out of the scenario. Remember, the creature is your brain without the focus and intent of desired purpose.

Your state of mind is the result of the brain and body working for or against your goals toward success. I believe that being able to change your inaction or change the negative thoughts that stop you from action would be a pretty nifty thing to have in your bag of tricks. This is done by knowing how the brain operates under the control of the spirit (your mind) and how it operates under the control of your physical body (the creature). This is important. By consciously changing your body’s physical position you can take control of your state of mind. Each time you do this physical change you are letting your mind have a repetition for being in control of your focus.

For that reason it is critical that you understand and overpower your patterns of behavior that allow you to “behave badly” and, at the same time support your patterns of behavior that allow you to be “the best you”. Accept that you have a right to have negative thoughts and feelings. You have the right to believe someone should pay for making you feel and suffer a certain way. Once you have acknowledged your right to be a victim, change it. You do not want to pay the victim price that stunts your emotional growth. You do not want your focus to be commandeered by a personal belief that activates negative focus.

Be aware of the physical and mental states of other people and recognize which part of them is in control. Are they working from the power of the earth or the power of the spirit. Take note if it is their brain being controlled by the physical reality of fear or their mind being guided by their spirit. The mind can bring success and support health, happiness and security. And, I believe it is only through the mind that the brain can be used to create real success. When you are working on life change you want to be aware of what needs to be changed and you want to know how the change will affect your life for the better.

Have a wonderful week. Know that the choice to be happy or not to be happy is your choice. You need not think because your choosing to be happy and grateful for the now, even though certain unwanted circumstances are going on in that now, makes you disrespectful. It does not. Happiness is a place that will draw others to it. You're an actor. Act happy and the rest will take care of itself. Repeat that physical action to happiness as many times as it takes to stay there.

I wish you well,

Russ

The Power of Focus

The summer is over and I am now back to my blog and my focus on "The Reality of MakeBelieve." It has been a busy summer. In fact, I got married. I married my partner of 15 years as the state of New York Legalized same sex marriage. We had a wonderful wedding and are now moving forward with our plans for the next Salon for my play, Blacker. The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts is hosting a "salon" of the play at the Prince George Ballroom on Oct. 10, 2011. If you wish to come please let me know. Now to the continuation of my blog.

The Power of Controlled Focus

There is a power behind controlling your focus. Your focus is what you allow yourself to see. As you know what you focus on dictates the patterns of your behavior. Your emotions are controlled by how you let your body use your energy. As we’ve discussed your body has its own agenda, survival, and that is why you need to be aware of what you focus on and what might be causing that focus. Remember, your future is based on what you do in the present.

It makes no sense that you would focus on things that do not support your goals or insure your growth. And yet, often that appears to be the case. Do you find yourself focusing on thoughts such as, “I’ll never get that part.” or “I’ll never get a powerful agent” or, “nothing ever happens for me anyway.” When you allow yourself to think things like, “I’ll never have any luck with casting directors” or “I get nervous when I have to deal with the call back” you could well be instructing yourself to fail. In that case, your focus, indicated by your negative thoughts, is counterproductive.

Some people might suggest that when you say these things, whether to yourself or to others, you are really saying them in hopes that the negative verbalization be proven wrong. That way you would be, in essence, right. Where do you think someone could come up with this stunning idea? I must admit that I have often thought this way because fate seems to always prove me wrong so I’ll just ask for what I don’t want and then I’ll get what I want. However, that would be convoluted thinking, I’m afraid. There is no question that your brain does responds to your desires and requests.

Quantum Physics

Quantum Physics is the study of the space that floats around the molecules of all things. Quantum physics supports the probability that the space that seems to magically hold all things together can be influenced by human thoughts and desires. These thoughts and desires can activate the universal flow of energy. There are three steps to tap into life’s abundance.

Asking is the first step in the secret to obtaining all you desire from this world. The request should be based on what you want and it must be specific and clear in order for the universe to create the coincidences that will guide you to what you asked for.

Believing is the second step in the secret to obtaining all you desire from this world. You must believe that you have a birthright to what you desire. Your only responsibility is to create the actions necessary to allow the conduit of energy to flow.

Receiving is the third step in the secret to all you desire from this world. You must receive with love, gratitude and with the willingness to share and grow. Receiving must be an act of “right” not a sense of being “beholden”.

This could be known as the science of faith. I will discuss the power of the science of faith in the last chapter of this series of blogs. But, for the time being, let's just accept the the secret to the power of the universe is: Asking, Believing and Receiving.

Studies have been done that suggest that your verbalized desires, prayers if you will, are answered if the instructions are clear and the request is not tempered with doubt. That means that the verbalized desires are asked in the positive not in the negative form. With this understanding why would someone still allow themselves to focus on negating real experiences or verbalizing potential failure? The spiritual side of you, the side of you desiring to be better, to be wiser, to be accomplished and honored does not want to undermine itself with negative reinforcement. The spiritual side of you, the part of you that longs to be reunited with all that is of the Universe, the part of you that survives on love and thrives on compassion, that side of you does not wish to orchestrate its failure by replacing “I can” with “I can’t”.

There must be an answer here. It is my contention that this contradiction can be explained. You must consider that your brain, and its unfathomable ability to produce results, does not work on any logic other than the logic of instinct. If you tell your brain black is white that is the position with which your brain will operate. If you tell your brain to behave a certain way it will do as it is told. Your brain works to prove you right. It does not judge the wisdom or logic of your instruction, only the results. If you consider yourself a looser your brain will work diligently to prove you right. If you say you cannot get an agent your brain will work, without fail, to see to it that this is true.

This is the power of your focus. Focus is what the actor or the person allows him/herself to see. What you focus on dictates the patterns of your behavior. No purpose is served by allowing yourself to focus on certain thoughts that will result in your not getting what you really want. So it is important that you know that you are getting what you instruct your brain to deliver. This leaves you with the question of who’s calling the shots for your destiny. Who is running your life and who is controlling the focus of your thoughts. Is it the physical you, the you of the earth, or the spiritual, the you of the universe.

You must become aware of instructions you may give yourself daily that could be directing your brain to work against “the best you”. Over the next several weeks take your traveling notebook and write down each negative statement or instruction you give to yourself. Ask close friends or family to alert you when you use negative thoughts or opinions. I’m sure you would work to avoid any statement if you knew, in fact, that statement was demanding the defeat of your own dreams.

You might consider that what you focus on dictates what part of you is in control of your focus. As I have discussed, your brain and thus your focus are controlled by two competing forces. One is the earthly side of you that is dedicated to protecting your body from anything that might defocus energy of life for any purpose other than survival. The other is the spiritual side of you that wants to evolve as part of the growth of the human species.

You’ve certainly seen enough people whose lives have become disasters to know that obviously the brain is not dealing with only the thoughts that support “the best you”. If you believe that the statements you make to yourself will be evaluated and selected by your brain based on what is best for your growth and development, you are mistaken. If you believe your brain will select only those statements and comments that lead you toward health, happiness, and security, then you may find yourself mistaken. Your brain will not pick and choose the statements that lead to ultimate good. Your brain does not judge the effects of your thoughts it only responds to your requests.

There are ways to combat any negative thoughts. One of the techniques is to make two or more positive statements to every negative statement you catch yourself saying. You can use that with your Traveling Notebook exercise. Remember, your brain does not evaluate the motives behind your thoughts. It just follows instructions and, the irony is, it takes its orders without question, from the boss, you. Your brain does not second-guess you or try to analyze your motives or anticipate your desires. It just does as it is instructed. When you say you cannot get an acting job, it will prove you right. Your brain is there to support you.

You may believe that you’re responsible for your focus and, therefore, you have no problem with focusing on anything that supports your chosen goals. Well, this is only partially true.

It only works if you accept that the two parts of you have different agendas. You want to identify whose agenda wins out and has the power of focus and control over the life energy you share. Your brain listens to both sets of commands with equal authority. It cannot take sides as to whose desires are more important or whose wishes are to override the other. This can only be done by the conscious you.

This becomes the issue of focus. If the brain is not instructed to focus on those things that support your career goals then you run the risk of focus being on whatever draws attention to itself. Remember, non action is in itself an action.

Anything that even comes close to fear will take focus when conscious focus has not been instructed. Why would fear be so easy to draw focus? Well, as I discussed, the body’s natural instincts are to protect itself. It will do anything to keep your life energy in reserve for a fight or flight response to ensure defense from danger. The fear response represents danger.

The ability to control your state of mind and the emotional and physical turmoil that usually result from uncontrolled focus is a key to recognizing what needs to be changed in your life. This recognition should be controlled from perception to belief if you are to succeed as an actor and as a human being. From perception to belief means that you control how you perceive a situation. It means you have the power to alter, if necessary, any beliefs that have been controlling your focus in a non supportive fashion.

You can develop the power to take control of your actions that maintain the peace and joy that comes from your "best you" position. Directing and controlling your power of focus is the way to control your destiny.

Have a good week and know that,
I wish you well.
Russ