Feeling Alive

Last night I was fortunate enough to participate in a monthly meet-up with fellow Miller Voice Method teachers-in-training. The meet-up was overseen by Scott Miller, head teacher of the Miller Voice Method. Another teacher and I led the exercises for the evening. It was truly inspiring to be in a room with other like-minded teachers and artists. After a long slow August, my soul was yearning to be filled up with movement and inspiration. I found that at last night's meeting in spades.

It got me thinking how important it is for us artists (and indeed for all humans) to seize opportunities to feel fully alive. I don't know about you, but when I'm not doing things that make me feel alive it turns my whole world grey. And yet it's incredibly easy to fall into a place of complacency where we stop exercising our creativity. Sometimes we feel like we want to experience aliveness but no one is giving us the opportunity to do so. The truth is we can always give ourselves that opportunity, we don't need to wait for anyone, such as a casting director, to give it to us.

As actors, we experience connection to our aliveness when we are acting. It's usually a big part of the reason we started acting in the first place. But what happens when we haven't booked work in awhile? Or we haven't been on an audition in three months despite being submitted constantly? Many of us despair when this happens. We beat ourselves up or decide it's time to give up and find a "real job." But the healthier option would be to connect to our aliveness. I would almost guarantee that it will bring you out of despair and remind you why you started acting in the first place.

What do I mean by "connect to our aliveness"? I mean doing things that make you feel 100% alive and present. Connecting to your aliveness is about doing things that you love. It's about being open to what's happening in the present moment. It's akin to the feeling of skydiving out of an airplane and trusting that your parachute is going to open so you allow yourself to enjoy the journey back to earth.

How often have you wanted to take an acting class but didn't because you didn't feel like you had the time? Or the money? Or perhaps you talked yourself out of doing something because you couldn't be sure that you would like it. Our brain has a lot of tricks and rationalizations that often talk us out of making a move. It's good to not over-commit yourself and to weigh your options, but sometimes our brains work too well at impulse control. This can cause us to feel "stuck" as artists. And since our artistry is such an integral part of who we are, we not only feel stuck as artists, but also as human beings.

As actors, we often have to do other things aside from our art to pay the rent. That's why it's so important to nurture our inner artists so that we feel happy, fulfilled, and alive in our personal and professional lives.

I encourage you to make a move to connect to your aliveness. It doesn't have to be taking an acting class; it could be simply inviting a few friends over to read a play out loud. It could be something unrelated to acting or what we think of as creativity, such as getting out in nature or taking a great yoga class or an art class or going dancing with friends. There are so many options that will take you out of your "stuck-place" and put you right back into your passion. And when you're connected to your passion, your creative tank gets refueled and your inner artist comes back to life.