"...As Soon As We Begin To Imagine Our Dreams, We Start Getting Happy..."
“…as soon as we begin to imagine our dreams, we start getting happy…”
We hold onto the past, thinking that holding on is the right choice because it feels secure.
Even as things around us change, we cling harder, we clutch...
When we actually need to let go.
I was talking with my daughter yesterday. She called me from LA—I’m in NY. I noted how we were bridging the two major cities for acting, for professional careers.
She remarked, “There are so many places ‘for rent’ out here… makes me think about all those actors and artists that came to LA following their dream... how many of them must have lost the ability to sustain themselves with so many service jobs that have folded… all those actors that came to LA following their dream…if they are pushed out, what will they do with their dreams?”
Where are those dreams now?
When there is an outer crisis, do you fold your dreams, turn them in, turn away from them?
No!
You reawaken them.
You take action, feel your life under you, remember the joy of the dream.
More than ever, it’s time to anchor your work, your technique, your place in your profession.
To take action you prepare.
Always prepare.
Preparation is the exercise of the actor that keeps them strong, flexible, limber and ready.
Root your acting now so when the opportunity comes, you’re here, confident. You have grown as an artist, not withered.
Not faded into doubt.
How do we do that when we feel split off and thrown out by our expectations of the world?
Those expectations were always in our heads. We created them, for better or for worse.
The world is always changing. To be an artist is to honor change, to open up new spaces—to renew our dream.
Take a breath, a deep breath and go into your center.
My daughter, Ariel, is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner specializing in trauma resolution. Last night when we were speaking, she said something profound…
“When we imagine our life changing it affects us chemically the same as if we’re doing it… as soon as we begin to imagine our dreams, we start getting happy… because it stimulates the same chemical reaction in the body as if it is actually happening.”
Of course! I thought, this is why acting is so magnetic: It stimulates the quality of living we want.
The technique of imagining and practicing acting exercises that sharpen, heighten, clarify the power of imagining is core and key to the art of acting.
If your dream has been faltering, try this imagining exercise:
Stop for a minute and sit quietly… Imagine your life becoming exactly as you want…imagine your dream and go to it… close your eyes, breathe into your center… breathe into the center of your dream and say hello to it.
See the color of your dream, hear it as it calls your name, let it hold you the way it knows how to hold you and give in… as you hold it.
Imagine what you’re wearing, what you’re sitting on, your hands are holding something, feel its weight, it’s value… know the meaning of where you are and why—right now. This is you right now.
You can abandon the dream right now, or you can turn into it with full force and actively fulfill it.
This is not the time to stop and fold. This is the time to step in, step up and prepare.
Strengthen your art.