Breathing Deeply
is the natural and simple path to good health and happiness ... and an essential requirement in every actor's skill set.
Breathing Deeply
promotes confidence, self-esteem
and good health.

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Want to talk with your Higher Consciousness,
and find all the 
right answers?

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The Actors' Muse

I was born into the world of acting and have always felt it to be a deeply sacred profession.  Acting requires a dedication beyond the ordinary job.  It demands total dedication.  It demands that its disciples commit themselves to constant self-exposure, and total self-awareness.  All inner questions must be answered and no leeway is given for any reason.

Intensity is demanded of everyone in the acting profession.  We listen intensely.  We enjoy ourselves intensely.  We work intensely hard.  We insist on feeling and exploring all of our emotions, regardless of restrictive moral codes.  We want to know the extreme intensities that cause people to commit acts we would otherwise shun.  We search for the truth with an intensity that frightens people who would rather hide.  We refuse to accept any refusal from ourselves, and we learn, and we learn, and we learn. 

With intense curiosity, we seek into the souls of all earthly beings.  We need to know why everyone does what they do.   We need to know why we do what we do.  If we are to give truth to a fellow human then we must understand as many potential motivations as we possibly can.

Every moment of the day is a training session for the actor.  Every emotion is a lesson.  We watch ourselves, and observe how we laugh and cry, scream or cajole.  We watch other people, and note the variances in their reactions.  We watch how everyone, including ourselves, reacts in every situation.  We learn body language and we become intensely intuitive.  It’s all part of our profession.

Each person we watch is catalogued for future reference.  We note the interesting way they walk.  We analyse their displays of happiness, or sadness, or anger, or boredom.  We take each movement, each expression and we dig for its motivation.  We are ruthless in our search.  Our art insists we give life.  We must make it a full life.

We dig even more deeply into our own personalities.  We learn that, at some level, we are all capable of any and everything the human creature is capable of.  We learn we are connected at the most intimate level with our fellow inhabitants of the globe, and we are thankful for the connection and the understanding it brings, and the way it enhances our portrayals.

Acting is deeply humbling.  Actors create new life with each new job.  We give meaning and focus to the possibility of a person, and we love them with the intensity of a parent.  We nurture our understanding and, in the process, nurture the complexities of this unborn being we will present to the world.  We dig into our creative baby’s reason for being, and uncover their every pain, their every joy.  We know who they are and who they want to be.  We know why they have become as they are.  We know them better than we know our friends, our family and even ourselves. 

There is a deep humbleness and joy that comes when we explore enough into the lives of our fellow humans.  We find we are all connected.  We discover the potential for every act ever committed by any person.  We see the darkness and we see blinding light, and for the sake of our art we learn to accept them both and use them equally.  We learn compassion, and respect.  We become gentle and empathetic. 

Actors have been blessed by an enchanting, and powerful muse.  We can all feel the might of our muse – it is with us whenever we work together.  A new world is formed because we make it so.  We bring magic and comprehension to the world, and we feel infinitely lucky to be the channels for this wonder.  We are the children of Art, forever playing and forever praying to bring greater truth to our profession.   We know our job brings us in constant touch with demanding and joyous miracles.  We know our work is sacred, and I, for one, give thanks for our profound good fortune.

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