Category:
Soul-of-Thought Revival
Journals: Venus-Lit
Vixen: Keep the Change/ The Green Room
Chronicles
Dates: 5-12-04,
8-4-10, and 6-12-17
(This on-going conversation began with Applying Acting to Everyday Life/ Creating Reality on Stage: Part One…click, now or later, if you’d
like a bit of background on this 13 year long conversation. It’s not as long as it sounds. Combined, the two from the past are about the same length as this one below.)
Applying Acting to Everyday Life/
Creating Reality on Stage: Act Two
In acting class yesterday, we were talking about characters. To illustrate the point that every human
being is an actor (storyteller) and we are acting (doing and being) in
authentic ways every day, I had them consider all the roles they’ve played so
far in life, as well as the possibility of roles to play in their future. Then we narrowed it down to find the essence of our character. You can do this too, as I explain this
lesson, if you’d like. Think of who you
were as a child (my beginner class is still in their childhood years, so they
considered themselves a few years prior to now...while the older class thought
back a few more years). Try to narrow
down who you were as a child into just one archetype/character by thinking of
how you acted, what made you feel alive or joyful…those kinds of things. Disregard anything that others wanted you to
be or said you were if it didn’t seem to fit you. What did you know of who you were then? I said, for example, I was the Artist/Storyteller…because
I loved to create things to tell a story (art, dance, music, writing, acting). Some of the younger students said things like
‘I liked to kiss and hug every animal I saw (Animal Lover)!’ or ‘I was an
Artist because I drew on the couch with a pen.’
The older students in my next class said things like ‘I was a
Troublemaker.’ Or ‘I was a Comedienne…like I was on my own show.’
(Side note: I was happy to follow with a brief discussion on
the history of the Fool/Clown/Jester archetype being the only one who could get
away with telling the truth to the King…as well as a bit about the power of
humor and timing skill involved in comedic acting…the Fool has powerful medicine, after
all.)
Now, who are you NOW?
Right here, in this moment, what role do you play to its fullest? What character/archetype within comes alive
in you in the most authentic way? Where
do you shine? I find that the Guide comes out fullest in all that I am now
(even in having to repeat instructions, ad nauseam, to my children…where I feel
forced into the Drill Sergeant expression of that Guide role sometimes). And the Guide is in all that I love to do. I still create from that Inner Child Artist,
but I do it in ways that guide and teach others (and myself) to be the best
versions of ourselves…actively creating those better versions of Self in the
world around us however we do it best.
For some of my younger students, it was ‘Tomboy’ or ‘Gamer’…and for the
next class, they said ‘Cultural Explorer’ or ‘Inventor’.
So you’ve arrived at how your beginning expression and your
current role interact in the now. How
might that combination evolve into your future Self? Don’t make it the big, scary question of ‘Who
will I be (when I grow up)?’…even though, partially, it could be. But consider a possibility, instead. What image comes automatically to mind,
before the ‘monkey mind’ chimes in? How
can we refine that image into an archetype, character, or role? The first thing that comes to me is
Healer. That’s what all of this creative
expression of the Artist and encouraging words of the Guide are for, after all…to
heal us. Many of us act as, and are
continuing to evolve as, healers on this planet in a multitude of ways (and with
good reason). One of my younger students
mentioned the ‘Nurse/Caretaker’ archetype…another said ‘Mother’. One of the teens said ‘Teacher’ while another
said ‘Humanitarian’. Every one of those
can also be a Healer. In fact, if you each
told me what you came up with…the majority of you would view your future on a
healing path in some way.
Why, do you feel, that could be? When we look into the future, do we see
ourselves and our wounds healed from our own authentic medicine as well as the authentic
medicine of others? I know I do. What we want to do for others, we must
simultaneously do for ourselves. That is
how the Present Expression, supported by the Inner Child Wisdom, evolves into
our future. And in any best possible
outcome that we make that happen…that is the essence of Healing. And the essence of Healing was present within
the beginnings of Acting/Storytelling.
