The Aligned Actor

Amy Schloerb
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Self-Improvement

A podcast on mindfulness and mindset for performers. thealignedactor.substack.com

  1. 7h ago

    Let's Give Your Breath A Call!

    In this episode we’re once again going to practice mindfulness of breathing and apply the important phone call metaphor we talked about in a previous episode. The basic overview for this practice is simple: * Start a conversation with your breath. * As distractions try to interrupt that conversation, acknowledge them and stay with your breath, “Hey, I’m having an important conversation, let’s talk later.” * If you notice you’ve completely “dropped the call” or “hung up” your breath, just gently and kindly reconnect with your breath. Disclaimer: If you’re driving or doing something that requires your attention, please come back to the practice later. As always, please practice responsibly. If you want to read the meditation… Go ahead and find a comfortable position for your body. You can keep you eyes open or gently close them, if that feels good. Bring your awareness to your breath, start that curious and kind conversation. Notice your inhales and exhales gently. If it helps you focus, you can think to yourself, “I am breathing in” as you inhale, and “I am breathing out” as you exhale. Or simply, “In” and “Out.” You can also count your inhales and exhales. Converse with your breath in whatever way works best for you. If your mind wanders — you drop your call with your breath — just gently bring your attention back to your breath — reconnect the call — and continue the conversation. As you continue the conversation with your breath, start to notice the qualities of each inhale and exhale. Again, you can narrate what you notice. This might sound like, “I am breathing in (or out) a long breath…a short breath…a slow breath…a deep breath.” Or just “short inhale,” “long exhale,” “slow breath,” “deep breath,” etc. Notice what kind of conversation you’re having with your breath. Again, if your mind wanders — you drop your call with your breath — just gently bring your attention back to your breath — reconnect the call — and continue the conversation, giving your inhales and exhales simple descriptions. And finally, I invite you to expand your awareness a bit and notice your breathing as a whole body experience. Notice how your body moves as you breathe. Again, in your mind you can narrate this experience to help you focus and notice even more. This might sound like, “I feel my chest expanding…belly rising/falling…body breathing.” Perhaps, as you’ve been practicing focusing on and noticing your breath, you’ve notice your body is a bit calmer and more relaxed. Our breath tends to effect our body in that way. Notice any increased sense of calmness you’re experiencing. Again, if your mind wanders — you drop your call with your breath — just gently bring your attention back to your breath — reconnect the call — and continue the conversation, noticing your whole body breathing. We’re going to end our mindfulness of breathing practice. As you feel ready, you can gently open your eyes if they were closed. Congratulations. You just practiced mindfulness of breathing. You had a nice conversation with your breath. Great job! Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks! Get Out of Your Head and Rock Your Next Audition 🎧 I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you get out of your head and into your character so that you can rock your next audition. It’s going to help you calm your nerves, let go of distracting thoughts — How can I book this? What do they want? — and focus in on what your character wants, what’s going on in the scene, so that you can present your best work every time. Access Your Presence and Feel Empowered in Your Actor Life 📖 The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit This ebook is comprehensive collection of tools guaranteed to be the Dramamine you need for the roller coaster ride of #ActorLife. Whether you’re dealing with audition nerves, obsessively checking your email after submitting a self tape, or just learned your series has been canceled, there’s something here that will help you access your presence and feel grounded again. I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life. 🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series. 🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives. 💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools. 🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗 Get full access to The Aligned Actor at thealignedactor.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Jul 16

    Don't Hang Up on Steven Spielberg!

    In this episode I’m going to share a story-based metaphor for formal mindfulness meditation practice. As actors, we love stories, and humans in general tend to understand and remember ideas more easily when associated with story because stories help us relate to things. If mindfulness meditation is something that’s new for you, maybe you’re having trouble relating to it and there’s still parts of it that feel foreign or complicated or unfamiliar. Let’s fix that! Let’s turn our mindfulness meditation practice into a story. The Call of Your Career! You’ve been cast in a lead role in a Steven Spielberg film. Congratulations! Brilliant director that he is, Steven Spielberg has called you to discuss your character and the project as a whole. You’re having a great conversation. It’s fun and collaborative. You’re really connecting and excited to be working together. Suddenly, your roommate barges in and whines, “Ugh, I’ve had the worst day!” You quickly cover your phone mic and whisper, “I’m on the phone with Steven Spielberg.” Your roommate’s eyes bug out, they give you a huge thumbs up, mouth an apology, and duck out quietly. You and Steven Spielberg continue your conversation, but then you hear the familiar boop boop of call waiting. You notice it’s your scene partner from acting class, probably calling to arrange a time to rehearse, but of course you can’t talk now, so you let the call go to voicemail. Finally, Steven Spielberg is sharing his vision of the big climatic moment for your character when you start to hear the obnoxious whir of a leaf blower in your neighborhood. To make sure you don’t miss any of his genius, you close your window and put in your noise cancelling headphones. You and Steven Spielberg finish up your call, and you hang up feeling excited to be a part of this production. An Important Conversation with Your Breath The above story is a metaphor for mindfulness meditation. Obviously. Like I said in the opening, we’re using story to simplify our understand mindfulness practice. The Steven Spielberg is your breath. You’re staying focused on that conversation no matter what tries to distract you. The roommate, the other phone call, and the leaf blower are all the things that can cause your mind to wander away from focusing on your breath. In both phone calls and mindfulness sessions, distractions are going to happen. And when they do, we just gently guide our focus back to where we want it to be. * We don’t yell at our roommate. * We don’t smash our phone to get rid of the other caller. * We don’t scream at the leaf blower to stop. * And OF COURSE we would NEVER hang up on Steven Spielberg. This is the big difference between our phone call metaphor and an actual formal mindfulness session. Sometimes while practicing mindfulness we will completely “hang up” on our breath. Our mind will wander completely away. But the beautiful thing is that while Steven Spielberg would get really annoyed if we kept randomly putting the phone down mid-conversation to have a side-chat with our roommate, or take the other call, our breath is never upset when our mind wanders. Our breath is like a best friend who is always ready to welcome us back to the present moment with kind, open arms. If you “drop the call” just pick it back up again. No judgment. No shame. No need to beat yourself up. To recap, and sum up a mindfulness session, begin a kind and curious conversation with your breath, noticing your inhales and exhales. When distractions come up, just acknowledge them, “Hey, I’m having an important conversation, let’s talk later” and continue the conversation with your breath. Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks! Get Out of Your Head and Rock Your Next Audition 🎧 I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you get out of your head and into your character so that you can rock your next audition. It’s going to help you calm your nerves, let go of distracting thoughts — How can I book this? What do they want? — and focus in on what your character wants, what’s going on in the scene, so that you can present your best work every time. Access Your Presence and Feel Empowered in Your Actor Life 📖 The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit This ebook is comprehensive collection of tools guaranteed to be the Dramamine you need for the roller coaster ride of #ActorLife. Whether you’re dealing with audition nerves, obsessively checking your email after submitting a self tape, or just learned your series has been canceled, there’s something here that will help you access your presence and feel grounded again. I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life. 🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series. 🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives. 💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools. 🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗 Get full access to The Aligned Actor at thealignedactor.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Jul 9

    Bring Your Calming Friend to Every Audition, Callback, and Booking

    In this episode we’re going to practice mindfulness of breathing. As the name suggests, we’re going to pay very close attention to our experience of breathing and I’m going to guide you in noticing different things about that sensation. This is one of the most basic, formal mindfulness practices and it often serves as the starting point or foundation for other mindfulness practices, which we will explore later in this series. My favorite thing about mindfulness of breathing is the relationship that it has helped me cultivate with my breath and my body as it breathes. The more I’ve practiced tuning into my breath and really becoming aware of what that experiences really feels like, the more I feel like I become friends with my breath. As I like to say, the breath is like a good friend ready to welcome us to the present moment anytime, anywhere. The breath helps calm the body and the mind, and the breath never judges or shames our mind when it wanders. It’s always happy to welcome us back to the present moment, and like true friends, we can just pick right back up like no time has passed. The breath is pretty much our calming, mindfulness bestie who we take with us everywhere we go. Let’s practice mindfulness of breathing. Disclaimer: If you’re driving or doing something that requires your attention, please come back to the practice later. As always, please practice responsibly. If you want to read the meditation… Go ahead and find a comfortable position for your body. You can keep you eyes open or gently close them, if that feels good. To bring your awareness to your breath, I’m going to invite you to take three slow, intentional breaths. Inhaling and exhaling gently. Then let the pace of your breathing become natural and comfortable for you. Notice as you breathe in, and think to yourself, “I am breathing in.” Notice as you breathe out, and think to yourself, “I am breathing out.” If your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to your breath and continue narrating your inhales and exhales. Great job. Now that you are an expert as noticing when you’re breathing in and when you’re breathing out, start to notice the qualities of each inhale and exhale. Again, you can narrate what you notice. This might sound like, “I am breathing in (or out) a long breath…a short breath…a slow breath…a deep breath.” Add a simple word to more fully describe what you notice about the breath. Again, if your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to your breath and continue giving your inhales and exhales simple descriptions. Great job. And finally, I invite you to expand your awareness a bit and notice your breathing as a whole body experience. Notice how your body moves as you breathe. Again, in your mind you can narrate this experience to help you focus and notice even more. This might sound like, “I feel my chest expanding…belly rising/falling…body breathing.” Perhaps, as you’ve been practicing focusing on and noticing your breath, you’ve noticed your body is a bit calmer and more relaxed. Our breath tends to effect our body in that way. Notice any increased sense of calmness or relaxation you’re experiencing. Again, if your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to your breath and continue noticing how your body moves as you breathe and how your body feels as you focus on your breath. We’re going to end our mindfulness of breathing practice. As you feel ready, you can gently open your eyes if they were closed. Congratulations. You just practiced mindfulness of breathing. Great job! If you enjoyed that experience and want to practice again, you can find an audio track of just the guided mindfulness session in the Substack article. Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks! Get Out of Your Head and Rock Your Next Audition 🎧 I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you get out of your head and into your character so that you can rock your next audition. It’s going to help you calm your nerves, let go of distracting thoughts — How can I book this? What do they want? — and focus in on what your character wants, what’s going on in the scene, so that you can present your best work every time. Access Your Presence and Feel Empowered in Your Actor Life 📖 The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit This ebook is comprehensive collection of tools guaranteed to be the Dramamine you need for the roller coaster ride of #ActorLife. Whether you’re dealing with audition nerves, obsessively checking your email after submitting a self tape, or just learned your series has been canceled, there’s something here that will help you access your presence and feel grounded again. I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life. 🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series. 🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives. 💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools. 🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗 Get full access to The Aligned Actor at thealignedactor.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Jul 2

    No Mic Hogs in Mindfulness Meditation

    In this episode we’re going to really break down what’s happening in a formal mindfulness session so that you can see how simple the process actually is. Hopefully this demystifies mindfulness meditation for you and makes it feel even more accessible. In simplest terms, mindfulness is about focusing and noticing. We practice formal mindfulness meditation by focusing on the sensation of our breathing. With our breath as our anchor, we notice whatever is happening in our present moment, both internally (thoughts, emotions, body sensations) and externally (anything your 5 senses notice). And we do all this with a general attitude of kindness and curiosity. Internally, you might notice… 💭 Thoughts * Thoughts about the future - “I wonder how much traffic there will be today.” * Thoughts about the past - “I can’t believe I messed up that line in my audition.” * Thoughts about the present - “I wish that leaf blower would stop.” 😩 Emotions or moods (perhaps associate with those thoughts) * Dreading the traffic, worrying you might be late for an audition or work. * Shame or self-doubt about whatever happened in that audition. * Irritation about the sound of the leaf blower. 👤 Body sensations * Tension in your neck and shoulders. * An itch on your elbow. * A rumbling in your stomach because you skipped breakfast. Externally, you might notice… Pretty much anything your 5 senses perceive * The sound of an airplane going over head. * The sight of a candle if you use one as a focus object, or changes in the light you perceive through your closed eye lids. * The feel of your clothing on your skin. * The smell of the lotion you just put on your hands. * The leftover taste of your morning coffee in your mouth. A Potentially Busy Present Moment As we’re focusing on our breath in mindfulness meditation, there’s A LOT potentially trying to get (and keep) our attention. And that’s fine. That is just what’s present in this moment for us. The trick is just to notice whatever is present in this moment without allowing anything to completely take over our mind, causing us to completely drop our focus on our breath. When that happens it’s as if that thought, mood, sensation, or sense perception has claimed “center stage” of our mind. It’s hogging the microphone and not sharing the spotlight. This is going to happen. It’s no big deal. There will be times during a mindfulness session when a thought or sensation will completely hijack our attention. Our mind wanders completely away from the present moment. When you notice that your mind completely wanders away… …gently guide your focus back to the experience of breathing. The key word here is gently. Gently Fade The Mic Think of your wandering mind like an excited actor who has just won an award. They’re caught up in the moment and eager to thank everyone they’ve ever met. But if we let them say everything they’ve every wanted to say, we’d be here all night. They’ve had their moment of acknowledgement and it’s time to get the show back on track. But do two burly security guards grab the actor roughly and haul them off stage? Does the crowd berate them, yelling, “Get off the stage! You’re ruining the show!”? Of course not. Very gently, the orchestra begins to play, alerting the actor to “wrap it up.” If the actor continues much longer, eventually their mic volume simple fades out and the emcee continues the show. It’s simple. It’s gentle. It’s effective. That’s the level of gentleness I want you to use with your wandering mind. At various times through out your mindfulness session, your mind is going to get caught up in thoughts, emotions, and/or sensations. When that happens there’s no need to beat yourself up. Just gently “fade the mic” on that distraction and “bring up the mic” on your breath. Even if your mind is chaotic AF and wanders a lot… * “Ugh, what if I tanked that audition?” --> “Oh, I’m having thoughts about that audition…let me come back to my breath” * “Ugh, I’m SO TENSE! I just can’t relax!” --> “Oh, I’m really struggling with this tension…let me come back to my breath” * “Ugh, that leaf blower is so annoying! Grrr!” --> “Oh, I’m hearing a sound that I perceive as unpleasant…let me come back to my breath” Rinse and repeat, over and over, throughout the session. 1000 times if needed. ❤️ Which is what we are going to practice in the next episode. Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks! Get Out of Your Head and Rock Your Next Audition 🎧 I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you get out of your head and into your character so that you can rock your next audition. It’s going to help you calm your nerves, let go of distracting thoughts — How can I book this? What do they want? — and focus in on what your character wants, what’s going on in the scene, so that you can present your best work every time. Access Your Presence and Feel Empowered in Your Actor Life 📖 The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit This ebook is comprehensive collection of tools guaranteed to be the Dramamine you need for the roller coaster ride of #ActorLife. Whether you’re dealing with audition nerves, obsessively checking your email after submitting a self tape, or just learned your series has been canceled, there’s something here that will help you access your presence and feel grounded again. I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life. 🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series. 🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives. 💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools. 🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗 Get full access to The Aligned Actor at thealignedactor.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Jun 25

    A Mindfulness Practice That's Shorter Than Most Co-Star Auditions

    In this episode, we’re once again practicing mindfulness and in keeping with what we talked about in the episode about mindfulness misconceptions, I’m going to introduce you to a practice where your mind will definitely not be clear (we’re going to intentionally give it some very specific thoughts to think) and we’re only going to practice for less than 1 minute at a time. We’re actively dispelling the misconceptions that you have to stop thinking and you have have to meditate for a long time in order to be practicing mindfulness. A 10-Count Moment of Mindfulness This is what I call A 10-Count Moment of Mindfulness and it’s a very simple way to start your mindfulness practice. All you’re going to do is count your inhales and exhales up to 10. You’ll count “One” as you inhale, “Two” as you exhale, “Three” as you inhale, “Four” as you exhale, and so on all the way up to ten. Go ahead and give it a try right now. * Count “One” as you inhale. * Count “Two” as you exhale. * Count “Three” as you inhale. * Count “Four” as you exhale. * Count “Five” as you inhale. * Count “Six” as you exhale. * Count “Seven” as you inhale. * Count “Eight” as you exhale. * Count “Nine” as you inhale. * Count “Ten” as you exhale. That’s it. Once again, you practice mindfulness and you did a great job. Congrats! 🥳 Let’s Make It A Regular Practice For the next week, commit to practicing A 10-Count Moment of Mindfulness 1-3 times each day. I know that sounds like nothing, but I promise it’s enough to get you started. If you follow through on this, at the end of this week you will be able to say, “I have a regular mindfulness practice.” The trickiest part will be remembering to do it, so here are some suggestions to help you with that. * Put up sticky notes around your living space. Practice whenever you see them. * Set a few alarms on your phone. Practice whenever the alarm goes off. * Pair the practice with something you already do regularly, such as brushing your teeth or washing your hands. (You still might have to put a sticky note on your bathroom mirror for a while as you build the habit) Pick one of these (or make up your own) and make a commitment to yourself to remember to practice. You got this! Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks! Get Out of Your Head and Rock Your Next Audition 🎧 I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you get out of your head and into your character so that you can rock your next audition. It’s going to help you calm your nerves, let go of distracting thoughts — How can I book this? What do they want? — and focus in on what your character wants, what’s going on in the scene, so that you can present your best work every time. Access Your Presence and Feel Empowered in Your Actor Life 📖 The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit This ebook is comprehensive collection of tools guaranteed to be the Dramamine you need for the roller coaster ride of #ActorLife. Whether you’re dealing with audition nerves, obsessively checking your email after submitting a self tape, or just learned your series has been canceled, there’s something here that will help you access your presence and feel grounded again. I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life. 🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series. 🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives. 💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools. 🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗 Get full access to The Aligned Actor at thealignedactor.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Jun 18

    Stop Performing Mindfulness

    In this episode we’re going to talk about Mindfulness Misconceptions. Because unfortunately there are some ways that mass media and pop culture talk about mindfulness that are not helpful for beginners and can lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration as you’re starting a practice. When I first tried meditation I would get super frustrated with myself because I would try to stay focused on my breath, but that was really hard. My mind always seemed to be racing with thoughts and I would then heap all this judgment and shame on myself. “Ugh, why am I so bad at this? My mind keeps thinking! I’m supposed to clear my mind. What’s wrong with me? I can’t do this.” When I actually studied mindfulness and got my certification, I learned that clearing my mind wasn’t actually required. There really was nothing to DO in mindfulness meditation except notice my experience with kind curiosity. Coming to understand that was SO FREEING! I started to understand that one of the key factors to mindfulness meditation was me being kind to myself while I was practicing, even when my mind wandered. And also that it was no big deal and even expected that my mind was going to wander. It took so much pressure off me to “get mindfulness right” when I realized, “Oh, there really isn’t a right or wrong here and I can relax about this.” Mindfulness Misconceptions Hopefully talking through some mindfulness misconceptions will help you relax and feel more empowered in your practice, too. ❌ You have to completely clear your mind Nope. In mindfulness meditation your brain is going to continue doing what it does — keeping your body alive and processing your experience. Focusing on your breath gives your mind a simple, present moment task, but the brain is gonna brain. Thoughts are going to come up, and it’s no big deal. You’re not failing if your mind doesn’t become a blank void. ❌ You’re failing if your have thoughts Again, no. You’re just becoming an intentional, kind and curious witness to whatever is happening in your present moment, and that might be a lot of mind chatter. Thoughts are just part of your present moment. The key is to notice them without engaging with them. Just watch them come and go. ❌ A “good meditation” is when your mind is quiet I honestly don’t think there’s such a think as a “good” or “bad” meditation. Maybe you find it more peaceful and relaxing when you mind isn’t as busy with thoughts, but your mind’s state is not a mark of success or failure - it just is what it is. ❌ A “bad meditation” is when your mind is busy Again, your mind’s state is not a mark of success of failure. Just that your mind is busy. As my kid once said, “I have a lot of brain going on.” Sometimes that’s what’s happening in our present moment. ❌ You have to meditate for a LONG time I practice mindfulness meditation for 10 minutes each day, and later in this series I’ll teach you a technique that takes less than a minute. If thinking “I don’t have the time!” is your biggest barrier to practicing mindfulness regularly, think again. ❌ You have to meditate in a specific way (or even AT ALL!) There are mindfulness gurus out there who will try to convince you that you have to meditate in specific ways, usually using their expensive meditation tracks. I am not one of them. There are many ways to access the present moment and what matters is finding a way that works for you. Additionally, informal mindfulness also counts as practicing mindfulness. You don’t have to sit quietly with your eyes closed. You can practice mindful eating, mindful handwashing, mindful cooking, mindful anything. Remember… Let’s go back to our simple definition of mindfulness — a special way of paying attention to the present moment with kind curiosity. Do you see any of these misconceptions present in this definition? (I don’t. 😉) Stay with this definition and gently, kindly, and maybe even curiously, let go of any other ideas you may have picked up about mindfulness that don’t fit with this. Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks! Get Out of Your Head and Rock Your Next Audition 🎧 I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you get out of your head and into your character so that you can rock your next audition. It’s going to help you calm your nerves, let go of distracting thoughts — How can I book this? What do they want? — and focus in on what your character wants, what’s going on in the scene, so that you can present your best work every time. Access Your Presence and Feel Empowered in Your Actor Life 📖 The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit This ebook is comprehensive collection of tools guaranteed to be the Dramamine you need for the roller coaster ride of #ActorLife. Whether you’re dealing with audition nerves, obsessively checking your email after submitting a self tape, or just learned your series has been canceled, there’s something here that will help you access your presence and feel grounded again. I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life. 🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series. 🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives. 💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools. 🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗 Get full access to The Aligned Actor at thealignedactor.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Jun 11

    A Little Character Study on Yourself

    In this episode we’re going to practice what we learned in the previous episode — paying attention to the present moment with kind curiosity — which is the definition of mindfulness. So just listen and follow along as I help you pay attention to your current present moment. If you want to close your eyes, and it’s safe for you to do so, you can, but you certainly don’t have to. Practicing mindfulness doesn’t have to mean doing a formal, seated, closed eyes meditation. Really we’re just intentionally noticing ourselves and our current circumstances. You can even think of this like doing a little character study on yourself and your present moment. Just see what you notice. * What, if anything, do you see, hear, feel, smell, taste? * Do you notice any sensations in your body? * Can you notice the sensation of your breath? * Do you notice any thoughts in your mind? * Just notice what you notice. Kindly. Curiously. Non-judgmentally. For me, I see my computer and my phone, I hear my voice talking, I feel the floor under my feet, I don’t notice any particular smells, I can taste some coffee in my mouth. I can feel the aliveness of my body and a bit of amped up energy as I record this episode. As I breathe, I can feel cool air coming into my body as I inhale and warmer air going out as I exhale. I notice thoughts related to this recording, the ideas I’m relating to you and also some thoughts about how this recording is going. Now that you’ve experienced my example take a moment again to tune into your own present moment. What do you kindly and curiously notice right now? And that’s it. That’s mindfulness. You paid attention to your present moment with kind curiosity. Great job! You can practice paying attention to your present moment – intentionally noticing yourself and your current circumstances with kind curiosity – anytime, anywhere. As a fun challenge, set a random alarm on your phone labeled “Notice Right Now” or “Take a Mindful Moment” and take yourself through this exercise again. Just pause and notice what you’re doing and what’s happening around you. Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks! Get Out of Your Head and Rock Your Next Audition 🎧 I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you get out of your head and into your character so that you can rock your next audition. It’s going to help you calm your nerves, let go of distracting thoughts — How can I book this? What do they want? — and focus in on what your character wants, what’s going on in the scene, so that you can present your best work every time. Access Your Presence and Feel Empowered in Your Actor Life 📖 The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit This ebook is comprehensive collection of tools guaranteed to be the Dramamine you need for the roller coaster ride of #ActorLife. Whether you’re dealing with audition nerves, obsessively checking your email after submitting a self tape, or just learned your series has been canceled, there’s something here that will help you access your presence and feel grounded again. I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life. 🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series. 🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives. 💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools. 🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗 Get full access to The Aligned Actor at thealignedactor.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Jun 4

    Your Nervous System Called. It Needs Mindfulness.

    It is my firm belief that mindfulness is a tool that can be like a balm for so many of the things that challenge us the most as actors, and one of my goals with my work is to demystify mindfulness and make it as simple and accessible as possible for you. To that end, we are starting a series on The Aligned Actor Podcast! In this series we’re going to do a deep dive on mindfulness. Mindfulness has the power to completely transform you as an actor both in how you approach your craft and your career. From calming your nerves to remaining fully present in a scene to increasing your emotional intelligence and range to perhaps most importantly, allowing you to handle anything that the entertainment industry throws at you without burning out. Living Under Constant Threat The entertainment industry regularly wreaks havoc on our nervous systems. * Work is unpredictable — we have to say ready for auditions at anytime and sometimes it’s slow for no apparent reason. * Rejection is a cultural norm – whether it’s an audition we didn’t book, or our series getting cancelled, or the fact that The Academy keeps nominating and giving awards to those other guys. This business is not a meritocracy, so you can be an incredibly talented, established actor and still face work instability and rejection regularly, all of which has the potential to leave you questioning “Am I good enough?” Our confidence, our sense-of-self, and our very identity as actors is continuously threatened and can be harmed by all this uncertainty and rejection. No matter how well we intellectually understand ideas like… * “You can’t book every job.” * “Book the room, not the job.” * “Avails are a sign that you are so close!” * “They just went in another direction.” …we are still a human beings, in human bodies, regularly facing uncertainty and rejection, and all of that takes a toll on our nervous system and can trigger very real primal, survival reactions within us. For our cave-dwelling ancestors, rejection literally meant death. To be turned away by your group meant you were on your own to deal with finding food and staying safe from predators. Our brains haven’t evolved all that much since those days, so there are parts of our brains that still perceive any form of rejection as a threat to our survival. Additionally, for us as actors, the professional uncertainty and rejection we face IS tied to our survival. We need money to survive, so slow times, dry spells, and changes in the entertainment industry all threaten our survival within this profession. Sure, we can have day jobs and other sources of income, but there’s still a very real threat to our identity as actors because many of us still hold the belief that “If I’m not making a living from acting, I’m not really an actor.” A New (Old) Hope But hope is not lost, friends. Just because the entertainment industry wreaks havoc on our nervous system doesn’t mean we just have to take it. Mindfulness has been around for thousands of years and offers a scientifically proven way to soothe and fortify our nervous systems. It can act like a balm for all the challenges of Actor Life. * Mindfulness can help us soothe the stress response triggered by uncertainty and rejection. * Mindfulness can help us sit with (and get comfortable with) all the uncomfortable feelings that arise in this roller coaster of a career. * Mindfulness can help us recognize that thoughts like “I’m not really an actor if I’m not making a living from acting” is just a thought and we get to decide if we want to believe it. * Mindfulness can help us stay focused on why we chose this career in the first place – our love of acting and our deep desire to tell stories and play characters and impact an audience. And so much more. Let’s Learn and Practice So we’re going to learn and practice mindfulness together in this series. * We’re going to learn what mindfulness is. * We’re going to let go of common misconceptions about mindfulness that often get in the way of starting or sticking with a practice. * We’re going to break mindfulness down into its micro steps so you really understand what’s going on in a formal mindfulness meditation and completely demystify the process for yourself. * We’re going to put a simple story to your mindfulness practice because as actors, we love stories and human beings actually understand things better through story. * We’re going to talk about all the many benefits of mindfulness for actors. * We’re going to practice mindfulness — A LOT! (so you can learn by doing!) And we’re gonna start right now by defining and practicing mindfulness… Mindfulness is a special way of paying attention to the present moment with kind curiosity. So let’s take just a second and do that together now. Tune into whatever is happening in your present moment with curiosity and kindness. * Where are you? * What are you doing? * What, if anything, do you see…hear…feel…smell…taste? Before I asked you to tune into your present moment, were you somewhere else? Off in the future or the past? Just gently notice, remembering that mindfulness is a judgement-free zone of kind curiosity. And that’s it. That’s mindfulness. It’s simple. Maybe WAY simpler than you were thinking, because there are a lot of misconceptions about mindfulness that get in our way, which we will get into in a future episode. But for now, STAY HERE in this present moment with this simple definition of mindfulness - paying attention to the present moment with kind curiosity — which is what we’re going to practice in the next episode. Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks! Get Out of Your Head and Rock Your Next Audition 🎧 I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you get out of your head and into your character so that you can rock your next audition. It’s going to help you calm your nerves, let go of distracting thoughts — How can I book this? What do they want? — and focus in on what your character wants, what’s going on in the scene, so that you can present your best work every time. Access Your Presence and Feel Empowered in Your Actor Life 📖 The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit This ebook is comprehensive collection of tools guaranteed to be the Dramamine you need for the roller coaster ride of #ActorLife. Whether you’re dealing with audition nerves, obsessively checking your email after submitting a self tape, or just learned your series has been canceled, there’s something here that will help you access your presence and feel grounded again. I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life. 🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series. 🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives. 💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools. 🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗 Get full access to The Aligned Actor at thealignedactor.substack.com/subscribe

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

A podcast on mindfulness and mindset for performers. thealignedactor.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Amy Schloerb
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    98
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Amy Schloerb
  • Show Website
    The Aligned Actor