Yep, recently I decided to Hit Pause on Acting.
Crazy I know. But is it really?
Since I am a teacher of aligning your life so you can live and book in flow, I thought it was important to share with you how I have had to put my own advice to you into practice. If you’ve read my E-flowbook, you know what I’m talking about.
So what did that look like for me?
It was high time I put some time, attention, and focus on the area of health in my life – as it is THE ONE that’s King, or perhaps I’ll say, Queen. Without your health in good standing, you can’t do much nor get too far – and as actors and dreamers, we plan to go far.
Picture this…
You get sick and have to miss a shift at work – giving up money you need for your rent. You’ve been neglecting going to the chiro to get your neck adjusted to deal with those pounding migraines you get, and you wind up having to miss an audition (or barely show up to it) because the pain is too much. Even worse, what if you had to miss a performance to get well and the understudy had to take over, yet you were oh so excited for opening night?
Somewhere in your actor circle, those scenarios happen all the time – that thing called life.
How do we cope?
Now just because I teach flow, that doesn’t mean it’s easy for me to always live that way. For I believe it’s the changes we make and need to go through that are what bring us back to living in flow – IF we do our part and allow the process to unfold.
So why did I hit pause on acting, you wonder?
Simply put, I needed to get my health in check because I was tired of going up against the same wall of low energy, brain fog, an old injury that hasn’t fully healed, and why the healthy lifestyle I was living – that was full of “good” nutrition – was not working for me.
And as you know with acting it’s so about how you look and feel and the mental and physical work you need to put into it. It requires stamina and a strong mental capacity. And I was struggling with both – so I finally made the tough decision to throw in a temporary towel and created a get back in the Flow Plan for myself.
My Health Flow Plan:
When one thing in our life is “off”, it always has an effect on all the other areas of our life too so I made some adjustments for each.
My goal: To get back to optimal health with an abundant amount of energy and a strong mind and body.
Main Area of Focus:
Health:
To respect where my body’s energy is currently at, I choose to do yoga and strength training from home and take walks/hikes so I won’t burn out my adrenals then slowly incorporate some cardio, can’t wait. I’m loving that I’m getting in the bed earlier on a consistent basis – makes a big difference the next day.
I follow a certain nutrition plan suggested by my doc(mainly really clean eating without sugar, alcohol, gluten, and grains). I’m excited to be learning the health benefits of eating for your blood type because what you may have learned is “healthy” for you – actually isn’t according to your blood type aka coconut oil apparently isn’t for me – what?! I know, but I yanked it right out of my diet.
Areas of Support:
Mindset:
First, there was no fear of me failing as an actor or that I would miss my window of opportunity to “make it” if I needed to take time off to heal. For I know being healthy is a powerful weapon to becoming a successful actor. When I return, I look forward to upcoming casting opportunities and landing juicy roles.
Next, I chose to have the attitude of – Let’s face this head on and get to the bottom of it.
I had reached the point of enough is enough so while the decision was hard to make, it was still more of a desire for me to take the time to heal with less stress so I can feel better physically and mentally, be more productive, and enjoy life as a whole.
Relationships:
First, I created my team of support, a crucial step which includes – my husband, family and friends that are supportive, my Agent, my assistant for my side biz, my Doc. and Acupuncturist.
Spiritual:
I definitely send my prayers up to God and give thanks for the healing that I am already experiencing and very grateful for the lessons I’m learning. For you always learn the best self and life lessons through adversity. I make sure to connect with my inner source through daily meditation and working out – that’s your power baby.
Career:
First, I dropped out of acting class at the beginning of the year to conserve my energy for Pilot Season.
Next, once things slowed down in the industry, I chose to email my Agent and be very transparent about where I was at – needing to take time off so I could heal faster with less stress, explaining how it was affecting my performance in auditions. Your representation and casting directors work too hard for you not to bring your best.
Sound scary to you to do that? I can understand if so – as it took me forever to make the decision to do so and it was at the very least uncomfortable to hit send. However, through the years my agent and I have built a great relationship where I consider her a friend as well so she was very supportive. She knows when I make a comeback, I’m gonna be ready to play and will hit a home run.
I say I hit pause on acting, but what does that mean exactly?
I currently no longer go on casting opportunities, but I still study great acting through great shows like The Crown, several others and from time to time cross off acting biz tasks like updating my real and resume.
Finances:
There’s my acting career, but I too run a small online business so I had to make some more tough decisions and take some things off my plate.
If you follow TAF over on the socials – my awesome assistant, Mimi and I still provide Life & Career Flow Tips, but for now – I don’t snap a selfie every day to share an inside look – conserving my energy is more important.
Instead of running challenge groups for now – they have been waitlisted and I have been enjoying working 1:1 with actors to help them too create a flow plan with their health and fitness, acting career, and everyday life – connecting on zoom calls and through the Marco Polo app for accountability check-ins.
As you know the less you work, the less money you make. So I’m grateful for the residual and passive income during this time as well.
There you have it in a nutshell with what’s going on in my world behind the scenes. I’d love to hear from you.
Comment below…Are you too needing to hit pause on acting, but afraid to? Or do you find it pretty empowering that you made the choice to do so already? Me, I am feeling empowered for my health and happiness comes first before my commitment to acting.
Need help putting together a customized Flow Plan that will help you feel more at ease with all that’s going on in your world? If yes, Sign-Up for a Free 30-min. Session to begin finding your flow.
Always remember, your career soars as YOU soar.
