For a Creative and Mental Boost: Get Into Your Body
“Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.” -Elle Woods
“With the best intentions, the job of acting can become a display of accumulated bad habits, trapped instincts and blocked energies. Working with the Alexander Technique has given me sightings of another way… Mind and body, work and life together. Real imaginative freedom…” -Alan Rickman
“The body knows things about which the mind is ignorant” – Jacques Lecoq
We live in a complex world and our brain is constantly trying to make sense of it all. As we journey through life, our bodies will carry our past with us. We overthink. We carry tension in our back from commuting in our cars and past traumas. We are not as physically active in a modern world and this takes its toll. One way to shake up this pattern is to find ways to get into your body. Do yoga. Walk around the block. Have a dance party. Jump for joy. Not only is this good for your health, it’s good for your soul. As the great Elle Woods reminds us, “endorphins make you happy.” It gets you out of your head. Sweating it out or getting moving in any way will help you look at life in a more creative and different way. It is also a great way to approach a scene or role. How does your character move through the world? Where do they carry their tension? How do they hold a fork?
A prominent LA Film Casting director recently stated that the biggest difference between mediocre actors and great actors is “great actors use their entire body.” They went on to say: “Really good actors will embody the whole thing. It’s not just happening in their face, their head; it’s happening through their whole body and they’re using their whole body to do it.” In My Left Foot Daniel Day Lewis plays Christy Brown, a writer and artist with cerebral palsy. Lewis as Christy only has the use of his left foot but his award winning physical performance can be felt and seen in his whole body. It is mesmerizing to watch. So next time you are looking for a way to connect to a character or want to get out of your head in your everyday life, get into your body and see what comes up. We are happy to explore the mind body connection with you at Shari Shaw Studios.