Is Acting Good For You?

Welcome to The Aligned Actor Podcast! I’m Amy Schloerb, your friendly fellow actor and mindfulness and mindset coach helping us all thrive in our full actor lives. This is the podcast were I offer practical mindfulness tools and mindset shifts to help you handle the roller coaster ride of being an actor, all the ups, downs, twist, turns, and sometimes full on loop-de-loops so that you can actually enjoy your craft and career.I participated in Self Tape May this year and learned a ton about myself as an actor and self taping in general. I’m sharing those learnings with you today.Lesson 1 - Acting Is Good For Me!I had long suspected that acting was a form of self care for me, but now I have the data to confirm it. My Oura ring tracks my stress levels throughout the day and without fail, my body entered the “Relaxed” and/or “Restored” zones while I was doing my Self Tape May practice.What this tells me is that even if pretty much everything that surrounds being an actor is stressful — wondering when my next audition will be, hope my last gig was not actually my LAST gig, sending self tapes into the void — the actual craft of acting is relaxing and restorative for me. My body feels good doing it.That just makes me want to continue my self tape practice beyond May, and so do the rest of the lessons I’ve learned, so let’s continue…Lesson 2 - A Great Reader is a GiftPlenty of folks out there talk about how to optimize your self tape setup with lights and backdrops and camera angles. But truly, the reason my self tape practice became easy, fun, and resulted it scenes that I’m proud of, is because of my amazing reader.We’ve been actor buddies for years and during the pandemic we just started meeting up weekly on Zoom to chat about life, our careers, and play around with fun scenes. We’re so comfortable with each other and connect easily in scenes, which makes self taping feel like “Actor Play Time” instead of “Actor Stressing Try To Get a Job Time.”So if you don’t have a reader who LOVES reading with you, find that person and it will change EVERYTHING about how you feel about self tapes. Auditions will stop feeling like a means to an end and finally feel like just another opportunity to do what you love!Additionally, being able to connect with another actor and enjoy playing in the craft together is so important for us as artists. There’s so much about being an actor that is very isolating, and so finding times to be in community with each other and collaborate with each other is EVERYTHING.Lesson 3 - Self Taping is a Skill Worth PracticingThe only way to feel comfortable with the process of self taping is to practice. * Practice setting up your equipment so it isn’t a 90-minute slog of adjusting angles and lights and backdrops.* Practice working with your amazing reader so that connecting with them — really listening and reacting to what they are giving you — is second nature.* Practice noticing, acknowledging, and breathing with your nerves so that you train your body and mind not to fight against the audition butterflies, but to work with them confidently.* Practice self taping SO MUCH that your self tape space starts to feel like a second home, a place where you feel free to express your character fully and expect to have fun presenting your amazing work.* Practice moving on after submitting (because there’s always another fun character to play with!) so that it’s easier to move on after real auditions.Basically, I want to be practicing self tapes so often that I start to forget whether I’m doing a tape for a real audition or just for fun. I recently heard the origin story of Self Tape May. Audrey Moore, actress and host of The Audrey Helps Actors Podcast, started working audition sides every single evening and then doing two takes the next morning. It worked so well for her that she decided to share the practice with her fellow actors and make it a contest during May, which is traditionally a slower time of the year for auditions.What I absolutely love and admire about Audrey’s daily self tape routine is that she essentially started practicing acting the same way a musician practices music. Now, I realize there are some differences between actors and musicians — we often need at least one other person in order to practice scenes — but go back to Lesson 2 of this article and remember that finding an actor buddy to practice acting with will be one of the best things you do for your career. And remember Lesson 1 (acting is self care) and suddenly, regularly practicing something that WILL impact my ability to book work is also a way to connect with a fellow actor, and not feel so alone on this journey, AND a way to care for my creative soul?SIGN ME UP! 🙋🏼‍♀️Self taping doesn’t have to be something that we dread.It can be something that we love.Those are my lessons from Self Tape May. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my reflections. I hope you found them helpful and inspiring.And if you did find 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 ToolkitThis 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