Hi, Everyone. There are 2 things that I want to say right out of the gate in this video. First, I hope as you are watching you and your families are safe and in a state of health and happiness. Second, this is definitely not the video topic that I had planned on releasing next on this channel. Nevertheless in the midst of what’s happening I felt I really couldn’t move forward with releasing content on auditioning powerfully or talking about the industry and all those things we focus on a daily basis as actors until I just sat down first from my office and just talked to you.
On this channel I talk a lot about auditioning, I get really goofy, and have a lot of fun and that’s just my personality. Because this stuff should be fun! When we’re talking about auditioning and we’re tackling stuff that’s super challenging we should be able to do it in a fun, goofy way, and that’s just who I am. But…this video’s going to get a little personal. So if that’s not your jam, you can just – you know – click the stop button because I’m going to be getting a little vulnerable, and I will tell you right now that as a business person getting vulnerable when it comes to my business is not something that I typically do. But given the circumstances…it’s important.
I want to share with you 4 things that I have really been thinking on over the last week and a half. I’ve definitely had some epiphanies. [For those of you who have been following me on Instagram @christinnachauncey, you might have a little bit of an idea of where I’m going with this right now…]
Who I am as a person – not as a coach – but as a person, I’m pretty much a driven go-getter. Total Type-A personality, a little on the need to control side (I’m sure my husband would agree). I’m the kind of person who likes to feel like I have a sense of control over my life. It’s part of why I started my own business. Working in an industry where as actors we have very little control, I tapped into something that gave me a greater sense of control, at least over my daily life, and my ability to earn an income and have a sense of normalcy. So when this hit [COVID-19], I will admit to you my first reaction was fear-based. I couldn’t help but think...\What is this going to mean to me as a small business owner? Oh no, how is this going to affect my business? My classes?! I can’t shut them down!
As a self-employed person with a business model that requires me to be physically present in a room with other people who need to be physically present, suddenly that came to a screeching halt. As well as my income flow, that has also come to a screeching halt. So here I sit with you in the middle of all of this, and I’m wondering the same thing. What’s going to happen next? What’s going to happen from this point forward? And it’s scary, it’s frightening. Yet at the exact same time that I’m faced with fear, my body, my mind & my soul is also experiencing a tremendous sense of relief. And let me tell you why…
Over the last few years, my business has experienced a tremendous boom, which is fantastic, I couldn’t be more grateful. As this demand has increased, so has my drive, my work ethic, my long days (we’re talking 12-15 hour workdays on a regular basis) my stress, my workload, and my burden. Now I hate to even use the word “burden” because I absolutely love what I do. I’m one of those fortunate souls who has a business that provides me a way of earning an income doing something that I’m extremely passionate about. But regardless of passion, there is a point at which you can start to push yourself beyond what’s healthy, and even though I have always prided myself on having a very well-balanced life between work and exercise and sleep and spending time with my family, I was starting to get to that point. In fact, I was living within that point daily. On Instagram I referred to it as a state of “functional exhaustion.”
So once the decision was made to cancel class, as I sent off that email to my students notifying them that classes were going to be placed on hold, yes it was frightening and extremely uncomfortable. In 17 years of business, there are only 2 times I have ever cancelled class. One, I was stuck on set coaching an actor in Arizona and I simply couldn’t get back to Los Angeles in time, and the other was food poisoning. So in that moment I sent that email, I knew I had 2 choices:
Having learned from the past that freaking out has never worked well for me, I decided to lean into it. The first week, I slept a lot, and I mean a lot (we’re talking 12 hours/night), and I didn’t get out of my PJ’s a lot. Aside from walking my dogs and going to the grocery store, I slept. And I laid on the floor and I played with my dogs and I took naps on the floor with my dogs. I pretty much stayed off of social media, knowing that not just my body, but also my mind needed rest. I needed some kind of reprieve. In a job that requires me to constantly pour my passion and my energy into other people’s cups, I knew I needed to pour back into my own. So I just went quiet. I needed silence, I needed solitude and quiet and I dove in all the way, a thousand percent.
As the days passed and my mind/body/spirit began to get the rest it so craved, I could feel the buds of creativity starting to slowly generate. So I took to the computer and started laying down some of my thoughts, which have resulted in this video.
So let’s get to those 4 things I mentioned, and these are 4 things that I believe will really serve you very well in this season that we’re in if you are willing to take them on.
Bottom line: There is so much to be grateful for!
We live in America. Products and purchases are so easily available to us. You want something? Just go down to Trader Joe’s and pick it up. You need something for the house? Go over to Target and pick it up. In this country especially, we are used to having grand access and grand excess, and right now that has been cut off. There has never been a time in my lifetime that I can think of that compares to this where we are literally forced into a situation of quiet and stillness that lays out the space for us to realize, Wow, I should be grateful for that.
The 4th element presents a bit of a challenge to you, and once again I’m going to get a little personal.
At the end of the first video I posted on this channel, I mentioned that as actors and as industry professionals we are all in this together. Of course at the time I said the I had no idea the meaning that statement would take on in just a few months. But here we are: absolutely in this, together.
Leave a comment below. I would really love to know how you’re navigating these times. What have you discovered? I challenge you to name one thing that you are grateful for now that you were perhaps taking for granted.
We are going to be getting back to regular content very soon. I will try to keep all content relevant to things that you can take action on right now, chew on, work on in the privacy of your own home while we go through this very interesting time together.
Now more than ever, it is so important that you be good to yourself, be good to the world…and I’ll catch you next time. xo
I want to share with you 4 things that I have really been thinking on over the last week and a half. I’ve definitely had some epiphanies. [For those of you who have been following me on Instagram @christinnachauncey, you might have a little bit of an idea of where I’m going with this right now…]
Who I am as a person – not as a coach – but as a person, I’m pretty much a driven go-getter. Total Type-A personality, a little on the need to control side (I’m sure my husband would agree). I’m the kind of person who likes to feel like I have a sense of control over my life. It’s part of why I started my own business. Working in an industry where as actors we have very little control, I tapped into something that gave me a greater sense of control, at least over my daily life, and my ability to earn an income and have a sense of normalcy. So when this hit [COVID-19], I will admit to you my first reaction was fear-based. I couldn’t help but think...\What is this going to mean to me as a small business owner? Oh no, how is this going to affect my business? My classes?! I can’t shut them down!
As a self-employed person with a business model that requires me to be physically present in a room with other people who need to be physically present, suddenly that came to a screeching halt. As well as my income flow, that has also come to a screeching halt. So here I sit with you in the middle of all of this, and I’m wondering the same thing. What’s going to happen next? What’s going to happen from this point forward? And it’s scary, it’s frightening. Yet at the exact same time that I’m faced with fear, my body, my mind & my soul is also experiencing a tremendous sense of relief. And let me tell you why…
Over the last few years, my business has experienced a tremendous boom, which is fantastic, I couldn’t be more grateful. As this demand has increased, so has my drive, my work ethic, my long days (we’re talking 12-15 hour workdays on a regular basis) my stress, my workload, and my burden. Now I hate to even use the word “burden” because I absolutely love what I do. I’m one of those fortunate souls who has a business that provides me a way of earning an income doing something that I’m extremely passionate about. But regardless of passion, there is a point at which you can start to push yourself beyond what’s healthy, and even though I have always prided myself on having a very well-balanced life between work and exercise and sleep and spending time with my family, I was starting to get to that point. In fact, I was living within that point daily. On Instagram I referred to it as a state of “functional exhaustion.”
So once the decision was made to cancel class, as I sent off that email to my students notifying them that classes were going to be placed on hold, yes it was frightening and extremely uncomfortable. In 17 years of business, there are only 2 times I have ever cancelled class. One, I was stuck on set coaching an actor in Arizona and I simply couldn’t get back to Los Angeles in time, and the other was food poisoning. So in that moment I sent that email, I knew I had 2 choices:
- Completely freak out.
- Lean into it.
Having learned from the past that freaking out has never worked well for me, I decided to lean into it. The first week, I slept a lot, and I mean a lot (we’re talking 12 hours/night), and I didn’t get out of my PJ’s a lot. Aside from walking my dogs and going to the grocery store, I slept. And I laid on the floor and I played with my dogs and I took naps on the floor with my dogs. I pretty much stayed off of social media, knowing that not just my body, but also my mind needed rest. I needed some kind of reprieve. In a job that requires me to constantly pour my passion and my energy into other people’s cups, I knew I needed to pour back into my own. So I just went quiet. I needed silence, I needed solitude and quiet and I dove in all the way, a thousand percent.
As the days passed and my mind/body/spirit began to get the rest it so craved, I could feel the buds of creativity starting to slowly generate. So I took to the computer and started laying down some of my thoughts, which have resulted in this video.
So let’s get to those 4 things I mentioned, and these are 4 things that I believe will really serve you very well in this season that we’re in if you are willing to take them on.
- Embrace the Moment at Hand [Lean Into It]. In times like these we are strongly tempted to be guided by our fear, what I shared with you a moment ago is a great example. My first instinct went to my fear. And given the circumstances that we are in, no one will hold it against you if you give into fear. There are things happening in our atmosphere right now that we can’t see with our eyes that are threatening, things that we don’t have control over and that’s frightening, especially to those of us who like to have a sense of control over our lives. But if you think about it…isn’t that pretty much normal life? Really. We never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. But in this particular case, we actually have information, we’ve been given a heads-up and in being aware of this threat, we are actually safer because we know that it exists. So be reminded that while you may not have any control over what’s around you or coming at you, you do have control over how you respond to it and that’s what matters. That is powerful. How you choose to respond is exactly that – a choice. You don’t have to be led by fear. Have a conversation with your fear, go ahead and deal with it. But don’t allow your fear to dictate the terms of how you’re going to proceed forth. You are so much stronger than that, you are so much wiser than that, and you are so much more powerful than that. We gotta stay calm, respond wisely, and follow the recommended safety protocols. But more so than that we also need to trust in the goodness and the resiliency of the human spirit. As human beings we are so incredibly resilient, and I really believe that on the other side of this we are going to come out stronger, more resilient, and more connected as human beings than we were before it all started.
- Listen to Your Body [Be Wise]. What does your body need right now? What does your soul/mind/body/sprit need right now? This can mean many things depending upon who you are and the circumstances in which you have been living. Maybe it’s rest. For me, as I shared, that’s what I needed more than anything else in order to proceed forth to the next step in my own creative path. Or, maybe you already feel rested and what you need is to take action on that part of your creativity that perhaps you’ve either been procrastinating about or avoiding because you haven’t had time. Now is the time! You have a script idea? Get to it. You have a website that you know you need to put together? Make it happen. We have time on our hands, and that is a gift and we won’t have it for very long. So there’s no right or wrong in this space of listening to your body. Sometimes the absolute greatest gift you can give yourself is to slow down and not work. As Americans we live in a culture that is so work-driven, so production-driven. We so often fall into this trap of evaluating each other based on what we’ve been producing lately. What have you done lately? I don’t know, what have you done lately? Well right now, nobody’s really doing anything because we can’t, and that is a gift. So embrace it while you have it, and who knows what might come out of it. Rest, when fully embraced, naturally leads to creativity.
- Redirect your Mindset Away from Stress and Towards Gratitude [Reset]. Research has shown that there is a direct correlation between higher levels of stress and lower levels of immunity. Research has also shown that there is a direct correlation between higher levels of gratitude and higher levels of immunity. Ok let’s Google it…
- Stress and Lowered Immunity. The following excerpt is from an article by American Psychological Association titled, “Stress Weakens the Immune System.”
- In the early 1980s, psychologist Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD, and immunologist Ronald Glaser, PhD, of the Ohio State University College of Medicine, were intrigued by animal studies that linked stress and infection. From 1982 through 1992, these pioneer researchers studied medical students. Among other things, they found that the students' immunity went down every year under the simple stress of the three-day exam period. Test takers had fewer natural killer cells, which fight tumors and viral infections. They almost stopped producing immunity-boosting gamma interferon and infection-fighting T-cells responded only weakly to test-tube stimulation.
- Those findings opened the floodgates of research. By 2004, Suzanne Segerstrom, PhD, of the University of Kentucky, and Gregory Miller, PhD, of the University of British Columbia, had nearly 300 studies on stress and health to review. Their meta-analysis discerned intriguing patterns. Lab studies that stressed people for a few minutes found a burst of one type of "first responder" activity mixed with other signs of weakening. For stress of any significant duration - from a few days to a few months or years, as happens in real life - all aspects of immunity went downhill. Thus long-term or chronic stress, through too much wear and tear, can ravage the immune system.
- Gratitude Lowers Stress. The following excerpt is from an article posted on the Today's Show website by Lauren Dunn titled, “Be Grateful. Science says gratitude is good for your health.”
- Another study found that gratitude can boost your immune system. Researchers at the universities of Utah and Kentucky observed that stressed-out law students who characterized themselves as optimistic actually had more disease-fighting cells in their bodies.
- Stress hormones like cortisol are 23 percent lower in grateful people. And having a daily gratitude practice could actually reduce the effects of aging to the brain.
- Stress and Lowered Immunity. The following excerpt is from an article by American Psychological Association titled, “Stress Weakens the Immune System.”
Bottom line: There is so much to be grateful for!
We live in America. Products and purchases are so easily available to us. You want something? Just go down to Trader Joe’s and pick it up. You need something for the house? Go over to Target and pick it up. In this country especially, we are used to having grand access and grand excess, and right now that has been cut off. There has never been a time in my lifetime that I can think of that compares to this where we are literally forced into a situation of quiet and stillness that lays out the space for us to realize, Wow, I should be grateful for that.
The 4th element presents a bit of a challenge to you, and once again I’m going to get a little personal.
- Consider Your Center [Look Up]. We spend so much time in this society looking down at our phones, and not looking up to those around us, to what’s in front of us, and to the opportunities at hand to be more human. There is a question that I present to my students in class when we’re going over a full technique breakdown of a character and that question is Where does your character get their sense of security from? And this is an important question because every human being gets their sense of security from some place: making money, how many toys you can purchase, your bank account, having a relationship or being in a relationship, going to church, religion, work, marriage, family, having children, friendships, technology, your following and how many likes you get, the government, having a home, purchasing a home, sex, physical connection, yourself, how you look, fitness and your physical health, accomplishment, winning an Oscar, having a place to go to work every day, freedom, etc. Right now our sense of security is being tremendously challenged and it’s causing us to have to look at that questions and consider it. For me, my sense of security is deeply rooted in my faith. From knowing that the one who created me has me in his hand and is taking care of me. Even when things seem frightening, even when I’m faced with something that seems dire and uncertain, I always return back to my faith. I’m not here to preach at you, that’s not my intention. But I think it’s an opportunity for each of us to really look at where we get our security from – and wherever it is, I hope that you find great peace within that space.
At the end of the first video I posted on this channel, I mentioned that as actors and as industry professionals we are all in this together. Of course at the time I said the I had no idea the meaning that statement would take on in just a few months. But here we are: absolutely in this, together.
Leave a comment below. I would really love to know how you’re navigating these times. What have you discovered? I challenge you to name one thing that you are grateful for now that you were perhaps taking for granted.
We are going to be getting back to regular content very soon. I will try to keep all content relevant to things that you can take action on right now, chew on, work on in the privacy of your own home while we go through this very interesting time together.
Now more than ever, it is so important that you be good to yourself, be good to the world…and I’ll catch you next time. xo