Often in my private one-on-one classes there comes a point when I realize that the actor sitting in front of me is too much in their head. To borrow and mangle-by-paraphrase Arthur Miller: Their craniums are living thoughts of quiet desperation with destructive speculations ricocheting off one another:
Is there something wrong I’m doing that is causing my career not to flourish?
Why am I not getting to the goals I want?
Failure must be my fault.
I suck.
Just like my actor-students, we all at some point in our journey pull ourselves into these destructive weigh-stations of negative reflection. Yet when that nagging inner-voice routes its phantom calling to our cranium, we sometimes have the tendency to wallow in the false comfort of empty self-pity. There is no substance within the wretched thoughts to offering the soul healthy nourishment.
