For every problem the mind creates in our lives, there is also a simultaneous solution created by the mind. Good to know! (This is also an important distinction. The problems that we most often face on a daily basis exist nowhere but from the fertile breeding ground of the mind generating them.) In other words,Read more
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We’re all the same. And that’s what makes us simultaneously different. Confused? Seems counterintuitive? It’s not. As artists, the raw material from which we pull to create (it doesn’t matter if you’re a writer or actor or musician) is your own life. All expressions (even if they are expressions of someone else’s writing or lyricsRead more
If it’s not fun, why are we doing it? The art of acting is based in play. And the science of play is quantifiable. When you start to play more, that which you want (in your life and your work) starts to show up. You get freed up to the moment. There is no attachmentRead more
I think the most important thing to remember about creating-and life itself-is that you have to be out in the world. Creating occurs with people, through people; sharing and being of service. If you’re constantly in your head thinking creativity looks a certain way or you have to get to some magical “place” before youRead more
Just before the start of her performance at the 2015 United States Figure Skating Championships, the leader going into the short program, Ashley Wagner, said to her coach, “I’m terrified!” Watershed moment. (I actually screamed at the TV!) Here’s a world-class athlete at the top of her game, admitting to a nationally televised audience (andRead more
Recently, I was flying back to L.A. from London and had the good fortune of talking to Mat Fraser, a star of “American Horror Story: Freak Show.” He’s sort of become the breakout sensation of this season’s show and it’s all the more wonderful because he suffers from the genetic condition called phocomelia, in whichRead more
I went through a very stressful phase in my early 20s when I suffered from panic attacks. At the time, I thought I was the only one who had this problem. Working with so many actors over the years, I’ve now come to discover that it’s a pretty common phenomenon for young adults navigating theirRead more
The spirit of us is indestructible. Science says that life is not only about possibility, but it’s actually born out of possibility. The fact that the universe conspired to come together with the exact carbon-hydrogen-oxygen ratio to sustain life some 3.5 billion years ago in the form of prokaryotic sludge that through millennia transformed intoRead more
I originally wrote this piece when Mercury was in retrograde last year, but guess what? It’s in retrograde again! And the lessons seem just as timely as they did last fall. Now some of you may think it’s all astrological hogwash, and that’s fine, but as a metaphor for challenges in creating and communication, IRead more
You’re never going to have it all figured out. There is no magic formula. You’re trying to define something that, in its essence, is indefinable. You figure it out while you’re doing it. You don’t figure it out and then do it. If you approach creativity that way, you’ll never do it. (The thing youRead more