What’s My Motivation?
I am currently involved backstage of a community theatre project. Watching the cast rehearse has reminded me of something Dr. Wayne Dyer said at the Wishes Fulfilled event I attended in Boston.
We have each inhabited many bodies since we arrived in a seven or eight pound version of ourselves. We have grown and changed. We have inhabited a toddler body and a child body. We had a teen body and multiple others en route to the body we use today.
The actors I am observing are using their current bodies to personify other personalities; other ways of being. They walk differently. They posture and gesture as the characters they portray.
This is a fascinating ability, and it reminds me that we often do this in daily life: we become the character we think we are.
The dedication of unpaid actors is remarkable. These are people who know the “back story” of the people they play, even though little of that information may be revealed in the dialogue.
The woman playing the ingénue knows that she is conveying an emotionally needy young woman who grew up in boarding schools and institutions, never knowing her own family: a circumstance far removed from the actor’s history.
The player who embodies a financially troubled divorcee carries herself with that bravado of one who is attempting to maintain a persona. At times the facade slips, and yet we never see the woman we know from the village: the mom, the professional, the friend. When she is on the stage she is not one, but many facets of her character.
I am most amazed by our understanding that back-story changes behaviour.
If the actor portraying a lazy, slip-shod caretaker were told that his character attended an exclusive private school in his youth, the caretaker on the stage would be very different from the one he depicts now.
We understand that past experience alters the way we relate to the world. We make allowances for people and we give them cues about how we expect them to react.
While that dynamic is playing out in our regular lives, we are also responding to the expectations of others. We often conform to the expectations that are placed upon us.
A person repeatedly labelled jovial and fun to be around, may well learn to tell jokes and laugh. This may be a chicken and egg dilemma. Which came first?
What if the label is musically talented? or stupid? or always sick? or particularly handsome?
We often take what we are told about ourselves and act it out.
The community actors work very hard to understand and physicalize the history of their characters. In our regular life, how we process our history is usually an unthinking procedure.
Learning to be ‘In the Now’ can help us to short-circuit the mindlessness of daily expression. Taking a deep breath and connecting to what our body, mind and feelings are really experiencing -- instead of what we think they should --can change everything.
The same is true for what we think people expect, or what we have been taught is the ‘right thing’ to do or say or be.
Personal work is often astounding: there are unexpected revelations which illustrate our disconnection from Self.
Reconnecting to ourselves and our natural authentic expression is the work of life.
We are blessed to live at time when this work is undertaken by an ever greater segment of society. There are opportunities to meet like-minded people; to feel the respect for the effort we are making, and learn how others are succeeding.
In 2013 we have role models who are willing to open the path for us. There are events, large and small, where we can immerse ourselves in this work without risk of judgement or rejection.
As we become more deeply our true Selves, we expect others to do the same. We will not condone false fronts or reactive responses. Our connected Selves will encourage others to overcome the disconnexions of the past and move in truth into the future.
The work I am here to do supports this quest. Please explore this site and
http://journeyintoalignment.com. There may be services I can offer which will promote your connexion with destiny.
In May I am honoured to be co-hosting a Four Day retreat, Sensate Awakening: A Journey Inward. A small group of us will live in an amplified field, connecting to our innate knowing and expressing the Six Senses of design; story; synthesis; empathy; play and meaning.
http://soaringspiritinstitute.com/heart-retreat
On the other hand, if you live near Canada’s Nation Capital, then grab a ticket and come to Wakefield and see how community actors can evoke another time, another place, and a highly amusing circumstance.
http://www.theatrewakefield.ca/?page_id=41
Jo Leath has been practising Numerology since the early 1980s.
During her career she has studied synchronicity and various ways of accessing Cosmic Wisdom.
She is a Certified Labyrinth Facilitator with Veriditas: Worldwide Labyrinth Project.
Jo meets clients in person and online, and is sometimes a featured reader at metaphysical stores in various cities.