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ACT NOW! Get Your ACT Together! -- and Set the Stage to Reduce Stress
by Dale L. Anderson, M.D.

Curtain UP! You are the designer, director, producer, conductor and STAR of a gala event! You are the [          ]. And this event is the "big one" -- the meeting you have been planning and rehearsing for months. Are you stressed out? Is your "chemistry off"?

If so, change your chemistry. It can be altered if you master some of the techniques used by METHOD actors to get into the "chemistry" of being "UP"? The chemistry of being "ON"!

METHOD actors have developed successful techniques to "trigger" the desired chemistry (feeling) for a stage role. And when the "chemistry is right the feeling is right" -- and the performance is "right ON"!

What is this chemistry of being ON? How do we measure the chemistry of an ON performance? How can we take the "high" of stage acting into the "high" of everyday, life acting? In other words, how can we use the technical methods of the theater to ACT Happy, ACT Successful, ACT Healthy and ACT Well. How can you, the [          ], "get your act together" to reduce stress and IN-sure success.

My physician colleagues recognize that people who positively script, stage, costume, direct and ACT healthy, happy and stress-free -- change their chemistry. This resulting positive "head" chemistry is a treatment in itself or it compliments and enhances conventionally prescribed medications. Or, more importantly, it circumvents the "need" to "unwind" with alcohol or drugs.

Dr. Seuss, in the book Oh, The Places You’ll Go, writes --

     You have brains in your head.
     You have feet in your shoes
     You can steer yourself
     any direction you choose.
     ------
     So be sure when you step.
     Step with care and great tact
     and remember that Life’s
     a Great Balancing ACT.

PAVLOV’S DOGS and METHOD ACTING

In 1904 a Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, was awarded the Nobel Prize for his famous discoveries concerning the digestive process in dogs. Pavlov rang a bell while feeding some dogs and studied their normal digestive chemistries. Then -- the important part -- he did not give the dogs any food but just rang the bell. AND he found the digestive chemistries were the same "as if" the dogs had eaten. The ringing of the bell had produced a seemingly unrelated physiological/chemical response -- a "conditioned response."

Constantine Stanislavski, also a Russian and the Director of the Moscow Theater, learned of Pavlov’s experiments and wondered, "If Pavlov can change the chemistry of dogs with bells, can I, by manipulating the environment, do the same with actors and audiences?"

If Stanislavski were in the [          ] business he would have asked, "Can I change the chemistry of [          ] and their [associates/clients/community]?" The answer, of course is, yes!

Stanislavski began to study and develop the METHOD of acting which is today still a major corner stone of stage technique. He developed and taught the use of costume, gestures, posture, image, aroma, music, color, lighting and staging to steer the feelings of the actors and audiences. Using Pavlov’s monumental discoveries as a touch-stone one could comically conclude that Stanislavski started teaching actors to "treat themselves like dogs."

Today, medical science can measure the chemistry of feelings. A whole new medical area known as psycho-neuro-immunology (PNI) has grown rapidly in the past decade. Endorphins, just one class of the PNI neuropeptids have received significant press coverage. PNI has shown that good feelings are the chemistry of good health and success. And METHOD acting has shown that this good chemistry can be ACTED ON!

Psychologist, William James an American contemporary of Stanislavski developed the "ACT AS IF" school of psychology which complements the teachings of METHOD acting. "The me I see, is the me I’ll be!"

FAKE IT -- TILL YOU "GET REAL"

When you develop "good chemistry" you can become less stressed.

Analyze what you can do to get your act together. How can you "set the stage" to be stress free? What do you enjoy? If it is not harmful to yourself or others, do more of it. What music, colors, aromas, textures make you "feel good"? What activities do you look forward to doing and what people do you enjoy being with? When the chemistry is right, the feeling is right and healthful.

To develop a new role or activity that is more comfortable, less stressful and healthier you will need to "fake it" until the new chemistry feels "real." Fake it! Fake it! Fake it! Till ya make it! This is called habit formation. And your habits are the "real you"!

To develop acting habits, METHOD actors identify a role-model, a mentor, a shero/hero and "mimic" their actions, appearance and script. They attempt to experience for themselves a similar chemistry to that of their idol.

If you don’t like the words "fake" or "mimic" substitute the word "act". If not ACT? Then how about PERFORM! And then script, rehearse, costume, choreograph and stage your new performance. Actors do! Why not [          ]?

Curtain UP!, You’re ON!

ACT NOW -- and experience a "dramatic change of events."

IN SUMMARY

DRAWING FROM THE TRADITION OF THE THEATER, WE CAN CREATE A NEW PARADIGM FOR STRESS REDUCTION AND SUCCESS. THIS PARADIGM IS BASED ON THE IDEA THAT WE BECOME WHAT WE DO. IN OTHER WORDS, WE CAN BECOME HEALTHIER AND MORE SUCCESSFUL BY CONSCIOUSLY MODELING (ACTING LIKE) HEALTHY, SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE. IN ADDITION, STAGING, SCRIPTING COSTUMING AND ACTING THE PART OF A SUCCESSFUL, RELAXED AND HEALTHY PERSON CAN STIMULATE OUR BODIES TO PRODUCE NEUROPEPTIDES SUCH AS ENDORPHINS AND OTHER CHEMICALS THAT BOLSTER THE IMMUNE SYSTEM AND PROMOTE WELL-BEING.

© Dale L. Anderson, MD, FACS, DABHM (Diplomate Am. Board Holistic Medicine)
www.acthappy.com


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