Miriam Seward is a Kinesiology Practitioner, Divine Healer, teacher and mentor and is the founder of I AM Power Enterprises. On the 13th and 14th of September she is running a workshop called Processing Your Core Parts of Self Part 1 for Actors. Recently one of my readers asked me a question about how I clear my mind and get my ideas out there when I’m writing. Miriam not only answers this question but she talks about what her workshop can offer to actors and she discusses something that I’ve come to believe is very important in acting: parts of self. Whether they realise it or not, great actors such as Meryl Streep and Ryan Gosling use parts of self work in their acting all the time.
Ryan Gosling: “All my characters are me… for me, they’re all me. I relate to these characters because aspects of their personality are like me. And I just turn up the parts of myself that are them and turn down the parts that aren’t.”
Meryl Streep: “Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.”
Over the past year I have worked with Miriam and a Melbourne-based Meisner teacher. They both believe that we all have many parts within us and that accepting, embracing and using these parts can help us play characters we never thought we were capable of playing. For example, I know that I have a very strong perfectionist part of self that often rules the ship. I also have a very strong people pleaser part of self. If I were to play a character who was a perfectionist and a people-pleaser I would have no difficulty tapping into these parts of myself. However, up until recently I never thought I’d be able to play a sexy character because I didn’t believe that I was sexy. But we all have a sexy, sensual part of self within us and I am working on embracing and expressing my sexy part of self so that I can use it in my work (and also in my personal life).
Miriam’s workshop will focus on embracing and processing core parts of self so that actors can use them in their acting. Every actor has a different view on what acting is for them. Some swear by the Uta Hagen technique. Others love Meisner. And others use Strasberg’s Method. Being a huge fan of Howard Fine’s method, I live by Howard’s belief that we all have every character we will ever play within us already and we just have to find them and be comfortable with bringing them out. We have everything we need because we have every part of self. Some are out in the open and some are more hidden but they’re all there. It’s embracing them and allowing them to be expressed that can often be the problem.
Since Heath Ledger’s sad passing in 2008 I have also seen a lot of fear in my fellow actors about being emotionally damaged by playing a difficult or dark role. I didn’t know Heath Ledger and I doubt any of us will ever know what exactly caused his death. But many of my fellow actors believe that emotional wounds and pain caused by “getting too into his role” as The Joker in The Dark Knight contributed to Heath’s death. “How do I play a murderer/sex offender/sociopath/villain/child abuse victim/rape victim without getting so into the role that I hurt myself?” is a question I have heard a lot. Miriam’s workshop will provide practical tools that protect actors and allow them to explore the darker parts of themselves through a role without causing permanent damage.
Below Miriam explains what her workshop involves and how she plans to help actors discover, embrace and express their core parts of self.
What is this workshop about?
This workshop is about people getting to know about parts of self that are hidden. That are backseat drivers. We’ve been doing things in a particular way and setting ourselves up for experiences in a certain way that keep occurring and not actually being aware of what part of self it’s actually coming from. Say for example with relationships… the child in us could be setting up a relationship pattern of attracting partners that are parents. If we have those type of patterns in normal everyday life and we’re an actor and we’re not aware of that then trying to shift into different parts and roles… as well as trying to shift into our emotional prep is difficult. I’ve been a kinesiologist since 1992 so I’ve had a lot of experience with working with the subconscious. That’s where the core parts of self lie. Most people when they identify with parts of self probably identify with the archetypes. The archetypes are universal behavioural patterns. The core parts of self are a little bit deeper than that. They’re very connected to the core part of us, our soul. And that influences how we’re communicating, how we’re interacting with people, from a very core level. That comes through not just emotionally, not just in your belief systems. It comes through in what’s actually sitting in your energy.
Tell us about energy.
We are not just blood and bones. There is part of us that is energy. The Chinese acupuncturists relate to that as ‘Qi’. Most people are aware that we have an aura. And everything basically really starts with what is resonating in our energy fields. We’re not computers. If we haven’t dealt with the thinking and feeling part of us, that registers in the energy fields. Once that’s not processed and not dealt with what happens is we get stuck in that pattern, in that belief system, in that emotion. And it will lock into the energy fields but it will also lock into the body. When we’re feeling it in the body it’s quite locked in.
Can other people feel that energy too and respond to that energy?
Yes. Some people can feel it. Most people probably just think of it as vibes that they’re getting or a feeling that they’re getting from someone. But basically all dynamics are set up through this. This is the law of attraction. Whatever we have in our energy field sets up dynamics of how we’re going to interact and how we’re going to engage with other people.
And how does that affect actors?
It affects actors in that if they don’t know themselves on a deeper level and they haven’t cleared their blocks on a level that is not just belief systems and emotions but is cleared in their energy (because we communicate with our energy) things that are locked in on a subconscious level will fuel anything and everything that they’re doing.
Do you think if actors cleared their energy and got access to their core parts of self that it would open their careers up to greater opportunities and a wider variety of roles?
Absolutely because there’s quite a lot of talk about alignment these days. We can only align so much purely through the mind and purely through our emotions because we have a soul. And that soul is connected to our energy fields. And if we’re energetically not aligned and our innermost core parts and soul are not aligned… we’re not energetically aligned to the universe and the universal flow, which is where the law of attraction comes from. What we’re doing with this workshop is we’re addressing the level of the soul and how that communicates through your energy fields. We’re working in full spectrum of our consciousness and therefore we have greater access to portray any part or any character because we’re 100 per cent clear in that area.
What benefits will actors get from this workshop?
This workshop will benefit particularly those actors who are more sensitive, who find that with their emotional preparation they can actually get stuck in it because they’re sensitive and they really feel things on a much deeper level. And then because of that they find it difficult to shift those gears into their part or role. And if they are not able to do that they are often looked upon as not being good actors because it is a very important tool that an actor has to have. But the more sensitive types struggle with this and it’s because they’re needing deeper tools, deeper processing tools to shift in and out of the roles they are playing. So we will be working with ritual processes that will help actors to pull themselves out of the wounding of those emotions and align their energy. When we go into these things we get thrown out energetically and we need tools to pull ourselves back and centre ourselves energetically.
So it’s about deeper tools to be able to shift gears from your emotional prep into your role and then from whatever part or character that you’re playing back into the centre part of yourself. Although the role may be an aspect of you, you may get too caught in one part and need to move back into the core centre part of yourself. And this is where a lot of actors have often been very very affected, particularly if they’re playing a very shadowy character. I actually believe that Heath Ledger had this problem when he played the Joker. Often actors are so fully into their part, which is what makes a great actor, it’s difficult for them to pull back and they actually get stuck in a negative spiral. They can lose themselves and get completely overshadowed by that dark part.
Some of the processing tools that we’re using… include working with the neutral mask. The neutral mask helps us shift out of our personality and self into any other part which is connected to a part of you. But we work with it in a way that we set up energetic boundaries so that we can pull ourselves back to a central part. So we stay integrated. Often when we go into these parts we are only off in that part. We’re not integrated. And we’re not able to get back to our core self, our divine self. And it can really affect your energy fields. Sensitive people are the ones who are more kinesthetic. To me personally they’re often the most powerful actors. It’s really for those actors that I’m having this workshop.
One of the reasons I want to do this workshop is that I don’t want to stay on the surface anymore. I want to access all parts of myself and show them to the world through my acting work. That’s really what you’re focused on doing here isn’t it?
Absolutely. This takes a lot of courage. It takes a level of accountability. Most people are stuck in only a small spectrum of parts of self because we haven’t ever been taught this in society. It’s very scary to be vulnerable. It’s very scary to know when your avoider, for example, is online. The avoider has two aspects – a light side and a dark side – which we go into in the workshop. And if we don’t know when that’s online we can’t be honest. We’ll make excuses and say “no I don’t have that but I can see that in other people” or “oh no I’ve let that go, that’s not me”. And so therefore if you make that decision then maybe you’re only running on three cylinders and you could be running on twelve.
All of these core shadowy parts of self are really our greatest teachers but they’re parts of ourselves that are not freed up. So when we go into these parts and learn about these parts we’re actually embracing them and loosening up that energy so it can liberate and align back with the deeper aspects of ourselves. Basically we become better communicators of a part with a fuller spectrum of what we can actually work with and express in our acting. So little of our communication is verbal. The rest of your communication is all what you’re doing with your energy fields. Acting is all about how much of you you can actually communicate with.
What kind of activities will you be doing in the workshop to help actors?
We’ll be working with a lot of fun, creative rituals. We’ll be working with loads of processing tools, movement, role play, part work, working with dynamics of three. We’ll also be working with sound, creative writing, masks and costumes. For processing the child within us I’ll be asking actors to bring things that remind them of their childhood. For example girls can bring ribbons for their hair and dolls and maybe a cute little skirt and boys can bring a school tie or shorts. Something that they can connect with. We’ll be working with quite a large variety of tools. Actors will leave the workshop with some practical tools to work with.
Someone on my blog recently asked me how I ground myself in order to write. How I ground myself in order to bring my writer self, my creative part out without any blockages. What do you think about that?
There are different grounding and centring tools people need. But it starts off with being very present with your breath, being very present with your body, being fully in allowance, and being in allowance of embracing your writer or whatever part you’re wanting to embrace. As well as that there are some QiGong exercises that you can do. There’s a couple that I’ll definitely be working with in the workshop that are for grounding and centring. But it starts off with being fully present with your breath and fully present with your body so that you’re anchored to your energy.
Some people really struggle with expressing their creative self. What do you think that comes from?
Well it can be coming from any of the shadow parts or core parts of self. At its worst it will be coming from your saboteur. That’s when it has really kicked in on a very deep level. So again it’s about working with the resistance. You go into whatever it is that you’re experiencing instead of being in judgement of whatever negative resistance you’re experiencing. You go in and befriend the resistance. And we’ll be doing that with all of the core parts of self in the workshop because we need to understand how resistance works. Resistance can be very sneaky. We will learn to identify resistance in different parts. And instead of being in judgement of resistance we will learn to embrace it and create tools to get that energy moving through the assistance of energy management.
Is there a message you would like to share with actors right now?
Yes. There is a new breed of actors emerging. They are coming from a place of deeper authenticity, more from the soul. And these actors really require these tools and energy management work to assist them. This is deep work but the work is done in a way that is fun, light and creative. But we need to be honest with ourselves. And it’s about learning to accept what is and working with that. Learning to accept and work with your core parts of self in a way that is not judging them. We’re learning how to work with that energy and get it moving instead of it remaining stale so we can use it in our acting work.
I cannot wait to attend Miriam’s workshop! The workshop takes place on September the 13th and 14th. Please go to Miriam’s website http://www.iampower.com.au/ for more details on the workshop and how to book.
Some questions for my readers:
1. What parts of self do you think that you use the most? You often get a hint about what parts of self are most prominent in you from the types of roles you get cast as. Do you get typecast?
2. What parts of self do you wish that you could connect to more? What roles do you want to play?
The Seeing Space 