Patience & Anxiety: Helpful Hints

Patience is a virtue. Or so I've been told. I wouldn't really know as it certainly is not one of my virtues. An unfortunate character flaw, and one I am always working on, but a reality I have nonetheless come to know and accept.

Being an artist requires a great deal of patience. On the one hand, you have to go out there and make things happen! But on the other hand, you have to patiently trust that as long as you keep trying, eventually, things will happen. It's contradictory, messy, and a breeding ground for anxiety. But this is what you, as an artist, have gotten yourself into. If you can't handle it, you may want to get out while you can. If you aren't sure whether or not you can handle it, you probably can. Most of us can handle more than we give ourselves credit for.

Every now and then the anxiety, the "what-the-hell-am-I-doing" hits me. Generally at odd intervals, when I'm doing not much of anything, or when I think of a submission I haven't heard back about yet. It got me for a while last night, but I managed not to let it get out of control. Amazingly, I have developed some ways of coping recently.

1) Take deep breaths. Seriously. If you have any kind of training in relaxation, which you probably do if you have any kind of training in theatre, now is a good time to use it. Things that are useful in theatre are often also useful in life.

2) Focus on the positive. Think about the things you have accomplished. And think about what you consider to be an accomplishment. I once had a teacher, a well known agent/manager/producer, tell our class that most of us are too hard on ourselves--if all you do in the first year after you graduate is manage to pay the bills and live on your own, be proud of that. It is an accomplishment. So don't make it about what you think you should have accomplished or what other people have done. If managing to get out of bed in the morning is a big deal, celebrate the fact that you have done that much. Give yourself credit.

3) Think about what you can do in the future. This includes thinking about things you could do differently--I believe nothing is a total failure so long as you've learned something from it. It also includes all the things you haven't yet done. I guarantee there will always be something you haven't yet tried. I, for example, was worried about submitting to auditions. Then I thought about the fact that I haven't even begun submitting to agents...So there is still work to be done. And a lot of anxiety has to do with feeling like you're at a dead end.

4) Find a temporary distraction. A book, a movie, a tv show, a friend, a game, anything (well, anything not self destructive). If you think about anything for too long, you will lose your mind. Take a break. Give yourself permission to take a break.

5) Get it out. If you are having a freak out, sometimes all you need to do is get it out. Put it out there in the universe, get it out of your head. Keeping things in only makes you dwell on them more. This could mean talking to friends or family. Or, if you're like me and for whatever reason just can't talk about it, write a journal or start a blog! Or dance about it. Or paint it. Just get it out!!

Those are some of my hopefully helpful thoughts for this morning. I did notice I've had some hits on this blog in the last 24 hours, so I hope there is someone out there a) reading this and b) benefiting from it. Or it could just be people clicking that "next blog" tab up top. I do that sometimes. Whatever the case, it's kind of neat!