As children, we are impulsive beings. Every passing whim is given its due.
If a child wants to run, they do. Roll on the dirty floor in a restaurant? No hesitation. Get naked in the middle of a store? YUP.
“I wonder what I would look like as a rainbow…”
As we get older, we rightly learn to reason. To weigh pros and cons quickly before deciding whether to give in to our impulses and do something that might make us look foolish or get us killed by a zoo animal.
Ignoring impulses is good when it’s something that could cause us harm. But not so good when we stifle impulses that would help us live truer more authentic lives.
Kissing your date because something about the way they just laughed made you fall in love with them a little
Emailing a company about an opportunity that doesn’t yet exist, but that popped into your head fully formed
Asking your boss for a leave of absence to go on that trip that you’ve been dreaming of for years
But we all have this gate keeper that lives inside us, like a bridge troll, deciding which impulses to allow through and which to push in the river.
As actors, one of the hardest jobs we have is learning how to distract that bridge troll so we can allow our impulses to sneak through. We spend YEARS…sometimes decades…having to unlearn those habits of stifling our impulses, just so we can convincingly play interesting human beings reacting realistically to the given circumstances.
Some of the most exciting times of my life have been fueled by impulse.
Spontaneity and freedom of expression are electric.
And yet, we ignore our impulses.
Our intuition speaks…and we tell it to shut up.
Shhhhhh….just take a nip of this and forget your silly “ideas”
We logic away thoughts of the amazing things that could be.
It’s impractical
It’s too expensive
It’s never going to work
What will they think of me if I ask that?
These past few weeks, I’ve been in an almost constant state of anxiety.
Actual image of the inside of my brain
Full disclosure: my unemployment came to an end very abruptly when I thought it was going to be around for a few more months. Some unexpected bills arose. I’ve been applying for jobs, but I have a huge level of anxiety about working with the public right now. And THEN, I got in a car accident that, while fairly minor, has left me with neck/back pain and headaches.
I know some of you are in the same boat as me, just on the cusp of transitioning from side hustle to full-time. It’s so hard when you can see the goal is so close, but instead of speeding across that finish line, you feel like everything is moving in slow motion.
The desire not to go backward, to not fall back to the safety of my comfort zone, leaves my brain in a constant state of grabbing at whatever ideas are close by, desperately reaching out for something solid to hold onto.
Relaxation is near impossible. But relaxation is necessary for impulses and intuition to gain passage.
In a few unguarded moments, I have been struck by impulses—to reach out to certain people who randomly pop into my head, to share crazy ideas that just might work, to propose audacious plans to complete strangers.
It would be really easy to ignore these. To just pass over them and go back to the safe and easy option. In my experience, however, the safe and easy option very often either leads to zero results or to immense dissatisfaction.
So what do I have to lose?
See where your whims take you
Here’s how we get through this:
Find a way to relax
Allow your intuition to speak to you
Act on your impulses, even if what they tell you to do is outside your comfort zone
Our subconscious has wisdom that our conscious thinking brain does not
Your subconscious has been trying to reach you…no, it’s not about your car’s extended warranty
Let it speak.
Then act.
I have a few crazy ideas floating around…probably going to put them out in the world soon. I’ll let you know how they go.
In the meantime, be brave, my friends!