When you’re in intensity or overwhelmed or or really anxious, it’s very difficult to self regulate, so in many ways, there often, we co-regulate.
And if the people around us aren’t very co regulating, what we need to do is go to the natural environment to co-regulate, whether that’s a walk, the ocean - that will always be there for you.
Once you’ve had that bit of co-regulation, then the big tool for self regulation is orientation.
When you feel anxious or overwhelmed, you’re going towards orientation so that you can come back to the here and now.
Because often what overwhelms us, or dysregulates us is something that might activate us or something in the environment that is triggering stuff.
We need time to process it, so we kind of need to rest a little.
“If there’s something important to be done -
then rest.
If it is absolutely important,
-stop trying”. (Steve Hoskinson)
~ Helena Walsh, Voice & Acting Coach | Human Empowerment & Resiliency Organic Intelligence® Consultant
Helena’s teachings are inspired by Organic Intelligence ® , Fitzmaurice Voicework ® & NeuroSystemics
~ PS. Like this post, share with your friends
Want to see more posts like this follow us on instagram
If you want to expand and deepen your acting process and bring more diversity, nuance and complexity to your performance. DM to get started. We are now auditioning for The Actor’s Practice!!
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com/actingclasses
Helena Walsh Empowerment Studios
Acting Coach • Advanced Actor Training • Voice Coaching • Empowerment & Resiliency for professionals A.
Helena Walsh is an International Voice, Acting and Empowerment Coach. She is one of the world’s leading teachers in the film and theatre industry for actors, preparing them for screen and stage alike. Over the past 30 years, through a rigorous practice and deeply experiential research with her actors in the room, she has developed her own evolutionary and transformative approach to the acting proc
Actors, If there’s no rest and digest, there’s no originality
Our autonomic nervous system has this Fight, Flight, Freeze, rest and digest. So if we’re constantly in doing mode, there is no rest and digest. So if there’s no rest and digest, there’s no process. If there’s no rest and digest, there’s no originality. It’s impossible to have something that is truly your own.
And in Fight, Flight, Freeze, Please, to fawn, you are constantly reacting to the world, but you’re not responding to it. So what we want is a nervous system that has the ability for both to coexist and really the activism, it is a very radical thing to allow yourself to rest. Super radical.
We deal with the human body as if it’s a machine. So then you get the human body getting really, really tired, and then you get a whole load of people living up here because they can’t acknowledge what they’re experiencing and feeling, because if they did, they wouldn’t be able to do at the level that society is asking you to do.
So this empowerment part of coming into the cycle of your own rhythm is very, very important. It seems so simple and ordinary, but it is the ordinary that I’m interested in you realising is extraordinary.
Helena’s teachings are inspired by Organic Intelligence ® & Fitzmaurice Voicework ® & Neurosystemics™
If you want to work with Helena and really liberate your expression, enliven and bring more subtlety, diversity & nuance to your acting craft or if you just want to really inspire and engage those around you, comment “rest” below and we’ll reach out with details of our new online voice, acting and empowerment programmes.
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com/store
Actors, watch this if your nervous system is shot!
If there’s something important to do, rest, if it’s really important to, then rest even more.
Because in the resting, you’ll find your direction. You’ll be able to see more clearly, hear more clearly. But if you’re very heightened,it’s not the time to move any direction.
In rest, You can find your way and again, it’s a radical act to rest because your nervous system is a sympathetic and a parasympathetic nervous system. Sympathetic is the doer, parasympathetic is the rester. But we’ve designed an entire world on the sympathetic arousal, which is why all our nervous systems are shot because we don’t rest and digest.
What do people do to rest and digest? They go to the cinema. They go to a concert. They go to the theater. They read a book. Why? Because art is meant to be central to our society, to the human society, and actually, nature is meant to be central to humans. It’s supposed to be a nature-centered creative world. Because everybody’s born creative
If you like these types of voice and empowerment techniques, there are opportunities to continue your study with me coming up this Summer :
💖3-Day Art of Empowerment Workshop in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 5-7
🎬4-Day Acting Workshop in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 8-11
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Dublin, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 17-19
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Woodstock, NYC
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️August 3-5
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Berlin, GERMANY
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️Sept 4-6
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Paris, FRANCE
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️Sept 11-13
🏄🏻♀️7-Night Acting & Surfing Retreat in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh & Benjamin Mathes
This retreat will challenge you physically, artistically and professionally
🗓️September 19th - 26th
Head to the link in our bio where you can find all things going on at Helena Walsh Empowerment Studios✨
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com/store
Actors, this is how you can bring your nervous system from fight / flight / freeze into curiosity, discovery and the unknown.
At the centre of your body, the torso, we have the sympathetic nervous system and this is part of the fight / flight / freeze / fawn (please) mechanism and the rest and digest system.
For a lot of people in the world right now, these “Fight / Flight / Freeze Mechanisms” or to “Please Mechanism” is quite high. It’s tight and ratcheted up.
So the only answer to that is to rest and digest.
Can you trust yourself just to see, just to hear, just to touch? And by doing that, you bring yourself out of the Fight / Flight / Freeze.
And now fight / flight / freeze turns into curiosity. discovery, unknown. That’s trust.
Let me know your questions and your insights in the comments below.
If you like these types of voice and empowerment techniques, there are opportunities to continue your study with me coming up this Summer :
💖3-Day Art of Empowerment Workshop in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 5-7
🎬4-Day Acting Workshop in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 8-11
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Dublin, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 17-19
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Woodstock, NYC
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️August 3-5
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Berlin, GERMANY
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️Sept 4-6
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Paris, FRANCE
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️Sept 11-13
🏄🏻♀️7-Night Acting & Surfing Retreat in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh & Benjamin Mathes
This retreat will challenge you physically, artistically and professionally
🗓️September 19th - 26th
Head to the link in our bio where you can find all things going on at Helena Walsh Empowerment Studios✨
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com/store
Actors, your body needs to understand that you can go into any sensation emotion thought and you can come out of it.
It’s only when the body is being asked to experience things that then maybe the actor doesn’t know how to fully get the body out of it so therefore you do a take you I go what is alive in you, and then you go into the next take you do a take what is alive in you and you go into the next take so each take is always new.
You’ve got to realize in that piece there’s hundreds of nuances there’s a whole person’s life story inside that piece you know so the mining of that like this work is about rigor.
It’s about really building the story beneath so that the more you build that story beneath what happens then you don’t really have to act!
Because you can really trust that all those channels of perception your image your sensation your emotion your thoughts they’re full of the opinions, the beliefs, the bias, the prejudice, the judgment, the heartache the heartbreak, the dilemma, the problem of that character and it fills your imagination!
This is the dream state work!
~ Helena Walsh
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com
Artists, you need people in your life who mirror back to you that you matter! ❤️
You can do all the work you want on your own as an individual and you might feel really good alone.
But actually we’re designed to be in relationship, to interrelate and that itself is a practice.
And if we’re going to do that, we need people in our lives who we can evolve and grow and change with.
And the good news is, you can choose them in your creative community.
You can come across people and you can gather them like precious stones throughout your life.
These are really important people that mirror back to you: you matter, you mean something to me.
And we need to matter to each other, which is why I spend a lot of time developing your relationship with each other, creating this unconditional positive regard.
Because we know that we don’t work in a safe space as artists, we work in a very risky space because we’re being asked to be vulnerable and that doesn’t feel safe to the body.
So we’re not building safe spaces, we’re creating trusted spaces so that you can then risk
because your job is not safe.
How can you build this trust? Slowly. You don’t have to be all available and open, that’s nothing to do with you being able to do your job or not.
Your ability to do your job is to be able to develop the skill to listen to yourself while in the presence of another, including your restrictions, including your resentment, including your anger, your rage, all of the above, it’s all included.
Helena’s teachings are inspired by Organic Intelligence ® & Fitzmaurice Voicework ®
~ PS. Like this post, share with your friends
Want to see more posts like this follow us on instagram
If you want to work with Helena, comment “me” below, and let us connect you to our cutting-edge voice, acting and empowerment programmes. Get ready to slow down, do less and be more!
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com
Actors, creativity thrives on boredom.
Creative ideas come when you’re doing ordinary things, because you’re below threshold, you’re enjoying the moment, you’’re doing something very ordinary.
Be bored, get bored.
Slow down, do less, be more.
That’s your job as an artist - to perceive the world in a multi-dimensional, inter-dimensional way.
Your job is to create your own world within this world because you’re creative.
Storytellers are some of our most powerful sources of changing the way the human race sees our future. We get to re-imagine a future. We get to tell stories that re-imagine our future in a way that our audiences can see it and have hope.
That’s your job. What a job. What a responsibility.
~ Helena Walsh
Helena’s teachings are inspired by Organic Intelligence ® , Fitzmaurice Voicework ® & NeuroSystemics
~ PS. Like this post, share with your friends
Want to see more posts like this follow us on instagram
If you want to work with Helena, comment “me” below, and let us connect you to our cutting-edge voice, acting and empowerment programmes. Get ready to slow down, do less and be more!
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com
Actors, safety and trust can only be felt in the body.
No one else can give you a safe space, or a trusted space.
You need to figure out what is safe and what is trusting for you, and it’s a felt experience inside your bones, your muscles, your breath.
And it’s very important in our industry because you’re in spaces that there’s nothing safe about them at all.
I want you to feel, you can trust and feel secure within.
~ Helena Walsh
Helena’s teachings are inspired by Organic Intelligence ® & Fitzmaurice Voicework ®
~ PS. Like this post, share with your friends
Want to see more posts like this follow us on instagram
If you want to work with Helena, here’s some exciting opportunities coming up this Summer!
💖3-Day Art of Empowerment Workshop in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 5-7
🎬4-Day Acting Workshop in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 8-11
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Dublin, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️July 17-19
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in NEW YORK!
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️August 3-5
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Berlin, GERMANY
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️Sept 4-6
🎬3-Day Acting Workshop in Paris, FRANCE
Taught by Helena Walsh
🗓️Sept 11-13
🏄🏻♀️7-Night Acting & Surfing Retreat in Clonakilty, West Cork, IRELAND
Taught by Helena Walsh & Benjamin Mathes
This retreat will challenge you physically, artistically and professionally
🗓️September 19th - 26th
🎬The Actor’s Practice: 10 Week Advanced Actor Training with Helena Walsh & Benjamin Mathes
🏡Live in Dublin: Tuesdays
October 6th to December 15th
🏎️Online: Tuesdays & Thursdays
October 6th to December 17th
Learn more & register/apply using the link in our bio!
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com/store
Actors, your job is to pay attention to your life and notice your experience of it. And from that gain insight, or create, or write.
Digest the human condition. That’s your work.
So it’s not to judge and analyze, that’s another career’s work.
Your relationship with the human condition is not to judge it or analyze it. Your relationship with the human condition is to pay attention to it, observe it, be able to witness it, be with it, not fix it, not solve it, not change it.
But actually, notice the paradox and complexity of it, that’s your work.
And that sense of being driven by this curiosity. It’s actually not about knowing anything. It’s about paying attention and discovering everything. All the time.
It could be the same action, but you need to be alive to it for the first time, every time. You go into scene, you’re alive to it for the first time, every time, like you’ve never done it before.
You’re not bringing what you know to the scene and showing the director what that is, or showing the other actor what that is. You don’t have to, because it’s there. No, you’re going in to discover what else is there that I don’t know yet. You’re not going into the scene to show what you know.
You’re going in to go, I’m going to experience this, and when I come out, I’m going to notice what I discovered or surprised me, that’s your job.
So that means when you meet the world, and you reflect on your 24 hours, you have the capacity to notice what’s comfortable, uncomfortable, soft, hard, agitating, loving. So you’re, throughout your day, you’re practicing these different experiences ,rather than, my day is just the most intense experience I have, and nothing else exists.
Helena’s teachings are inspired by Organic Intelligence ® , Fitzmaurice Voicework ® & NeuroSystemics
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com
Actors, here’s how to deal with not knowing if you got the part!
Once you start appreciating the unseen, little humble human endeavors that you take part in on a daily basis. What happens then is you’re not doing it for validation.
You’re doing it for a bigger reason, a greater purpose, something that gathers more meaning for you.
You’re doing this irrespective of whether they like it or not.
There’s a spine that walks into an audition or does a self-tape that goes, I’m doing this for me, first and foremost. Because I enjoy doing it, and I enjoy creating this way, and this is the way in which I express myself in the world.
That’s an entirely different magnetic field to come from than one who’s asking for validation.
And that’s hard, because the platform, the way it’s created, is to keep you in the unknown. You won’t be told whether you get the part, it’s like being ghosted constantly.
Actors are constantly ghosted, all of the time. It’s very difficult and hard.
So first of all, acknowledging, this is really hard, then asking yourself : what can I create as my sanctuary, as my creative temple?
That takes accountability and responsibility. You know, that’s the maturity of the actor. Oh, I’m not gonna let this define me, I’m gonna take responsibility, because I’m the only one who knows myself well enough for what it is I need to be in this position.
Because if you’ve decided to do this career, you may as well start to create your ideal, life around it, in a humble, simple way, in that sense. Because actually, the most magical things about life are very ordinary.
https://www.helenawalshempowermentstudios.com/store
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
Location
Category
Contact the school
Address
Temple Bar, 9/10 Eustace Street
Dublin