Cheryl Arutt

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Site: www.drcherylarutt.com

Topics in our interview include high sensitivity, regulating disruptive feelings, destructiveness vs creativity, pain and creativity, being unconventional vs rebellion against the self, the fight-or-flight response, and other issues which can impact creative artists and other people as well.

Psychologist Cheryl Arutt writes in one of her guest articles on my main site: “Creating art has always been a way to channel emotional intensity…If you are an artist, you are your instrument. The greater access you maintain to yourself, the richer and broader your array of creative tools.”

From Affect Regulation and the Creative Artist.

In the interview, Dr. Arutt refers to this quote by musician Sting (which I added to the same article): “Do I have to be in pain to write? I thought so, as most of my contemporaries did; you had to be the struggling artist, the tortured, painful, poetic wreck. I tried that for a while, and to a certain extent that was successful. I was ‘The King of Pain’ after all. I only know that people who are getting into this archetype of the tortured poet end up really torturing themselves to death.”

Her other guest article: The Artist’s Unconscious and the Metaphor of Birth.

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Some related sites:

Main site: Talent Development Resources

Anxiety Relief Solutions – Multiple natural, non-drug products and programs to relieve social anxiety, stage fright, performance anxiety and other forms of stress and anxiety.

The Inner Actor

High Ability   /   High Ability-Facebook

Highly Sensitive  /  Highly Sensitive-Facebook

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Topics in our interview related to the creative mind and developing creativity include some of Dr. Carson’s seven brain activation patterns she discusses in her book; creativity vs ADHD; flexibility in thought, and mood states like anxiety and fear.

Responding to a question of mine about highly sensitive people, she says that usually she emphasizes the value of taking in more ideas and information to fuel creativity – but people who are already taking in too much information may need to cut down on their input, to “allow them to move forward in the creative process.”

Her site:  ShelleyCarson.com

Facebook page: Creativity in Action

Book:  Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life.

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He teaches workshops on coping techniques for highly sensitive people and has taught stress reduction and insomnia management for over fifteen years at various hospitals and medical groups.

He has more than twenty years experience counseling sensitive people and has a private practice counseling HSPs in-person and by phone.

His site: www.drtedzeff.com

Books by Ted Zeff, PhD :

The Highly Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide: Essential Skills for Living Well in an Overstimulating World

Highly Sensitive Person’s Companion: Daily Exercises for Calming Your Senses in an Overstimulating World

Also see Video: nurturing our sensitive self: Ted Zeff, PhD on strategies

high sensitivity personality, highly sensitive people, highly sensitive books, high sensitivity resources

In our interview, she talks about some of the challenges we may face in taking care of ourselves and living our purpose, such as being overly self-critical or not setting good self-care boundaries.

She also talks about her new project of interviewing creative visionaries about how they stay on track and make more effective contributions.

Her main site, where you can sign up for her newsletter, and learn more about her Embrace Your Essential Self program and other resources:
http://highlysensitivesouls.com

Also see her Sensitive Professionals Network site http://www.sensitiveprofessionals.com

Jenna mentions an HSP Conference with Jacquelyn Strickland – listen to our podcast interview

Also see the Highly Sensitive site http://highlysensitive.org/

high sensitivity personality, highly sensitive people, highly sensitive person, HSP, HSPs, sensitive souls

See links to her books and sites below.

Here is a short Q&A email interview with brief answers by Dee Wallace – which she answers in more depth in the podcast.

1)  On your blog, you say “You can’t JUDGE the ‘business’ or the ‘jerks who won’t let you audition’ and expect to successfully get in a room to do that very thing!

Do you think many actors have that kind of “battleground” attitude?  What are some other examples you have noticed in your students – or even experienced actors?

> Dee Wallace. Yes, I do.  It’s a defense mechanism.  If we can make them wrong, we don’t need to address the things in us that need to be healed, ie, beliefs of low self worth, powerlessness, beliefs that the worls “owes us.”

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2)  You also mention other kinds of self-limiting judgments, such as thinking “I really want to act BUT I can’t make enough to support my family/am too old, fat, or the wrong type.”

How do you help others change that kind of thinking?

> Dee Wallace. I help them uncover those beliefs in their way so it is easier to focus all the energy on the outcome they desire.  If you are vigilantly aware of how you think/talk about the industry and the “business”, it will be blatantly clear what your beliefs are.  I help uncover the harder ones.

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3)  In your new ebook The Big E, you talk about some common sayings such as “Up a creek without a paddle.” What may be limiting about that saying?

> Dee Wallace. Well – you need a paddle to steer your course or you veer off, overturn the boat, etc!  The creek is the journey of life, the paddle is your clear direction.  If you aren’t consciously creating your life, you are definitely “up a creek without a paddle.”

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4)  In your book Conscious Creation you talk about a production manager who wanted to advance to producing, but found rejection, lack of success and bitterness because his “intention energy” had switched to something that didn’t work. Would you explain more about that?

> Dee Wallace. Saying what you want while holding energy against it doesn’t work.  That is what most of us are doing with the Universe.  We’re giving it conflicting directions.

It’s like a director saying to me “cross stage left but don’t move.”  I’m stuck.  I can’t complete both directions because they cancel each other out.  He was trying to become one of the very people he was judging.  Can’t happen.

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5)   On her MySpace site, your daughter Gabrielle Stone has a great quote: “When I stand before God at the end of my life… I hope that I have not a single bit of talent left and can say, “I used everything you gave me.”

Do you find that many young actors have multiple talents and a passion to be of service, not just “movie stars”?

> Dee Wallace. Yes.  I think many of our young people have been raised with a deep sense of responsibility to themselves, their country and their world.  Gabrielle does the healing work with me – which is not to say she can let loose like any 20 year old!

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6)  You have commented that “we often talk ourselves out of one of the most important aspects of creation: taking action. We let that pesky little ego come in and convince us we’re not safe.”

Is getting past that just a matter of rational thought, or is there more to helping ourselves be fulfilled and creative?

> Dee Wallace. It all begins with loving yourself.  Love Yourself – love yourself – and love yourself more.  Then you choose to do what is best for you, what gives you joy, what creates happiness and freedom in your life.  When you do that, you have to serve others – because it is Truth.

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Links

Contact Dee at  consciouscreation101@yahoo.com

Her site: www.officialdeewallace.com

Her book: Conscious Creation: Directing Energy to Get the Life You Want.

Site for her new book with Jarrad Hewett “The Big E”

Photo from Official Dee Wallace blog.

Gabrielle Stone site

Related posts:
Brad Swift and Dee Wallace on purpose, ego and creating
Dee Wallace on acting passion and limiting beliefs.

developing creativity, creative potential, creative personality type, creative experience characteristics, psychology of creativity, creative mind

His books include :

The Psychology of Creative Writing

Creativity 101.

Topics in the interview include the use of mood-altering substances by writers and other artists; the genius myth stereotype; how the idea of a creative muse impacts creative self-direction, and the influence of gender and ethnic factors.

James C. Kaufman site

Journal: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

Also see Creativity enhancement articles :

and my article Gifted, Talented, Addicted.

She synthesizes traditional medicine with intuition, subtle energy, and spirituality, and provides in her book strategies to transform strong negative emotions to help achieve inner peace and better access to our creativity.

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Transcript of interview: Transforming Strong Negative Emotions

Her site: drjudithorloff.com

Multiple videos: YouTube / Judith Orloff, MD

Introduction to Emotional Freedom (Audio)

Book: Emotional Freedom

Article: Am I An Emotional Vampire? How Do I Know?, by Judith Orloff MD

More articles by Judith Orloff.

Also see my earlier (text) interview with Dr. Orloff.

Read more about supplements Dr. Orloff suggests to relieve anxiety at Anxiety Relief Solutions.

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Her students include some of the top young performers in film and television.

In our interview, she addresses a number of questions, including :

How important is it for your students to have fun?

Do you find your students also get a kind of therapeutic benefit from acting?

How much is your work about helping young actors understand themselves, not just acting techniques?

[Photo: with Emma Roberts (right) on the set of the TV series "Unfabulous."]

Cynthia Bain says of her approach to teaching, “You can’t create in fear. I disagree with that methodology of teaching where you have to be critical or shaming. I don’t think people do their best creating in an atmosphere of fear.

“I’m challenging, I have high expectations, I want them to work hard, to be in it to win and do their best… I’m honored that they trust me with their emotions, and that this is their desire, their passion.”

Find our more about her classes and training on her site:
www.cynthiabain.com

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Also see the related Talent Development Resources section: The Inner Actor.

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In our interview, Summer, who made the film at age 18, and is now 20, talks about a number of her perspectives on her work.

“Acting is a way for me to just kind of work through whatever I’m going through,” she commented.

“You do it in front of a camera, and it’s an art, so it’s constructive. But it’s also therapeutic.”

“One thing I’ve learned is to not make acting impersonal, not make the character impersonal, but to stay within the walls of their psyche. I don’t like to bring my own psyche into the character. I think that can get really confusing for the person, and the work.”

Summer Bishil’s imdb profile

Related post on The Inner Actor: Summer Bishil on the emotional toll of “Towelhead”

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She sang as Fantine in “Les Miserables” at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this month; made her feature film directorial debut in 2007 with the movie “You,” and has produced two albums of her writing and singing.

She says of her multiple talents: “I’m always very very keen to keep my eyes and heart and ears open to opportunities to be creative. That’s really my reason for being on this Earth, is to find more and more opportunities to be creative, and as long as I’m looking for those, and walking through those doors, and receiving those, and participating in those, I’m going to be fine.”

Melora’s CDs are available at her site: Melora.com

and at Amazon (where you can hear clips): The Meloradrama, and Purr.

Also read our earlier interview article.

Article mentioned in podcast: Alanis and Her Anger.

My article with quotes by Sting etc: Pain and suffering and the artist.

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