How to Win the Battle In Your Mind

You may not know it, but there are two of you. In your own mind, there two of you. One is an out and out bully, a critic, a drill sergeant, it tells, it demands, it criticises, it bullies and sometimes brutalises. The other is a vulnerable, instinctive, creative, intuitive, in short, it is the closest thing to talent without training that you can achieve.

Performance coach W Tim Gallwey called them ’Self 1’ and Self 2’.  You will recognise them.  Self 1 is the voice in your head. Self 2 is the moment when you do something instinctively and you write it off as a fluke.

Both parts of you are necessary, but Self 1 has a habit of getting in the way of Self 2. Self 2 is just fine getting on with shit. But Self 1 doesn’t trust Self 2 a jot. The result is a battle.  The result of this battle is a conflicted self.  We literally cannot get out of our own/self’s way.  Under the pressure to perform that actors experience, this leads to a failure to perform at our best in audition, training, rehearsal and performance.

And if Self 1 and Self 2 are in harmony, if they find peace, if you trust your own abilities, that’s when you shine.

But how to win this battle?

Self 1 can be distracted.

If you can find something that will absorb your whole attention, Self 1 will become quiet and act in harmony with Self 2.

But whatever that activity is, it must immerse you completely.

If you want to win the battle in your mind, find an immersive activity that will absorb all of your attention, you will literally lose your Self-1-Consciousness

and become lost in the activity.

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