Don't Hang Up on Steven Spielberg!

In this episode I’m going to share a story-based metaphor for formal mindfulness meditation practice. As actors, we love stories, and humans in general tend to understand and remember ideas more easily when associated with story because stories help us relate to things.

If mindfulness meditation is something that’s new for you, maybe you’re having trouble relating to it and there’s still parts of it that feel foreign or complicated or unfamiliar. Let’s fix that!

Let’s turn our mindfulness meditation practice into a story.

The Call of Your Career!

You’ve been cast in a lead role in a Steven Spielberg film. Congratulations!

Brilliant director that he is, Steven Spielberg has called you to discuss your character and the project as a whole. You’re having a great conversation. It’s fun and collaborative. You’re really connecting and excited to be working together.

Suddenly, your roommate barges in and whines, “Ugh, I’ve had the worst day!” You quickly cover your phone mic and whisper, “I’m on the phone with Steven Spielberg.” Your roommate’s eyes bug out, they give you a huge thumbs up, mouth an apology, and duck out quietly.

You and Steven Spielberg continue your conversation, but then you hear the familiar boop boop of call waiting. You notice it’s your scene partner from acting class, probably calling to arrange a time to rehearse, but of course you can’t talk now, so you let the call go to voicemail.

Finally, Steven Spielberg is sharing his vision of the big climatic moment for your character when you start to hear the obnoxious whir of a leaf blower in your neighborhood. To make sure you don’t miss any of his genius, you close your window and put in your noise cancelling headphones.

You and Steven Spielberg finish up your call, and you hang up feeling excited to be a part of this production.

An Important Conversation with Your Breath

The above story is a metaphor for mindfulness meditation. Obviously. Like I said in the opening, we’re using story to simplify our understand mindfulness practice.

The Steven Spielberg is your breath. You’re staying focused on that conversation no matter what tries to distract you.

The roommate, the other phone call, and the leaf blower are all the things that can cause your mind to wander away from focusing on your breath.

In both phone calls and mindfulness sessions, distractions are going to happen. And when they do, we just gently guide our focus back to where we want it to be.

* We don’t yell at our roommate.

* We don’t smash our phone to get rid of the other caller.

* We don’t scream at the leaf blower to stop.

* And OF COURSE we would NEVER hang up on Steven Spielberg.

This is the big difference between our phone call metaphor and an actual formal mindfulness session. Sometimes while practicing mindfulness we will completely “hang up” on our breath. Our mind will wander completely away.

But the beautiful thing is that while Steven Spielberg would get really annoyed if we kept randomly putting the phone down mid-conversation to have a side-chat with our roommate, or take the other call, our breath is never upset when our mind wanders.

Our breath is like a best friend who is always ready to welcome us back to the present moment with kind, open arms. If you “drop the call” just pick it back up again. No judgment. No shame. No need to beat yourself up.

To recap, and sum up a mindfulness session, begin a kind and curious conversation with your breath, noticing your inhales and exhales. When distractions come up, just acknowledge them, “Hey, I’m having an important conversation, let’s talk later” and continue the conversation with your breath.

Thank you so much for joining me! If you found this content helpful and inspiring, I’d be honored if you’d leave a comment, share it with your actor pals, and check out my offerings below. Thanks!

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