Directing Your Own Life In The Beauty of Now Moments

From Shakespeare’s Play, As You Like It, Act 2, scene 7

Jaques:

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.

In his famous soliquy, the character from Shakespeare’s play, Jaques, laments on the state of man with the “Ages” being the different stages of life, or the Seven Ages of Man.

This is where I begin to tell tell the story of “Theatre as Life.”

I write for a living; novels, plays, love letters, blogs, etc, and I coach clients in the ways of living successfully in the Now Moment with an ever-present eye towards the concepts learned by being involved in theatre for over 35 years.

I have acted, mostly in community and regional theatre and I have directed productions as a Managing Director for a regional theatre company doing everything from children's shows to dinner theatre productions to plays and musicals.

Additionally, I have been hacking away at this thing called the Internet for a while to combine my love for writing, usually blogs on different subjects, and my love for being an entrepreneur to use my creative mind as a way to earn a living and along the way began coaching clients in the way to live a life based on the principles I derive as an active participant in all aspects of theatre.

While this as been good to me in several arenas, there is little thing called passion that keeps nipping at my heels and that is my overriding love for all lessons that theatre has taught me in my life.

You see, I love the theatre and the passion it has instilled in my soul for living and, several years ago, I developed this whole strategy of "Theatre As Life", but was told by who I believed at that time to be “people in the know”,  that the niche was too small and “How could I monetize it?”

But who cares?

Passion is passion and Confucius said, "if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life." So, as a Now Moment coach, I have drawn upon the lessons of acting, directing and living a life as a theatre person to inspire others to look at life as what Shakespeare said when he penned that all the world is a stage and we are merely players.

There is this little thing called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that every human needs to live. (If you have never seen it, look at the explanation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs here.) Essentially, it is a diagram of a pyramid that shows the needs of humanity in a rather simplistic manner. The bottom two layers are the basics that humans need and, supposedly, until we satisfy those needs, we can’t move on.

You know, the essentials of life we desire to live at a bare level; the way to obtain the basics of life, (I guess in this day and age, it is essentially a cell phone and someplace to eat and sleep) and security in knowing that we have at least enough to get us to the next day.

So what does this have to do here with Theatre As Life?

Well, everything!

Theatre As Life is my way of giving you the world in all ways through the eyes of the lessons learned in theatre and as a writer, a creator, which we all are, and a coach of living Now Moments in a dynamic way that propel you dynamically into the next Now Moment, essentially the upper dynamics of the pyramid.

Where does this blog fit in? Every part of your life as we will discuss everything for relationships to living in excellence to developing your passion to creating a winning life and everything else that is relevant to making your way in this world in which we live in.

Yes, it will be from the eyes of the theatre and all that goes into putting a production together, but as Shakespeare said, “All the world is a stage.” So, I intend to use my passion for theatre to help you find your passion for living or, if nothing else, to live better in your own skin.

In life, like a great stage play, the desire is to end with such a flair that people stand and say, “Bravo!” for this is the greatest compliment we can receive as actors.

I stand right here, right now and say to you, “Bravo!” for you are on your journey right here, right now. Allow me to go with you and you with me and together let us make a difference in your world.


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Guilt: The Other White Meat - Part 2

 What is guilt? Guilt is the pledge drive constantly hammering in our heads that keeps us from fully enjoying the show. Guilt is the reason they put the articles in Playboy.

Dennis Miller

Oh, great! Now I have guilt!

T. Rex, from Toy Story

What is it about humanity that we have decided that guilt is the way we relate on such interpersonal levels to one another knowing that it is based in fear, as discussed in the previous post (part I)?

What is it about the ego within us all that we have decided that to keep our little superiority acts in check, we have to be the ones to guilt others into complying with our wishes? Are we so non-trusting within ourselves that we feel that we have to control others, not to mention ourselves, with guilt?

Ego and Guilt Work Hand-in-Hand

In living in Now Moments, guilt can really have no hold on us as it only seeks to keep the past ever present and living and the future looming within us, usually as nothing more than some type of dishonor of our past. The Now Moment is then completely obliterated as non-important, which is exactly as the ego has decided needs to happen.

By the way, the ego completely hates Now Moments.

You see, Now Moments are designed for us to have clarity in this moment so we can plant seeds of greatness in the next Now Moments to come. Guilt robs us of that clarity and keeps our disgusting past that guilt tends to persuade us exists, forever present so that the beauty of this Now Moment is completely abandoned. The ego desires you not to have peace in each and every Now Moment as then what would be the reason for ego to exist in the first place?

Trust me, I have heard more than my share of why “healthy guilt” is a good thing speech, so no need bother. Is the very term not an oxymoron to begin with, and, quite frankly, when people use it they usually have to justify the existence of the term at the very outset.

Guilt is associated with fear and there is no justification for giving fear to another person or living in fear as the spirit of fear is a debilitating spirit that robs you of all joy.

3 Step Process To Plow Through Guilt

Let me give you a quick three-step process that will help you with guilt.

1. Release. This is the first step of taking back your Now Moments. Release yourself, first and foremost. If you want to say it another way, forgive yourself. The past is the past and whatever is done is done. Keeping some past mistake alive forever in the throws of guilt does nothing for your ability to make this Now Moment precious. So you must first release yourself.

2. Let Go. This may seem to be like release but it is all together different in that you must truly let go of guilt by putting space between you and it. Release is the willingness to do so, Letting go is the action.

3. Flow. This is now the most important aspect of the process as it is based in peace. The peace of this Now Moment is a simple allowing of life to unfold all around you so you can become that ever-moving force of strength to yourself and to others around you. In peace there is tranquility within and that always presents itself as a quiet strength without.

Guilt is not healthy, EVER.

Release, Let go and Flow into each and every Now Moment for there the seeds of greatness live.

*******

DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 30 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. Contact DA Southern for coaching @ directyourownlife@gmail.com

Guilt: The Other White Meat - Part 1

Several years ago, the pork industry came up with “pork, the other white meat” to get people to eat more pork. The little slogan was quickly identifiable and indeed increased the pork industries efforts to get the folks to eat more pork.

I our discussion of Now Moments and how fear from and of the past can hold you back from progressing into brilliant Now Moments, I really look at guilt the true other white meat to fear, as they often go hand-in-hand. And unlike pork, it is the other side of the fear coin that can bring a grown man to his knees. I am not a huge fan of guilt, as you can tell.

Suffice it to say, we could not even begin to scratch the surface on guilt and how it hampers your development but we will begin to speak of the harmful effects it does have on you and how you can take steps to rid this arch-nemesis from your very midst.

First, lets look at guilt from a perspective of control, from both your own being and from others who use it to control you. There is no easy way to say it except that guilt is that soul-sucking essence that keeps people from developing personally, achieving in life, and from developing healthy relationships that are free from drama and, most importantly, love.

Guilt is not something you desire in any way, and if you use it to control others in your sphere, shame on you. It is done in business, in relationships and all realms of group interactions. The real essence of the spirit of guilt is that is so opposite from joy in that where there is guilt, you usually find joy lacking in abundance. That is the shame of guilt, it robs you of joy.

Look back in your own life; every time someone “guilted” you into doing something you were not prone to do, or would joyfully do on your own, did you notice joy within? I can safely say, no you did not. You see, guilt is that tool that people use that the ego rails against and why it is time to start the process of ridding yourself of that as well. But another discussion for another time.

You can even look to our political systems. When some well meaning congressperson or senator desires to push some usually bloated piece of legislation through the congress, they often encase it in the “hot” buttons of the day, whatever the other representatives would feel guilt not supporting; children, seniors, helping this group or that one. As soon as someone is confronted with the fact that they might not support a certain bill or whatever, they are guilted into support because who wants to be again some deserving group of whatever, whether the legislation makes sense or not.

It all comes down to joy and a sense of self that is devoid of ego.

Find your center, your joy and begin to ask yourself a simple question when confronted with guilt; Am what I am being asked to think about or do bring me joy if i do it for ME. Again, the very nature of that question elicits a guilt response from many because we are told by parents and authority figures “not to be selfish,” are we not? So we don’t ask that question because of guilt to begin with?

Stop it right now and begin to be a better you and decide here and now that guilt will no longer be part of your existence in this Now Moment. It is all you have. Seek joy and find truth.

In the next post we will look at ways to do this effectively, but start now as it is the only Now Moment you have in which to do so.

*******

DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 30 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. If you desire one-on-one coaching contact DA Southern @ directyourownlife@gmail.com

Worthy, Do you Feel Your Now Moments Are Filled With Worth?

Worth.
Being Worthy.
Worthiness.

Strange concepts that many fashion in the face of any challenging situation, are they not? Yet, we have all faced these exact emotions of the soul in living our lives; being worthy of anything, deserving anything.

 

To Be Worthy

Where have we come as a species if we question the ability to function on any level as a person who is supposed to exist? What has happened to us that, for some reason, we have decided that we are not worthy of some thing, some person in our life or some form of abundance?

I am questioned constantly about the very nature of being worthy and really it goes back to a previous post written about the past and fear. For some reason circumstances in the past have deemed you unfit for this Now Moment, as you see it, or, in reality, someone else has seen it as a rule of life for you.

 

Feeling Inferior

When I hear someone talk this way, it always draws me back to one of my favorite quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt, who said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” In this quote, you find the seeds of riding yourself of the past that seeks to bind you and fill you with self-doubt and unworthiness. Essentially, your ego, which is the bane of all existence as you will come to learn from me, is trying to hold you back from living truly in this Now Moment by making you think you are not truly deserving of it.

Face it, if you are still breathing, you are worthy as deemed by the creator of the universe. Now if that doesn’t make you feel a bit worthy, I am not sure exactly what will.

 

The Ego Is In Charge Way Too Much

Now with that being said, shame and guilt also play into a feeling of worthiness as well. There will be much discussion on each topics, but suffice it to say this is the Now Moment you have to live and being worthy is always...ALWAYS...an attitude of the heart and soul. You use the past as but the place that holds experience that gives you input into this Now Moment but never shall it be anything more than a guide. Do not allow it to give you any sort of worthiness issues as you are here for a reason.

Remember, the universe makes no mistakes, everything is perfect in its own time and place. No matter what you have done up to this Now Moment that you have deemed (or someone else has deemed) “unworthy” is not a reflection of what you will plant as seeds for the next Now Moments you exist.

 

Attitude of Gratitude

You are to give this Now Moment its dynamic place in your life as the one that is the place of change, hope and love that you seek to be within. Living in a state of gratitude in this Now Moment will give you a sense of worth to carry you into the next Now Moment and by simply releasing yourself to gratitude, you will find the gift of who you are and who you are to be.

It is your Now Moment to affect change for yourself and to see the positive aspect of living Now, so give this Now Moment its place as the one that matters most, because it does.

******

DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 30 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. If you desire one-on-one coaching contact DA Southern @ directyourownlife@gmail.com

The Past is Past: Live Free Without Baggage

Now Moments are but a culmination of the past. But here is a concept, the past is past, so why let it allow itself to influence future Now Moments, which don’t exist yet, and, certainly, should not affect this Now Moment unless it is something that must be dealt with now.

First a discussion about the baggage we carry around with us that is our past.

It is my assertion that whether the baggage is “good” or “bad” and that, my friend, is always subjective, that baggage serves you as you carry it around for whatever reason. I know you are saying “I don’t desire this pain or this burden” but still you have decided to carry it with you and allow it to affect you in this Now Moment in some way, even to the extent that you make decisions that are not ideally logical or sensible based on the fear of the past.

For Fear That

Yes, that is what the past intrinsically is based in most of the time, fear. The fear of not repeating the same mistakes. The fear of being labeled this or that. The fear of ultimately being judged and is that not the ultimate fear? Isn’t that what most peer pressure is based on? The judgment of peers or not being part of the group.

So, I guess you could say, fear and acceptance go hand-in-hand, right? Because we all want to be accepted at some level into a group, maybe we should take a note from the great comedian from the past, Groucho Marx, who said when talking about joining a club, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member. “ In that quote we find the ultimate attitude of not allowing others to dictate your actions.

 

The Past is The Past

Fear is that constant of the past that cripples us in these Now Moments. Rid yourself of fear and many items of the past would come crumbling down. As I often tell those I coach that the thing about any suitcase, what we would think of baggage, is that they are always equipped with latches or zippers in which you are free to open them and empty the contents AT ANY TIME.  The challenge is that, for some reason, many believe that once they are latched or zipped, that it appears that some type of super-secret code or key is needed to undo it.

In reality, the super-secret code or key is your own mind and your decision to release it. The real secret is to determine how the baggage is serving you, I mean, getting to the core emotion as to why it benefits you to carry it with you. When you get to that point, you will find that the suitcase you are holding, that which is holding you back with its weight, is easy to unlatch and empty out.

Now Moments

Now Moments should only hold the seeds of the past as a way to understand the journey now not hamper it going forward. There is much more to be said along these lines, but suffice it to say, we are all on the journey of self-discovery but allowing the past to dictate your Now Moments is a journey we don’t share.

Calm yourself and look at the suitcase and ask yourself why you carry it. Be honest, really honest with yourself and get to the emotion of the heart of the fear for there will be your release.

*******

DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 30 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. If you desire one-on-one coaching contact DA Southern @ directyourownlife@gmail.com

Live In The Now Moments Of Life

Live in the NOW is a battle cry of many of the youthful persuasion and of those extreme sports-types that desire to push themselves to the limit.

We have been there, have we not? Times of our lives where we were living on the edge, youthful or both?

 

How to Live In The Now

We are all about living in the Now Moments of life, but take a far more philosophical approach to living Now Moments. Let em explain.

First, Now Moments. Notice that the words themselves are capitalized and this is for a reason. I have devoted myself to no longer looking at time in hours, days, weeks and months but at the moments that make up time itself.

You see, in all aspects of living, really each Now Moment has the aspects of the past, present and future ingrained in them. Isn’t it true that today is the future we dreamed of yesterday?

The point is that we have but a single moment that contains the seeds of everything we are and have been and desire to be. It is how we decide to live this Now Moment that decides our future Now Moments.

 

How to Get Happiness in Life

I desire you to know that this is not “pie in the sky” living and some type of escapism to not deal with life but a thoughtful approach to living life in the fullness of which we are all given whether we decide to grasp it or not. It is all about abundant living and it is a journey we all take. This is the truth of joy and happiness, this is true living.

Trust me, I have suffered the slings and arrows of many who I thought cared for me as I have formulated this way of living and I have grown as a result of it. I ask you to come along with me as we journey into the heart of living in dynamic Now Moments together. it will be worth the trip.

I come from a theatrical background having spent many years as a managing director of theatrical plays. I can tell you that i never once passed out scrips to my actors and said for them to learn everything about their parts and to come back a day before the show opened and we would put it all together.

 

Plan Your Future?

No, you see, ever mindful of Opening Night, we would perfect the show one Now Moment at a time as it was there contained within those rehearsals of intense, dynamic focus that the show lived on Opening Night. Do you see my meaning?

Remember what Yoda said to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars when thinking about training him?

 

"Always looking to the future this one is. Never his mind on where he is, what he is doing."  Yoda

I will draw on this many times in future Now Moments, as well as my theatrical training that helped me to formulate my Now Moments to bring you into a better appreciation for living life in the fullest Now.

I encourage you to become part of the Now Moment community by signing up for the newsletter and have the post sent directly to your inbox in those future Now Moments.

It will be a gift of living that you glean from them as we share our journeys together.

*****

DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 30 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. If you desire one-on-one coaching contact DA Southern @ directyourownlife@gmail.com

Plan Your Life - No Don’t...It Will Not Be What You Imagined Anyway

No, I am not a pessimist.

In fact, I am one of the most positive people ever. I mean, I rock it when it comes to positive thinking, really. But to plan your future to such a degree that you lose the very life in this moment is to set your self up for disappointment after disappointment.

It is just that the whole theme of this blog and my upcoming book to be released this coming year of the same name, “Don’t Plan For The Future, Just Eat Your Cinnamon Biscuits,"  is all about living your best life right now.

But it takes guts to live this way, it really does with the pressures of society, parents and friends to plan your life so that you are "happy."

So what do I mean?

I will begin an entire series of blog posts that talk about future planning but all from a perspective of living in this moment, or as I like to refer to it, the “Now Moment.”

This will be a subject that many will disagree with but I will tell you the reasoning behind every aspect of my thought process along the way. If you are totally a futurist, then, quite frankly, this will probably won’t be your style.

I must tell you that I have been and will always be a HUGE Science Fiction fan. I love the promise of what a bright future will look like and I am a gadget nut, but gadgets are not what defines a future, and certainly are nothing more than creative insights at any given moment of what a future might be.

Think about it. When you look at old Science Fiction movies, it is often what is trendy at the moment from a vision standpoint and when we see them many years later, we often can’t believe that we even thought it represented a future that we currently live in.

Why is the future you dreamed any different? Is it exactly as you imagined or fretted about? Probably, to a person, the answer is “NO.”

Planning your future is the way we are taught from the time we can learn to walk and talk. Our parents and the ones who assert authority over us tell us that we need to “think about our future,” “get good grades so we can get into a good college,” do this or that because “someone in the family has always done this,” blah, blah, blah and on it goes. (And Lord help anyone who has a passion that doesn’t fit into the “standard” of what parents or whoever thinks we should be doing to “get a good job” or to fit in or get by or whatever.)

All of the things we are told does nothing but make us miss the moment that is often so grand and glorious that to not live in it is the biggest injury we do to ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for following your passion, but to do so means living in the moment and truly discovering who you really are.

Stay with me on this journey. Get signed up for the list and lets take our future back one Now Moment at a time.

In future posts, we will talk about a range of topics centered around planning your future, or not, in this case, but always with the eye on allowing any given moment to be your future.

Confused? Well, there are moments ahead, but they are just that, one Now Moment at a time.

*****

DA Southern is a Now Moment coach, teaching the spirit of living in Now Moments with the principles he experienced during over 30 years as an actor and director in live theatre. DA coaches his clients to rid life of limiting beliefs that have kept them from achieving miracles in all areas of their life by embracing the beauty of this Now Moment with a renewed passion for life. If you desire one-on-one coaching contact DA Southern @ directyourownlife@gmail.com