Meditation is a practice rooted in ancient spirituality across the world. However, did you know it can also be extremely helpful for actors too? From developing our craft to improving our emotional well-being, there are many helpful benefits we can find within this practice.
As an actor, I practice mindfulness and meditate, especially when I am preparing for a role. In this article, I’ll be demystifying the process, answering the question “Is meditation good for acting?”, and offering you some of my personal tips so that you can use meditation to improve your practice too.
Types of meditation
There are many different types of meditation we can practise. While they often have things in common, they are practised in different ways or may serve different purposes. It can be useful to know the difference before you begin to meditate. Here are some of the most commonly practised types of meditation;
- Mindfulness meditation. This style of meditation involves placing your attention on something specific, such as your breath, an item or a bodily sensation. It encourages you to become aware of your thoughts and feelings without judging them.
- Mantra meditation. This is when you repeat a certain sound or word in your mind or aloud, and place all your focus on this. Transcendental meditation is a specific branch of mantra meditation.
- Metta meditation (or loving-kindness meditation). This involves your loved ones and directing positive thoughts towards them.
- Visualisation meditation. This involves visualising locations, experiences – or even spiritual deities when practised as part of a religion. It aims to offer inner peace and internal insights.
- Moving meditation. This is often a specific style of mindfulness meditation. This is when you move your body and focus on the sensations you feel, your breath and your surroundings. It can include walking meditation or yoga.
What kind of meditation is good for acting?
As you can see, there are various benefits to all kinds of meditation. However, I feel that the most beneficial meditation for acting is mindfulness meditation. This is due to its emphasis on awareness and concentration for actors. Mindfulness meditation does not aim to distract us from our present moment but rather immerse us more fully in it. Concentration, awareness and observation are some of the most important skills an actor can have, and the basis for many other acting skills. Mindfulness meditation can help us to develop these more fully and is one actor skill to practice at home.
Why is meditation good for acting?
Meditation has lots of benefits for us actors, whether it’s improving our craft, or developing the skills to thrive in a stressful industry. Here are the top 5 reasons meditation is good for acting.
- Stress reduction
Meditation has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety. It can improve our awareness of stressful feelings we experience. It can also teach us to step back and choose where we put our focus. Instead of getting wrapped up in a cycle of worry and negative thoughts, it can develop the ability to acknowledge our stress and return our focus to the job at hand. For actors, this can really help us to deal with things like audition nerves or stage fright.
- Improved concentration
Concentration for actors is one of the most important things to develop. It acts as the basis for many other acting skills. From being invested in your character and their circumstances to maintaining an active inner life and monologue, to being focused on your scene partner and reacting to what they give you. So much of the craft is built on the basis of concentration and imagination for actors. Mindfulness meditation in particular helps you to build focus and awareness of your inner and outer experience and can be especially useful when building concentration for actors.
- Body awareness
For actors, developing body awareness can be really useful. Mindfulness meditation can help us to develop the skill of noticing our bodily sensations. This can firstly make us aware of our common areas of tension and help us to release them, as well as build character physicalities and develop our movement skills.
Yoga is a great style of movement meditation in order to improve this skill specifically. Finally, it can help us to become more aware of how our emotions affect us, such as learning how to blush on command through physicality. Noticing the physical sensations that come along with certain emotions is an important skill for actors to develop.
- Creative enhancement
Meditation has the ability to reduce mental chatter and minimise internal distractions. Often, when our mind quietens, we notice an influx of creative thoughts arriving because these thoughts are not being drowned out by our mind’s constant chatter. Not only that, but our improved mental clarity can help us to pursue and develop these ideas rather than throw them away due to being distracted by other things. Being able to work on personal growth is a huge benefit of being an actor, and meditation will help you deepen your sense of self.
- Resilience
In my Blooper article 10 Bad Things About Being An Actor, I discussed the many challenges that come along with this profession. They include things like rejection, as well as lack of job and financial security. They can place a lot of pressure on us and can feel overwhelming. Meditation can help us to refocus our minds away from our challenges and towards ways we can deal with them. This all helps us to build resilience and allows us to keep getting back up whenever we’ve been knocked down.
My mindfulness tips
Mindfulness is the state of being conscious or aware. Unfortunately, it isn’t just something you can decide to start doing and immediately be an expert at it, and this is why we practise mindfulness meditation. Think of it as going to the gym for your mind. You have to work your mindful muscle repeatedly until it gets stronger and easier to use. Luckily, mindfulness meditation can be practised anywhere, at any time, and in many different ways. Here are some tips to get you started.
- Mindful breathing
Focus your mind on your breath. You don’t need to try and change your breath or strain yourself to focus, just gently rest your awareness there. Notice your belly moving or the air moving through your nostrils. Inevitably, your mind will wander off. There’s no need to judge it, as this is what minds do! All you need to do is notice when this happens and bring your awareness back to your breath. This refocusing is one of the most powerful parts of the process, so it actually gives you the opportunity to practise an important skill.
- Notice physical sensations
This is similar to the breathing exercise, only this time you will be noticing your physical sensations. Scan your body slowly, from your toes to the top of your head. Go through each area, each separate muscle in your body separately. Notice any sensation you find, whether it’s tingling, warmth, coolness, discomfort, or tension. There is no need to change it, just notice it and try not to judge it. This helps to improve our focus, our bodily awareness and our resilience.
- Notice your surroundings.
This version of mindfulness meditation gets you to focus your attention on your surroundings. You can either do this with the entire room you’re in, a certain section of the room, or even a single specific object. Use all of your five senses to explore your surroundings or objects in front of you. Try and be as detailed as possible, noticing as much as you possibly can about it. Notice any thoughts and feelings that arise and just let them pass by.
- Guided meditation.
Meditation can feel really difficult to get started with, and it can be easy to second guess what you are doing or whether you are doing it right. This is why it can be a good idea to start off doing guided meditations, where you are talked through the entire process. There are some great videos on Youtube to help you out – such as this 5-minute Guided Beginners Mindfulness Meditation:
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I meditate?
Starting up a meditation practice every day is a great idea. You can schedule it to make sure you do it. Remember that you can practise anywhere you like! You can start off meditation for 5-10 minutes, and gradually build up the duration as you get used to the practice.
Does meditation really work?
Yes! It has been used for thousands of years with proven benefits being recognised. It is even acknowledged by many medical professionals as being beneficial for stress and anxiety.
Does meditation improve concentration?
Concentration is known as being one of the main benefits of meditation, as has been proven by many academic research studies. It can be a great way to improve concentration for actors.
So, when will you include meditation in your actor training?
As you can see, meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, can have a number of benefits for actors. These can include improving concentration for actors, creativity and resilience. It is also a simple and easy practice that can be done from anywhere.
Whether you are wondering whether acting is for you or looking to strengthen your resilience, mindfulness is a way to connect back into your centre and find the answers. Meditating gives us actors a better chance of creating great work, as well as thriving in an industry that provides unique challenges.