Beingness, Embodied…..

The top level of performance for me is a place I call, “Beingness.” Other people sometimes call it “The Zone” but I prefer “Beingness” because it’s not a place, it’s a state and therefore, something you can bring anyplace. What distinguishes it from all other states as that on your way up to it, you’re invariably “doing” something. I saw no shortage of people during my casting days, “doing” an audition for me. It was almost like a trade….something they would do to get something. Namely, a job….and it always looked that way when people operated from that space. But when someone came in just to “be” the character and occupy a place of imagined reality that was so real to them, they moved into “beingness.” And it was like going from black and white to color. Their finish line wasn’t a job. It was full embodiment of the character as a means in itself. I certainly have lots of moments where I go there in my own “blissapline” which is playing drums. I’ve also gone there singing in choirs on occasion and I remember being there as a boy soprano soloist. Because I wanted to help my clients reach that place, I started reverse-engineering it. There are a few primary components of the mindset and heartset required to reach it.

One of them is, you MUST be in present time as anything else is like having a foot on the dock and the other on the boat as it leaves! But the biggest and most important component is LOVE! If you don’t love what you’re doing, you just can’t get there. But because this place is somewhat elusive to some, I thought I would bring up some tangible examples that hopefully, convey some of these concepts in a more understandable way.

As I write this, figure skater Alyssa Liu has just won an Olympic gold medal this past weekend in Milan. If you haven’t seen her or heard her, she’s about the best example and embodiment of beingness, I think I’ve ever seen both in terms of her performing and especially, the mind-set and perspective that generates it. And these are the areas in which I mostly work with performers which includes athletes. And all of this is that much more impressive given that she’s not yet old enough to drink legally and she already possess an incredible amount of wisdom. Here’s a bit about her remarkable background.

Her father was a Chinese dissident who led protests in Tiennamen Square and came to the US as a refugee. He went to law school and started his own firm in Oakland, California. Ayssa 20, is the oldest of his single-parented daughters. She began skating at 5 years old and displayed enough talent that her father hired coaches to direct her training and Ayssa followed whatever directives her father and coaches gave. By 13, she was the US champion! She competed successfully until she was 16 when she decided she was burned out and she retired. She wanted to live life and experience so many of the things she missed during such intensive training years. Alyssa got a chance to experience things like traveling, attending concerts and just hanging out with her friends and family. She also tried skiing and loved it, feeling much of the same high she got from skating. Since the mountains were farther away from Oakland than the skating rink, she decided to go and skate to experience what she called “a dopamine hit!” She found that skating without a training agenda was exhilarating and started doing it more often. Then she called her coaches and said she wanted to train again. Only this time, it would be her directing what would happen in all aspects. She was 19 and had spent three years away from the sport and the odds of competing successfully were against her. None which mattered to her because winning wasn’t really that important to her! What WAS important to her was simply having fun skating and seeing all her fellow competitors….or as she called them, my skating family. Now, just a year later, she’s an Olympic Gold Medalist!

So how did this happen? Well talent has to be considered as a crucial element. But figure skating is an exacting sport of minute technical requirements and is one of the most pressure-oriented competitions an athlete can take up. And pressure is one of the single greatest impediments to performers because of the way our common neurology is designed. Only Alyssa considers herself an artist first and an athlete second! She’s been interviewed quite a lot lately and during a 60 Minutes story leading up to the Olympics, she was asked what she wanted to happen there. Most skaters would probably answer that they wanted a gold medal. But when asked, Alyssa said she didn’t care what happened as far as the competitive part of things. But she was adamant that no matter what, she wanted people to feel something from her skating. Whether good or bad, just that they should have a feeling experience of it. She wasn’t thinking of herself, She was thinking of her audience. This too is high on my scale of beingness as the intention of service ranks extremely high in energetic calibration levels of human endeavors in the science of psychoneuroimmunology. Which is basically a long name for the study of emotions on the physical body. And the only way the audience will feel anything, is if SHE feels something. And the joy she is experiencing is so completely and vividly expressed that we can’t help but feel joy ourselves just watching her. Besides loving her audience, she loves her figure skating “family” which is made up of the skaters and coaches with whom she is competing. But because she doesn’t skate for medals or to win, her intention to feel joy is what occupies her heart and mind. And this comes out so vividly in the responses so many of us have to watching her do what she does. She’s as socially graceful as she is artistically and what’s most impressive, is that you absolutely sense and know that she’s not speaking to curry any impression. At this age, she’s already completely and fearlessly authentic whether she’s with her intimates or she’s on international television and being viewed by the world. She skates through her routine expressing joy and freedom so tangible, skating commentator Scott Hamilton was moved to tears speaking about what he experienced from her performance. He cited joy and the freedom from care or pressure she expressed that was more than evident to everyone there. And he certainly knows having competed so intensely and as long as he did.

This is the embodiment of “beingness” in action. Her example teaches us to express the love of what we do. And when we do, people get it! It removes barriers and we truly feel something from what the performer is expressing and sharing. This is available to all of us who have the willingness to choose the perspective of love of what we’re doing and service to our audiences. When we express love first and care more about what we’re giving than what we’re getting from our audience or concern for what they think of us…..we are blessed with that same kind of freedom and the ability to move into the bliss of “beingness.” There are no shortages of people who have engaged in that sport who did it so they could win a gold medal. They inevitably ended up “doing” so they could “get” something. Beingness is its own reward where no one can give you something you don’t already have or take anything from you that you can’t give to yourself.

I used to audition Bryan Cranston a lot back in the 80’s and he was always preoccupied with getting the job asking lots of questions that were designed to figure out what would get him the job or….to avoid doing what would conceivably lose him the job. I used to try to discourage him from all of that because I could see how it was getting in his way. Eventually, he began to realize he wasn’t actually auditioning to get a job. He was auditioning simply to express his artistic vision for the character. And that became his new finish line. He stopped worrying about protecting a job he didn’t currently even have yet! In fact, he stopped thinking about the outcome entirely, not giving it a second thought after walking out of the room. And that’s when his career took off!

One last example I’d like to leave with you is a moment from the 1981 Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire.” The lead character who runs for the British Olympic track team, is asked by his sister why he runs. He answers, “Because God made me fast! And when I run, I can feel his pleasure!” Whether you believe in God or not, something gave you a talent to be the most unique version of you in your personal expression as an artist, athlete, public speaker, dancer, actor, musician or whatever you love doing. And when you feel that same pleasure, it’s enough reason on its own to do it. And it’s in that place of bliss, that beingness arises. Wishing you lots of it in your life!