Intent to Live

There are many situations where someone could become stressed, but there are also different things a person could do when they become stressed. When someone is stressed, they may have different emotions depending on the level of stress they’re under. Some may become nervous, or frustrated. When under stress, some people may start to act differently, such as, getting weak-knees, or they may start to shake. Although many things can cause stress, there is also many ways to calm yourself down and carry on with what you were doing. To calm yourself down, you could either walk away from the situation, or you could count to 5 and take deep breathes. When you become stressed, there are many different ways to deal with your stress and many ways to stress can affect how you feel or act.

It is argued by some commentators that having nerves can improve your performance (Lancaster and Janes, 1994). Feelings of nervousness helped me to focus on my presentation however things did not go the way I planned them. I can only

Acting moves me to explore and reflect the curiosities I have for the beauty and the ugliness of the human condition, and the big questions that affect the world. I want to use my passion for acting to be a storyteller, an artist, a communicator, a commentator that provokes thought and creates conversation from an audience through theatre, film, television, song, and radio, on life and on what connects us to the world around us. Acting is therapeutic, so magical, and a great adventure to me; there is not a thing that excites, fulfills me, or that I enjoy doing more than

During the activity, members of our group collected data by observing and documenting the six participants stated moods and our observation of their general body language and engagement with the activity. We took a poll of the participants moods before and after the breathing and stretching exercises and later compared these moods to reveal that half of the group, three out of six, stated they felt “stressed” before the

In the fall of my junior year I began working with my Dean to form an accelerated Independent Study dedicated to the study of acting and the practice of performance techniques. I continued this Independent Study in my senior year. Since I am pursuing a career in acting, I wanted to devote myself to in depth character analysis, monologue study, and acting methods. I benefited greatly from the one-on-one interaction with my Dean as my director. Not only has she taught acting at MICDS, but she is a working actress. This unique experience allowed me to receive immediate feedback regarding my acting skills, performances, and practice the necessary skill of taking direction. I have not only grown as an actress, but have grown as an individual. I

The response of the body to stress is somewhat like an airplane readying for take-off. Virtually all systems (the heart and blood vessels, the immune system, the lungs, the digestive system, the sensory organs, and brain) are modified to meet the perceived danger. During conditions of stress there is a shift in the balance between two branches of the automatic nervous system (ANS) – the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).During stressful conditions, the activity of the SNS increases to prepare the body for the fight – or fight response. This means that, among other things, there is an increased heart rate, blood flow, and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) – basically how sweaty our skin is! This response can be thought of as a shift in energy from the process of digestion to the muscles, meaning that the body is ready to take

Because I’m usually immersed in web stuff, it’s interesting to read a text whose ideas are still relevant to its target profession 70 years on. It was mostly a more enjoyable read than I expected — it’s written as if by a student of acting, reporting on a year of training. It makes clear how much more there can be to acting than just “pretending to be someone else”. Unfortunately I kind of lost it around two-thirds of the way through, when he starts talking about transmitting “rays” to each other, and things get a bit hazy and repetitive. Maybe that stuff makes more sense when the preceding chapters have been properly absorbed and used. (Also see my notes on Sanford Meisner on Acting and Uta

An Actor Prepares is quite an undertaking. Stanislavski strives to communicate to his audience the highly theoretical and, therefore, obtuse concepts of acting. Theoretical concepts are many things, not the least of which is accessible to a broad audience. Stanislavski attempts to remedy this dilemma by formatting his book as a fictional class with fictional characters who explore and learn about the theoretical concepts that he possets are essential to truthful art. This classroom format makes the book particularly accessible for acting students who can recognize themselves in the various students of the book as well as the trials, tribulations, and eventual successes that these fictional students experience along the way. This fictional classroom follows a similar progression to our own Acting 101 class because like Stanislavski’s imagined students, we have begun with the most elementary, sophomoric aspects of acting and built up from there. Many of the exercises that the students in An Actor Prepares

As I feel the competitor getting closer to me, the fluids from my body are diverted from nonessential locations, including the mouth which results in dryness in my throat and difficulty in trying to talk. The stress can also cause spasms of the throat muscles, making it difficult for me to swallow my saliva. The stress causes blood in my skin to divert away from my skin to aid my muscle tissues and heart. The physical effects that I feel is a sweat , clammy, and cool skin.

      Stress is an ongoing dilemma that occurs in each and everyone’s life. It is a factor that is undoubtedly a part of daily living. Due to the trivial problems that occur in people’s daily lives massive amounts of stress can arise. People perceive and manage stress in many different ways. The causes and effects of stress are numerous and one’s ability to manage stress is vital in maintaining healthy living.

Method acting is often misinterpreted as an acting exercise where the actor “becomes” the character, and keeps the persona of that character until they have completed their work. This misguided thinking has been promoted by pop culture and even sometimes by actors themselves. The Lee Strasberg Film & Theatre Institute defines the Method as when “actors use their imagination, sense and emotion to conceive characters with unique and original behavior, creating performances grounded in the human truth of the moment.” This definition focuses more on the relationship between the actor and their character, rather than both being one and the same. Method acting is not a new idea. It is thought to have been considered an acting exercise for

Psychological stress is a result of many factors and should be dealt with very carefully. Stress can be defined as “An excess of demand made upon the adaptive capabilities of the mind and body”.(Joseph 1). Another way of putting it, is that there are some things that put certain demands on us. The effects of stress should not be limited to unpleasant emotional states. Many studies have concluded that the effects on our physical health from stress can be extremely detrimental. These adverse physical effects include heart disease and formations of cancer. There are also some societal issues that psychological stress can hamper.

We began this course with the question “What is happiness? and Can we all achieve authentic Happiness? In our life we are taught many things, but we are not taught how to achieve our own happiness. Over the last five weeks we truly learned what happiness is and I believe we all can achieve authentic happiness in our life. In Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman uses happiness and well being as the terms to describe the goals of Positive Psychology. The desired outcome of Positive Psychology is happiness and well being. We learned from this course how to embrace both our positive feelings and activities to achieve authentic Happiness.

Based on these findings from research done previously I feel that this study is important. Firstly, we need to understand what causes the stressors and how it affects the individual. For example, if you have an entire university with stressed students, not being productive, not performing well academically perhaps thinking of dropping out of university because of the overwhelming anxiety; it can be detrimental to the institution in terms of status and students in terms of individual realisation. Secondly, we soon have to formulate effective and efficient stress management guidelines as we

“Stress is a silent disease” (Doctor Hobel). Over the years, stress has played a major rule in a large majority of people’s lives throughout the United States. When thought about, it is said to be extremely surprising as to how many people really have stress in each individual’s life. People do not consider what the reasons are for the feelings and emotions they experience. There are all different types of stress, and stress can do a lot to a person. Each person also handles stress in a different way. Some can handle more than others, because every single person’s body works in a different way. Stress has also been told to cause people to act out of character (Dr. David Posen). They often do not act the way they usually would while under