Inventory System: Feel Fully Express Totally

“Feel fully, express totally!” are side coaches thrown constantly during our acting workshop exercises reminding participants to go with their impulses so that emotions are expressed truthfully in scenes, a personal inventory system for actors. Eric Morris, a New York acting coach whose students include Jack Nicholson and Johnny Depp, developed the Being exercises that brought about more organic responses from actors.

I had the opportunity of meeting Eric and was assisting in the workshop he conducted for professional film actors in the Philippines in 1986.
I was amazed at the new system of acting and devoured the concept passionately. I found that the process was not only useful in becoming better actors but more so on becoming better individuals. The principles of Being eventually became the basis of my theater and behavioral training programs.

Facing our emotions, let alone expressing them, is a struggle for many individuals, even actors. According to Morris, “Being is the place of truth” and the only way to get to one’s being state is to acknowledge everything one feels on a moment to moment basis.  Ironically, one of the more difficult phases of the process was to correctly identify emotions. This difficulty stems from the habit of denying our real feelings to give way to the norms of daily living.

It was then that I found value in staying in touch with my feelings and identifying them. This simple act served as a reference point. Knowing where we are at a certain point in our lives leads us to taking on necessary steps to get us to where we want to go.

Allow me to illustrate using exercises developed by Morris. You may use these exercises as often as you want at the most appropriate of  times to help you stay in touch with your real feelings.

PERSONAL INVENTORY SYSTEM

• Start with the phrase I feel…. then fill in the blanks. Mumble to yourself when you do this. It is important that you hear yourself say the words. Acknowledge all the stimuli around you and  how the stimuli affect your different senses — for example:

..I feel ..crazy doing this thing.. it feels weird.. I feel I must be desperate to try this out…what the heck.. I feel ..who cares…I mean that’s good…I feel good that I am able to get in touch with what I feel.. I feel  funny hearing myself mumble and I feel my chest is lighter ..like it’s relieved…I feel like laughing…that’s weird.. I feel weird and I feel fine.. at least I know how I feel and that makes me feel good.. I feel my body loosening up…and feel my eyes hurt looking at the words in the computer.. I feel I need glasses… my eyes are failing… I feel old.. I don’t like feeling old — I hate reaching this age and not being able to accomplish much…

The above sample shows that a personal inventory helps you identify your current emotional state. It serves as a starting point. Once you know where you’re coming from then it will be easier for you to choose what to do next.

In the sample above it opened a negative view of getting old. If this be the case then you can follow it up with another exercise to get out of that “bad” feeling place and into a more positive state. There are several affirmation exercises one can do. Here’s one from Morris which you can try. It’s one of what is called a “large commitment exercise”. Commitment here means the conscious decision to do the exercise whether you feel like doing it or not and express yourself by jumping into it arbitrarily. We often use this exercise for participants who are repressed, shy, insecure, withdrawn and the like.

I’M SPECIAL

You are encouraged to do this in the privacy of your home with a good friend who can serve as your support in this session and in a room where you can do the following without worry.

• Begin with the words, .I’m special because… then fill in the blanks. This time it is encouraged that you allow your whole body, including your voice, to express all the things that make you feel special. You can do this exercise until you feel you’ve reached a “good” feeling place. You can sing the words, dance to it, shout the lines, run and jump as you go about declaring onto the world all the things that make you special like so or watch the demo of the I’m Special Affirmation Exercise:

I’m special because I’m meeeee…I’m special because I’m getting getting wiser…I’m special because I know more about life than other people do…I’m special because I can face the truth… I’m special because I’m alive…I can siiiinng, lalalalala….I can dance, I can do these things freely…..doing all these things that can make me a better person…I’m special because I’m braaave…

• Once you feel you’ve reached a happy and confident feeling you can slowly settle down and allow all other emotions to come rushing through. You may have a drink of water and ask your friend to give you a hug to help you calm down. When ready you can do a second  round of Personal Inventory.
• The emotions identified in the second round of Personal Inventory usually reveal your deepest truth about the issue in focus and may even open other issues connected to it. This truth becomes the new reference point from which you can plot out your next step.

The process of facing the truth about ourselves and accepting this truth is all part of self-healing. Feel fully and express totally can be a reminder to express your truth to yourself and accept this truth about yourself without judgment nor condemnation. Herein lies the starting point to loving yourself unconditionally. This state promotes the abundance and prosperity of wellness and wellbeing for the boundless love of self can then be extended more easily to those  surrounding your life..

Feelings, therefore, need not be one to be feared but rather one to be valued for it is that which becomes a guidance system to recognizing love abundant in life.

Feel fully and express totally all the love you have inside and all that love will come back to you with fullness and totality!

By:  Daisy Ba-ad

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