The Dive Podcast

EP2 Mini Series: How To Take Breaks As A Performer

• Taylor Scanlan • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Welcome back to another episode of our Mini Series Episodes inside The Dive Podcast. In this brand new series, Taylor Scanlan will be sharing his own personal insights, stories, and tips on helping you become the performer you are destined to be every Friday! 

Today we discuss how to find and take breaks as a performer! If you are currently stressed and overwhelmed with your schedule, this episode will help you find stillness and moments of calm throughout your day. 

We hope you enjoy this mini-episode and we look forward to helping you grow as a performing artist.

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Here Are Your Next Steps 👇🏻

Step One: 📝Get your FREE Audition Prep Workbook

Step Two: 🫂 Join Free Facebook Support Group

Step Three: 👀 Check out the Momentum Program for aspiring MT performers looking to become professional

Step Four: 🎥 Watch our MOST DOWNLOADED Podcast Episode with Luca Dinardo

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Dive Mini series, a brand new episode launching every single Friday, a one-to-one with you and me, taylor, coming on to give you bite-sized pieces of information to take you from where you are to where you want to be as a performer. Yeah, let's get that. Today is all about taking breaks as a performer. Now, this, I believe, in my personal opinion, is not talked about, and if you are a performer, you probably never got taught how to take a break and it was all about more and never was seen as something that was weak. If you took a break, you were always pushing more, but if you are a performer and you're watching this, you know what more ends up doing. It ends up actually breaking us physically and mentally and emotionally and causing that overwhelm and exhaustion. In this fast-paced world of the arts, which we absolutely love, where the hustle is always on and the demands of everything that we're doing, from auditions to performances, to live gigs, to rushing and doing all of it we can get caught up in the whirlwind that is the never-ending tasks and to-dos and all of the above. However, taking breaks and what we're going to talk a little bit about today. I have my notes here to stay on track is trying to see breaks as not just something that happens whenever we get the time, but seeing it as a necessity for sustaining a successful and fulfilling career. You know what it's like when you are exhausted. It's the end of the week or it doesn't even. It can be a Monday and you're already exhausted If you've felt like this comment below maybe a thumbs up or a sad face if you felt this. But today we're going to be exploring the ways in how we can take a break, what that means for you and how to implement it into your life and your career to help you going from stressed and overwhelmed to actually empowered and alive and in control of the career that you're building. During that, you are in the driver's seat and that you have 100% control of your life, even though when we are busy it actually doesn't feel like that, it feels as though the world is. We're waking up and all of a sudden, we have 10 things to do and we can't even take a breath. So if you're interested and excited, we're going to get straight into it.

Speaker 1:

The first step, and feel free to comment and like and wave and interact as much as you like. Maybe some tips and some interaction ways. You can interact throughout the whole post. So the first thing is pre-emptive awareness. And what does this mean? I was once told by this amazing man named Jim Rowan he's fantastic in personal development, in so many different things. Please go check him out and if you've heard of him before, maybe comment below. But basically, what he says is really profound Don't start the week before it's done or don't start your year before it's done, and although as a performer, we can't really understand what's happening in a year, so let's scale it back to Don't start your next day until it's done.

Speaker 1:

Design your day before it unfolds. This is really a really simple task and maybe you've not heard of it before. But before diving into the chaos of the day, take a moment just for yourself the night before, write down your schedule, what do you have on the next day, and visualize how you want the day to go. See, 99% of people don't do this, or maybe 90% of people don't do this. We are on our phones, we're working till late and then we just get on to bed really late and we wake up and we are just back on our phones, back to the next to do, to do going. We don't actually take a moment to go actually, what day is it, what day of the month is it, what time is it and what do I want to get out of it? So, before the day starts, just grab out your journal and write down, even by dot point, what's going to happen in the day. And this simple act of preemptive awareness can help you not only set up the day and how you want it, but it already gives your mind and your body that sense of oh, that's happening today, and you gain control over what you're writing as well, so you're able to go oh, okay, see you how the day actually is, because sometimes, when we're not thinking about it, we get into the day and we're like, oh, there's so much going on. However, if you were to write it down the day before, maybe the stress wouldn't be as high, because you've actually laid out and you've actually prepared your mind and your body of what's going to come. It also can do a heightened sense of control, like I said, and helping you identify potential stressors and allowing you to strategically plan moments of rest. And this brings me to the next topic.

Speaker 1:

So the second part of today's live is about defining what breaks mean for you. Personalize rest breaks that actually work for you, because it's going to be different for everyone. So not all breaks are created equal as well, and what constitutes a break can be so different for everyone. So maybe even now you can reflect. Take a moment to personally think about what brings you to the next class. When I have a break, what am I doing? And if, say, let's say, a month or two, three months away abroad in another country? Obviously we can't do that. We can't all of a sudden just pack our bags and leave. You could, but as a performer, we have eight shows to do or we have the next class to get to. How can we bring what you define as a break into five minutes?

Speaker 1:

Going back on, the example of how you take a break is maybe at the beach or somewhere abroad, maybe it's not having you go to the beach, but maybe it's five minutes of putting headphones on listening to a soundtrack of waves. It's really awesome technology. Now you can even put into Spotify, onto YouTube, nature sounds of Australia. So I remember personally when I was touring overseas. Sometimes I would put on the radio of somewhere, of being home in Melbourne, what was going on in the radio just to feel that sense of groundedness again and feeling actually gave me rest, even though at home, when I wouldn't really ever listen to the news, but having the Australian accent and things made me feel at home and made me feel rested. And you can also do this for anyway you could do it with wildlife and nature of that specific country If that brings you rest as well. So just taking that five minutes of putting the headphones on and imagining that you are in that place so by basically visualizing where you are, you can actually gain a lot of benefits of being there. Of course, being in that beach is going to be better, but again, remember, this is all about how can we take what gives us breaks and rest by and bringing that into the little pockets of time that we have.

Speaker 1:

The third thing is scheduling breaks. So make we need to really make rest a non-negotiable part of your day. How many times below do you schedule rest into your day? I know for me for a long time it was zero. Rest was something I got. If I got everything done and that I there was nothing else I could possibly do, then I rest and what this gave me was exhaustion and overwhelm and I just couldn't function as a human Because, remember, you are only one human. You can't. You're not a machine, right?

Speaker 1:

Scheduling breaks is actually really it sounds luxurious, but if you again look at your schedule and how, what the next day is, going to come up and see when can I put in rest, where can I take five minutes to myself to breathe, or to go out into nature or listen to a favourite song yeah, these little ways and trying to put them into your lunch break or wherever you can put those little moments of rest. Maybe your rest is listen to a podcast or your favourite musician, or maybe it's just absolute silence, putting some noise cancelling headphones on. So you also want to treat these breaks not only as non-negotiable appointments for yourself, but you really need to identify when you're most likely to feel fatigued during the day and slot it in then. See, we obviously love breaks when we have them, and if you are scheduling your day out and you're seeing that you have ten things on, don't schedule your break as the first thing in the morning. Schedule it when you know you're going to be the most fatigued. So maybe it's, maybe you could be in the morning and then maybe mid-afternoon or near the end, just taking five minutes and or ten minutes or whatever time you have to add in those breaks. So already you can see by being more aware of what's on your schedule. So, putting in breaks when you know you're about to be fatigued something really awesome you can do if you're a performer or if you're on your legs a lot through the day. Take ten minutes by bringing your feet up against the wall and your hips down, you're on your back and this can really help flush all of the lymphatic system and help you feel a lot more rested. Even just ten minutes is equivalent to almost like a 30 minute nap for your body, I know right, so maybe add that into your next break. So again, whether it's a moment of stretch or meditation, engage in a brief creative activity. Planning these moments ensures that you don't even get, you just don't get lost in this busy schedule and you actually take a moment to digest what you've actually just gone through.

Speaker 1:

A lot of the time when we're going into auditions, we finish and then we go to our job and then we go to class, or it's just there's so much happening and we don't take those moments of rest and reflection of going okay, that just happened. We think. Way, way back when we were creative, we didn't have 20 million things to do in a day. Yeah, we just had one thing Wake up, go find food, sleep, connection. There was so much less amount of things that we had to do, but nowadays we're just constantly battle with the next to do. We've got to do more. Everything's moving so so fast, without adding in breaks and having I'm not saying negotiate hours and hours of breaks throughout your day Amazing, if you can. But just find little pockets of time that you can add breaks in and you will absolutely start to feel different.

Speaker 1:

The fourth thing I was going to mention is similar to what I was talking about before is that you're only human, you're not a machine. So you need to build a supportive plan that actually supports you, acknowledging your own humanity. Yeah, you can only do what you can do and trying to be. Okay that you are just one human, an awesome, wonderful human, but you can't be doing activities for 20 million people and while you're capable of incredible things, remember that you are still only that one person. So crafting a plan and creating a plan that supports you rather than wears you down can help you be kinder to yourself, give you the space that you're looking for.

Speaker 1:

The fifth thing and the last thing I wanted to mention before we finish the live today and I hope you're getting something out of this is that you need to start taking charge of your own life. So many times we fall victim to oh, my job is telling me to do this, or now I have to do that, and I know what it's like to have the crazy busyness life of a performer. But remember, you are where you are because you decided to be there. You know, got the job because you need the money, or you took up full time because you wanted to learn. So by remembering why we actually said yes to doing the things that we're doing, we can remember and mind ourselves that we were the driving force of making that decision and to not fall victim to be like, oh, I have to go to work today or I have to do this today. Remember you decided to be there and you also can decide not to be there. So taking charge of your life is gonna help empower you again and if you're in a place where you can't necessarily cancel or run away or Stop what you're doing, just maybe remembering why you're there in the first place, and that can maybe help you gain a bit more control of going. Oh, I actually decided to be here, so why not make the best out of it and put in little Bockets of time to help you remember that throughout the day?

Speaker 1:

We are another species of people that are doing things that we're not really designed to do, not only performing and dancing and singing the way that we're doing, which is so Out of the norm of what we're being created for, on a daily basis. If you're currently in a full-time show, eight shows a week is a lot on the body. We have designed to actually do that much performance again and again. So just reminding yourself that you got to treat yourself as this athlete, this person that is going Above and beyond what the normal is. So you need to create, above and beyond schedules and plans to help support and nourish you so that you can get and Continue going in the way that you want to go, remembering why you're going in that direction too.

Speaker 1:

So I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Always, if you have questions, things that you're dealing with, message us, email us, as we can put them towards the podcast in upcoming episodes and Check out the website if you haven't already. There's free resources on there every single week, from blog posts to meditations and so so much more to come. I'm sending so much love to you. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend and I'll see you soon. Thank you all for listening to today's mini series. If you enjoyed today's episode, feel free to share it with a friend, and if you have any questions, you can email us at info at the divecomau for more resources and information on becoming the best performer you can be. You can also check out our website at wwwthedivecomau.