A frowning inner judge might be one of the most dangerous blocks for a creative mind and its unique physical/verbal outcome. The inner judge also blocks awareness of our self understanding, and the understanding of our surroundings.

Not only is this an enormous obstacle to creativity, it is also a painful spiked chain that prevents a person from free physicality during their daily activities and movements. Furthermore, it’s a moldy cell that they unintentionally keep themselves in, since they don’t know how to get out.

While this is a life-wasting habit for many, it might be considered a killer for a potential actor, who wants to tell stories by being somebody else and portraying that character's written and underlying life.

How is it possible for an actor to be someone else convincingly, when she can’t even be herself? How can an actor reflect the emotional life of a character when he can’t even express his own emotions freely?

It’s well known that a stiff mind creates a stiff and tense body with a tendency to try to control each and every movement, leaving no room for mistakes or for creativity.

Stiff and suppressed emotions, caused by the inner judge and its cruel judgement, only become stiffer if an actor doesn’t let her inner child come out to play. In such a situation, she can only be an extremely logical and somewhat robotic person who would be an excellent candidate for some profession other than acting.

As German psychologist Wilhelm Reich stated and developed scientifically in his “body armor”1 theory, “...the body and the way it mirrors the character embody the template of our personalities and conform to those dictates.”

To let the playful inner child come out to defeat the inner frowning judge, an actor should find life energy, and trust in his centered core and well-balanced understanding of life. These are also crucial in order for an actor’s life to imitate life when he needs it.

Acting is a lifestyle that is dedicated to understanding life and its main subject, humans, to telling people’s stories, and to entertaining, educating, and provoking them, while questioning and reflecting the layers of life.

To make an effort to achieve these, an actor should let herself be affected by her surroundings so that she can access the color scheme of her emotional chart. This requires awareness, not only of her surroundings, but of her emotions as well as of her body and core.

Doing this might help the actor to see the world through the child’s innocent, playful, curious, non-biased and non-judgmental eyes, and like the child, become emotional yet cheerful, creative at the speed of light, and brave enough to execute his creativity as a result of his free associations. And again, to gain access to the free association process, the actor should be able to let his inner judge fade away and allow awareness to take over.

Throughout my thirty-five year career acting, directing, and training actors, I have always found awareness to be the most beneficial and rewarding philosophy, so I trained and educated myself to improve my mentoring skills based on these principles. In so doing, I dedicate myself to helping up-and-coming actors improve their skills using this approach, so that they can pursue their careers in the industry with confidence.