As we prepare to gather at the Actors Expo, I’ve been reflecting on something that can often get missed in traditional training.

 

We focus on technique. We focus on presence. We focus on authenticity.

But we don’t often prioritise regulation and with that the wellbeing of Actors. And yet, without it, creativity simply cannot thrive.

Creativity and the Nervous System

As actors, our bodies are our instruments and every instrument needs tuning. When the nervous system perceives threat - whether that’s an audition panel, a self-tape deadline or financial pressures, we trigger our survival responses. As we carry past experiences in our bodies, we are often already operating from an activated state and even ‘action’ or stepping out to an audience can further activate our survival responses.

 

Fight. Flight. Freeze. This isn’t a weakness. It’s biology.

The sympathetic nervous system activates to protect us. Heart rate increases. Breath shortens. Muscles brace. Digestion halts. Vision narrows. The body prepares to run or defend. Sometimes it also freezes.

 

But here’s the crucial piece:

When the body is organising around survival, it is not organising around creativity. Creative flow lives in a regulated system, where there is enough safety for imagination,risk-taking, nuance, and emotional range. If we are bracing internally, we are not fully available.

 
“But I’m Trained in Breath…”

Most actors have trained in voice and breath control. You may know how to project, sustain a phrase, manage diaphragm support, or prepare physically for performance.

 

And yet breath under stress changes.

Even without conscious awareness, the body shifts to shorter, shallower breathing when it senses threat. This keeps the nervous system in activation. It signals to the brain that something is wrong.

 

It becomes a loop:

 

• Stress activates the breath.

• The altered breath signals more stress.

• The body tenses preparing for danger

• Creativity narrows.

 

There’s a reason we instinctively take a deep breath and sigh when overwhelmed. The brain knows the breath is one of the most direct ways to regulate its own state.

 

The way we breathe affects the way we feel. And the way we feel affects how we create.

 

Authentic Emotion vs. Dysregulation

Actors often worry that regulation means dullness. “But don’t I need adrenaline?”

“Don’t I need to feel the character deeply?”

 

Yes - emotion is essential. Adrenaline can sharpen focus.

 

But there is a difference between using activation as part of craft, and being unconsciously run by your own unregulated nervous system.

 

If your baseline state is already one of stress, if your system lives in habitual fight or flight, then you are not choosing your emotional intensity.

 

You are being driven by it.

 

From a regulated centre, you can access sympathetic energy when needed, anger, urgency, passion, and return to parasympathetic safety afterwards. You are not stuck in one gear.

 

Regulation gives you choice. Choice gives you creative freedom.

The Body Holds More Than We Think

Most of us are carrying stress and unresolved experiences simply by virtue of being human.

 

The body stores patterns. Protective parts develop, the inner critic, the perfectionist, the one who panics before auditions, the one who numbs out on set. These parts are not problems. They are strategies that once kept us safe.

But if we aren’t aware of them, they and their limiting beliefs can quietly run the show.

 

• Who turns up when you’re nervous?

• Who speaks internally before you enter the room?

• Who braces when the spotlight hits?

 

If we don’t bring awareness to these parts, we perform not only the character - but also our survival patterns.

 

Somatic work and parts work invite something different. They help us:

• Notice what is happening in the body and understand internal cues.

• Build capacity to stay present with sensation and not triggered into an unwanted emotional states.

• Meet protective parts with curiosity rather than resistance for inner harmony and self trust

• Return to a regulated, grounded self from where we respond rather than react.

• From that regulated self - creativity opens.

Regulation as Creative Power

Regulation is not about being calm all the time. It’s about being anchored. It’s about knowing how to return. It’s about recognising when an old belief - “I’m not enough”, “I’ll be rejected”, “I have to prove myself”- is activating the system, and gently coming back to your breath, your body, your truth.

 

When we teach the body safety, we expand creative capacity. We widen the window in which we can:

• Take risks.

• Stay connected in vulnerability.

• Remain present under pressure.

• Feel deeply without becoming overwhelmed.

 

That is powerful work. That is advanced craft.

A Gentle Invitation

As you prepare for the Expo, I invite you to notice: How are you breathing right now?

Where is your body bracing?

 

What part of you shows up when you imagine stepping into that space?

 

Before you focus on perfecting your lines, your branding, or your next headshot — consider tending to your instrument.

 

Your nervous system.

 

Because when the body feels safe enough, not perfect, not fearless, just safe enough, creativity flows in ways that feel effortless, alive, and true.

 

And that is when your work becomes magnetic.

 

I’m looking forward to connecting at the Actors Expo and sharing more about how breath, somatic awareness, and parts work can support your artistry and you.

 

With warmth, Laura x