Yet Untitled 062 - Wear Comfortable Shoes
a very short instalment on stress
Dearest Yet Untitler
I’ve been searching for this instalment all week. Then my eyes landed on this billboard one morning and I had it.
At first I couldn’t believe my eyes. What copywriter from hell could have come up with this line? How does copy like this sell stuff In what hellish age does copy like this exist?
Then I saw the billboard in its entirety.
The full picture wasn’t half as interesting. My stress-knowing eyes that sit in a body a week away from a film shoot wanted to know how in the dang hell does anyone enjoy stress?
Then I thought about it. The answer is (I’m personally convinced) is that nobody does.
Stress produces bad chemical reactions, fills your body with poisons, makes you miss things, forget things, overlook things, make mistakes and generally feel lower than a mole’s midriff. However, offsetting stress can be enjoyable. To see it coming, and then be able to do something about it, not let it take root…now, that can be enjoyable! Perhaps surfing stress as you would a big wave, could be enjoyable.
Welcome back, Yet Untitler, to this very short instalment, in which I will not be passing on any of my stress to you but will share a few things that help me navigate it.
Sticking to the script
I realise that a lot of the stress I’ve been feeling comes from being in unknown territory. However - since I’m about to direct a film - there is a script, and I can always follow what’s written on the page. I find this thought - whether applied to film or to life in general - equally empowering. To me, the thought is - let’s get the basic requirement done the best we can - the meat and potatoes of it. It forces me to think about what really needs attention and to attend to that rather than every other peripheral worry or concern.
Of course, those have to be dealt with too; but not necessarily now.
My Bullet Journal (the Bullet Journal company should pay me for these plugs!) is essentially a script of sorts. I spend time with my BuJo at the beginnings and the ends of my days, just taking time to approximate what the day needs. When stress threatens to sweep the carpet from under my feet, my Bujo sweeps in and tells me to chat the easiest possible path attending to the essentials.
Sometimes, the BuJo doesn’t give me the answer. In the absence of a script, I try to remember that instinct too is a script, embedded deep in our life. I need to write about this. Perhaps in another instalment.
Or perhaps you can tell me if you agree or not.
I trust myself in the morning
Those who read the last instalment know my experience of morning dread. One of you sent me this beautiful response:
…often we are in a deep dream that seems very real and waking up means leaving the dream, leaving things unfinished. That used to happen to me when i was younger..very often.
I wonder if this is how we feel when we die...to wake up from a very involving dream to which you feel deeply connected. Leaving that world and those characters that people our dreams…a sense of loss that is experienced is the ''oh no''. Very often this is the bane of very creative persons.
Reading this and the other wonderful responses I received, not to mention processing this quirk (affliction?) of mine, was liberating. Ever since publishing the last instalment, I’ve been waking up, experiencing ‘Morning Dread’ saying “hello, Morning Dread!” to Morning Dread’ and then carrying on without puzzling too much over it. It’s there, like a persistent pimple. So be it. Writing is my Clearasil.
My experience of mornings after the beat of morning dread has always been positive. It’s my time for all the mental, physical and emotional realignment rituals that I’ve been blessed to nurture in my life. Because coming to them has solidified at the level of habit, I trust my mornings. I’m the Patrick Swayze from ‘Point Break’ of stress surfing in the mornings!
I trust Paul’s three point plan for a stress-free shoot
My accomplished writer-director friend Paul, who wrote Casualty - one of the longest running medical procedurals of all time - along with my other accomplished friend Jeremy gave me his three point solution for having a stress-free shoot:
Wear comfortable shoes.
Go to the bathroom while they’re setting up for the next shot, not during the shot.
Carry toilet paper.
I will survive! Thanks for reading!
Lots of love
V
Shoes! Xx