Skip to main content

Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down

I often say this to younger people whom I advise, especially to my students in theatre, particularly to those who are more than a little afraid and do not trust themselves while I can clearly see their potential. I tell them that it is possible because they are more capable than they think you are. It is also my way of telling them that I trust them and that they should too; and if they can’t trust themselves, they should at least trust me because they have come to me for advice :)

The truth is, many times I have to repeatedly tell this to myself too. There’s a funny thing I’ve observed about myself. I am quite the risk-taker in theatre. I am an actress and I am always willing to put myself in a vulnerable spot to explore my character or play deeper. Yet, when it comes to all other areas of my life, my risk perception is quite high. I have to push myself. Or give myself pep talks or sit down and rationalise my fears and plan for the worst-case scenarios so that I feel secure enough to go ahead with many things. Or, somebody who believes in me has to do all of this and at the same time battle my belief that I’m incapable !

Having said that, I must put on record that I have, on numerous occasions, albeit after such pep talks, ‘jumped off the cliff’ and found that I have, indeed, as I advise others, been able to ‘build my wings on the way down’.

It is thus that I can truthfully and empathetically speak to people about fears and ways to overcome them and also about trusting your ‘gut’ feeling.

Everything is possible. The key is Faith.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

‘Geographically challenged’

I laughed my guts out while reading this . Then I had another bout of laughter thinking of all the incidents that happen with me. For a long time now I have known that I am, what I like to call, ‘geographically challenged’ :) Situation 1 - If I go inside a building (happens mostly with residential buildings), then after I exit the lift (elevator) or come down the stairs, I cannot quickly locate the gate ! Situation 2 - If I am inside a building, I will routinely point in wrong directions to indicate places outside the building. Situation 3 - I am presently at office. I have come here from home. Now I have to go to some place where I have always gone from home and never from office. What do I do ? I go home first and from there I go to that place. It doesn’t matter if it is a longer distance or takes more time. I have to do this, because simply have no mechanism to re-align my mental map to my present location ! Situation 4 - Another thing is that if I have come to your place in ...

The balance of nature

The Japan earthquake and tsunami managed to bring tears to my eyes. It is terrible to see the amount of damage …to humans, to property, to the landscape…to lives…and it will take ages to restore some sense of normalcy. Life as they knew it before this disaster is lost forever for all the affected people…those who are still alive. :( Call me weird or naïve or stupid or un-informed or anything, but I really believe that we humans have managed to bring things to such a level where Nature has to act to restore the balance. How else does one explain the rise in the frequency of natural disasters and the increased intensity of the damage they cause each time they occur ? The uncontrolled population increase over the centuries itself has been responsible in robbing the Earth of its natural resources. Add to it the greed of humans…we can’t take just as much as we need…we have to take more and hoard. We don’t think of preservation, of regeneration or of repaying what was taken. We cross the ...

My food memories

I was just browsing the prompts on nablopomo for an idea for a post and I caught the word “food” and suddenly it clicked…a lot for food memories came rushing to my mind. So this post is about my food memories. My earliest memory about a new food that I tried and liked goes back to when I was five. We used to live in Mumbai (Bombay, as it will always be for me). In our building there were two girls, twins actually, who were the same age as me. My family is vegetarian (but did not impose it on my brother and me) and their family was non-vegetarian. So one day when I had gone to their house to play, it was nearly lunch time and their mother asked me whether I’d like to eat with them. I agreed. Then suddenly she remembered that we were vegetarians. So she went upstairs, took permission from my mother (some vegetarians are strict and do not eat at homes of non-vegetarian people). Since in our family, it was left to individual choice, my mother said, let her try it. If she likes it, let h...