Actor Sara Wiseman recently completed filming King of the Planet of the Apes and Australian show High Country. In 2024, she returns to the Auckland Theatre Company stage for The Effect.
Thank-you for sharing a slowed down moment with me. Let me drop in properly for just a sec. Since I’m currently in your head, how are you doing? Like, for real - no automatic reply of “Good”.
When I get the opportunity to teach emerging actors I share with them this idea of a “Bullshitometer” that sits inside our chests. We can’t BS or lie to ourselves like we do others. We can justify or hide the lie, but we know it’s there. So, without the need to pretend to anyone, including me, how are you really doing at this moment?
If you’re great and mean it - my congratulations to you. If you’re not, my congratulations to you also because you’re being honest. No judgment here. I’ve been through the wringer. But at THIS moment as I write this, I AM GREAT. It’s been a long time since I’ve said that and not been bullshitting myself on some level. When I think of the macrocosm of the nation and my hopes and dreams for it, I have to make it more manageable and begin with the microcosm. It feels too overwhelming otherwise.
Naturalist and activist Jane Goodall said when you’re feeling overwhelmed or hopeless at how things are going with what you have no control over in society, start with what you can control. Give of yourself in a way only you can.
A bit of generous giving of yourself: it’s a marvellous thing for your family, your community, for whatever you have access to that might need some assistance or connection. For some, their influence stretches further than others but doing something avoids apathy. It makes you a contributor, not just a critic.
How is your view of Aotearoa looking? It might be polar opposite to mine. How are you receiving it? News bulletins? Talkback? Shortland Street? Your work lunchroom? Your church? Your gym? All of the above? I’m guessing if you’re like me, the bombardment of conflicting opinions and reports can be overwhelming, distressing or confusing.
What we put our focus on, we amplify. Just look at the sneaky algorithms working away on our social media platforms as a sublime example of that. We don’t even know it’s happening. Therefore it’s time for a focus shift in 2024 for me. I’m going to show you a bit of my To do list. Feel free to make your own list. I hope in my heart for you, and each and every individual Kiwi who takes committed positive steps in any small way, that those positive actions collectively manifest for all living in our incredibly precious country.
1. Set a productive and/or positive intention in the morning that is simple and easy to recall.
2. Spring-clean social media. I will delete apps that take me away from where I am in the present moment. Remove all things I might be following that are making me feel “crap” about myself or others. I can get my objective news source from a much more reliable app at a time when I want to read it.
3. Know what I’m a slave to and flip it. I am a slave to my phone. I find myself reaching for it without even thinking. I will remove it from the table when I am with people. Look up and out when walking, or taking transport somewhere, or exercising. I will not text when I’m walking. It will make me more present to the environment I am in and far less splintered.
4. Get in nature multiple times a week. It’s a cliché but they’re clichés for a reason. As I write this, I am sitting in the Amazon Jungle in Peru. A frog just chirruped at me. I’ve seen two tarantulas in two days. I’ve seen fireflies and sloths and monkeys. I cannot tell you how much lighter and lifted my heart is just being surrounded by trees and birdsong. Get in the ocean. Get in the lakes. Get in the parks and bush trails. And breathe deeply. And listen. Don’t take your phone. Just don’t.
On that, a macrocosm wish for Aotearoa is let’s not just walk on the land. Let’s walk with the land. She is an organic, living, precious, fragile part of us that we must protect and heal. As her guardians, she needs our critical loving care.
5. Move my body. Every day. In some way. And make friends with all its imperfections. That’s where the uniqueness lives. Are you a slave to how you look? I know I was. Just love it and move it. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
6. When I get the opportunity to sit, inhale love into my heart, for myself and out for those who might need it most. Daily. It’s so simple and it’s a life force energy.
7. Remind myself to release my judgments, as soon as they come up. Everyone has become so “judgey-mc-judgeypants”. Even that’s a judgment. Social media has bred a keyboard warrior and armchair expert in all of us but it’s not for me to judge you. That doesn’t mean stop sticking up for what you believe in. Take action against injustice, protest, sign those petitions, email your politicians when they put our culture, our environment and our future in harm’s way.
8. Let people in ahead of me in the traffic queue. It’ll make their day.
9. Receive gifts when people offer them, whether it’s shouting a meal or a hug.
10. Forgive myself and others. Unconditionally. It’s the only way through to a happy heart. Resentment turns back inwards. It’s an energy stored. No need for that manifesting in the body.
11. Stop all multiscreen watching. There have been many times when I have had three screens going at once: the television, the laptop, the phone. No wonder I felt I had no ability to concentrate or recall anything clearly.
So, there you go. Actually, there’s one more, a really important one: Love your animals. They are just another form of life, living. May your 2024 offer you exactly what you need.
