Health and Wealth - A New Year's Resolution

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February just flew by, and here we are in March, with crocuses and snowdrops already in bloom.

Health regimes seem to be on the agenda for most of the acting and film community at this time of the year and I was going to look at some of the things that can help us all to pull it together. We can think that if we go to the gym we are being healthy but that depends on our addiction quotient. How many, teas, coffees, and alcohol did we have, before or after, we went to the gym? What can we do to tackle addictions and the denials of them all?

I made a start by tackling my own tobacco habit. Since my last blog I have switched to the e cigarette, but I have not managed to forsake nicotine entirely though I have reduced the amount and form of nicotine so that at the moment I am not taking the additional damaging fumes from tobacco. I am happy with the varieties available at www.10motives.com and I find that they last for a few days because I only smoke 10 a day, the e cigarette gives out the equivalent of 40 cigarettes before the battery dies. I’m afraid it is not as pleasurable as tobacco and doesn't have the same relaxing effect, but it definitely feels cleaner and healthier on the lungs. I hope by next month, I can report to you that I have stopped completely. The last time I gave up with e cigarettes, I was successful for about 2 months, so it is possible to stop with this approach. The biggest challenge for the smoker is that in a moment of stress, you start smoking again.  It is very important to re-programme the brain to stop thoughts that tell you can’t cope with stress, without a cigarette.

Last time on the blog, I spoke about crystal therapies, and how they are capable of helping to re –programme our brains away from addictive behaviours.

Here are the crystals which particularly help with tobacco and alcohol addiction.

Amethyst – pictured here.  It is the best crystal to use for addictions and when amplified beside quartz it can help to transport the brain away from the time wasting and damaging effects of alcohol and tobacco. Amethyst has a cleansing effect from the urge to imbibe and it helps to re-direct our brains by re-focusing onto activities of a creative nature. Around Amethyst you are more likely to do the displacement activity of putting away dishes or writing a blog, than picking up a cigarette. It is worth the expense of buying a stone, just to see it’s effect. For the price of a packet of cigarettes you should be able to get quite a large piece of stone.

Azurite – A blue stone that is very difficult to find so it’s relative, blue Sodalite is just as good, because it sooths the emotions and is able to bring self-esteem or well-being to the fore of our minds, which can offset the stress that leads to cigarette smoking or alcohol.

Cornelian – A bright orange stone, immediately energies the wearer removing fatigue very quickly and along with Amber, it is nature’s caffeine, so to speak.

Purple Fluorite – This stone is very powerful in combating addiction because it’s properties help the mind to concentrate. The wearer may also experience a level of determination that could otherwise be elusive. It is a stone for meditation and mindfulness.

I hear the sceptics saying hogwash! Well try it and see – rather buy a stone than a packet of cigarettes! As I said with the help of these stones I hope to report to you, by next month I have given up cigarettes entirely.

Wealth is also important to our Health and if we don’t feel appreciated it can effect self-esteem, which in turn is often the spark to more addictive behaviour. So I think it is helpful for those struggling to give up cigarettes or alcohol to think of the positive things they have achieved and not dwell on what they think are negative parts of their personalities.

CELEBRATING ACHIEVEMENTS (without alcohol and cigarettes)

With the Oscar season finally over, it is time to get back to basics. For those who haven’t looked at the films I have directed, you can find them with their trailers listed here.

In particular I think you will enjoy watching the film I wrote and directed called Photoshoot staring John Altman and Debbie Arnold. It is about the life of an ageing actress, May Hudson, whose reclusive nature is interrupted by the attentions of a Paparazzi, Wayne Wilson. He is challenged by his Editor, to get pictures of May Hudson to increase the circulation of the magazine, but it soon dawns on him that getting a picture of May is not going to be easy and he may have to scam her to get what he wants. He is forced to pose as a film producer, while he enlists her ex film Producer friends to trick her back into films by having her photographs taken.  Loosely based on the Hollywood film Sunset Boulevard, Photoshoot, looks at the predicament of the older women in an industry which at worst has resigned them to the scrapheap, and at best left them on the shelf.  The film takes a teasing look at the film industry and how it’s fascination for the perfect photograph is false and even brutalising to women.

For more information on John Altman look here.  For Debbie Arnold check  here.

Enjoy the Films and your discoveries with Healing Crystals.

Photo - Mairi Sutherland at the Production Guild 2006

Addiction and Silence equals Zero

January 2014 seems to have gone fleetingly with unfinished business from 2013. In my case it was a botched hasty NHS colonoscopy, which has hopefully caused no lasting complications? Time will tell. Despite that, I was thankful for the news it was not cancer.

                                          Me at Maxims in Paris, Feb 2013

The film business, reeling from the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, finds itself re-examining it's attitude to mental and physical health. Six years ago another acting icon, Heath Ledger died in similar circumstances in the same week in 2008.

I had the privilege of sitting at the same table as Heath Ledger, in the December before he died. He entered the canteen, looking drawn and hardly recognisable in a hoodie.. He was clearly unwell, looking much stressed and I deeply regret not being able to find a card for the Pinewood studios ‘in house’ alternative clinic, when he removed himself from the table to phone New York. It was no surprise to hear two months later he was dead. It left an impression on me and I chided the head of Pinewood Studios for not fighting to keep a new alternative health clinic open there and when it closed I suggested to Ivor Dunleavy, he try to investigate means of funding an addiction and alcohol clinic on site for actors. To date nothing has been done, perhaps because actors themselves don’t speak up about their problems, for fear that they won’t get work if they admit it, so they keep their addictions to themselves. The only time it seems it becomes public knowledge is when the actor is far beyond hope and on death's door.

This is a terrible state of affairs. 

As a Producer and Production Manager for over a decade, I have seen many actors quite literary pull themselves to work trying to hide the excesses of the night before. Their aggressive stance belies the reality of the situation and most PM’s (Production Managers) keep silent to maintain the flow of the production and it's insurance proclivities. However such a silence only delays the inevitable, which is that some actors will run into trouble with drugs and alcohol at some stage of their careers. In this case it is the silence by their peers that is the enemy and the movie industry needs to adopt a more open attitude to deal with the problem. At every studio there should be a drugs and alcohol drop in centre for moments when actors face difficulty. Time and money should be put into this by those who benefit, yet face the denial.

Acting is stressful and very self-criticising often to the point of being excruciating for the performer. So while we consider the talent of these people, we must also consider the toll on them and start to put a deposit down on their careers by providing more opportunities to discuss and deal with addictions.

In a similar vein, I feel that Lifestyle and Health in the acting community is largely ignored in favour of a false cosmetic appearance of Health, which is not the same thing. It is time we started to discuss things more openly.

In way of getting the ball rolling each of my blogs this year will contain a small section on Health Matters and those who follow me on twitter will know my predilection for things like Yoga, Crystal Healing and Tibetan singing bowls. All three of them have a similar theme in that they have the ability to change the frequency of our brainwaves in such a way as to remove old habits that can clog our arteries and mental health. Crystals I find in that they are based on the mineral content of the stones have some basis for use in science. Quartz in particular has the ability to hold information similar to that of magnetic tape. By their use we can help to programme our habits into a more fruitful positive framework, by ‘tuning’ in to the life force and positive energy of the stones. Some will say this is hogwash, but it is no accident that the computer binary code is carried by quartz light pulses so it is not out with scientific knowledge to understand how Crystals transmit positive emissions of energy. In illness we can effectively put our own programme command into Crystals to ask them to assist in healing. This could mean they will assist in aligning our brain to eating the right food at the right time for our own mineral and vitamin improvement or helping by bringing someone to you who has the correct answer to your problem. Crystals work purely on a positive level and their own programme in Nature means they cannot accept negative transmissions and will move away from such suggestions. Many people speak of losing a crystal and this is most likely when the crystal itself will not tolerate negative energy. Intrinsically connected to Nature, crystals are one of the Earth Healing Entities. So with that knowledge I hope you will enjoy other such Health tips in my future blogs.

Happy New Year , if only that it is a month late!