Film Courage: What's the difference between thinking and knowing?
Jocelyn Jones, Acting Teacher/Author: Wow. We think we know a lot and we think we know out of
judgment. We're very judgmental society. We're kind of desperate and in the thinking we’ve got
to know, we’ve got to know. I mean really, I gotta know. So I'm going to look at this thing in order
to know and I'm going to know when I judge it because when you judge it you go Oh I know,
it's la la. I know it's this. I know it's that, that is a kind of a desperate need to think and
it serves the ego well because the ego feels smart and it protects us because oh I know I
don't have to go near there because I know what that is. So thinking that comes out of judgment
and of which there's a lot when that you know it because what you feel it it's visceral this is why
we have this degree of sensitivity and people say Oh you're clairvoyant. No not clairvoyant just a
higher tuning on that intuitive intuitive senses people talk about emotional intelligence the first
time I heard that yeah every once in a while I go to a therapist and then I go I don't know.
But I had a therapist once oh you have a you have a really strong emotional intelligence
and I said what is that? She described it as a very high intuition toward this is truth or this
is serving me it's a very high intuition which makes sense because you have to have that when
you're growing up and you're unsure so you start observing things like crazy to figure out what
is going on. Now you're not observing these things to judge them, you're observing these
things for survival. So you're open to what is it you're really looking at it and feeling it up
right so that's a highly attuned intuition that's knowing when everybody's felt it I just knew I
met him and I knew I met the guy was going to marry her I knew this was the house for me when
I walked in the door or I knew people talk about it in that way that's all that is it's a hit with
intuition and then a trust and then a moving forward with it but there's a lot of thinking
you know thinking I know I know oh yeah I know I got it sort of a glib judgmental thing and
judgment is something that it's another one of those things you want to separate out a little
bit and go God I'm being really judgmental aren't I'm just being really judgmental of this person
during the pandemic a couple of things have happened because we don't see anybody I mean we've
been pretty isolated my husband and I for a long time we do see people but now that I'm promoting
the book and we promote the film I'm meeting all kinds of people so sometimes I think somebody will
say oh we want you on your podcast and I'll kind of look into them and see them and sometimes I'll
go oh they're from so this place and I don't know anything about that place and they're not
going to know anything about me and my first thing is protection to protect myself because
it's a little nervous making putting yourself out there particularly having not done it for three
years so the first thing might be judgmental I start looking for ways not to do that thing
and then I go and I do it and I talk to this person I talk to a guy in Virginia in coal
mining and I thought the first thing was like this and man I love this man I love so when
we open ourselves to the human being the other human being it's it's really quite a spectacular
thing and that's a reach to know each other on a human level as opposed to oh I know what
that is that's a guy from coal mining company and Kansas who's wants to be a radio host and
whatever it is the guy turned out to be a high school teacher which is
I have they're like firefighters to me high school teachers right now I think they're the
great heroes of the world and after the we did an interview together we spoke as two human beings
about the state of education and his dedication to teaching and you can't get there if you judge
somebody before you even meet them so it's all about moving forward with open heart really
we all need to to find that stillness in ourselves and open our heart and walk forward with an open
heart because what are you going to protect yourself from covet okay we're a mass I mean
we don't need to protect ourselves we need to live we need to find ourselves we need
to listen to ourselves we need to find a way out through guidance
sure well I mean it's understandable but you don't know someone's agenda when you come into
an interview or you could say the same for an audition someone could say I love this
person's work and I know I'm perfect for it and then they go and they're met with just a stone
wall they're crushed because they thought they were going to see me and they were going to go
you you're the one yes and it turns out they barely they didn't even get your name what's
your name again okay and then this is that's so beautifully said and not only that that
was a terrible experience for actors to have to constantly go in for auditions and it's as if the
people auditioning them were trained to be like the parents I told you about like nothing, nada,
not see you for an artist not to be seen even when they're working from their heart no matter
where they're working from whether it's a concept in their head or a concept in their art for them
not to be ex seen it's just it's criminal really because they're the ones that are going to lift
us up out of this stuff we should be going thank you for coming in but so how do you handle that
do you emulate what you want if you didn't like the way your mother did it then do it that way for
your daughter and you'll heal yourself and you'll pass on and evolve the next evolution to it if you
don't like the way the people are behaving towards you change your attitude don't walk out feeling
justified and ain't it awful they're really shitty to me they didn't even see once again I am right I
think I'm right once again the last 10 they're all terrible it's really hard if that person's stone
faced if you don't take it personally because it certainly has nothing to do with you if you don't
take it personally you just look at them think maybe they had a bad day and you look at them
and lock eyes and go Hi how are you they're going to respond if you offer them your heart they're
going to respond and my counsel to my actress is that's your job change the world by example
go in and be they say be the change you want to see that's a real thing it's a little harder to
do than to say but it's a wonderful practice we are what we practice period if we don't practice
anything then the world's going to be happening to us and we're going to be like at effect to
whatever comes into our lives if we practice certain things we practice meditation so we can
get a handle on when we're behaving in ways we don't like we can look and go yeah I'm behaving
in a way I really don't like when we practice gratitude we can raise our we can raise our
our vibration at will when we practice doing the things that bring us joy we raise our vibration we
begin to to to take our life in the directions that we want to take it. It's really simple,
it's really simple, it's just a little difficult believing and simplicity to that degree
because you say in the book that the the first piece of art that an artist creates is their
perfect life or the life that's best suited for them well hopefully but unfortunately but that's
the way I'd like people to look at it people go I'm not an artist I go you are an artist
your life is your first Masterpiece you're either creating that or you're creating it
whether you are consciously creating it and moving it in the directions that you want to
or whether you're creating it with your own thoughts whether they're negative or in the
middle you're just thinking all the time thinking thinking looking at screens just bubbling along
it's a reflection of everything you do and everything you say and everything you think
combines together to make your future that's going to be your next moment this moment is going to
unfold into that moment and that moment is going to unfold to the next so if this moment you have
brought yourself Joy on purpose you've lifted your own frequency out of your own practices
then that will flow into a different kind of moment than if you hadn't done that consciously
does that make sense so you you give people or you ask sorry not give but you ask your students to
do different things to raise their vibrations whether it's just taking a walk in nature or
petting an animal well when they get morose usually I'm teaching just acting I mean I teach
a lot of things but but actors get morose people get morose and they get complain-y
and like what are you complaining about you have a roof over your head yeah do you have friends yeah
do you have car yards you can eat yeah what are you complaining about yeah but they're they're
righteously terrible things going on in the world but you'll do better with those things when you
gain a little control over your own emotional state you can call it vibration you could just
call it emotional state but that's in your charge that's your responsibility and if you're walking
around like a sad attack I call it would say Eeyore [Winnie-The-Pooh] so another student
would be in a critique and they would go yeah it's a thing and the thing and I'd go oh it's
like Eeyore you know you were in poos just walked around just sort of morose and sad all the time
well what's the movie where they go get out of it snap out of it you want to smack him and go
snap out of it instead I give them exercises sometimes they get into it collectively like
right now we are collectively in a kind of a morose agreement about the pandemic
meanwhile the pandemic has made some important adjustments by the way in life but we don't look
at those we just go we're we're like oh boy the pandemic ain't it awful but it's brought about
some group things but I would come to class sometimes and I would feel they were in a
collective unhappiness the whole room you can feel it sometimes I come into class and everybody's
like let's go we got work to do that's what I like to create out of and if the room isn't like
that I'm going to address it and that's a little different than some acting classes but it's like
we're going to work from up here we're not going to work from down here and if you're
working from down here sometimes I just make them stand up and jump
and since the whole room is jumping up no no and they're doing it like this I go no it has
to be at the same time so now I have to listen to each other and then they finally get at the
same time by the time they get at the same time they're laughing and their energy is up
other times I think it's it was a certain election that happened and there was a certain collective
morosity I don't know I'm a roseness in the room and I go what's going on they're like so I I said
when did when is the last time you when this last time you went out into nature when's the last time
you took a day I take days in nature because I can't live without it when's the last time nothing
nothing came the room was dead and they went seriously when is the last time you went to the
gardens or the ocean or the mountains or took a walk in nature when is the last that nothing
so I assigned them to go out so it could be the mountains could be could be a park but you had
to go alone you had to turn off your electronics and you had to just be you had to just sit there
and observe things around the grass the tiny things the large trees the ocean the sand the
little crabby bugs in the sand just If You observe you stop thinking when you observe so a lot of my
teaching has to do with observation so I should just go out observe and turn off the phone and do
it for an hour and but he came back to class and I said oh and I said and then when you come home
I want you to find a rock or let the rock find you and bring it to class and before you pick it
up I would say it's just me before you pick it up I would ask it permission because that rock
has lived there for quite some time and you are moving it from its natural environment so I would
ask permission and if you feel it's okay take this rock that you spotted in a special way and as a as
a thank you for this experience that you hadn't bring it to class so I came to class and there
were these 50 rocks lined up on the apron of the class they were beautiful and the room was just
exactly with energy and they wanted to talk about they wanted to talk mostly about how disconnected
they were from nature how powerful it was one young girl maybe the youngest in class had never
spent time in nature that's what these telephones and social media is doing to us had never thought
it never crossed her mind I think I'll go to the beach by myself and take in the power of the ocean
I think I'll take a walk in the woods and commune with trees in Europe they have a whole forest
bathing because they understand the power of walking in forests and they were crackling it was
fantastic anyway the young one got scared she said she was really it was so big the energy was so big
and so different to her that it scared her and I said well were you scared like a bear was coming
scared or were you excited in a new kind of a way and she said I was excited and the minute was over
I was she said I only did 20 minutes because it was so big so but the minute was over I wanted to
do it again like a roller coaster so simple simple things are very powerful truth is very simple
lies are very complicated the more complicated thing something is the more lies it has in it.