Cara Winterbottom

[This article is part of a series about how to craft an intentional life using ideas and tools from Constantin Stanislavski’s acting system for working on our inner motive forces. Previous article: Emotion Memory Part 1: Exploration ] I have discussed emotions and described emotion memory and sense memory in previous articles. These included exercises to explore one’s emotions and emotion memory, and exercises on how our senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight affect us emotionally and trigger memories. Here, I discuss how we can shape our memories over time. I also describe an exercise that uses your senses to shape your mood. While some memories and the emotions they generate seem carved in stone, they can change over time. We can work to nudge this change in a positive direction through deliberate reflection. Stanislavski shows us a way of working with and crafting our memories in this excerpt about the experience of witnessing an accident: “[Immediately after viewing an ac...

[This article is part of a series about how to craft an intentional life using ideas and tools from Constantin Stanislavski’s acting system for working on our inner motive forces. Previous article: Emotion ] The previous article was about emotions as one of Stanislavski’s inner motive forces that drive us to action. Here, I describe emotion memory and related sense memory.  When we remember events and people that meant a lot to us, we feel an echo of the emotions that we felt about them. This is emotion memory, also called affective memory. As Stanislavski put it: “ Just as your visual memory can reconstruct an inner image of some forgotten thing, place or person, your emotion memory can bring back feelings you have already experienced. They may seem to be beyond recall, when suddenly a suggestion, a thought, a familiar object will bring them back in full force. Sometimes the emotions are as strong as ever, sometimes weaker, sometimes the same strong feelings will come back but in ...

[This article is part of a series about how to craft an intentional life using ideas and tools from Constantin Stanislavski’s acting system for working on our inner motive forces. Previous article: The Triumvirate of Consciousness ] Emotion is one of the three inner motive forces that drive us to action, the other two being intellect and will. Being active, rather than apathetic or paralysed, is good but all actions are not positive, effective and goal-directed. To ensure that we choose positive action, we need to work on strengthening our understanding of and influence over the three motive forces. Here, I consider our emotions.  We often see emotions as beyond control. They happen to us. They are a result of circumstances, events and memories. They also have disturbing physical associations: the sweaty palms from nervousness, the heated face from embarrassment, the accelerated heart beat from excitement.  If emotions last longer, they become moods. These overlay our daily l...

Our conscious lives are increasingly fragmented. So many things demand our attention. Many of us struggle to find meaning in our lives and accomplish goals dear to us. It is simpler to follow the easy path of opportunity, rather than work to craft what we want in life.  Constantin Stanislavski developed a system which provides tools to address this. Stanislavski was an acclaimed Russian actor and director around the turn of the 20th century. He wrote extensively about his system for preparing actors to portray characters on stage with truth and a sense of reality. In his system, he introduced the three inner motive forces or triumvirate that can direct and influence consciousness: emotion, intellect and will. I believe that Stanislavski’s system is applicable outside the world of theatre. Stanislavski’s triumvirate helps us to become more self-aware, discover our goals, define steps to achieve them, and actually do those steps. How can a system designed for actors and make-believe ...