Yoga is something that once you start practicing it you learn a lot of breathing skills and I think that would really be incredibly useful on a day-to-day basis. It can help you with all the emotional stress.
I think during the day, when I was doing the Masterchef experience, everything I'd learnt in yoga, the breathing techniques, etc, would really help and it would calm me down because it was so stressful.
I love yoga because not only is it a workout for your body, but also your breathing, which helps release a lot of stress. It really prepares you for the day.
I think it's worth trying to do something about obvious sources of stress in your life. But even more important is learning and practicing methods to neutralize the harmful effects of stress on the body and mind. There are many possibilities, anything from meditation and yoga to listening to relaxing music. My personal favorite is simple breathing techniques - they're very effective, take very little time, and they're free.
There's a lot of stress on young people. They've always got exams and have to reach this goal or reach that goal. Yoga might be really good for them because there must be a lot of emotions that come up and yoga would really help to get a perspective and balance.
You have to learn every day. You can't be playing every day, but you can be practicing. If you cannot be practicing with a net and others daily, you still can be learning about the game by reading, watching and imaging. You must learn every day, if you want to be a real volleyball player. ?
The '60s and '70s - I grew up in the Haight-Ashbury - people around me were going to school by day and all night long having these incredibly exciting meetings, mobilizing, marching, drafting statements. It was very intoxicating. It was very energizing. We've really forgotten a lot of those skills. Or they haven't been transmitted. It's useful to the people controlling us to have those skills not be available.
Sometimes it's an external approach where one can learn the skills required, let's say, learn to play the trumpet and in that process other things happen. It's magical: through the process of practicing four hours a day you start focusing on emotion and when you pick up the trumpet it's filled with feeling.
And as a young black man, a lot of my professors would really think that it was useful to see the work of politically oriented, positivistic, leftist creative works. And I found it incredibly useful. And I found it something that I've learned from and gained from.
It's a lot of accumulated joy and tension and all kinds of emotions just pouring out of all us. We've all been preparing for this day and we all knew that one day we would just have to move on with our lives and careers even though we all love this show and love working together. But it's still an incredibly emotional time, especially for me with a lot of journalists asking me how it feels about FRIENDS coming to an end. It's started to make me think very deeply about what it's all meant to me and that's made me ever more emotional!
I get really bored really easily, so I'm a big believer and advocate of changing it up. One day, I'll do a power yoga or hot yoga day, and then go into a more intense day of HIIT training or boxing. I always have a bit of dance in there too.
I practice Kriya Yoga, which is a form of meditation. I do that twice a day and regular yoga once a day.
I take things on a day to day basis when it gets really hectic. But I do think long term and I'm looking forward to the next couple of years when I do start producing my own films with my production company and playing some characters that are older and that's really exciting to me.
I get quite frustrated about a lot of things on a day-to-day basis. I can't help it; it is an impulse with me.
Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders.
What I'm trying to do is help people understand if for one day they could have the best day ever, where there energy and there focus and everything is super clear and they feel like a great golden god... if you do that one time you know you're capable of it and you can start working towards that. Most people I know have felt like crap without knowing it most of their life. They've never had a wonderful day. Once you have that day, you can learn how to kick more ass repeatedly.
Acting is what I'm living and breathing on a day-to-day basis.