The Gift of Feeling Deeply

 I was listening to Desert Island Discs recently and heard an interview with Oscar winner Jessie Buckley. She spoke openly about her struggles as a teenager - how deeply she felt everything, and how hard it was to contain that constant urge for big emotional expression.

It made me reflect on something many actors and artists experience: we’re often required to feel more intensely than the average person. Of course, that doesn’t make those feelings any easier. In fact, being a sensitive artist can feel overwhelming - big, heavy, and, at times, inconvenient. There are moments when it might seem easier not to feel so much at all.

And yet, our work gives those feelings purpose.

Ours is one of the only professions where life’s challenges - and everything we learn from them - can be transformed into something meaningful. A bank teller doesn’t need to channel grief to do their job. An actor does. When a character is grieving, we are called upon to access something real, something lived.

The bank teller still experiences grief, of course - but they don’t get to use it in the same way.

So when you find yourself in the midst of big, uncomfortable emotions or difficult periods, try if you can to make space for them. Trust that, in time, what feels painful now may become something valuable. Something usable. Something that deepens your work and your understanding.

You are learning through your experiences.

And what a gift it is to understand ourselves so deeply - and to use that understanding to tell stories that move others.

Our feelings don’t have to be a burden, even if we sometimes wish they would quiet down or simply let us be “happy.”

I hope this offers you a bit of perspective.

Keep up the great (and important) work.

Mark :)