We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Natalie Roy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Natalie below.
Natalie , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from deep within. Tough outer circumstances and struggles have given me the great gift of claiming it or rejecting it over and over again. In my early years I fought hard against it. I wished life would revolve around me and my dreams. I got into a tizzy and full blown tantrum when it didn’t. Resilience was the deep down part of me that saw all of that contrast as a gift, and the fire that was building me into the woman I came to be.
Resilience is one of the most important qualities a human can cultivate for themselves and as a model to others. It is not about enabling the intolerable, rather about who we can choose to be in any given circumstance and our ability to maneuver through difficultly or discomfort with more care, flexibility and within alignment to our values.
My personal resilience has build over years by allowing discomfort as a teacher and failure as a friend. I live my life as an actor and creative entrepreneur and coach and so much of my life is about vulnerability, putting myself out there into the unknown and facing visibility hangovers and rejection. Each time I am able to stand at the edge of my range of capacity with gratitude for the chance to really know myself and grow myself, that range expands. Resilience is the bridge between who I have thought myself to be and who I have yet to be.
As I have developed more courage and wisdom (with time and trials) I can rebound faster, make less meaning out of the hard stuff and see clearly that life is not here to cater to me but to grow me and each time it does so rather than kicking and screaming and wishing it were easier I can offer my own discipline to the process and devotion to the path of who I am becoming, and the game changes,
Resilience is built is direct relationship to my ability to let go of the story of it needing to be any other way, and surrendering fully to the Everest that is mine to climb.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I have been a professional actor for almost 25 years. As I navigated the uncertain waters of this career I become devoted to sharing the wisdom, trials, wins and wisdom with as many other creatives and actors as I could. I developed a coaching program and company committed to creative empowerment to help artists live authentic, embodied lives in service to themselves and others.
Whatever your job or vocation you can live your life beautifully, authentically and creatively.
I offer masterclasses, online programs, acting courses, mindset mastery programs, peak performance enhancing practices and tools and a life that I live expressing my own joie de vivre.
You can catch my upcoming films and acting projects by following me on social media.
Instagram: @natalieroyofficial
You can join one of my online courses (at all price points from free of charge and upwards) at www.natalieroy.com
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three most potent qualities I have adopted:
Gratitude: Being truly devoted to the practice of thankfulness and seeing life as something to treasure that I am so fortunate to be a part of.
Presence: The practice of keeping my focus, mind and heart, in the right now. Not going into the past and trying to avoid or control into creation any outcomes. Not going into the future to protect myself or keep myself from what I may be afraid could be. Staying right here, right now.
Doing my personal best, whatever that is, in this moment. Giving life, my relationships and my vocation my best shot. Knowing that my best changes as I do. Surrendering perfection for authentic expression and giving it all I have, whatever that may be.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Much of my life I have battled perfectionism and over achieving of unrelenting standards. It has caused a “never enough” mentality that I have sometimes thought was a good thing, or a great motivating force. But with time and experience I have learned that motivating myself from the ick of not enough is never as potent as motivating myself from excitement of bringing forth whatever gifts, talents and life I have been given to live. It becomes a process now of KNOWING myself, not pushing myself. As I face myself more fully I have to sit in a lot of discomfort. The discomfort of stretching to new ceilings. The discomfort of growing myself into new spaces I am not used to. The discomfort of stronger boundaries of my own mental chatter and believing in myself even when the circumstantial evidence around me may not yet support it.
I think what I continue to learn is that the only challenge I ever face is myself. The dual between who I have been and who I am yet to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.natalieroy.com
- Instagram: @natalieroyofficial
Image Credits
Yellowbelly Photography
Jeffrey Mosier
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