Bellamy Young, TV's "Scandal" Star
Bellamy Young, star of ABC's "Scandal," discusses how her unique pre-bedtime meditation ritual helps improve sleep and process intense acting roles. She also shares insights on her acting career and the show's behind-the-scenes changes.
Deep Dive Analysis
11 Topic Outline
Bellamy Young's Introduction to Meditation
Bellamy's Personal Meditation Practice and Benefits
Meditation's Role in an Actor's Life
Bellamy's Past Struggles with Self-Esteem and Lying
Bellamy's Family History and Mother's Resilience
Bellamy's Adoption Story and Educational Journey
"Scandal" Fan Culture and Show's Success
Bellamy's Approach to Portraying Mellie Grant
Impact of Meditation on Acting Performance
Bellamy's Personal Views on Presidency and Social Issues
Portraying the First Female President on "Scandal"
4 Key Concepts
Not identifying with thoughts
Meditation helps individuals disengage from unhelpful thoughts, self-doubt, or obsessions. This practice allows for objectivity, the choice to release these thoughts, and the understanding that one's mind is not solely driving their experience.
Lying as exhausting
Lying requires significant mental effort to remember details and maintain consistency, which Bellamy found unsustainable. It also creates a chasm of separation between individuals, hindering genuine human connection and the experience of oneness.
Oneness (Bellamy's perspective)
This is Bellamy's intuitive belief that all energy is shared, and there is no arbitrary end or beginning between entities. She connects this to physics, seeing everything as interconnected rather than discrete packets, leading to a perspective where everyone receives what they are meant to.
Mellie's transformation
The character Mellie Grant evolved from being perceived as merely 'ornamental' to 'functional.' This transformation involved surrendering her personal dream of the presidency, realizing it was a service to America, and being willing to give her life for the inauguration.
7 Questions Answered
After her third stepfather passed away, she sought an anchor, was inspired by a friend studying TM, and began reading about brain changes, eventually developing her own personal practice.
It significantly improved her sleep, helped her learn not to identify with unhelpful thoughts, allowed her to disengage from self-doubt, and provided objectivity to forgive herself, knowing she's making choices.
She believes she is not competitive with others, as everyone gets the hand they are supposed to get, and if she doesn't get a job, it simply wasn't her job.
It is incredibly helpful because it brings utter calm and presence, which are essential for acting, allowing her to relax, open her mind, and react authentically in the moment.
She primarily honors the script, but also researched historical first ladies like Julia Grant and Dolly Madison, though Mellie ultimately became her own unique character.
Personally, she would prioritize arts and education, animal rights, and LGBTQ+ rights, aiming to rebuild and support communities that have been disenfranchised.
The original plan for the season, which involved one of the bad guys speaking Russian and hacking the election, was completely discarded and changed after the 2016 US election and real-world events involving Russian hacking.
19 Actionable Insights
1. Disengage from Unhelpful Thoughts
Learn to disengage from unhelpful thoughts, self-doubt, or obsessions by recognizing you are not your thoughts. Treat thoughts as something happening to you that you can choose to love and release, gaining objectivity and self-forgiveness.
2. Pre-Bedtime Dissolving Meditation
Practice a pre-bedtime meditation ritual by breathing in and out on ‘yes,’ ’love,’ and ’thank you.’ Then, focus on creating space between your atoms to dissolve into a thoughtless, suspended state.
3. Prioritize Daily Meditation
Make time for meditation daily, even when busy, by integrating it into your routine (e.g., before bed). Not doing so can destabilize the rest of your daily life.
4. Tailor Meditation Time to Self
Understand your personal rhythms (e.g., morning vs. night person) and experiment to find the specific time that works best for your meditation practice. Be willing to fail and restart to form abiding habits.
5. Experiment to Find Your Meditation
Experiment with various meditation techniques, such as focusing on breath or a candle, to intuit and discover what works best for your personal path. There is no right or wrong way, and exploration is key.
6. Cultivate Calm, Listen Within
Actively cultivate calmness and listen internally to access the answers and guidance you seek. The answers you need are already within you and will emerge when you are calm.
7. Embrace Choice, Be Gentle
Recognize that you are making choices in life and are not merely being run by circumstances. View perceived failures as lessons, embrace all experiences, and practice self-gentleness.
8. Root Deeply, Counter Rejection
In the face of rejection or perceived lack, cultivate a deeper internal root or connection to a sense of oneness and abundance. This helps prevent being lost by identifying with lack.
9. Accept Life’s Meant Path
Adopt a mindset that you receive the experiences and opportunities meant for you, believing there are no mistakes. This perspective helps avoid resentment and fosters acceptance.
10. Process Intense Emotions
Develop personal methods to process intense emotional experiences, especially when engaging in activities that simulate strong emotions. This is crucial for learning and moving forward without carrying emotional burdens.
11. Practice Honesty for Connection
Practice honesty in your interactions and life, avoiding lies even when self-esteem is low. Honesty fosters deeper connection with others and reinforces a sense of oneness, while lying creates separation.
12. Prioritize Relaxation for Flow
Prioritize relaxation of both mind and body before engaging in tasks requiring flow, presence, or interaction. Being ‘seized up’ prevents flow, while relaxation allows for openness and genuine reaction.
13. Live Fully in the Present
Focus on living fully in the present moment, rather than dwelling on the past or anticipating the future. Being present allows for deeper engagement with experiences and fosters a sense of oneness.
14. Offer Compassion to Past Self
Offer compassion and understanding to your past self, recognizing that wherever you were, you were ‘perfect’ in that moment. This practice helps heal past hurts and fosters self-acceptance.
15. Surrender Dreams for Service
Reflect on personal dreams and consider if there are opportunities to surrender them to a larger purpose or act of service. This shift can transform personal ambition into a meaningful contribution.
16. Cultivate Core Virtues
Actively cultivate and embody qualities such as courage, humility, and nobility in your actions and leadership. These virtues are essential for effective and impactful service.
17. Practice Paying It Forward
Identify opportunities to ‘pay it forward’ by supporting others, especially in areas where you have received help or benefit. This can be a deeply fulfilling and proud accomplishment.
18. Champion Values-Aligned Causes
Identify issues and causes that resonate with your personal values (e.g., animal rights, arts, education, LGBTQ+ rights, inclusion) and actively work to support them. This contributes to building a more inclusive and loving world.
19. Engage Community in Real-Time
Actively engage with your audience or community in real-time using modern communication tools (like social media live-tweeting) to foster connection and loyalty. This can transform passive consumption into active engagement.
3 Key Quotes
It's life-changing, and then it becomes like breathing. So you're like, why would I not breathe? That would be crazy.
Bellamy Young
Your body, when you're acting, you know, has no idea you're acting. You're going through something. You're going through it. And it just doesn't know the difference.
Bellamy Young
America is behind the rest of the world in this regard. We just have not had our fair share of women leadership...
Bellamy Young
1 Protocols
Bellamy Young's Pre-Bedtime Meditation
Bellamy Young- Start on the breath.
- Breathe in on "yes" and out on "yes."
- Breathe in on "love" and out on "love."
- Breathe in on "thank you" and out on "thank you."
- Focus on creating a little space between atoms, then more space.
- Eventually, dissolve into everything and stay thoughtless, suspended, and complete for as long as possible.