So this afternoon I was really annoyed to learn that a particular decision did not go my way, and I was so angry and bothered that I wanted to just go home and skip the rest of my responsibilities. But I had a class waiting so I went in there and put on this big fakey smile and started through my usual clownlike shtick and before you know it I got caught up in the performance and forgot to be annoyed. My students aren't perfect but they're engaging and they're why I'm here, and sometimes that's enough.
Actors refer to this as "muscle memory." It's a tenet of the Stanislavski Method, at least as it has been translated by Strasburg here in the U.S. The re-creation of the physical effects of an emotion cause the re-birth of the emotion, or, as one of my profs used to say, "Monkey do, monkey feel."
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