The secret is, you do have control over some of the time in your life. You make choices every day. How are you going to spend it? If you know that you need some alone time, then see if you can find it during a 5 minute break. What if you need some "friends" time? Think of solutions that will fit into your schedule.

What if you need sleep/rest? Then you must give yourself time. Your body cannot go without rest. I have known people that only need 3 hours of sleep at night. I wish I could do that! My body needs 8 or I am not a happy camper. I have to make sure that those 8 hours make it into my schedule. I do give up some things that other people are doing, but I know what my body needs. If you skip to much sleep time, then you could get sick. Resting is just as important as nutrition. Just think of it as nutrition for your dreams!

Try meditation. There are many different types. It's not just sitting in a lotus position and humming. Meditation is basically a type of focusing or "Not" focusing. One of the purposes is to still your mind. Once you know your show, aren't you doing that while you rehearse? Yes you are thinking alot, but aren't you also "forgetting" the other things in life?

Try doing some reseach into different types of meditation. Again, you would be suprised at what a 5 minute meditation will do for you. There are many resources online, or at your library. But then again, who has time? Or do you?

How can I have a personal life when I have rehearsal all of the time? How can I get my school work done? Friends? What are those? Don't forget your chores?

It seems that, during our performing seasons, we have so much to do and so little time to do it in. One solution to that problem is scheduling. There are many ways to arrange the time that you have; however, sometimes it may seem as if you have no control. Oh, but you do.

The first thing to remember is, you made the agreement to be in your performance group. You are making sacrifices to be there. No one is twisting your arm and making you be in your group are they? I hope not. (Sometimes, you just need someone to remind you of that.) Be clear on why you are there and now we have a good place to start.

You can start by writing a schedule of your week in a calendar. If you don't have one, then make a quick one. Look and compare at what your free time looks like. Some questions to think about are:

• What do you do with the free time that you do have?
• What do you do on your breaks during rehearsal?
• Can you do some of your school work during traveling times in the car/bus/etc?
• Will you really live to see another day if you don't see the newest movie or the latest "Smallville"?