Meet Blake Shields Abramovitz | Writer, actor, singer, yoga and meditation teacher.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Blake Shields Abramovitz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Blake Shields, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
I think there are different kinds of happiness.

When things go well financially or in terms of career, for example, most people feel a certain triumphant personal joy, and I’m no different.

Then there’s the safety and love fostered by intimate human connections, not at all an identical experience. Both subjectively and neurobiologically, these are distinct feeling patterns and brain states. And again, like the majority of humanity, I place a high premium on this kind of happiness, despite the fact that for anyone who endured the sort of early childhood abuses that I did, emerging from soothing isolation to stay deeply engaged with others requires serious effort.

But I think where I might differ from the average bear is that I also derive enormous fulfillment and meaning from formal body-mind awareness practices like meditation and mindful yoga . I’m obviously not unique in this, but it isn’t typical. I dedicate significant chunks of my life to what Dharma teacher Shinzen Young calls “happiness independent of conditions,” or “deep happiness;” that is, to cultivating the freedom to be okay, glad even, with very little. Prior to and independent of one’s finances, relationships, or career, it is possible to abide in a different order of contentment, a quiet joy that seems to flow from the very fact of one’s existence, rather than from this or that success.

Finally, like many artists, I find happiness in the creative process. In the same way that non-practitioners might be puzzled by someone who spends hours, months, and years of his life sitting silently on a meditation cushion, non-artists might find it difficult to understand that the very activity of art-making, whether the ultimate result is appreciated or not, is itself a reason to live.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Well, I’ve been acting in some capacity or other since I was about twelve, and I’ve been a professional actor my whole adult life . To say it has not been easy would be an understatement of egregious proportions. I’ve slowly come to recognize that Hollywood is a bizarre gladiator arena where decent souls litter the sand and beasts roam freely, and that the successes I’ve enjoyed, as far as they’ve gone, have been a stroke of almost supernatural luck. Still, I’m proud of my career highlights– “Sleeper Cell” and “New Port South,” for example.

But all through life, and parallel to my professional career, I’ve been doing other things, which have been more purely soulful, you could say, more directly from the heart: Writing and producing my own plays; writing poetry; writing and singing songs. As I enter this next chapter of my story, I’m intent on doubling down on those creative enterprises, which do not depend on an industrial model for their validity.

I’ve dealt with a lot of internal resistance in this regard, probably at least partly because my childhood, if it taught me anything, taught me to be inconspicuous. So, these more personal projects have too often come second. I want that to change now. I’m intent on becoming the artist I sense I can be. “To become who you are,” wrote Jung, “is the privilege of a lifetime.”

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love Charcoal. This is a beautiful contemporary American restaurant in Venice that specializes in wood-fired meats and grilled dishes. It ain’t cheap but it’s absolutely wonderful. Somehow they pull off a vibe that’s both upscale and casual-cozy. Charcoal is the brainchild of the Michelin-starred chef Josiah Citrin, who, in addition to his talents as a cook, is a good human. He let me walk away without paying one night when I ran out of money. (I promised to come back the next day to settle up and I did.) Anyway, his ribeye steak is transcendent, the cabbage baked in embers is beyond the beyond, and the cocktails are literally the best I’ve had anywhere (especially the Smoke & Fire, assuming you like mezcal). I could go on but I’ll spare you. Just go!

I also love the beach. Venice Beach and Santa Monica Beach are some of the most exquisite places on earth. We take them for granted because they’re always just… there. But mosey or bike down there in a more mindful mode some late afternoon, look around you, and you’ll remember what a privilege it is to be here at all among these marvelous waves and palms and gulls and skies.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So many people have helped and supported me in my development that it would be impossible to name them all without trying the patience of the reader.

Here’s a partial list:

My siblings, the only people on earth with whom I can exchange a single glance that conveys the entire protracted nightmare we survived together;

sundry collaborators, companions, and even exes who have taught me, often inadvertently, what it means to be an artist, a lover, a friend;

my fiancée Eilen, who must have missed the memo that I’m unlovable and loved me anyway;

my longtime therapist Ava, who has put up with more shenanigans from me than a lesser clinician would have had the grace to accept;

my representatives in Hollywood, manager Brad and agent Bobby, who have believed in me through some unbelievably long dry spells and whose faith arms me with the courage to face this brutal casino of an industry;

the Dharma itself, as brought to me by a succession of brilliant meditation and yoga teachers. I doubt I’d still be here at all without the fantastic luck of having encountered the bona fide, grounded spirituality to which they introduced me.

So, it has been a long and complicated collective task to raise me, as it were, to teach me how to be a person, and it has taken a village. I hobbled out of a difficult childhood with some glaring foibles, and so to all the people who loved and stood by me I can only say thank you, thank you.

Instagram: I post updates and reflections here regularly… https://www.instagram.com/blakeshieldsabramovitz/

Facebook: Basically the same as my Instagram page except with more political discussions despite my best efforts, because I try to avoid those now… https://www.facebook.com/blake.shields.18

Other: Please follow me on Medium!

I’ve been posting poetry and prose here and every new reader means the world to me.

https://blakeshieldsabramovitz.medium.com

Image Credits
Bernard C. Bayer