Interview with Paul Castro

I was recently blessed with the opportunity to interview Paul Castro, the author of the original screenplay, “August Rush” which became a feature film in 2007, starring Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams, Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

I was introduced to the move by my 17 years old sister, Michelle, and immediately became a fan! I ‘m not exaggerating when I say that I watched August Rush at least a dozen times.

I was touched and moved by the main character, August Rush, a young orphan who hears music in everything whether it be the wind in the grass or the roar of rush hour traffic. The sounds of the world are a symphony to his ears that later become fodder for his own symphony which helps him attract his biological parents. While watching the movie, all I could think was, wow this kid is working with the law of attraction; I wonder if the writer has any idea of what he was doing?

During Thanksgiving weekend, my girlfriend Lauren was visiting me in Seattle when I played her Soundtrack to August Rush.  She’d never seen the movie, but was as much in love with the music as I was. So like two teenagers, we listened to the CD over, over and over again, until I drove her to the airport for her flight to LA.

The very next day after she arrived she was invited to a film screening of yet another magical movie, “Benjamin Button” and  while waiting for the movie to begin she started talking to a young man sitting next to her who turned out to be the one and only, Paul Castro, the author of August Rush! When Lauren shared with Paul that she had “ just listened to the soundtrack like 20 times” and that her best friend absolutely loves his movie,   Paul graciously gave Lauren his email and told her to give it to her friend and that he would send me a copy of the original script.

Talk about law of attraction and manifestation! My connection with this movie was so powerful that I believe it helped me manifest an interview with Paul Castro on my next trip to Los Angeles. When you watch a movie in one breath you know there is something special there for you.

In retrospect I realize that my meeting with Paul was as much about healing some of my judgments around about what it means to be a successful writer as it was to understand the brilliance behind one of my favorite movies, August Rush.

The inspiration for “August Rush” was Paul’s nephew, Anthony, a child prodigy who played Chopin at the age of eight at the Governor’s Ball. He created the name “AUGUST RUSH” to honor Geoffrey Rush after he won the Oscar for his portrayal of a musical genius in “SHINE.” Paul then combined that last name with the August moon on which his nephew was born, and there you have “AUGUST RUSH.”

Inessa: What does it mean to be a writer in 2008?

Paul: It’s important to be healthy as a writer in the year of 2008. The days of Edgar Allen Poe waking up on the side of the sidewalk in an opium binge are over. Hemmingway living in a bottle in between novels is not a healthy way to live. I think the best creativity is accessed when we are at our highest vibrational level and that’s usually through healthy living whatever that means to you.

I’m not one of these holy rollers that says oh you’ve got to live a monk life or a Buddhist life of just complete purity. It was Abraham Lincoln that said a man without vices surely has no virtue. I am with many vices, but I do try to be very healthy. I try to excersize and eat right and do certain levels of my own meditation-what that means to me. I think it puts me in a much better position to access the creativity that’s needed to tell a poignant story that’s going to enrich another person’s life.

Inessa: So you are saying you don’t have to be broke and sick in order to be brilliant?

Paul: There is no honor is struggling and being a starving artist.

Inessa: Are you saying it’s an old archetype?

Paul:  It’s an old archetype that’s alive and kicking in the year 2008

Inessa: You think it’s still as bad?

Paul: Ya, I think in this town people love that. They love self- deprecation. They love telling people all about why there life isn’t working. You mentioned you were a Russian Jew. A lot of peoples say, this town is Russian, or this town is Gay. Oh you only succeeded because you went to UCLA and that’s the best film school, so you had an entrée into the business. It doesn’t matter what is true and what is not true. What is true is the reality that you are bringing to the table. Are you bringing your best self? There is a big difference between reputation and character. A person’s reputation is defined by other people. A character is something you know about yourself.

Paul told me he wrote 43 scripts before he got his big break.  He graduated number 1 from the UCLA School of Film, Television, and Digital Media where he scored a three picture million dollar deal three weeks before graduation. Many of the other grad students gave up. Success wasn’t yet showing up on the physical level and they started thinking about settling down and getting married and went home. He admitted that perhaps going home was the right choice for them, but that “Before you abandon a path your on ask, what’s the real reason? and that “Courage is holding on just one minute longer.” Two gems that I have already programmed into my brain!

For many on the spiritual path, including myself, we get into the habit of attending every seminar, having our chakras balanced, and our guru on speed dial and spending 3000 hours in therapy just to remove the emotional scars from when we were teenagers so we can activate our full potential today. I speak for myself when I say that my motivation to do and share and create in this world has in the past become somewhat thwarted by the need to fix myself. And that the “fix” myself sometimes bypasses taking small steps towards larger goals and aspirations. It’s important to remember that one of the most fundamental principles of being a spiritual being having a human experience is that “Spirit meets us at the point of Action.”  To me, Paul Castro perfectly exemplifies that principle.

Paul: Where there is a will there is a way. Life isn’t as complicated as most people want it to be. Mark Twain once said, “I’ve lived a long Life of Many Problems. Most of which Never Existed.”  So we look back at our life and we go were those teenage years really that bad? If we’re going to be honest with ourselves usually they are a lot worse the way we’ve remembered them-we’ve amplified them.”

Inessa: Speaking of Teenager I went to an all girls catholic high school and I’m a Jew!

Paul: When I was in grade school, I got my ass kicked by a Catholic nun named Sister Eileen and she was a really tough nun and when I graduated from the 8^th grade she knew I was going to military high school and we looked at each other like two old war buddies and I said, “I’m going to make you proud.” And she said, “Make G-d Proud” and I said” who’s God “ and she said, “The Artist In you” and the next day she died.

Everyone thought that I would be kicked out of Military High School in the first month and four years later I graduated # 1 in the school and dedicated those four years to her. It taught me that your own reality is really what you choose to make it. And that’s actually in the movie that Shirley MacLain is going to be in called “Eileen’s Ice” which is a drama about a 73 year old hostile catholic nun who’s ordered to mentor a 16 year old ghetto kid who is under house arrest. 

Inessa: Wow. I Love that!

Paul: This unwanting responsibility disrupts Sister Eileen’s efforts to complete an ice sculpture that she is been creating for the pope’s Christmas visit which is two weeks away. She has waited her entire life to meet the pope and ask for forgiveness for something that happened to her when she was 13 years young.

Inessa: That’s brilliant

Paul: That’s where spirituality meets metaphysics and spirituality comes in that’s it’s not labels that you have to adhere to, but actions.

Originally, Paul’s agent told him that the only person that could play that role of Eileen was Shirley MaClain but that they would need one million dollars.

Inessa: How did you manifest Shirley?

Paul:  I went to see a doctor for a sports injury. I told him I was a writer and about my new script. He said a friend of mine would be perfect for this. And I said who’s your friend and he said, Shirley MacLain. Write me letter about the script and give me the script with the letter and I’ll give it to her, so I did. I was surfing then got in my jeep and the phone rings. “Hey Paul, its Shirley MaClain. Read your script. I love it when are you coming to New Mexico and spend a few days.” So I’m going from an energy field of this will never happen to saying yes it will. Immediately when that was said I said no I won’t own that no I will be in collusion with Shirley and that weekend I was in New Mexico and spent three days with her on her ranch.

Inessa: That’s incredible you totally manifested Shirley MaClain against all odds! Not only are you so in alignment with your purpose but you don’t seem to have any fear.

Paul: I realize that we have a certain level of influence on our life and then we have to let go. It’s like when I was in Sand Point Idaho Skiing in Schweitzer Mountain, gorgeous mountain, it’s a hidden secret. What’s interesting about skiing is that you need skill to ski but you also need gravity, you need down hill. The mountain does the work for you. It’s like you’ve got to trust that this is all going to work out and you do your part by obtaining the skills required and can I ski, yes. I attained that skill. It’s a part of my DNA and I’m bringing that to the table. Now nature and the snow and the mountain is the thrill not my ability to ski.  It’s the elements around and I just have to surrender to them and I have an exhilarating time when I ski. The same thing is with the Entertainment industry .

Inessa: Do you want to win an Oscar someday?

Paul: Sure that would be great. That would be lovely… really appreciate that tangible physical acknowledgment of my ability. What’s more important to me is knowing that I have influenced the masses positively.

Inessa: How do you know when it’s time to surrender and when it’s time to act?

Paul: When you know you don’t have control. You can only influence as much as you can.

Inessa: how do you know when that moment is?

Paul: I really don’t believe we were born to suffer. I think we were born to contribute. When I go into a meeting with a studio exec or an actor it’s not like, I hope you by my script. Give me lots of money. Make me a famous screenwriter. It’s how can I contribute to you and your environment? Will this movie, if you’re an actor, help you to express your craft at the highest Level? Will it allow you to do other movies because it’s successful? At the studio, is this in with the types of movies you make? Is this going to influence your spiritual reach as far as reaching an audience on a grand level? I think people want to feel good-they want to feel god.

Inessa: It sound like the way you hold things is to be of service.

Paul: Not always, I still have an ego

Inessa: But you bring the service component into it. That probably helps you balance the energy of taking and giving.

Paul: Whenever I start feeling trepidatious or anxious into the situation I asked myself why, and it usually comes down to ego and that I’m not looking to add value. When I feel myself going into that realm I go wait and back up.

Inessa: Is there a turnaround technique you use when you feel fear?

Paul: I think when you feel the fear that’s telling you to do it. I think it just gives you a different perspective.

Paul is not only a major manifestor and an excellent writer but he is an altruist at heart. He volunteered for seven years as an expert crisis counselor at the Suicide Prevention Center of Los Angeles from 1997-2004. When I asked him why, he said that he wanted to offset the narcissism.

Inessa: What inspired you to be a writer?

Paul: First time I knew I was onto something was in the 6^th grade. There was a teacher. She was going through a divorce and she was very angry at the world so she came in and told the kids to “write a creative writing story for the next hour you brats, I’m going outside to smoke.” So I wrote about her having an affair with the janitor and plotting to kill the principle and take over the school. So it got me in front of the board of trustees and my parents and they were going to kick me out of school. That was the first time I thought wow this writing thing is a really powerful thing it got everyone so fired up and upset.

Then when you have an opportunity to write in high school. When you’re trying to impress a pretty girl with a Valentine’s card or for her birthday. That’s really the only time I had the opportunity to write until I was a junior in high school. And there was teacher named Don Cheesman. I should find that guy because he was a big influence. He had us write a creative writing story for his class. And I wrote one called “Life and Death” about two marine core buddies who go to war in the Middle East under President Bush after Tel Aviv is attacked and one of them dies. The interesting thing about that story is that it was before the Middle East conflict and before there was any President Bush one or two.

I was inspired by Paul on so many levels. He is truly a heart-centered man who lives in service to his purpose while simultaneously contributing and making a positive difference on this planet through his writing and teaching! I’m so grateful that there are artists like him in Hollywood making movies that not only reflect spiritual values, but that the very energy behind his writing is congruent with the themes he picks!

 Paul is currently working on a project called THE ULTRA ONE, a true story about legendary African American ultrarunner DAVID GOGGINS and his quest to raise money through his running for the families of fallen warriors.  Megastar WILL SMITH is considering playing the lead role.

Whether it was Paul’s military school that gave him the discipline to follow through on his visions, or Sister Eileen that taught him to be true to his inner artist, whatever it was he’s got the goods and we are so fortunate that he is sharing them with us!

If you wish to have your script evaluated by Paul, please go to:  www.milliondollarscreenwriter.com

*Nick Castle was the follow on writer for “AUGUST RUSH”

Commanding Position

I can’t tell you how many home offices and business offices I’ve walked into where the individuals  desk was either facing a wall or a window and their back was completely exposed and the door was out of sight.

In Feng shui ,doors are the mouths to opportunity from where the chi or energy enters.

When your back is to a door, it could be literally creating a blind spot and you may be missing some very important information or opportunities. Having a back to the door is metaphor that you are not in control of things. If you want to be the cause of your life and not just the effect, it’s important to set yourself up for success while you’re in the office. Not being able to see the door over a long period of time triggers the flight or fight response system in our body and it basically has a negative impact on our nervous system and contributes to feeling stressed out and overwhelmed!

Who do you want to be the driver of your business and finances?

When you can’t see  the door it may be an indicator, that things are falling through the cracks and you are not in command of your business and finances. First thing is to make sure that from your desk you have the widest perspective of the entire room including the door.  Except you don’t want to sit directly in front of the door. That’s considered the line of fire and can make it difficult to get things done and focus.

Make sure that there is a solid wall behind you, which represents security and support. Another very important piece of placing yourself in command of your business and finances is having a strong chair that really supports you.

When you have a rickety chair that’s almost falling apart or that has holes in the upholstery, or your just borrowing one from the kitchen denotes energy loss.

All through history kings, emperor and those who have held high rank knew the symbological significance of a throne.If you want to feel empowered, invest in buying yourself a chair that screams I’m the king of my castle!Sit in it and say our intentions out loud for your business, “I Am in Command Of my Finances. I am Deciding to Be Wealthy and Abundant Today!”

Some offices, like cubicles, it’s really challenging to gain the commanding position becasue they are already designed with the back being exposed to the entrance. In such cases it’s important to take the virtual command position and place a mirror somewhere on your desk or even on your monitor so you can see what’s behind you. It’s like having a rearview mirror on your desk and helps you feel at ease knowing that you are in command of your life!

How to Convert a Bedroom Blunder into a Heart-Centered Wonder

A FENG SHUI TELE-SEMINAR!!

What message does your bedroom send out about you?

Is it holding your single status in place?

Whether you’re single and looking for the right partner, or in a relationship and want to deepen your intimacy, then the first place to start is in the bedroom!

In this Tele-Seminar, you will learn sure fire tips to transform your bedroom from hum drum and boring into a sanctuary for love!

We will……….

1. Identify Major Bedrooms Romance Zappers

2. Show you how to arrange your bedroom for Rest, Romance & Rejuvenation

3. Turn your bedroom into a Drama-Free Zone!

4. Apply the “Love” grid to your bedroom to amplify your intentions!

When: Wednesday February 11, 2009, 7:00PM-8:30PM

Cost: $10, refer a friend and pay $5!

Where: Tele-Seminar Conference Line.
Once you have RSVP’d, you will receive an email with the phone number and access code!

Please RSVP by sending me an email: fengshuifromtheheart@yahoo.com. Payment can be made via pay pal or by check!

Inessa Freylekhman, professional Feng Shui Practitioner and MA in Spiritual Psychology offers life-enhancing services to men and woman from all walks of life. Her work has appeared in LA Yoga Magazine, on KPFK, Star 98.7 and various Internet Talk Shows.

Listen to this very special show on releasing your  clutter and stepping

into your full potential in 2009!

Click Here!

Wow! I was so excited when I heard that yellow is the color for 2009! In Feng Shui Yellow radiates healing, health, joy and optimism. It’s also the color for strengthening and balancing your mental, emotional and physical body.

Yellow can be introduced into the space in a myriad of ways. Imagine, pops of yellows from Sunflowers, or a Chihuly  blown mustard yellow glass bowl that makes the perfect addition to any table, and especially the one that greets you in the foyer.

Placing pictures of the sun and yellow flowers will also work, or what about a bowl full of lemons in your kitchen.

I just bi-located to Seattle, so I’m already missing the sunny weather of Southern California. The overcast skies can really cast a sense of gloom even for this high energy Feng Shui gal!

Today I got this great idea to create little offerings with yellow and pink flowers. I made a little offering in every room by placing flowers and candles on small plates ( I learned this as a part of a larger space clearing ceremony in Bali). Boy, can I tell you what a different it made. Every room has an ambience and a special glow and it viurtualy cost me nothing!

Basically, a little yellow can really go along way in helping lift your spirits during this holiday season!

Listen to what design experts are saying…………..

“There’s a prediction from a leading color source that cheerful and sunny yellow will be the influential color of 2009.

Pantone, which provides color standards to design industries, specifically cites “mimosa,” a vibrant shade of yellow illustrated by the flowers of some mimosa trees as well as the brunch-favorite cocktail, as its top shade of the new year. In general, Pantone expects the public to embrace many tones of optimistic yellow.”

For the full article, please visit Yahoo News!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081203/ap_on_re_us/color_of_the_year

Water in Feng Shui represents Abundance and Life Force energy.

I make it a habit to go to the ocean at least twice a week. I find that it cleanses my body, mind and soul. Its a way of re-setting my chi. Especially after I’ve been in a session or woke up not feeling so great.

I like to come to the ocean and to release anything I may have picked up from my client that doesn’t belong to me, or any negative thoughts that are spiraling around in my mind.

In Feng Shui we bring the energy of water-abundance and life force into our homes to promote Prosperity, Tranquility and New Energy in the following ways:

1. Purchase a water fountain and place it in the far left hand corner of your home-from the front door-thats the prosperity section of the house. If there is bathroom there or a sink there, then that can represent an energy drainer, or a money drain. You can counteract that by introducing a plant, like bamboo to symbolically absorb the water, or a live plant, or even a picture of a tree or a plant! It’s that easy!

2. You can get a picture of water, like a water fall, lake or ocean and hang that in your prosperity section. The other area that water corresponds with is the career are, which is always on the same wall as the front door, but not necessarily the front door, it falls in the middle of the wall.

There you can also place a water fountain to bring in new opportunities, or prospects, or when you are ready for a new career. Make sure the water is flowing into the house and not out, so you’re not loosing opportunities.

3. Hang a mirror facing the ocean an direct it to draw in the energy of abundance and life force into your home!

I hope those suggestions help and just visiting the Ocean is such an abundant, self-nurturing activity. I feel so good every time I go. Even  if it’s just for 10 minutes.

So what are you waiting for!

I spent almost three weeks in Bali. Not enough.

For the first week of my trip I studied space clearing with Karen Kingston in Amed, a fishing village in the east of Bali. It was very educational, but the highlight of my trip was living at at Santra Putra a fine art studio/guest house run by internationally acclaimed abstract artist I Wayan Karja and his wife Gede.

I have to say living with Karja and his wife and studying painting and Balinese cosmology, which by the way is very similar to Feng SHui was a powerful opening to my own artistic side and a deeper knowing of how color can deepen our experience of life and the divine.

“Karja combines the philosophy of the Balinese Hindu Mandala colors with modern international techniques in order to build a bridge between the micro and macro cosmos.

The mandala functions as a spiritual tool, in its presence the viewer is not only affected by each color in particular but by the balance of colors through which a state of inner harmony is created in the viewer.

For example red might not only symbolize passion or heat but may also reduce those sensations by reflecting or absorbing those energies.” (content from website)

I tapped into my creativity. It was my first time painting and I found myself seeking to harmonize and blend colors in the same family rather than pick contrasting colors-which I think will probably be the next phase for me. What you don’t see is that the coil overlaps the symbol of the ana-hu-the root of the present word God is the Sanskrit word hu which means to call upon, invoke, implore.

In between painting classes and watching the amazing view of rice fields from my balcony, I ate the best Satai in the world at Mades Warung 15 feet from my guest house with my girlfriends and meandered through the rice fields and visited temples.

Every moment I spent at Santra Putra was infused with color. I really felt the power that color plays in our lives. The Balinese Mandla represents every color except for purple which I thought was really interesting. Purple is the color for wealth and opulence and their is a lot of poverty in Bali-not sure but maybe there is a connection there. I will write more on teh subject of cosmology and art that I learned from KArja in the coming days for now enjoy the pictures and if you want to know more about this Master Artist, please check out his web site: http://www.wayankarja.com/about/

See if any of the statements below ring true for you….

1. From my bed, I can’t see the door.
2. From my bed I’m looking at the door to the toilet
3. From my bed I’m looking straight at the TV, or have the TV exposed most of the time.
4. My bed is too small for anyone else but me and maybe my dog.
5. My bed makes a terrible squeaky noise.
6. My sheets are white and my bedroom is devoid of color.
7. I’m still using the same sheets I slept in with my ex.
8. My bedroom has too much color!
9. I can’t fall asleep!
10. “Make Love”, is that a foreign film, I could rent at Blockbuster Video?
13. I hate the pictures on the wall
14. The walls are bare there is nothing to look at
15. The room feels cold and uninspired
16. The room feels like it’s more about my partners energy than mine
17. I work in my bedroom
18. There are lots of books in the bedroom
19. I workout in the bedroom
20. I study and read and in my bedroom
21. I fall sleep on the coach, and never make it to my bed
22. My nightstand are filled with clutter
23. I still have pictures of my ex boyfriend in my room.
24. One side of my bed is pushed up against the wall

If you answered yes to even ONE of these, then you’re probably like most people and there is something not supporting you in your bedroom.

Get out a 8×11′ piece of paper and make a line in the middle creating two sides. On the top of one write, “My 10%.” On the other write. “for the Greater Good 90%.”

Then under your 10% write all the things you really want to experience in your life and also the things that are currently causing you worry, fear, feel unhappy, depressed, distracted, and tired.

Now I want you to circle the things that are under your immediate control. The things that aren’t I want you to cross out and transcribe to other side of the paper under the heading “for The Greater Good 90%.”

For example if one of the things I want is to release 10lbs and get in shape, but Im afraid that I will never have the willpower. I would place the”never have the willpower” on “for the Greatest Good” side of the page!

Can you allow yourself to let go of those things that you have no control over right now?

Place your hand on your heart and say, “I and allowing myself to let go of my fear that I won’t have any money. I am allowing The Greater Good assistance in my life as partner to support me.”

Great!

How many of the things under “My 10%” can you take a simple next action on in the next couple of days? What is that next action step? Write it down! Commit to a date. Call a friend or coach or email them to help you stay accountable to getting it done!

Are any of the things on your list, “someday one day maybe items”? It’s important to capture everything on paper! Create a separate someday one day list. Someday one day I will bungie jump!

According to David Allen, author of, ” Getting Things Done,” we are likely to seize opportunities that arise if we have identified and captured them as a possibility.

Once your mind is free and the greater good is your partner you can now co-create from a place of inspiration and imagination and presence because you no longer have all of these cycles of incomplete action running in your mind!

I am in preparation mode for my trip to Bali to study Space Clearing with Karen Kingston.

The process of clearing, releasing, re-setting the energy grid in my body, mind and spirit begins now.

Old things, broken things, papers with scribble and doodles, gifts from old lovers, love letters, books I haven’t looked at in 3 years, books I will never read for another 10, and much more has left my space.

I have tossed, burned, gifted and sold many of the belongings that have taken up stock in my life and kept me anchored to a past that I now bless, but no longer need in my life.

The universe abhors a vacuum and I am ready for the NOW where abundance, love and peace grace every area of my life!