My Story:

Over the stretch of my career, I have enjoyed some meaningful successes and endured many challenging pauses! I have lead big TV shows and ‘supported’ the cast in others. I’ve had posters in Time Square, walked a few red carpets and met some incredibly inspiring people along the way. I have been fortunate enough to be in that 1% of ‘successful’ actors.

At the age of 36, however, after years of high pressure, self-criticism, body image issues and ‘not-enoughness’, I hit burnout, causing a mental and physical breakdown. On deep reflection, it became apparent that I was not pursuing acting success for the right reasons, and was therefore feeling empty and unfulfilled by the work I was doing. I realised, that I had been using my career in an attempt to heal a significant childhood wound and meet long standing unmet needs for connection, validation, belonging and approval. Needs that this business, or any other, was never going to fulfil!

As we all do, I had created some powerful beliefs about myself, my worth and my value in the world based on the relationships I had had growing up. I realised that the dream I had long been reaching for was born out of a desperate need for the love and approval of men (in particular) and was, in fact, perpetuating the lack of it! It was clear to me then, that acting had not only stopped being ‘my purpose’ in life, but it was keeping me from it - making me sad, single and unwell.

After long re-evaluation, I took a step back from the career I had worked so hard to achieve and, unbeknownst to me, started the studies that would eventually birth Anastasia Griffith Coaching and the Actualise programme itself.

Over the following year I learned that ‘success' for me, at that stage of my life, had nothing to do with acting at all. I longed to become a mother and re-learn how to truly love, connect with and belong to other beings. Almost miraculously, I called in my beautiful son (a story you can read more about here) and my life took a whole new direction that provided me with a peace and happiness I had never known before.

I made a conscious choice to focus my time and energy on raising my child through those formative first 7 years and created my coaching business, inspired by my personal journey. The Actualise process was born using the tools I had adopted to heal myself and the studies in interpersonal psychology, energy psychology and self development I had long been committed to.

I am delighted to say I have recently come back to my acting career, but with a whole new identity! I am no longer driven by the need for external validation and approval but by creative expression and a love of the people I get to collaborate with! And because I can now counterbalance the self-focused work of the actor with the ‘in service’ work of the coach, I am much more balanced and contented in my life.

The point is this tho: Success looks different to everyone.

And identifying what success means to you - and why - is key to feeling fulfilled and free in the life you create, personally or professionally.

Then we must harness the full power of our mind, body and spirit to make that aligned success a lived reality.

Nothing is off the table. Extraordinary things can be achieved. But we must first come back to who we really are if we want to truly enjoy them.

Read more about what I do through the links above, or get in touch… I would love to hear from you!