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Fri, 08/31/2007

Juggling Acting and Math by Danica McKellar:

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Next week I shoot an episode of CBS's sitcom "How I Met Your Mother", and then I leave for my book tour for the rest of September... all the while, gratefully fulfilling myriad book publicity requests - whenever humanly possible!

Juggling acting and academics in one form or another seems to be the norm for me. Ever since I was a child actress, I learned to juggle schoolwork on film sets... running back and forth between shooting an emotional crying scene, and taking a History exam. Boy, that'll train you to focus on the task in front of you!

I've found it a bit harder to juggle things these days - well, I should say that I need more technique to get through it ... without a pounding headache. Luckily, my mom is a mediation instructor and taught me to meditate at a very young age. I haven't always practiced it regularly, but I'm not too proud to admit that I need it more now than ever.

Ironically, before I even thought about writing a math book, and thus thrusting myself back into the challenge of juggling two diametrically different disciplines, my mom and I had decided to produce a yoga/meditation DVD for the "time crunched." We decided we'd call it "Daily Dose of Dharma." It would consist of several short yoga and meditation segments designed to create truly blissful, re-centering breaks in the middle of a crazed day. (A close friend, Christy Marsden of YogaBlend Studio, is one of the best yoga instructors I've ever known, so she would collaborate and narrate the yoga segments).

So, we went to Hawaii - two years ago - and shot this DVD. Well, we wanted to produce it on our own, and not involve a big production company, so post-production was slow coming, to say the least. But we eventually did finish. And let me tell you, I use those segments ALL the time. This week, I think I did one of the 20-min yoga "breaks" every day. My favorite one is called "Stress Relief." If you're interested, there's a link from my website, or you can just go to DailyDoseOfDharma.com.

So there's a little something you may not have known about me. I love yoga!

Just for fun, for anyone reading this blog who might like to try the DVD, the coupon code PENGUIN15 will give you 15% off from now until the end of September. Why not? My mom and I produced the thing, and it took 2 years (I think I mentioned that) so why not enjoy the freedom to give coupons at our discretion?

So for now, and with the help of my little "breaks," I'll continue to sketch out what I might say at the book signings (yes, I've been told that I will be speaking at some of them!) and learn my lines for the upcoming TV guest role. And by the way, I hope to see some of you at the book signings! For a schedule, visit: MathDoesntSuck.com

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