I’m sure you are already like, yes and tell me more! Well I am more than happy to satisfy that craving.  To begin at the start, I had no improv, comedy or acting experience prior to this class but went in with an open heart and mind. .

Here I reflect on and consider the lessons learned these past 8 weeks and the great impact they can have, reminding myself life is all about having fun.

I’m going to break down these contemplations by lesson as I reflect on my own experience and its connection to my mindfulness practice (it is in the name after all) as well as discussions and concepts discovered in therapy.

 Establishing the scene- something harder to do in practice than I thought

Who we are, where we are, what we are doing- creating a based reality on which to grow and develop a scene. This reminds me of grounding and being present- establishing yourself in the moment in order to be and do your best. If there is one thing I would like to remind myself from these lessons and carry forward day by day, it is this. In moments of struggle, boredom, irritation or even simple quiet moments, I believe it would be good to stop the thought train, ask myself these questions then establish and ground myself in that moment. 

Another valuable lesson we may hear quite a bit in life that was very important in call is Active Listening. (Pun intended) With active and creative minds come a lot of thoughts, so many that it can sometimes be very difficult to actively hear what is being said to you. You may hear words but are you aware of the tone, meaning and feeling behind them? Are you connecting with and looking at this person who is speaking, receiving their body language and giving your brain time to ingest this and respond in the way that feels most authentic to yourself and appropriate for the desired results of this response. Honoring being with another person and receiving their words in an active manner holds the power to build a desired reality as well as keep you present in the now with the people around you. 

This directly leads us into the next lesson learned (how fortuitous!) and that is staying true to yourself in regards to feelings, instincts and honest responses. When actively listening to your ‘scene partner’ I learned that being honest to yourself and how you would respond or react to something leads to wonderful and hilarious results. I am not sure about you, but I have had a tendency to hold back honest or true reactions and feelings for much of my life. Whether it was to be polite, nice, not cause issue, or I was scared of response or reaction or just held back without really knowing why then deeply regretting not saying it after. I despise regret, it is so annoying and useless, except to remind us to not repeat those mistakes again if possible. Avoid the regret by being honest and true in your reaction and feelings in that present moment, that is the best time you have in which to do it, and if you are actively listening and honestly responding then you are being rather self authentic, are you not :)

Part of this idea of saying true to yourself came the lesson to follow the weird when it appeared in a scene. In the case of Improve 101 this was used a vehicle to drive into the strange, odd, aka funny and from their build- if this is true, what else is true? In real life, I know I have grown to avoid, ignore or try to “fix” or mask the weird in order to fit in, be accepted or survive the day. But it is in there weird places that one can find the silliest beauty. As I work to truly love myself more, I realize it is meant to be all encompassing, working against past lessons to self correct/judge/hate, embrace and celebrate, say yes and- go for the ride have some fun.

A, B & C- easy as…

We all learned our A, B, Cs as kids but it was only recently that I was introduced to A, B, C thinking even though it is something our active and wonderfully creative minds do it all the time without us even noticing. When you see or hear something (A) that then makes you think of something else (B)  that then makes you think of something ELSE! (C ) Like your thoughts are running an amazing race with idea spark being passed from thought to thought. It is actively doing this that I found to be rather hard and something I look forward to practicing more. Anytime you find yourself wondering how I got to this thought and then reflect backwards, that C to B to A can also be a fun mind exercise as well as a proud moment of reminder- oh yeah! I was talking about this because of B, which I was reminded of by A. 

A, B, C thinking promotes, fosters and embraces creative thinking and giving kind eyes to what many, like myself, might bemoan as a wandering mind. Embracing the journey and seeing where it can take you is part of the fun. We have these wonderful minds, these tools, but things can get too serious or structured in our minds, especially if we become critical of ourselves and thoughts. Loving and embracing (not acting or necessarily believing) them all I believe can assist with self love and acceptance. 

Relating to this and active listening is the act of ‘pocketing ideas’ for later. Like saving them as a special snack or treat to enjoy in the future as you stay grounded in the present. Listening to a monologue with the propose of building scenes from it right after, it is very easy to get into an idea trains that speeds away, taking you away from that moment, that speaker and your team. Our amazing instructor advised, upon being asked the question of how to avoid this unwanted journey and she suggested pocketing them for later. (I personally now find it helpful to even mime the act from time to time when I have these thoughts and ideas I would like to developed or explore more- the more exciting the ideas the more important I know it is to pocket and trust I will return to it. And you never know, something between this now and that one I could even be more inspired by my present to evolve the idea in even more ways than I would imagined. Trying to get to that C from whatever A you might have pulled from a monologue is more difficult and distracting than one might think. Trusting your mind will build to that C, pocket those inspirational (A) thoughts/ideas and continue to listen and be present in that moment in time as best as you can. 

 The infamous Yes, And… what I feel to be the most universally known rule or concept with regards to improv, and yet what are we saying yes to? The answer is simple yet scary all at once, we do not know. Saying yes and going along with someone else’s idea or scenario can be scary, letting go of control, expectations, outcomes and being there along for the ride. And truly being there, yes and I feel this is a great idea, let us build or yes I see how you feel or you passion, have we considered… and explore these worlds more. Shutting down ideas with a unexplored NO it so terrible and heartbreaking, yet we do it to each other and ourselves all the time. I am learning to follow the yes more while staying true to my authentic feelings and reactions. 

All the world’s an improv stage

Life is just a combination of unique experiences. Many Improv shows will start with an instruction informing the audience that what they are about to witness has never been done before, will never be done again and is a unique, singular experience for this moment and time. The same can honestly be true of any single moment in our lives. I am currently writing this on a train heading into New Jesery, and will never be on this exact same train, with these same Yes and…, hearing thes exact sounds or feeling my current emotions. Yet is it so easy to not think of this as we distract ourselves with life, technology, thought. These distractions can make it easy to believe everything is the same or one is in a rut but perhaps they are just no invested in the moment enough- both to possibly appreciate it and to try and grow/change it. 

END SCENE- A scene ends and immediately I think of all the things I could or should have done or said.  This mode of thinking was not specific to improv. I have had a few conversations on Should Thinking in therapy and actively work to avoid such thought patterns. I found this class and this concept of unique experiences to be immensely helpful with this, as I remind myself what is done and I can never know nor need to know how a slight change might have impacted everything. While my brain can assume the choice I didn’t make was better, there is no way to know and I realize that is also not supportive self thinking. Yes, and I did the best I could in that moment. Yes and now I have that experience. Perhaps Yes and could replace should have within my mind? 

So here were are now at the end, what a wonderful place to conclude! This may go without saying but I will anyway as it makes me very happy to do so- I could not be more grateful to myself (as well as proud) for taking this chance, this class and giving my inner child an amazing, safe place to play. I am so grateful for our instructor for providing and fostering this space as well as my very amazing, hilarious and wonderful classmates who made this experience. 

 To sum it up nice and neatly (with a little bow for good measure) nobody is perfect, so be kind to yourself and try to give yourself the time and space to explore what excites you. Be in the moment as much as possible, actively listen and pay attention to how you feel and build from there. Your authentic self is amazing, trust them and find spaces to foster their growth and development. And, of course, I highly recommend trying Improv 101 or any idea or project that’s been in the back of your mind that you have yet to allow yourself to explore- go for it and have fun, we are only here once. 

-Hope you have a wonderfully silly day :)