Category: Improv

By Patricia Ryan Madson

The truth is, human beings are all improvisers by nature. Everybody, unless performing a scripted play, makes up his life as he goes along. We are all improvisation.Improvisation is a metaphor, a path, and a system. The world of improv is a portal into mindfulness and magic. 

Improv provides a workout that helps to shake loose rigid patterns of thinking and doing. For many of us, age produces a tendency to rely on known patterns. AS we grow it becomes harder to take risks. We rely on what we know to be secure. It becomes more natural to say NO. We criticize and complain. We are all artist, we just need to show up and get started. 

Improvisation helps us connect with others, to lighten up and look around, it offers an alternative to control. It offers us a chance to do things differently. 

We plan, make lists, worry, theorize, choose safety. We seem to have lost the knack to look at things differently every day, with fresh eyes or doing anything out of our comfort zone. 

Taking an improvised step always leads you somewhere. 

Notice where you are going. 

Principles of Improv:

1. Say YES. Humans long to connect.Yes glues us together. Yes, the juices rolling. Yes might get us into trouble, but trouble is not bad when we are in it together. To say Yes is to make a leap of faith, to risk oneself in a new and often scary relationship.
   Exercise 1: Choose a person close to you: and for one week agree with all of her ideas. Find something right about everything they say. Look for every opportunity to offer support. Give him the spotlight. Notice the results.
   Exercise 2: For one day say yes to everything. Set your own preferences aside. Notice the results. See how often it may not be convenient or easy to do. Obviously use common sense!!
   Exercise 3: Group Game – INVENTING PROVERBS. One word at a time and at the end of sentence put your hands together in prayer and say YES, YES, YES.
   Exercise 4: Cultivate Yes Phrases: you bet, you are right, I’m with you, Good idea, etc.
2. Don’t PREPARE. Change the habit of getting ready for life in favor of getting on with it now. Excessive planning impedes our ability to see what is actually in front of us. Let go of your ego’s involvement in the process.When we give up the struggle to show off our talent, a natural wisdom can emerge.
   Exercise: Spend a day without a plan. Instead of following your ordinary routine, open your eyes and move with curiosity and attention. Don’t look at your To Do list. When you notice your mind is planning, make a conscious shift of attention to the present moment. Notice everything that is going on now. Look at everything as if you were going to describe it to the police.
   Exercise 2: Imagine a box beautifully wrapped in front of you. Take a moment to “see” the box. Touch the box, what color is the box, how does the box feel? Open the box, what is inside? Notice a detail about the gift and examine it. Thank the giver. Trust your imagination – there is always something in the box.

Remember: Fear is not a problem; allowing yourself to be consumed by it is. 

3. JUST SHOW UP. Stop talking, Start walking – L.M. Heroux
   Procrastination, laziness, fears – it’s easy to find a reason for not going. Remember Time lost is never found again.
   Exercise 1: Create a ritual. Identify a habit you wish you had. (going for a walk, exercising, paying bills). Think of what will make this habit easy or more attractive to do. Set a time to do a preparatory ritual each day. Focus on doing it faithfully.
   Exercise 2: Make a list of 5 places that are your “hot spot” places where important things happen in your life. Go there right now.
   Exercise 3: Change the location of a familiar activity. Move a meeting elsewhere, meet at a new place with your friends, take your lung to a new place. Move your reading time to a park.
   Tips: motivation is not a prerequisite for showing up. Use rituals to get going. Change Location.
4. START ANYWHERE. This rule is liberating. Once a project is under way it does not matter where you started. Start from the middle, the end or the beginning.
   Exercise 1: Identify a project that you need to get done. Follow your first thought and begin the job. Do the very first thing that comes to your mind. When you choose your first though you focus on making your first thought a good thought instead of searching the the good thought to start,
   Exercise 2: Instead of writing your notes in precise language, try writing questions to yourself. Then answer the question. This is useful when speaking in public. Write down questions than answer them.
   Exercise 3: Start a monologue. Ask yourself a question and create a monologue. Prompts: If there were four more hours in the day how would you spend them? Talk about something beautiful you saw recently. 
5. BE AVERAGE. Close enough is perfect. Dare to be Dull- Ketih Johnstone. Be nothing special- David K Reynolds, Cultivate the ordinary mind – zen saying. Changing expectations can take the pressure off and may even cheer you up. Step 1 is giving up on perfection. Step 2 is stop trying to come up with something different. This can actually block the creative process. “The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”. Marcel Proust. Try thinking inside the box, just look more carefully.
   Exercise 1: Look for a gift for a loved one and consider an ordinary gift of everyday use. A towel, a pillow, a pen, a clock,a blanket. Keep a list of useful everyday objects.
6. PAY ATTENTION. The detail of each day takes place right in front of us. How much are we missing?
   Exercise 1: Keep reading until  I instruct you to: Close your eyes. Once your eyes are shut, describe in as much detail as you can the immediate environment. Don’t cheat by glancing now or studying the room beforehand. With your eyes closed point at specific objects in the room. Describe colors, shapes and the layout of the space. Include as many details as you can remember. When you finish remembering, open your eyes, see what you got right, what obvious items did you overlook? What surprised you? It is important to take time to reflect. Close your eyes again, try to remember three new things you noticed the second time you opened them.
   Exercise 2: Try to attend to one thing at a time. Choose an ordinary activity like brushing your teeth: pay attention only to what you are doing while doing this activity. Avoid multitasking. Look at the steps you take, what comes first, second and third. Reflect on the task and the objects involved in the task, who made them, where did they come from. Reflect on the order you do things. Reflect on how it feels. If you wander off, bring it back to what you are doing.
   Exercise 3: In a familiar environment like your living room or your office or your walk to work, try to notice something new. A noise, an object that changed places. When you notice it try to examine it carefully. Repeat this exercise throughout your day.
   Exercise 4: Listen completely. Once a day devote your attention to someone who is speaking to you. Focus completely on what is being said. Try to repeat what the other person said.
   Exercise 5: Become an anthropologist. Notice what people are wearing, what type of noses they have, how they wear their hair. Discern their manner or their mood. Learn something new every day about those closest to you. 
7. FACE THE FACTS

These are notes and key highlights from the book.

Patricia Ryan Madson. Improv Wisdom : Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up. New York, Bell Tower, Cop, 2005.‌