Contemplating on Chair in my Room

by paulkivelson

I spent an hour sitting in my chair just staring up at the ceiling. I found for the first 5 minutes thinking  about all the deep thing I must be learning from my quite contemplation. Then I checked the clock.  For the next ten minutes I looked up at the ceiling I just got more and more bored, until I checked the clock again. Then my started to wander and I found thoughts drifting all over the place. After the point of extreme boredom you find your own way to keep your mind occupied. The thoughts I had were not super deep they where in truth very one dimensional and mostly about what it would be like if I could teleport.

As I was coming out of my musings I had a thought about improv. The best mode to be in for an improv performance is that space after boredom where your mind is  nimble and able to freely wanders. The question then becomes how to get in that mental state without being incredibly bored for a while and a lot repeatedly looking at the clock. I guess that is why you take improv class so you can learn to go through all the stages of ceiling observation quickly.

Puppies and problem sets

by betsyoneducation

The example in Full Catastrophe Living of being engaged in looking at a sunset really spoke to me. I have been helping friends in San Francisco for the last week and a half by petsitting. Their incorrigible corgi has growled at me, and I have sworn back at her; one morning she literally drive me to tears with her unwillingness to let me catch her to put her in the pen.

But surprisingly the puppy has induced a mindfulness in me. For one thing, I have to put aside other worries (like problem sets) as I deal with her. Even more, she makes me more receptive to the beauty around me; just yesterday, as she tugged me up a hill as I walked her, my mind was clear, and at a switchback I was able to fully appreciate being there and watching the moon rise across the bay.

Do we really know how our minds work?

by educ95si

As a society, we are trained not say everything we think. Yet thoughts emerge in our heads continuously. Part of the process of “growing up” is that we must develop sophisticated filters for what is shared and what is kept private. This conditioning could be put in place at home when we are taught “good manners” or could be learned at school when we see how our peers react to various things we say. We quickly learn to say the right things that have the right kind of effect on people. Maybe we want them to like us, admire us, approve of us, forgive us. We can tailor our conversations and responses based on what we want.

In an improvisational setting, one of the things that we will benefit greatly from is embracing ALL of our thoughts and removing the value judgments from them. Part of improvisation is discovering how our minds work. To loosen the filters and working on the premise that all thoughts are “useful” and not necessarily “true.” Sometimes, a thought that will come up that might be potentially offensive, obscene or rude. Thats OK. Because we are in the process of experimenting, everything is fair game and if you think someone might have been offended by something you did or said, just check in with them later and chances are they will forgive you.

For example, in a game of 3-Things! the following exchange happened:

L: 3 things that you wouldn’t tell anyone.

K: <First thing> <Second thing> … and …your smile is …really fake!

 

This surprised both improvisers. The first one was surprised and perhaps mildly offended because the second was looking straight at her while she said the thing about her smile. The second one was surprised (it seemed to me) as to how that kind of thing could have come up. This may not be welcome in other situations but in an improvisational setting, this is magic. When we surprise ourselves. It is a gift and is very very useful to learn about ourselves and also if you are performing for a crowd.