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.