I recently attended a talk about improvisation, facilitated by Dayna Gowan and Jesse Greenfield, at the Art & Science of Health Promotion conference. During the session, we learned about an important tenet of improvisation. Saying “yes, and…”.
For those unfamiliar with improv, this golden rule requires that you accept what your improv scene partner has said or done (“yes”) and expand on what they have created (“and”). Attendees had the chance to play a few short improv games with each other and were then asked to share their thoughts on the experience. Some words shared included nerve-racking, strange, scary, silly, freeing, and fun.
Following the presentation, our facilitators invited us to join them for a guided improvisation session where we would have the chance to further explore improv by partnering with other attendees to build our own scenes. Sound scary? Yes, at first. Likely because I was comparing my skills to those of professional improv performers like Wayne Brady and Colin Mockrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame. However, once I embraced another important tenet of improvisation—realizing that there are no mistakes—I was able to let go and enjoy the experience with my fellow performers. It was wonderful!
Improv provided me with a safe and ultimately low-risk place to play creatively. I left the session feeling energized and shared with Dayna and Jesse that I saw some practical applications for working with my coaching clients when they have trouble envisioning their future.
It was when I returned home and caught the movie Wall Street once again that a more fully formed understanding of the power of improv came into view. In one of my favorite scenes from the movie, Charlie Sheen’s character Bud Fox says, “Lou, I got a sure thing. Anacott Steel.” To which Lou Mannheim, played by Hal Holbrook, replies with a variation of the idiom often credited to Ben Franklin, “No such thing, Bud – ‘cept death and taxes.”
That line is fitting because there is so much truth in it. Life is full of uncertainty. Unexpected things happen all the time. Consider the last unexpected event that you experienced. If nothing immediately comes to mind, examine your day yesterday. How many things happened that you did not anticipate? Perhaps you burned your morning toast or spilled coffee on yourself, maybe you came across road construction or an automobile accident.
When we feel uncertain or threatened, our brain enters a hyper vigilant state and works to keep us safe by trying to predict the future. This elegant and effective response to acute stress allows us to act quickly and has been crucial for our survival as a species. It is less helpful when it turns into a habit of worrying about unexpected events in the future. You may have also noticed as you reviewed your unexpected events from yesterday that we are not actually very good at predicting the future. In The Stress Prescription, author and stress researcher Dr. Elissa Epel states, “Uncertainty stress…is one of the most pernicious forms of chronic stress out there because it’s subtle, quiet, and pervasive. It’s often something we don’t notice that we’ve habituated to over months or years.”
Take a moment to close your eyes and briefly scan your body from head to toe.
Did you notice any tightness that you had been unaware of before?
That is a pretty good measure of the baseline stress arousal level of your nervous system.
Accepting that life is uncertain is a critical component of reducing chronic stress in our lives. The good news is that it is possible to lower our baseline stress arousal and increase our tolerance for uncertainty. My experience with improvisation allowed me to practice embracing the unexpected and build my muscles for tolerating uncertainty. When the scene began, I had no idea what gift I would receive from my improv partner. Once my partner set the stage, I had to acknowledge and accept what they created and expand on it. Repeatedly performing this “yes, and” guiding principle of improv helps acclimate our nervous system to the reality that we cannot predict everything, and that is okay. By intentionally inviting that uncertainty into our lives, we are essentially rehearsing our response to the unexpected that will come our way.
Learning to embrace uncertainty will look different for everyone. Although I highly recommend improv, that experience may feel too risky for some people. I invite you to begin experimenting with how to increase your own tolerance of uncertainty by selecting an idea that feels manageable from the list below or adding one of your own.
- Try a new food.
- Watch a movie you know nothing about.
- Take a turn down a road you have not traveled before.
- Go to a restaurant without reading a review.
- ___________________________________.
Once completed, spend some time reflecting on your experience and what you learned about your ability to handle the unexpected. I believe you will uncover some wonderful insight into your resilience along the way, and I look forward to hearing how things went for you. For more help lowering your baseline stress arousal level, use the contact form on this site to request a free 15-minute call to discover whether my services are a fit. Happy experimenting!
