Yes, and

I have been mostly thinking about how life is all improvisation. Which made me think that maybe improv theatre has something to teach us about how to live. One of the concepts I love about Improv is ‘Yes and’ the very simple idea that to keep the scene (story) alive you need to say yes to it, and then build something on top. 

The moment we say no to someone’s suggestions we block a direction.  The scene becomes easy to wind down to an end. No, sometimes finishes the story all together. And obviously I am not suggesting we never say no as we all know boundaries are important and there are some things that I am a no to – for example wrinkles, spitting on the street and marmite.  But the concept of spending more time in the realm of yes and is to me an intriguing one. That looking more at what life and the people around us are serving up to us. Saying yes to it and then most importantly ‘and.’. 

And is where it gets interesting. And is where we take a positive step and turn it into our own one. And is our chance to shape things, to build. It reminds me of the concept of creating more than you consume. It is where we start to be ourselves in community. The idea that it is never just taking someone else’s or life’s offering verbatim but looking at it and then thinking – what could I add? How would I shape it? What would make it even more exciting for me? 

And then adding. 

It is acceptance plus. Yes, and do you know what life this as well, because that makes me smile. 

That very sweet and lovely idea of showing up in life as ourselves. Do I have any idea if this is possible? Obviously not, but I feel like in embracing the mess it’s time to show up as ourselves and add our own improvisation on top of what the world is throwing up for us. 

So are you ready for the adventure?