Beyond the basement

Here's how to tell if your beautiful mind isn't serving you as well as it could be at the moment. We'll explore five common symptoms of 'being up in your head' as we call it in improv - not enjoying the here-and-now, feeling fatigued and fed-up, like you don't know, zoned out or dwelling on the past/future. There's hope here too, as we explore antidotes and ways to break the cycle of excess thinking.

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Here's what happens when we put a little effort into feeling good about where we are and who we're with. These are my reflections from a recent Leeds improv Co-Lab play session I hosted, exploring these ideas to see how they improve our performance and free up our natural potential.

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Before, during and after a tricky experience - how do you support yourself, if at all? When the panic, fear, shame, anger arrives, do you distract yourself or sit with it? Or like many people I expect do you just accept mild traumatizing as part of the deal you didn't sign up for when you were born?

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I hear this phrase a LOT in the change work I do with individuals. People usually say it when we come up against the very value or belief you have that's at the root of some behaviour that's unhelpful, holding you back or otherwise not serving you any more. It's a denial of the very thing that defines you as a human - your ability to learn, cope and adapt.

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What links a chilly dawn swim and improv? Let's find out shall we... I've just emerged from a very cold lake. I can barely feel my hands. Yet my still frozen body has all manner of juicy reflections for you from yesterday's big workshop, about finding calm in your body, landing in the here-and-now, when you're a bit panicked, stressed or distracted.

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Chris gets spooked at the dentist, feels a bit sensitive, then talks all about how we might all do well to become better listeners and communicators alongside each other. Instead of fixers and solvers. Sure, we need both. But mainly more of the former, I reckon.

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Ever had one of these? After a big event, a risk taken, a tough conversation or being in front of a group. You get a sort of fragile, sad, hyper-sensitive feeling in the hours or days afterwards that's difficult to place. Here's what could be going on.

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It's another lesson I'm doomed to learn over and over again, or people like me. This week it's seeing things as either wholly bad/wrong or wholly good/right, with no room for the colourful nuance in between. Because that's where the richness of life is. And things are rarely either/or. Life is full of paradox, two seemingly opposing truths both being equally valid - like I'm excited AND I'm scared. That didn't go to plan, AND people loved it.

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A quick reflection on how last night's play session at Leeds Improv Co-Lab went. It was all about feeling into the here-and-now, and noticing who's right alongside us. Basically feeling safe and comfortable enough to have a jolly nice time. This is a stepping stone towards offering a more immersive, day-long workshop all about this thing I care about and have struggled with myself sometimes - not just in improv, in everyday life too. Maybe you can relate, even if you've never improvised? Being all up in your head, panicky, zoned out or distracted and overthinking things. The scourge of this modern age.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chriskenworthy.substack.com

I'd never heard of this improv principle until a recent workshop. Here I'm puzzling how it might help when it comes to uncertainty, and being vulnerable about what we don't know in the face of new challenges.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chriskenworthy.substack.com