When Life Forces Us To Improvise

Many of us insert ourselves into a fixed daily life, like someone traveling on the rail of a train knowing their next stop. However, sometimes, there are stops along the way, changes of direction and those incidents that nobody expects or even foresees. In those moments, people are forced to put aside our route plan and start improvising.

Let’s face it, this dimension is often frowned upon. There is no shortage of people who point out that whoever improvises is because they do not have a plan, because they do not take care of their forecasts, their plans and even their responsibilities. Because taking the step towards the unexpected without an instruction manual or a parachute can be reckless, it is true … but what is also true is that in life there is nothing for sure.

In uncertain times each of us is more than obliged to train ourselves in this curious but wonderful art: that of improvisation. We are all actors in a theater without a script where the director is destiny itself. At times, he brings us calm and at other times, he likes to write a somewhat more problematic and challenging role for us. What can we do in these situations?

More so … how do you learn to improvise in life?

The art of improvising: keys and strategies

Improvisation, like spontaneity, has the power to reformulate us. It is like an internal explosion that starts from daring and allows us to break internal frames, molds in which we have been contained for too long. Thus, and although the art of improvisation is something common that is taught in the field of dramatic art, stage and acting, in reality, it is a key competence also in the social and psychological scene.

Now, if there is something true, it is also that people tend to be naive: we think that the way we do things is the right one. We assume that what we take for granted today will continue to be tomorrow. We convince ourselves that we are infallible, that this present well-being will continue to exist in the near future. Until, suddenly, everything collapses and then we are forced to react.

The dangers of life

As children they gave us lined paper notebooks so that we could learn to take care of our calligraphy. We could not get out of the marked margins, a challenge that demanded our attention. Our hand, our mind were not used to those lines, to having to integrate ourselves into fixed lines. However, as we grew older, that task no longer seemed complicated.

We learned early to fit in, to integrate ourselves into a life that was set. Schedules, beliefs, projects, tasks to be noted on the agenda … The world of adults is perfectly mapped. We have lost the spontaneity of childhood and something like that is sad and paradoxical.

The mind becomes rigid, loses flexibility and spontaneity. This causes us to react badly to changes, to unforeseen events.

As Jacob Levi Moreno, creator of psychodramatic theory, pointed out to us, children are those potential geniuses from whom we should learn the art of improvisation. In your mental universes everything is possible. His curiosity, his ability to create and imagine are the other side of the coin of that adult mind always guided and rigid.

Improvising is good for the brain, the more you do it, the more options you find for your problems

In 2008 one of the most interesting studies in the area of ​​improvisation was carried out. Two neuroscientists and musicians (Charles Limb and Allen Braun) performed a set of MRIs on a large sample of jazz musicians. One thing that was discovered is that when they followed musical scores by heart and improvised them, their brains changed dramatically.

When we improvise, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (linked to the inner critic and fear) reduces its activity. In turn, circulation in the medial prefrontal cortex area is stimulated. Creative thinking and the ability to solve problems are located in this region. In other words, the art of being spontaneous from time to time, of innovating and launching ourselves, making use of creativity reverts to the brain and also to immediate reality.

How to practice the art of improvisation

The ability to improvise must go hand in hand with the competence to plan. Both dimensions are decisive. In the day to day it is appropriate to maintain habits, routines, take care of those plans that, after all, allow us to achieve goals. Now, when that balance falls apart, we must have that ace up our sleeve that makes it easier for us to know how to improvise.

These are some keys to ponder.

• Assume that you cannot have control over everything that surrounds you. Accept what can no longer be changed.
• Improvising is not starting from scratch. You have accumulated experience behind you.
• Reduce fear, control stress and be selective with the information that comes to you. Sometimes the people around us draw us back to the comfort zone, to those fixed and stereotyped patterns that fuel discomfort. Surround yourself with encouragement that inspires you and doesn’t get in the way.
• Take a psychological distance. Look at things in perspective and observe your surroundings – the opportunities are there.
• Be responsible for yourself. Sometimes the art of improvisation requires making risky decisions, options in which no one is going to help you. You are responsible for your decisions and also for every consequence.

• Doing new things opens up paths for us. Dare to innovate.

To conclude, being skilled in this competition can take time and even more, it can cause us to make mistakes. However, even mistakes are part of the path and breath of learning. Assuming it will facilitate that journey of progress.