How Making Things Up Together Helps Us Deal With Reality
Jude Treder-Wolff (judetrederwolff)
LCSW, CGP, MT & Certified Practitioner of Applied Improvisation, consultant/trainer and writer/performer. www.lifestage.org, www.mostlytruethings.com
Resilience is a strength which, when we face a difficult reality that stretches our capacity to cope, doesn’t go away. It provides a kind of emotional and cognitive elasticity we need to reimagine our lives when they are turned upside-down. Improv is an ideal playground for developing this elasticity. From the very start of improv training, from the most basic activities that begin to develop the skills required for making things up together with other people, we must embrace a degree of uncertainty and discomfort, but we embrace it in a positive way with the support of others. Research published in the journal Thinking Skills and Creativity shows that responding to a made-up reality, moment to moment, forges authentic connections and thinking skills that translate into facing uncertainty in real life.
