By Dr. Marta Adelsman
Life Coach in Communication and Consciousness
www.DrMartaCoach.com
(September 26, 2018)
TJ and Dave begin their 50-min improv comedy show by going out on stage and staring at each other. Neither of them knows what will happen in the next 50 minutes. They make themselves a blank slate. Then one speaks, and from there they play off each other’s dialogue, never missing a beat.
To deal with the anxiety of performing in front of large audiences without a script, they tell themselves that they don’t make it happen; that the story is already in process. While an endless possibility of stories exists that they might act out, when they step out on stage and the lights go on, one story becomes frozen in place. They step into it and live it for the next 50 minutes.
This attitude takes huge pressure off of them. With the story already set, TJ and Dave just stay out of the way. They let the story live them. Doing so frees them simply to go along for the ride, ever present to what the show is already doing.
What if life happens like that? What if the script has already been written and, like TJ and Dave, all we have to do is to cooperate with it? When I live like that, I don’t pre-suppose or pre-judge what might or should happen. Taking things as they come and flowing with what wants to be, I experience great peace, aliveness and enjoyment.
In that flow of life, I have confidence that the words (or the actions) that serve a situation will be there when I need them. I don’t have to rehearse what I will say or do ahead of time. I don’t regret what I said or did in the past. Anxiety about making decisions melts away. In any given moment, I am tapping into a deeper wisdom that speaks only into the Now of life.
It’s like stepping off the edge of a platform before the next piece of floor comes up to meet your foot. Life feels uncertain, yet exhilarating. Life’s events spring from a deep stillness that cradles them in a blanket of peace. As TJ stated in an interview, “There’s no more calm place in the world than the quiet of doing that show with David at that time.”
Living like this requires trust and a willingness to let go of control. It’s scary stuff! How many of us are willing to step out without seeing a floor? Yet remaining present to what The Life Show does frees us, like TJ and Dave, to go along for the ride…
… if we’re willing to stay out of the way.