US

Hello hello dearest reader, I hope this message finds you well. Updates here include I just completed the one workshop I had for the month of July. It was a workshop on Body Language for the PA Students on Friday July 15th. It was a great group of students who had a lot of fun. In the final discussion, there was a moment where the student absolutely nailed the joy that can come from a sense of connection using just body language/nonverbal communication. It was really great. The students schedule had been pretty grueling last week from what I heard so I was impressed with how enthusiastic and engaged the group was. The other big event was the Thank You Event for all of the people who have been involved in any of the improv activities that I have put on over the past year. It was last night and it was very enjoyable to have so many people with various backgrounds but are all trained in improv principles. I will discuss more about that event later in the week. Today is more about the beginning of our journey coming in a upward spiral, related to the workshop last Friday…

Using body language to communicate was one of the first ways I used improv to help healthcare professionals. When I was asked to help with helping faculty give better, more engaging presentations using improv, I said yes. At the time, I was a pretty rotten presenter with a deep uneasiness surrounding any public speaking. Screwing around on an improv stage was fine and dandy or at least I had built up a tolerance for it by that point. Presenting in front of colleagues caused me all sorts of distress. I’d get sweaty, my voice would crack. Not good. Well for this I would be presenting in front of colleagues about how to be an excellent presenter. Really not good. Also, I hadn’t really advertised to many people that I regularly performed improv at that point and the idea of telling more people was like the cherry on top of my anxiety banana split. Very really not good.

Well I told myself if I want to formally use improv to teach healthcare providers, becoming a better presenter was the only way forward. I was going to have to be slightly more public that I perform improv. I was going to have to figure out a way to present this information. So I did. It went OK. My voice cracked a little but the audience laughed when they were supposed to and seemed to enjoy the exercises that we did. I have since done an improved version of that presentation over twenty times and it has become better each time. There is a book that I have referenced in this venue before but never has it been more applicable than here…

I am still on that path and could stand to improve public speaking even more but that first presentation caused a lot of mental anguish for me that had to be overcome. I think improv gave me the confidence needed to get over the hump to agree to it in the first place and also the humility to know that I need to sharpen my skills before the event. Right after the presentation I went down a bit of a dark path of regret. Improv training was there for me again as it gave me the ability to recognize what went well and think about mistakes to avoid in the future. The ideas of improv, especially the reminder that as bad as a show is, it is nice to know that there will never be another show like that again (same goes for the good shows, but that keeps me coming back), were of great use to me in that time. Improv forces me to enter into that balance of confidence to engage with the world and humility to figure out ways to improve the experience. You may recall the Upward Spiral (that is what I think I am going to call it, it will be abbreviated US) from a few posts ago.

There is no guarantee that increased engagement with the world will provide you with increased empathy or ability to see the world through another’s eyes. The conditions that are arranged in improv rehearsal and performance push you up the spiral naturally. That does not mean it is easy and of course nothing is guaranteed. Without engagement with the world however, there is no way to move past the obstacle

This lesson came into focus earlier this week, when I had a zoom meeting with someone who took my very first Faculty Development workshop on Body Language back in 2018. She had left UNMC several years ago for a distinguished role at a prominent medical school. She had randomly reached out to me after moving on from that position because she had remembered the workshops. She provided me a resource to pursue a higher level of professional training at public speaking. So, it looks like I will be back at Vulnerability stage of the Upward Spiral. The starting point is much higher than it was when I started but only because I said Yes and engaged with the world way back when. The process remains the same as I continue up the path