Finding Our Way Through Chaos
“Pathmaker, there is no path; you make the path by walking...”
We can look behind us and clearly see from where we’ve come. It's comforting to see our path tracing back, showing us our history through time. Unfortunately, we cannot look forward and see the same comforting views. Our footsteps haven’t yet been made, our actions are not yet defined, and the path is not yet clear. This causes chaos in some human minds. After all, if there’s no path forward, then we get to choose which way to go.
However, choice without certainty often becomes a predictable equation in the human experience:
Unlimited choices + not knowing which choice is “right” = CHAOS.
Humans don't usually enjoy chaos, so - instead - we often choose the path that leads back to knowing. Because knowing is comfort, even if the destination isn’t pleasant. Isn’t it ironic that we'll sometimes walk knowingly back into situations that we'll dislike and that will cause us known discomfort… rather than walk forward into the unknown and future possibilities that await us?
There is one practice, however, that helps us get better at stepping into the unknown: improvisation.
Improv is a tool that we’re born with and use from the moment we arrive in this life. In adulthood, many forget or even shun the practice. “It’s just child play,” some say. I agree! Improv most certainly IS child’s play, and brilliantly so, for it teaches us the valuable skills of:
Spontaneity
Hearing and trusting our instincts
Seeing our own psychology
Finding & taking our moments and, most importantly…
Choosing a direction to just… “see where it might lead”
Forging new paths can be scary but it can ALSO be fun. Ironically, it can also provide us comfort — the very thing most of us seek — by teaching us to enjoy the moment and to have trust and faith in ourselves.
Embracing that trust involves trusting by means of fun, and changing by means of play.
Change Through Play: there’s a reason I named our studio that. Now that you know, I hope you’ll join me and the other teachers and students on the road not-yet-traveled. There, I can promise that we’ll find adventures that might now be hidden but are waiting for us so they can reveal themselves.
By: David Koff