The “Yes And” Rule | Nerd Fitness

A few years back, I watched my friend’s 40th birthday party.

As part of the celebration, he hired a comic Improv and we all He had to participate in the learning of Improv comedy.

(I just felt the collective turmoil of all introverts reading this newsletter).

We started flying into fun scenarios and scenes to join and learned about Improv’s most important rule: “Yes and”.

Two simple words and the foundation for the whole comedy Improv:

Whenever someone comes with a scene, proposal or situation, the only acceptable answer is: “Yes and”

• Yes: Accept! I accept and recognize that whatever the situation is, no matter how absurd, it is true.
• And: Build! Like a tennis race, since your Imprial partner strikes the ball to you, your job is to hit it back! Based on the situation or scene.

For example, if your Impress partner says, “I’m a pirate space”, your answer could be:

• “Yes. And I’m the space police. You’re in arrest!”
• “Yes. And I’m the first companion looking for a new crew. That’s perfect!”
• “Yes. And my name is Captain Hook. Welcome to Pirates Anonymous.”

The rule “yes and” is so important because there is nothing worse than a bad Improv partner!

Kind like Liam Neeson in ​this short sketch​ With Ricky Gervais, (laugh at each time):

The yes and the rule for life

As a former “gifted child” who has the negative internal critic, I have worked hard to integrate “yes and” in my life.

The “yes” section is built around acceptance, something I have spent in the last two years working to cuddle.

See my previous essays ​Acceptance​ and ​Wabi Sabi​ for more.

It is the “and” place I have recently focused on.

As Dr. Kristen Neff points out in her book ​Concentration​Life is complicated and so are people:

“The crisis defines people as bad towards good and trying to capture their essential nature with simplistic labels.

Discreet wisdom recognizes complexity and ambiguity. ”

Nothing is as simple as it seems. Things are never as good or bad as our brains believe they are either.

So, despite the voice on our heads who want to judge everything in black and white, yes, yes or no, good or terms … We must remember that life is a beautifully complex chaos.

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald once said:

Trying a first class intelligence is the ability to keep two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still maintains the ability to operate.

One must, for example, be able to see that things are desperate and yet be determined to do it differently.

This is my duty to you today.

Is there a part of your life that feels black and white or white, and instead could use a little complexity?

Nothing is as simple as it seems.

Life is difficult and change is difficult. And you are a good person trying.

This means that there is hope. And ​Hope is the emotion of warriors​.

Also, please watch this ​Liam Neeson Skit​.

You are welcome.

-Steve

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