#personal-development #improv #serious-thoughts OK so when people think of improv they usually think of Who's Line Is It but I think a more accurate point of exposure to improv is [Middleditch and Schwartz](https://www.netflix.com/title/81122572). Ben Schwartz is movie Sonic the Hedgehog by the way so I think I am already pretty much sold there. They say that improv lets you improve on a lot of different valuable soft-skills. Off the top of my head, Social and communication skills: * Sharper active listening * Body language awareness and nonverbal communication * Quicker rapport-building with new people * Stronger voice projection and physical presence * Collaborative skills -- team support, sharing the spotlight, and building on others' ideas Mental agility: * Quicker creative thinking and ideation * Enhanced and spontaneous problem solving Emotional intelligence: * Reading others' emotions and energy more accurately * Being more present and responsive in conversations * Greater empathy And the most important ones that people usually join improv for: * Increased self-confidence and reduced social anxiety * More comfort with uncertainty and imperfection * Better stress management With *all* those goals in mind, particularly prioritizing reduced social anxiety, I started my first improv class on January 8th, 2025 with [Leela SF](https://leela-sf.com/) under Steven Burnett. Oh my god. The first 5 minutes of first session, with 18 people sitting together in a room silently waiting for the coach was the most awkward 5 minutes I've ever sat through. Quickly though, Steven was able to get us all comfortable with each other and we played a *bunch*. I somewhat knew that improv was all about play, but it didn't feel so forced and it got us all so comfortable with each other so quickly. During the beginning of the second class, we weren't sitting around in silence anymore and we were all able to talk to each other casually about our weeks and things like that. Improv was feeling like a kindergarten except for adults, because we would just play over and over again. It's been right after my fourth class, and the first level of improv had the following classes thus far. I still have two classes to go at this point in time that I am writing this. * Introduction? * Gibberish and communication via body language * Musical improv * Physical work and how it affects how we present ourselves * Character work * Duologues Things that surprised me so far: * I overthink and plan *a lot*. This shouldn't particularly be a surprise for me, because I knew this about myself. For most of the games where I could possibly plan something, I spend my time crafting my response. Which is technically a bad thing in improv!! I've gradually gotten better at this as the class went on. * I got better at being in front of a crowd, but this is *kinda* debatable since maybe I got more comfortable around the improv group in general. * Even when I felt dead tired at the beginning of a session and I didn't want to be there that day, I was able to quickly reenergize myself through improv. * When we started getting into acting/role playing, I LOVED ITTTT. Why was I never a theatre kid in high school honestly because I think I would've fit in so well. Things that I was able to do recently that I would have waffled over had I not done improv: * Tell off some people at a panel I was at for talking too loudly * Asserted my boundaries with someone who was making me uncomfortable * At work, I * Started bringing up discussion topics that I thought was dumb * Started sending docs I wrote without feeling stupid * Started nagging people without feeling like I was a bother Yeah my self confidence severely impairs my ability to do my own work lol. Anyway the point is I highly suggest improv and I hope that I get to continue this enough to join a troupe, because I'd like to do this more long-term. EDIT TO ADD: I just came back to this the day after my last Improv 1 series with Leela. I'm incredibly grateful for all the different people I've been able to meet during my time and am really happy to be able to go onto Improv 2 with a lot of them. By the end of it all, I felt that I built positive relationships with everyone and I'm surprised that I got to play with people who were essentially strangers to me when it first started, and I felt that I bared my whole heart out to them. Love everyone wahhh!!!