If This Is Wednesday We Might Be In Vegas …
Just a short post today …
If you read yesterday’s post you already know I’ve been busy as a beaver in early spring.
I’ve really immersed myself in examining my own presuppositions about the work I do, which also happens to be the basis of how I live my life!
What I’d like to share with you, extending on my rant about ‘adaptability’ from yesterday, is the idea of improvisation, as in life improv …
I always fancied myself a jazz musician, played a bit of trombone, some guitar, little bass … and sing whenever I can too. I’m not claiming any distinction as a jazz musician, but the idea of it had deeply influenced just about everything else in my life.
What I like most about jazz is the improvisational aspect of it. There are two things that might help make my point:
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Improving on a song that you know … kind’a like Frank Sinatra’s take on any of the standards, or Joe Pass’ chordal melodies.
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Pure improv, where you just show up and jam … taking what comes and going with it, letting it take you and taking it in turns.
If you get the second part just right it’s a lot like great sex (if you get the first part right you often get to have great sex … just check out Frank’s bio or Eddie Murphy’s take on singers).
This is almost exactly what I aim for in the way the MythoSelf Process model operates as a transformational technology …
great improvisation.
When I work with clients I treat them the way I do other musicians when I’m jamming with them … I let the music flow and follow for a bit, then I add in my licks and we see where it goes. The intention is to end up with a moving composition that’s more than the parts could ever be independent of one another. In many ways this is what I mean when I call the work “wholeform” – it’s a cybernetic structure that’s more than the sum of the parts.
So learning the MythoSelf Process takes this form on as well … it’s like learning to jam with other people in life. To move with them with incredible flexibility … first following, then blending, then leading, then giving them back the lead … and round the bed again, so to speak.
One aspect of the work, i.e.: the MythoSelf Process, is verbal … getting facile and fluid with using your tongue well in the creation of powerful and potent outcomes with others. This was a kind of game I played as a kid … and it’s apparent in the nature of how I approach the training experience … like an experienced cunning linguist.
When you come you’ll recognize the power of this kind of playfulness for yourself … done well this stuff will knock your socks off and rock your world (although I may be mixing musical metaphors here).
If you’re not such a jazz fan as I am, then maybe more of a hip-hop, rap thing will make my point. The early players were pure improvisationists, using words as their instrument. If you haven’t seen it rent or buy, Eminem’s “8 Mile” for an example of which I speak.
The thing is that regardless of your genre of choice, it’s all about the way you use your instrument and make it your own
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MythoSelf training is all about making your instrument your own to use as you choose!
There’s also the entire aspect of learning to flow with way you use your body … and to flow into the way others bodies are used too, but let’s maybe leave that for tomorrow …
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Architect & Designer of the MythoSelf Process and SomaSemantics
P.S. – I start the next Professional MythoSelf Training tomorrow if you’re thinking about coming, check out the details here:
Professional MythoSelf Training: Module 1
