Feeling anxious? Taking improv classes might just be a fantastic natural remedy for your worrying ways. In a pilot study in the Journal of Mental Health, scientists in 2017 discovered that improv exercises may provide a “strong and efficient treatment for patients with anxiety and depression.” Backed by this research, a program in Chicago called Improv for Anxiety brings anxious people together and has them take part in improv exercises.
The beauty of improv is that it only exists in the moment. There is little to no time for fretting and strategizing, mistakes are left dead in your wake, and for every time you fall flat, there’s another where you slay. Forcing the mind to stick to the present is perhaps the single most beneficial thing Improv for Anxiety can impart, the key to its potential for natural anxiety relief.
Of course, everyone in the class knows that everyone else is seeking their own natural remedy for anxiety is a relief on its own. It allows for a judgement-free space where people can engage in the say-anything-as-long-as-its-something spirit of improv.
Improv can simply hone your ability to remain in the present. Providing only one word to continue a sentence, for example, or jumping in with one line to build a scene, or having to start a response with the last word someone else says, all require concentration and spontaneity. Essentially, to perform in improv, you need to be out of your head.
You can imagine how the skills from such classes translate into the real world. After all, going through life means acting spontaneously to the things happening around you.
