Have you ever been sitting in your home in the evening and suddenly you experience a power outage? No doubt, as you sit there in darkness, you remember the layout of your home interior, how to get from one side of your home to the other. However, there is a disorder referred to as (Nonverbal Learning Disability) that if you were encumbered by it, you would have no idea how to navigate yourself in a darkened home. In this week's episode, a fellow from Manhattan NY, joined me to discuss and educate my listenership of his rare disorder that makes it impossible for him to estimate time, in other words, how long it takes to get from one place to another and the scenario I presented at the outset happened to him, lost in darkness, in his own home of many years. He gets lost everywhere and he also finds it impossible to interpret facial expressions, a rare disorder indeed. But in the other hand, he is a brilliant man that holds a PHD and is self-employed as a statistician and is an author wherein he describes his disability. I found him to be fascinating in that he learned to cope and work around this disorder. I asked him directly, "would it be fair to conclude that you learned to improvise?" He emphatically said "yes."
And in this blog, I want to speak about having the ability or should I say the desire to improvise when confronted with a personal challenge. What is your inclination? To throw your hands up in defeat or do you find the grit and the strength of mind to improvise? Improvisation is obvious in many living creatures. Consider a bear, instead of foraging which takes time and effort, how does he improvise? He makes a beeline to the nearest dumpster! You will see animals adapted to behavior both in water and on ground that enables them to survive instinctively by learning to improvise, the examples are too numerous to mention. However, the human condition is based on the ability to reason, much more superlative than those of animals, creativity will be what you make it. The studies of resilience have shown improvisation is rooted in being able to (cope) effectively with whatever your challenge may be. There are many things that life will throw at you that we do not have any control let alone given the opportunity to decide about it, much like my guest, he did not have an alternative, he accepted his learning disorder, so he worked around it. I once heard that if the entire world came together in a circle to exchange our challenges in life, we would walk away with our own personal challenge. So, what do you do? You cope and make the best of it! Have you ever made a mistake in trying to accomplish a task? Did you laugh at yourself about it? If you did, it tells me a lot about you. The study of resilience has been demonstrated to be rooted in humor. Being able to laugh, especially at yourself, opens the gateway to developing innovative ideas for improvisation. We have come to understand that laughter has been shown to improve our emotional and physical pain threshold, due to the secretion of endorphin-mediated opiate effect. What is interesting to me is that this is independent of our disposition, meaning that it can have a significant effect even when we are depressed. If you currently have a doctor that enjoys levity or humor when communicating with you and you cannot help but smile, you have an intuitive doctor. He knows the physical benefits of humor. While in the process of laughter, your abdominal muscles relax during this insignificant activity, however, medical studies have unequivocally shown us that your vascular functioning improves, yes, more oxygen to the brain, inducing mental clarity for improvisational brain storming. Additionally, your cardiac health improves which augments your heart rate and mitigates your blood pressure, thus, less hypertension setting you up for creativity. Have you heard of the expression "lean on me?" Do you remember the song "lean on me" in the year 1972 by Bill Withers? It brings back memories of the friends I surrounded myself with and this song highlighted the point that we were there for each other. The camaraderie, the availability of asking for support or consultation for resolving personal concerns or ideas enabling improvisation. Today, more than ever in human history we must lean on each other for support. The level of stress is unprecedented and thinking of others and supporting others is incredibly powerful. The verdict is in, there are countless studies that have indicated that assisting others is inextricably linked with positive mental health for (you) the “giver” of kindness to those in need. These great positive benefits to the giver and recipient are obvious to both genders, no matter the age. Recent research has extrapolated that kindness, supporting one another, and collaborating will as a result, you will enjoy measurable health. It helps to lessen the negative effects of emotional stress that is conducive to our well-being, it will help us to forge ahead regardless of personal challenges in life. In other words, by helping others during times of distress, we are helping ourselves! Hmm, sounds like I have said this before. This would explain the existence of so many nonprofit or charitable organizations, there is no question about it, many have serendipitously stumbled into the benefits of giving of which is the largest gateway of improvisation. I will wrap it up with what Pablo Picasso was known to have said. "The meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give it away."
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