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1] There is a huge difference between being *serious* and being *sincere*. Alan Watts touches ever so gently on this when he talks about Waking Up, as in this video. What it comes down to is how you play the game of your life (and it is a game). https://t.co/dFb3OPERVw
2] When someone is playing a game and forgets that they are playing a game, they're serious. Bill Hicks captures this when he says it's 'just a ride': "Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." https://t.co/CS6crUCjGa
3] You know exactly what it's like to play a game with someone like this. It's no fun! The game becomes a drag, as Alan Watts would say. What does it mean to win a game that everyone hated playing? Being serious is the most direct way to remove any sense of play from a game.
4] Now consider the person who never forgets that they're playing a game – yet they choose to play it wholeheartedly. That's sincere. They recognise the duality of the situation. They opt in, throw themselves into it and yet never lose perspective.
5] These people are fun to play with – they have that twinkle in their eye. Sincerity is why improv works. Imagine if improv performers forgot they were playing and tried to 'beat' the other performers. It wouldn't work! It would lose its magic. https://t.co/4EoJzfVlCS
6] When I find my life becoming a drag, it's usually because I've switched unconsciously from sincere to serious. It means I've lost the sense of ease and lightness that comes from play. How to get it back? I relax the parts of me that try to control. I "yes, and" the world.
7] Improv cannot be planned in advance. It has to happen spontaneously, in the moment. If you go out on stage, rigidly holding to the joke you have in your head, what happens if the scene has moved on? You have to let go of your original idea and allow for a something else.
8] This is the spirit in which I want to live my own life. Playing the game wholeheartedly, but never forgetting that it's just a game. Always sincere. Never serious. (And true to form: this, also, is Alexander Technique).