Limiting beliefs get into us from a young age—how the heck can we undo or at least disarm them? In this Monster Baby episode, Ted and Lisa play with some tools and generate some hacks from the worlds of mindfulness and improvisation. The episode begins with a check-in from Lisa’s recent junket to Singapore (1:39) and a warm-hearted invitation to the Mindful Play, Playful Mind retreat coming up in June in Santa Cruz (5:12). They introduce the topic of the day (9:44) and reintroduce the notion of growth mindset, a foundational belief about learning (10:55). Ted and Lisa each share a limiting belief from their own childhoods (16:32) and then consider how beliefs can get in the way of effective mindfulness practice (23:02). They draw on fellow applied improvisor Kay Ross’ versions of “New Choice” (24:48) and “The Story Spine” to talk about transforming limiting beliefs (31:11) before expanding out to consider even larger questions of faith and purpose (38:14). Ted shares a new exercise he learned about finding antidotes for toxic beliefs (40:14) before the two wonder how beliefs from improv might spill into life, including considering whether there is such a thing as parking karma (46:40). Finally, Lisa introduces the notion of belief-hacking and gets into the ultimate importance of self-acceptance (49:45). Here’s hoping the episode invites you to take some inventory about what beliefs might be holding you back and to play with different ways you might reclaim your power from them. Love to all and thanks for listening!
For more on the Mindful Play, Playful Mind retreat, please visit: www.animalearning.com/monsterbabyretreat.
For more from Kay Ross, check out her Playground of Possibilities website: www.playgroundofpossibilities.com.
As always, please send a note, question, or comment if you feel so inspired: info@monsterbabypodcast.com.
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San Francisco improvisors Ted DesMaisons and Lisa Rowland explore the beautiful, surprising and unruly intersections between mindfulness and improvisation as they seek to befriend that oft-hidden and sometimes scary part of all of us that can lead to a life well-lived.
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Thanks Ted and Lisa!
And a comment about my version of the “New Choice” game. When Person A states a new, more useful version of an old belief, Person B notices Person’s A’s posture, tone of voice, volume, facial expression, breathing, emotional state… does it sound/feel like Person A truly believes the new belief? Person B also notices how the statement lands in his/her own body.
And here’s another way I use the “New Choice” improv game: When I catch myself thinking an unloving, critical, unhelpful thought about myself, I say to myself out loud “New choice!”, and I say a new, more useful belief. And I might “New choice” it several times to come up with words that really grab me in the gut. For example, when I think “Not good enough”, the logical opposite of that is “I AM good enough”, but for me that doesn’t quite land. So I tweak it: “I know that I’m good enough” or “I trust that I’m good enough.” And I’ve found that the statement that really works for me is: “I know in my bones that I’m good enough.” When I say that, I feel every cell in my body tingling.
And sorry I didn’t see you at the Singapore Improv Festival, Lisa – my team, People’s Liberation Improv, performed there, but I wasn’t able to attend.