Out of my comfort zone – A day of trying new things.

Reading Time: 3 minutesI was out of my comfort zone for a day last week and enjoyed it. This involved trying improv theatre for the first time. Vinyasa Tango Yoga and Bollywood dancing. I tried all of these things within the framework of the Refugee Cultural Festival that took place between last week and this week. I was assigned to the room where these activities took place and took the opportunity to try everything.

Improv Theatre

As an introvert I am usually happy to observe rather than participate in such activities. In most circumstances I would be there with a camera filming the event. I chose not to hide behind the camera this time. We were outdoors and we played a few games. Improv theatre isn’t just about acting. It’s about grown ups being playful and creative as a group. This is comfortable. This is fun. It’s fun enough for me to have changed my Sunday plans from hiking to trying this once again. I’m going to be out of my comfort zone but change is good.

Vinyasa Tango Yoga

I have seen and read about yoga in a multitude of places and I have had a desire to try it for a while now. I almost tried it two years ago but chickened out. This time not only did I try Yoga but I enjoyed it. Aside from the instructor I was the only guy in the group. As I am not as flexible or experienced as the others there are certain moves where I suffered and others that I really enjoyed. I train for endurance so I had to fight that instinct during this session.

Aside from never trying Yoga before I found doing yoga moves with a partner interesting. I had never thought about how you can synchronise breathing through feeling a person through your back. You feel the inflation and deflation. It’s interesting. It’s also interesting to balance using each others’ bodies.

The point of these exercises with partners is to get used to feel of their body and to grow a deeper physical connection so that it may be used in dancing. I felt really good after the experience.

Bollywood Dancing and Free Hugs

I never considered trying Bollywood dancing. If it had not been for the fact that I was in that room when the event was taking place and had I not been in such an open frame of mind after the improv and yoga I would probably have been like the photographers. “Put down your cameras and join us” is a sentence that is so frequently said to me. “Stop living your life through a lens”. This time I participated.

I mention the free hugs because a few of us, volunteers, headed down to the lake for a continuation of the event and some of them had participated in the free hugs event. They wanted to continue giving free hugs at the lake side so I joined in. It’s amusing to see people say “thank you” after being given a hug. What’s even more amusing is that we had joked about “Free hugs for a sausage” and how it could be taken the wrong way. Ironically within minutes of that conversation two of us were giving free hugs to people with barbecues going and they offered us wine, beer, sausages and more. We laughed as the recipients were offering them. “We have too many, have some”.

I enjoyed Improv theatre and Yoga enough to want to try them again. In fact I am planning to try improv theatre again this weekend. As it’s about playing, rather than acting, it entertains me. It is good to break the routine and do new things and to meet new people.