“Improv gave me back my joy!”
About seven months ago, I acted on a gut feeling and googled “Improv in Santa Fe,” despite barely knowing what improv was. I had moved to Santa Fe 18 months earlier, in the depths of healing an illness that had dramatically altered my life. As a hypnotherapist and mindfulness teacher, my work was deeply fulfilling. However, moving to a new state, combined with chronic illness, left my life outside of work feeling painfully small and lonely. I needed more joy and community. A lot more.
It turned out I was about to get very lucky – I signed up for a class and started a week later. What I discovered at Santa Fe Improv surprised me: The laughter and creativity revived parts of me that had gone dormant. The feeling of being welcomed into a vibrant and caring community was incredible. I started to feel more whole, more myself, and more alive again.
Part of what has struck me while taking classes at Santa Fe Improv is that improv isn’t just acting or comedy – it’s also a (ridiculously fun) mindfulness practice. The kind of listening, attunement, and present moment awareness that’s essential to great improv is the same skill that creates a sense of internal safety, connection, and self-awareness within my own clients and students. From that same place of presence, our natural playfulness, creativity, and humor can arise – often in ways we haven’t experienced since childhood. Santa Fe Improv makes that leap from presence to playfulness possible.
So, one google search and seven months later, I’m still here, attending classes and performing on a student team. It turns out that improv isn’t just the most fun I’ve had in years, it’s also a mindfulness practice, an intellectually rigorous comedic art form, a community that has welcomed me with open arms, and a place where I’ve felt myself come back to life. I couldn’t recommend it enough.
So, seriously: Try out a class. Buy someone (or yourself) a gift certificate. You might just come back to life too.
By Juliana, Hypnotherapist and Improviser
Click here to purchase a gift card.
ABOUT SANTA FE IMPROV
Santa Fe Performing Arts Collaboration dba Santa Fe Improv is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded to bring the benefits of improv to every New Mexican. Santa Fe Improv offers classes for students of all ages and backgrounds and hosts performances at its theater space located at 1202 Parkway Dr. #A, Santa Fe, NM 87507, where house and student teams perform comedy improv in front of a live audience weekly. For more information visit www.santafeimprov.org. Follow Santa Fe Improv on Instagram.
