Spontaneity and PBFs

In my last blog, I left you with the following words:

   As anxiety increases, spontaneity has a propensity to decrease.
           The reverse is not true.
           As spontaneity increases, anxiety does not necessarily decrease.

That leads to the question, "How do you increase spontaneity?" So few therapies know the answer.

Moreno gave us the answer early in his career: movement. Essentially; when we sit down our spontaneity goes down. We need to do warm-ups that get people up and moving; to get their precious bodily fluids (PBFs) moving.

In Moreno's Canon of Creativity a person continues a warm-up until that spark, spontaneity, happens. Spontaneity then interacts with creativity until something, called the cultural conserve, is produced. The cultural conserve must be tangible to one or more of the five senses and could be items such as a: book, poem, dance, perfume, painting, home, successful therapy session, or exciting class.

At the beginning of the Canon process is the warm-up and this is where we must provide exercises to build trust and include everyone. Warm-up exercises provide a structure that allows spontaneity to evolve. Hopefully, the structure also provides "comfort" to help lower anxiety.

Think of your sessions with clients, do you visualize people sitting and talking. I hope not. Even in individual therapy, we can have people get out of their chairs and move.

        If something goes wrong in the action, the cause can 

        be traced back to an inadequate or incorrect warm-up.

Movement taps into the pre- and sub-conscious. To get to core issues remember what Moreno said:

       "The body remembers what the mind forgets."