Improvisational Life Skills; Trusting Yourself and Others in Work and Play

I took my first improvisational comedy class in 2005.  It was offered through a community theatre program and geared toward “executives and aspiring actors.”  I was the former, having just assumed the role of foundation executive to the FACT and Pacific Homes foundations, both Front Porch partners. 

Everyone else in the class was the latter … and much, much younger than I was. While I was taking the course to hone my “off the cuff” speaking skills, I immediately discovered I felt a very keen desire to make my classmates laugh and a very visceral fear that they would.  Everyone likes to get a laugh, but who wants to be the butt of the joke?  How could a middle-aged professional fundraiser relate to a bunch of young, budding actors?  Flash forward seven years: I’m a player in an improv comedy troupe that performs half a dozen times per year in Southern California -- Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, High Desert and Orange County.  It’s been a heck of a journey and I couldn’t have made the trip without learning to trust deeply.

Trust is about give and take. In most things in life, taking is the easy part.  It usually requires more trust to give.  Improv is the exception to that rule.  Because nothing is scripted you never know what the audience or your fellow player(s) are going to give you.  We oftentimes start a scene with just the suggestion of a location from the audience.  Someone shouts “sushi bar” and you and your fellow player have a decision to make: do you starting miming the actions of fish-chopping sushi chef, a fish-chomping diner, a fish fearing for its life, or…?  Let’s presume that your partner chooses to play a diner, pulls up a chair (the only prop ever on the stage) and sits down.  He looks at you and says “I’m glad you agreed to meet me here, Mr. Kirisawa.  We need to talk about your new movie.” 

You must trust yourself and honor your fellow player’s  idea.  You cannot say “you must have mistaken me for someone else.  My name is Bill Houston.”  It doesn’t matter that you had a funny scene in mind where a Texas beef rancher tries sushi for the first time.  Denial is a no-no in improv.  Improv scenes move forward when you respond “yes, and…”  The “and” is as important as the “yes” as it obligates you to add information to the scene and participate fully.  The result is cooperation and trust and things play out organically and, hopefully, hilariously.

Life is a lot like an improve scene.  You can plan diligently, but you have to trust yourself and those around you when things inevitably happen that weren’t part of the plan.  When you say “yes, and” you meet challenges with flexibility and optimism.  Uncertainty can be scary.  I find that being able to trust myself as well as family, friends, co-workers and others promotes full participation in the scene that is life when the outcome is unknown.  That’s comforting.  Heck, sometimes I even get a laugh out of it.

— Keith Church

Embrace Your Passion!

Living life your way, embracing new passions and being adventurous of mind, is not only the Front Porch “way” but new research suggests it may also lead to a longer life.

It’s no secret that here at Front Porch we encourage each and every person to express themselves creatively, to do that which they enjoy and to seek out things that are new and exciting. But more than that, we strongly support those activities which keep our minds alert. Case in point, our partnership with Dakim and our concentration on mind/body health.

You see it at our communities, you read about it in our blogs – we don’t simply talk about the essentials of retirement, but we encourage active minds and active engagement in all the things essential in life: education & lifelong learning, hobbies, leisure activities, the joys and passions of the individuals who make Front Porch an exciting place. Well, as it turns out in a recent study, these are exactly the same things that may help an individual live a longer life.

— Rob Klose, director, Front Porch Foundation Systems and Services

Creativity Predicts a Longer Life

Research continues to support the theory that creative thinking keeps the brain healthy, according to studies conducted by the University of Rochester Medical Center. The study associated creativity with openness, which is one of the five major personality traits. Openness refers to the measure of cognitive flexibility and the willingness to entertain novel ideas. Researchers have found several benefits of greater openness, such as longevity, lower metabolic risk, higher self-rated health, and stress management. A study published in the Journal of Aging and Health found that creativity was the greatest aspect of openness to cause health benefits, as creative participants in the study lived longer than others.  Analysis of stress management also produced interesting results. The study found that creative individuals approached stress as a controllable challenge rather than a troublesome obstacle.

— Scientific American, September 9, 2012

Just Around the Corner From Villa Gardens

While everyone is well aware of Pasadena’s “winter ties” to the botanical world with the Rose Parade (I used to have people all around the world park in front of my house on Rose Villa street in Pasadena every January 1^st), not as many people are acquainted with the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino and fewer still know that there is a second botanical garden in the Pasadena area, Descanso Gardens.

Located just a few miles northwest of Front Porch’s Villa Gardens Retirement Community, Descanso Gardens is a wonderful way for anyone, old or young, to spend a leisurely afternoon. As a former resident of Pasadena for 10 years, Descanso Gardens (along with its’ great museums, tree lined streets and all of the wonderful cultural and culinary choices in Pasadena) made me proud and happy to live where I did.

While the Huntington Library and Gardens reflects Pasadena’s more stately upbringing, a trip to Descanso Gardens shows the Pasadena environs more accessible, down to earth, friendly side. From an idyllic pond filled with ducks, turtles and fish (that seem to evoke those comfortable easy going “front porch” days we all long for) to the winding “trail-like” paths, Descanso Gardens has a little bit for everybody. My son is particularly fond of the miniature train that toddlers (and adults) can ride on.

If you live at one of our communities or just nearby and have never been, you owe it to yourself to check out Descanso Gardens. You’ll be very happy you did.

Have a place near your home that you love to visit? Tell me about it.

— Rob Klose
Director of Foundation Service, Front Porch

So how do we make ethical choices and decisions – especially when we are in a business where often times, there is no clear right and wrong?

We need to be intentional. We know that a decision is more ethical if we go through an ethical decision making process. Perhaps the first step in that process is what Michael Josephson suggests in his article below, a thoughtful pause.

Michael Josephson is founder and president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics.

— Lauren Moulton-Beaudry, director of Ethics and Education for Front Porch

Good Decisions Start With Stop
http://whatwillmatter.com/2012/07/commentary-785-4-good-decisions-start-with-stop/

10 Things to Discuss With Your Doctor to Promote Aging with Dignity and Independence

Providing the amenities, services, staff and community to live life your way is at the heart of who we are at Front Porch. Part of our job in making sure you live life your way is providing you with the information you need to live healthy and well. The following is an article from the Scan Foundation about the things you should be discussing with your doctor to ensure you live a happy, healthy retirement. 10 Things to Discuss With Your Doctor to Promote Aging with Dignity and Independence”

Relax By Turning Up the Heat With Glass Blowing

I’m not big on talking about myself. As the senior vice president of sales and marketing, I’m enthusiastic about the work being done and the relationships being forged every day at each of our Front Porch Retirement Communities, but I’d rather let those accomplishments speak for themselves. After all, if I’ve done my job right, you’ll never know I was there.

During my career at Front Porch I have met many residents who have both continued their passions or found new ones after moving into one of our communities. But for me, in my personal life, no matter how passionate I am about a particular interest or pursuit, I’d rather tell you about where to find it or how you can get involved than go on about my latest accomplishment or how much I’ve improved. After all, "actions speak louder than words," as they say.

In keeping with that mantra, there’s a passion of mine that I’d like to share with you; glassblowing. It’s an ancient art form, first developed around the middle of the last century BC. Put simply, the craft is based around the idea of super-heating small "blobs" of glass, then pushing (or "blowing") small amounts of air into the soft, white-hot material while mixing in various other pieces of colored glass in order to create specific patterns or shapes. Imaginative glass blowing artists can create a wide range of products, including vases, drinking cups, bowls, plates, and (my personal favorite) paperweights.

Paperweights are a great way for the novice glassblower to get started in the field, given their small size and flexible design (after all, not everyone wants the same old round hunk of glass). The smaller size makes them easier to handle during the course of one four-hour studio session, and the open-ended aspect of playing with various colors and glass-working techniques means that I get a different end result every time. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I like blowing glass. Like as with many art forms, no two objects are exactly the same. Each piece has its own unique facets, colors and shapes with the only limitation being the artists’ imagination. Perhaps that’s why I like working at Front Porch so much … each of our communities is unique. Each has its own personality and flavor, where all can appreciate and celebrate the “art of the individual.”

For those interested in getting started in the field, or just want to learn more about the art, I’d encourage you to explore some of the many glass working studios around Southern California or contact your local community college or adult education classes.

Practice, of course, makes perfect, but it’s this flexibility inherent to the art form that gives me the opportunity to unwind during each visit to the studio. After all, glass blowing for me is about relaxing, not a way of life.

— Joan Woodworth

Time Well Spent

Some of my fondest memories with my parents when I was a child include volunteering. Together we did things like fill grocery bags at the local food bank for needy families, spend a weekend sprucing up the church we attended, or paint a house for a family that soon would move in. Whatever the activity was, we did it together and it taught me a valuable lesson in how good it feels to give.

As time went by and into my adult years, I found myself running out of time to volunteer. I was just too busy with this and that and before I knew it I became a working mom with hardly a second to spend on myself. Recently I’ve rediscovered the joys of volunteering again through my work as communications manager with Front Porch and through the eyes of my own daughter.

It started a couple of years ago when my husband asked me what I wanted for Valentine’s Day. With a tight budget and not a lot of time to plan something elaborate, I felt I didn’t really ‘need’ anything. I asked him if there was an opportunity to volunteer at Walnut Village Rehabilitation and Care Center where he works and spend some time with the residents, some of whom I knew probably didn’t have family nearby to share the day with. That year with gifts graciously supplied by the California Lutheran Homes Auxiliary, we headed out to share the love with the care center residents.

Front Porch partner CLH has had a long and loving history of social ministry with the care center and we helped continue that mission by distributing gifts the CLH Auxiliary regularly gives to the care center residents. With each gift, a free hug or a mere touch of the hand, a greeting and a smile came with it. My daughter was five then. She was shy, reserved, and very soft spoken. But she soon realized that with every gift she handed out, a very grateful and sometimes emotional person was at the receiving end. Her confidence grew as we passed each room.

Weeks passed since that first visit and through the years, sometimes out of the blue, she would ask, “When are we visiting the grandmas and the grandpas again?” We did every chance we could. And now it has become my own family’s tradition to visit the care center during a holiday. Sometimes we bring friends, including other Front Porch colleagues and their children, to share the fun and satisfaction of bringing cheer, smiles, and free hugs to anyone that wished for one, or two, or more.

As a mom, I’m glad to have rediscovered volunteering through Front Porch and enjoy spending that time with my own family as I did with my parents. Now our daughter has her own ideas about how to cheer residents and how to get others involved and we encourage it. I look forward to her sharing the joy of volunteering with her own family someday.

— Jen Dixon