One Thing At A Time

Life can often feel messy and chaotic, one activity bleeding into the next without distinction or pause. Breakfast is crammed in between checking the schedule, firing off a few emails, and building a grocery list. We hop from device to device, browser tab to browser tab, on a hamster wheel of never-ending tasks. I vacuum while listening to a podcast while watching the stove while answering texts.

By the end of the day, it's all a blur, each action important in itself, but rendered shapeless by the ten others happening alongside it.

Sound familiar?

Modern life doesn't just encourage this kind of frantic multitasking. It demands it. And while it can feel exhilarating in the moment, it's no recipe for happiness.

Now, I’ve read enough books about Buddhism and listened to enough self-help podcasts to know that slowing down and focusing on doing one activity at a time enhances my mental wellness, gives me a feeling of spaciousness, joy and pleasure: a quick and easy hack for a better quality of life.

But knowing it is very different from being able to do it on a regular basis.

Funnily enough, this is precisely the point that Nola Rae, renowned British clown and mime artist, made in a recent short workshop at the CLOWNVERGENCE online clowning conference in April 2026. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyFewApiR7I

For Nola, doing one thing at a time—also known as ‘articulation’—is a golden rule, not only for mime artists but also for clowns. It is the difference between a messy blur of action that the audience struggles to interpret and a clear and simple scenario they can understand and enjoy.

To better explain, Nola illustrated what she meant by showing the messy chaos of movement, arms flailing and constant motion, that is quite a familiar sight when we see clowns working: ‘Clown is not a mixing art, it is the art of separating things out so that they communicate clearly’. Then she switched to this new mode, where sharp, crisp movements are punctuated by pauses, where reactions can live and the observer has time to see what is going on, to anticipate what is coming next. Suddenly what was a confusing and bemusing jumble became a pleasurable and funny sequence of actions, making enjoyment and understanding almost effortless. 

Nola truly embodies the principles when teaching as seen above.

But it is not effortless. In fact it requires great discipline and rigor. Despite being online, the workshop was fully interactive. Nola demonstrated a simple sequence, seeing a glass of water, picking it up, drinking from it, and finally putting it down again. She then invited us to try, by breaking it down into many small individual movements, fully articulated and executed one at a time, and then watched as we ably attempted and failed to do what she had made look easy.

The workshop was called ‘One Thing At A Time’ and it turns out that this simple-sounding principle is just as difficult to master yet just as critical for success in the practice of mime as it is in the practice of healthy living.

In this workshop Nola drew back the curtain on the artistry behind some of the well known movements and sequences that you may recognize from celebrated mime artists such as Marcel Marceau and Étienne Decroux. 

It occurred to me afterwards how this tricky lesson—to do one thing at a time—was so perfectly applicable to the messiness and chaos of our lives, and I wondered what other golden rules of mime offered by Nola in her workshop were also great rules to live by. What can we learn from the art of mime about how to live better, happier, healthier lives?

Here are three I’d like to share with you in this blog post.

1. Stillness is Golden

Stillness is a kind of movement. Without stillness, movements lack definition and meaning. So the mime performer needs to start from a place of stillness and let the movement emerge. Likewise, she must find places to pause, which gives a sequence clarity and rhythm. Those moments of stillness, at least, in Nola’s demonstration, were also where connection with the audience occurred. They turn a sequence of movements into a meaningful story. So too, in life, we have to find those moments of stillness and pause that give the rest of our busy lives meaning and clarity. This doesn’t just mean going on vacation but finding time in our day to stop, step outside, meditate, reflect, just be and observe our surroundings. Doing this regulates the nervous system and shifts our perspective on the daily grind of life, often reducing stress and anxiety.

2. Less is More

When it comes to using the body to tell stories, any excessive or unnecessary movement can introduce background noise that makes the action harder to understand. So simplicity is key. In this sense clowning and mime are like poetry, where language is distilled down to the essential elements necessary to convey menaning and transmit the desired effect. ‘Less is more’ is a familiar aphorism but it is hard to apply, especially in life where we the idea that ‘more is better’ is culturally reinforced at every turn. But when we continue to add noise to our lives and our sense of purpose starts to get diluted, it’s worth remembering that sometimes doing less and focusing our energy more narrowly can lead to greater and more meaningful outcomes.

3. Meet something hard with softness

Nola illustrated this principle powerful through the well-known ‘wall’ mime exercises. Marcel Marceau, she told us, asked his students to imagine that they were in love with the wall and so, although the wall is a hard surface, to meet it with a softness and gentleness. It was a moving gesture when she demonstrated the idea, perhaps because the contrast between unforgiving hardness and the playful kindness that was so clear, and, somehow, so human. It made me think about how, when we meet difficult challenges with hardness we struggle and suffer. But when we can bring a kind of soft vulnerability, an openness to being affected, we unlock greater strength and resilience to cope. For me, the invitation of Nola’s exercise was to meet the hardness of life with love and softness.

Finding stillness, slowing down and meeting challenge with softness are not skills that come naturally or easily to me. And I know I am not alone. I think for most of us, entrained in the rapid fire ‘do do do’ ethos of our culture, they require intention and practice to bring them into our lives.

As the famous Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Perhaps watching Nola’s workshop is one such step. Perhaps simply noticing where you rush, where you multitask, or where you meet life's challenges with hardness is another. Real change rarely happens all at once. It unfolds through innumerable small moments.

If you're ready to take the next step on that journey, we invite you to check out the Clown Spirit Village. Inside you'll find over 40 masterclasses from renowned clown teachers and practitioners, self-directed courses to support your learning, live events, a rich archive of resources, and a warm, supportive community of fellow clowns.