Get your play on!
"All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it"
--Samuel Butler
"It is better to play than do nothing"
--Confucius
It is a cold winter day today and there is a beautiful new blanket of snow on the ground. I am inspired to go out and play in the snow today and I think I'll do just that. In the spirit of playfulness, I'd like to share an excerpt from a chapter in the book I am currently working on. It is about the importance of play and it comes from the angelic realm. Enjoy!
Many of you who have children watch your children and wonder at their imagination and pure uninhibited being. Adults laugh at a child’s silliness and marvel at their amazing energy and stamina and then slough it off as the gifts of youth. Kids are wonderful teachers. Emulate them to find the playfulness in your own life! Join in a game of hide and seek with your child and his friends. Sit down and create with play dough when your child is doing this. Grab a coloring book and go to town when your child has her coloring things out. Be a child again! You often shunt away this part of yourself as you get older and then you watch children and think their lives are so magical. Yours can be just as magical if you let the magic in. Believing in magic is not for children alone! You can all find this world of magic and mystery and fun again. You just have to shift your focus and you have to let go. Let your children be your guides. Take lessons from them. They don’t think things through, they just go with it. They blurt out weird and random statements, songs, and sounds because it just comes out and they have not yet been trained to stop and think and censor and analyze everything that comes through them. If you feel a burst of energy and just want to run through your house instead of walking, go for it! Don’t stop and think, “oh, that is just silly” which then takes the urge away and keeps you in the mundane. Dress up for Halloween and go trick or treating with your kids. Have a slumber party. Watch your old favorite movies from when you were a child. Laugh, play, dance, and let go. When you open up to this joyful, playful place within you, you then begin to take it with you through your day. You don’t get so upset anymore when your boss does something to annoy you. You don’t take things so personally. If you watch kids you will notice that they very rarely hold grudges. They may be upset by something and even throw a fit to move that energy of anger or sadness through them, but then they are over it. They wake up the next day with no thought to that which upset them whatsoever. Adults however tend to cling to that which angers them or hurts them. When somebody does something to upset you, haven’t you spent hours, or days stewing on it? Let it go. Don’t bury it deep within you, but release it. Really let it go and move on. Kids are wonderful teachers of staying present and functioning in the moment. If they feel sad one day or not so good they don’t try to pretend otherwise. They don’t try to cover up their emotions, or pack them down. They express them, move through them, and then move on. As you get older, however, you begin to worry about what others think. You begin to monitor what you do and say so that it fits in with an accepted paradigm of behavior. This monitoring typically leads to a prison cell. You have bars around you and you don’t even know it. If something excites you to no end and you feel like jumping up and down and skipping down the hall, let this energy out! But oftentimes, you stand there and go, “oh wow, this is great” because you don’t want to be too showy or overly excited for fear of how you will be perceived. The perceptions of others is not your concern. Who cares. Let it go. Be playful in your expressions of joy. Sing in the shower, in the car, in the house. Run through your back yard, pausing to hug the trees if you feel so inclined. Let go of the “what will people think?” program and just let the playful, joyful energy move through you when it arises.
When you play, you acknowledge the joy in life. This never has to go away, no matter how old you are. It comes naturally to children, but as adults you must retrain yourself to embrace this playfulness. This happens by simply giving yourself permission to be playful. You are taught that when you grow up you must do just that, grow up. Meaning you do not act childlike. We are here to tell you otherwise. Keep the playfulness alive. Don’t let it go, don’t judge it, don’t bury it in your adult day-to-day doings. Bring it into your adult day-to-day doings. Play is very healing and it is a wonderful means of letting energy move through you. Turn on your favorite music and dance wildly around your house. Look in the mirror and make funny faces at yourself. Do what feels good. Be silly. Find your creativity. Being creative is also a wonderful conductor of positive energy. Paint, sculpt, decorate, design, play music, cook, whatever speaks to you. When you create, from your heart, you express yourself in a much different way than you do through your day-to-day affairs. Creativity is a release. Creativity unburdens you from your worries, or concerns for a while. When you are creating, you are totally focused on what you are doing. You are at one with the creative moment. You will notice how you feel when you are finished with your creative time. You can feel the positive energy running through you. You likely feel more rejuvenated and refreshed. Creativity and playfulness can do so much for the soul. These are indeed beautiful expressions of the soul. Your spirit is joy. It wants to express joy and feel joy. Allow some time for this each day if you can. There may days when you just flat out do not feel like it and that is fine. Honor what you are feeling. But try not to let life pass you by without some silliness and playfulness and creative expression. When your kids are being silly, instead of watching them thinking, “Oh, to be a kid again”, surrender to it. Join in! Learn from them. Recall the saying “Dance like nobody is watching”? This is such a magnificent phrase and it sums up what we are speaking of here. Let go of the “what ifs?” and the “what will people think” thoughts and just let it all hang out. Be yourself. Feel your joy. Connect with your playful nature. Create something that speaks to you. Worry less and play more. Your pets are also wonderful teachers in this regard. Watch how they live in the moment. Watch how they play with complete abandon. Notice how their joy is undiluted, uninhibited, and pure. Adults tend to put themselves in the position of controller. They feel they are at the top of the hierarchy when it comes to children and animals, but truly, it is the children and animals who have a lot to show the adults. Try to be less controlling with them and surrender more to their wisdom. It is there, if only you are ready to observe it and accept it. Adults tend to write off animals and kids as “goofy” and completely miss the immense wisdom they have to share. They truly are incredible teachers. Honor them as such. When it comes to finding your joy, do not limit yourself. Do not feel like you must find solely “grown up” things to do. If you feel like grabbing a box of crayons and coloring, go right ahead and indulge that creative burst! Do what feels good. Kids and animals do not censor what they should and shouldn’t do. When they have a creative urge, they follow it. They do not stop and think about it. They don’t worry about what others opinions might be on the subject. They just go for it. You can do this too. Now, we are not telling you to indulge every whim. If your boss is standing in the hallway and you know that skipping down the hall past him singing songs from the Wizard of Oz will get you fired, you may wish to consider the consequences before you act. But if you really, really want to skip and sing certainly do so when you know there will be no consequences that you can’t live with.
You know the old adage, "you can’t please everyone all of the time". That being so, why even try? Just do what feels right and good for you. Who cares what people think? If you want to sing at the top of your lungs in your car, don’t let the stares of others in traffic who don’t know how to connect with their joy stop you. Don’t let judgment and criticism of those who do not yet know how to be accepting instead of judgmental stop you. Others are judging you because of their current lack of understanding, not because you are doing anything wrong. Embrace your joy and your playful nature. You will feel how wonderful this is once you give it a try, without marring the experience with wondering how you look or being fearful of how you appear. If you’re a lousy dancer but you love to dance, dance anyway. The point isn’t to look good doing it. The point is to have fun and to enjoy yourself. Again, if people laugh at you or judge you, it is their limitation, not yours. Don’t let it slow you down. Life is too short to let others dictate how you live it. You have the right to live your life in any way that brings you joy and allows you to have fun. This doesn’t mean at the expense of everyone else. We always encourage being respectful of others. But there is a way to balance honoring others and yourself as well.
--Samuel Butler
"It is better to play than do nothing"
--Confucius
It is a cold winter day today and there is a beautiful new blanket of snow on the ground. I am inspired to go out and play in the snow today and I think I'll do just that. In the spirit of playfulness, I'd like to share an excerpt from a chapter in the book I am currently working on. It is about the importance of play and it comes from the angelic realm. Enjoy!
Many of you who have children watch your children and wonder at their imagination and pure uninhibited being. Adults laugh at a child’s silliness and marvel at their amazing energy and stamina and then slough it off as the gifts of youth. Kids are wonderful teachers. Emulate them to find the playfulness in your own life! Join in a game of hide and seek with your child and his friends. Sit down and create with play dough when your child is doing this. Grab a coloring book and go to town when your child has her coloring things out. Be a child again! You often shunt away this part of yourself as you get older and then you watch children and think their lives are so magical. Yours can be just as magical if you let the magic in. Believing in magic is not for children alone! You can all find this world of magic and mystery and fun again. You just have to shift your focus and you have to let go. Let your children be your guides. Take lessons from them. They don’t think things through, they just go with it. They blurt out weird and random statements, songs, and sounds because it just comes out and they have not yet been trained to stop and think and censor and analyze everything that comes through them. If you feel a burst of energy and just want to run through your house instead of walking, go for it! Don’t stop and think, “oh, that is just silly” which then takes the urge away and keeps you in the mundane. Dress up for Halloween and go trick or treating with your kids. Have a slumber party. Watch your old favorite movies from when you were a child. Laugh, play, dance, and let go. When you open up to this joyful, playful place within you, you then begin to take it with you through your day. You don’t get so upset anymore when your boss does something to annoy you. You don’t take things so personally. If you watch kids you will notice that they very rarely hold grudges. They may be upset by something and even throw a fit to move that energy of anger or sadness through them, but then they are over it. They wake up the next day with no thought to that which upset them whatsoever. Adults however tend to cling to that which angers them or hurts them. When somebody does something to upset you, haven’t you spent hours, or days stewing on it? Let it go. Don’t bury it deep within you, but release it. Really let it go and move on. Kids are wonderful teachers of staying present and functioning in the moment. If they feel sad one day or not so good they don’t try to pretend otherwise. They don’t try to cover up their emotions, or pack them down. They express them, move through them, and then move on. As you get older, however, you begin to worry about what others think. You begin to monitor what you do and say so that it fits in with an accepted paradigm of behavior. This monitoring typically leads to a prison cell. You have bars around you and you don’t even know it. If something excites you to no end and you feel like jumping up and down and skipping down the hall, let this energy out! But oftentimes, you stand there and go, “oh wow, this is great” because you don’t want to be too showy or overly excited for fear of how you will be perceived. The perceptions of others is not your concern. Who cares. Let it go. Be playful in your expressions of joy. Sing in the shower, in the car, in the house. Run through your back yard, pausing to hug the trees if you feel so inclined. Let go of the “what will people think?” program and just let the playful, joyful energy move through you when it arises.
When you play, you acknowledge the joy in life. This never has to go away, no matter how old you are. It comes naturally to children, but as adults you must retrain yourself to embrace this playfulness. This happens by simply giving yourself permission to be playful. You are taught that when you grow up you must do just that, grow up. Meaning you do not act childlike. We are here to tell you otherwise. Keep the playfulness alive. Don’t let it go, don’t judge it, don’t bury it in your adult day-to-day doings. Bring it into your adult day-to-day doings. Play is very healing and it is a wonderful means of letting energy move through you. Turn on your favorite music and dance wildly around your house. Look in the mirror and make funny faces at yourself. Do what feels good. Be silly. Find your creativity. Being creative is also a wonderful conductor of positive energy. Paint, sculpt, decorate, design, play music, cook, whatever speaks to you. When you create, from your heart, you express yourself in a much different way than you do through your day-to-day affairs. Creativity is a release. Creativity unburdens you from your worries, or concerns for a while. When you are creating, you are totally focused on what you are doing. You are at one with the creative moment. You will notice how you feel when you are finished with your creative time. You can feel the positive energy running through you. You likely feel more rejuvenated and refreshed. Creativity and playfulness can do so much for the soul. These are indeed beautiful expressions of the soul. Your spirit is joy. It wants to express joy and feel joy. Allow some time for this each day if you can. There may days when you just flat out do not feel like it and that is fine. Honor what you are feeling. But try not to let life pass you by without some silliness and playfulness and creative expression. When your kids are being silly, instead of watching them thinking, “Oh, to be a kid again”, surrender to it. Join in! Learn from them. Recall the saying “Dance like nobody is watching”? This is such a magnificent phrase and it sums up what we are speaking of here. Let go of the “what ifs?” and the “what will people think” thoughts and just let it all hang out. Be yourself. Feel your joy. Connect with your playful nature. Create something that speaks to you. Worry less and play more. Your pets are also wonderful teachers in this regard. Watch how they live in the moment. Watch how they play with complete abandon. Notice how their joy is undiluted, uninhibited, and pure. Adults tend to put themselves in the position of controller. They feel they are at the top of the hierarchy when it comes to children and animals, but truly, it is the children and animals who have a lot to show the adults. Try to be less controlling with them and surrender more to their wisdom. It is there, if only you are ready to observe it and accept it. Adults tend to write off animals and kids as “goofy” and completely miss the immense wisdom they have to share. They truly are incredible teachers. Honor them as such. When it comes to finding your joy, do not limit yourself. Do not feel like you must find solely “grown up” things to do. If you feel like grabbing a box of crayons and coloring, go right ahead and indulge that creative burst! Do what feels good. Kids and animals do not censor what they should and shouldn’t do. When they have a creative urge, they follow it. They do not stop and think about it. They don’t worry about what others opinions might be on the subject. They just go for it. You can do this too. Now, we are not telling you to indulge every whim. If your boss is standing in the hallway and you know that skipping down the hall past him singing songs from the Wizard of Oz will get you fired, you may wish to consider the consequences before you act. But if you really, really want to skip and sing certainly do so when you know there will be no consequences that you can’t live with.
You know the old adage, "you can’t please everyone all of the time". That being so, why even try? Just do what feels right and good for you. Who cares what people think? If you want to sing at the top of your lungs in your car, don’t let the stares of others in traffic who don’t know how to connect with their joy stop you. Don’t let judgment and criticism of those who do not yet know how to be accepting instead of judgmental stop you. Others are judging you because of their current lack of understanding, not because you are doing anything wrong. Embrace your joy and your playful nature. You will feel how wonderful this is once you give it a try, without marring the experience with wondering how you look or being fearful of how you appear. If you’re a lousy dancer but you love to dance, dance anyway. The point isn’t to look good doing it. The point is to have fun and to enjoy yourself. Again, if people laugh at you or judge you, it is their limitation, not yours. Don’t let it slow you down. Life is too short to let others dictate how you live it. You have the right to live your life in any way that brings you joy and allows you to have fun. This doesn’t mean at the expense of everyone else. We always encourage being respectful of others. But there is a way to balance honoring others and yourself as well.
Heather, your blog is fantastic. I'm glad you are putting it out there as the time is now!
ReplyDeleteI especially enjoy the excerpt about play. Although I don't have kids, I am a very playful person and do many of the things you detail above. I get urges, seemingly from nowhere, to act funny and be silly...and I go with it, funny looks from other people and all. I express life, joy and creativity every day, in playful ways. Thank you for sharing this. I hope it will helps others feel allowed to be expressive.
I love you, yes I do!!
~Shea
I tried a bass solo at the jam yesterday. Now that is silly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting, Heather.
Joe