In this talk today,
I thought I'd talk about being playful and finding joy and fun again in your life and give you some insight into that.
So each day you get to wake up,
You know,
You're a new person,
You are shedding layers,
You're evolving,
Growing and learning new things.
You have a choice in life and you get to do something new.
It's so wonderful.
You can change your life that day if you choose.
You're allowed to be vulnerable,
You're allowed to do new things and then you can decide if it wasn't for you.
And the beauty is that new doors open every day if you are open to it.
You are the master of your own life and you have choices.
So lately I've been observing my children at the moment and I have a three and a one-year-old and they've just begun to start playing together.
They have their own language and do the most simple things with our couch.
So at the moment our couch is a jungle,
It's a cubby house,
It's a like a makeup parlor at the moment as well.
It's a place where they laugh and jump all over it and they just love it.
They throw themselves under the cushions and they are just present and in the moment.
And you know children play,
Children are so present when they're playing.
But as they age they start to lose a sense of playfulness and become more and more aware of the risks.
We know what makes us feel uncomfortable and we start thinking about what other people think and we become quite conditioned.
So we pull back and we stop doing things that may have brought us joy as children now that we're adults and we're so much more aware of the whole world.
You know that couch for me,
I just sit on it to watch tv or to have a chat with somebody.
I'm conditioned to see it as a comfortable seat and it really doesn't bring me joy besides seeing my kids happy on it.
You probably won't find me dancing on it being free and carefree because I know I can fall over and hurt myself,
That I'll ruin the springs on the couch or the fabric or because it costs me a lot of money.
So I don't do it but my kids love it.
So I just wanted to share that with you,
Just a little insight into my observation with my own children and invite you to have a look at children playing when you can and see how just present they are.
They just observe everything and they want to touch everything and they have the most beautiful imaginations.
But as we age we tend to lose it and you'll see that as children grow up and then into adults we kind of just pull back,
Keep pulling back.
So how can we bring this back?
How can we bring in more playfulness?
So I have a quote here from Don Miguel Ruiz.
So I'm just going to read it out to you.
But if you observe children who are two or three years old,
If you see how they behave,
They are playing all the time.
You see them laughing all the time.
Their imagination is so powerful and the way dream is an adventure of exploration.
When something is wrong they react and defend themselves but then they just let go and turn their attention to the moment again,
To play again,
To explore and have fun again.
They are living in the moment.
They are not ashamed of the past.
They are not worried about the future and the happiest moments in our lives are when we are playing.
Just like children we are singing and dancing and when we are exploring and creating just for fun.
It is wonderful when we behave like a child because this is the normal human tendencies.
As children we are innocent and it is natural for us to express love.
But what has happened to us?
What has happened to the whole wide world?
And that's a quote by Don Miguel Ruiz.
So I would invite you to do a few little things.
Do some journaling.
Write out some of these prompts.
What makes you want to shine?
Or what makes you feel lit up?
And then I invite you to consider what can you do to bring in more fun,
Creativity and joy.
It could be something that you've never done before and let yourself be surprised.
You know,
Allow this pleasure of newness to evolve within you.
And then once you've finished your journaling I invite you to do a guided meditation which is a visualization meditation that invites you to step through a new door and into this world of playfulness and really embody it.
You know,
You might visualize something that you've never ever done before and it felt so restricted.
But when you do it in meditation you can let go.
You can visualize yourself doing it and you will receive the benefits as if you did it in real life.
So please check out my meditation called Finding Playfulness Again on Insight Timer and return back to it whenever you feel like you need to do more playfulness.
And who knows,
It may transpire into the reality,
Into real life and you might find yourself becoming more and more playful.
