Hey everybody,
It's Justin Michael Williams,
And I am so excited to talk to you about the power of.
.
.
Play.
One of the things that I have realized that I think many of you will resonate with is as I have been on my journey of personal and spiritual growth,
I have kind of drained the playfulness and fun and wildness and joy and silliness out of my life in some ways.
And I think this happens normally because as we're on our healing journey,
So many of us to heal,
We have to focus on our trauma and optimizing our lives and aligning ourselves with our purpose and our actions and being focused and vigilant and careful about what we're doing.
But sometimes,
It's so important to remember that play and joy is healing too so much So that the greater good science center in UC at UC Berkeley actually did a study and in this study They discovered that the play life zone the zone of creativity Hobbies is so important that it is essential.
You cannot find happiness and fulfillment in your life This is what they said in the research without having planned time in your week regularly for play.
For your joy.
And so in this session,
In this practice,
I'm going to teach you a practical way to actually get reconnected to the energy of play and joy in your life so that you're not just always productive and focused and healing.
You can be all of those things too,
But that you can also be having a dang good time while you're doing it all because the play is the revolution as well.
And so I want to teach you first the specifics about play.
I'm going to show you two different ways to re-engage with play in your life.
And then I'll guide you through a practice that will help you rediscover play and the practice will have two parts to it as well.
All right,
So let's begin.
Let's talk about what I mean when I say play,
Because I have to be really specific here about two things.
First,
When we're talking about play,
We're talking about creativity and hobbies,
Things that you do for fun,
That are not work.
And that brings me to my second most important point,
Which is if you work in your passion,
Like I do,
I'm a singer and I'm also a motivational speaker and teacher.
And the reason I started doing these things is because they're both things that I absolutely love.
But if you're this way,
If you love gardening and you became a gardener,
If you love animals and you became a veterinarian,
If you love dancing and you're a professional dancer,
I need you to know that what the research shows is you have to find separate thing to do to count as your play.
If you have to perform well at it,
If it's making you money,
It does not count in the play life zone,
No matter how much fun you have doing it,
Okay?
This is really important for those of you who work in your passion and your purpose.
But what the research shows is that no matter what you do for work,
As long as it's not draining your soul,
If you can engage in play in your life,
Then you can live as happy and fulfilled of a life as anybody can get.
And so I want to teach you now last super important thing that people forget about play.
You have to schedule it into your day.
You have to schedule it into your life.
It can't be left over for whenever you have time or when you happen to be free or because we know how that goes.
Life is so busy.
You have to actually schedule planned time for it.
And it doesn't mean that has to be some exuberant amount of time.
Just an hour or two a week will make a really big difference in your life fulfillment and purpose.
All right.
So let's talk about how to re-engage with your play.
I have a lot of twos today because there are two ways that we can go about re-engaging with our play.
The first way is to look at the past.
The second way is to follow and look at our curiosities.
Things that I did is we looked at a Britney Spears video from way back in the days and me and one of my best friends we actually learned the choreography right here in my living room to Britney Spears' like one of her most iconic dance routines.
So I'll show you here just me and my friend having a really great time.
Here's me and Jelani dancing to Britney Spears.
Where's that fun with it?
So there you have it,
Right?
I still got the moves.
So that was super fun and it was just play.
It was just fun.
If we messed up,
If we were good,
If we were not good,
If we were whatever,
It didn't matter.
We were just having a good time and this is a really important part of play.
Let me give you a second way to look at your past.
So the first way that I just showed you is to take something you used to do in the past that you used to love and just do it again as an adult.
The second way to look at your past is to take something that you used to like in your past but then bring it into the present and engage with it differently.
So how can you deepen your experience now as an adult because you can do whatever you want.
How can you deepen your experience with something that you used to like in your past that maybe you never had the chance to go as deep into as you would have liked.
So this is so random but it'll show you how fun and how much space you have to explore your play.
So one of my all-time favorite movies,
This might surprise some of you what I'm gonna say next,
Is Hocus Pocus.
If you have not heard of Hocus Pocus,
It is like one of my favorite movies.
It's Sarah Jessica Parker,
Bette Midler,
Kathy Najimy playing the three witches.
It's like an amazing Halloween movie and they play the Sanderson sisters.
I've loved this movie since I was a little kid.
I watched it every Halloween,
Multiple times a year.
There's no movie I've watched more than this movie.
And so as a kid,
What did I do?
I just watched the movie.
But as an adult,
Oh.
What I got to do is I got two of my best friends together,
And for Halloween,
We actually dressed up as the Sanderson Misters.
And we did an entire photo shoot.
I'll show you the photo here.
And we actually had a whole bunch of fun to remake and recreate a whole bunch of scenes from the movies that we saw when we were little kids.
So this was a way that like as an adult I could like spend time and spend money and get costumes and have a photo shoot and like it was just so fun Productive no fun.
Oh my god fun to the max And so this is a way that you can take something from your past and engage with it more deeply or differently as an adult to just play Just play and of course you have the opportunity to look at our second way of looking at play so our second way of looking at play the first way was the past is to look at your curiosities and follow them.
So I want you to think about things that you have always been or maybe even just recently been curious about but that you haven't given yourself time or space or energy to deepen your relationship with.
So for example,
Have you always loved picking angel cards or tarot cards?
Maybe you can go take a tarot reading class.
Have you loved astrology?
Maybe you can go explore astrology in a deeper way,
Taking a course,
A workshop,
Getting readings,
Exploring it with friends.
Maybe if you always love dancing,
You can go take a dance class.
If you love gardening,
Maybe you start growing a little garden.
And so these are all different ways that you can take something.
It's like,
Oh,
I've always been curious about this.
Like maybe you love chocolate.
You might say,
You know what?
Every Sunday,
I'm going to bake a new chocolate recipe.
Or if you don't cook every Sunday,
I'm going to go explore a different chocolate dessert in my city and look up the desserts that are in my town.
So these are ways that you can just look at your curiosities and then allow yourself to engage with them more fully,
Even in a small way.
But the important part is it has to be scheduled.
So I'll give you another example for me personally.
So one of my favorite things all my friends know is I love food.
Okay.
I love decadent,
Amazing,
Delicious food.
And another thing that I love so much,
But that was happening so rarely is when my whole friend group gets together.
And so I had all this group of friends who would rarely get together unless it was a birthday or something.
But I always noticed that any time my whole group of friends got together and them getting to know each other,
I would feel this surge of joy just pulsing through my entire body,
Just watching my friends become friends with one another.
So I thought,
Okay,
These are two things that I have some curiosity about.
Always can have some more amazing food,
And what about getting my friends together,
Not just on birthdays or big experiences?
So I started hosting a dinner at my house every Sunday called Sunday Dinners,
And everybody brings a potluck dish that they love,
And I often theme them.
And so,
For example,
This week's theme at our Sunday dinner is bring something that you used to love eating in your childhood.
And then my group of about 10 friends get together every Sunday,
Whoever can come comes,
And I get to watch my friends become friends,
And eat amazing food at the same time.
So I'm giving you these examples for you to see that the range is like unlimited.
You can do so much with this if you look at your past and you follow your curiosity.
Alright,
So now I would like to guide you through a practice that will allow you to explore this energy within yourself because you might be surprised at what comes up for you when you're not just letting this come from your mind but you're letting it come from your body and your heart.
If you're ready to practice with me,
Go ahead and get comfortable wherever you are.
Place one hand over the center of your chest and the other hand over your navel.
Take a full deep breath in.
And a deep breath out.
And when you're ready,
I invite you to shut your eyes.
And take another full deep breath in with me.
And a breath out.
And to the count of four,
Inhale with me for one.
3 four,
Hold for one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale one.
Again,
Inhale one.
Four.
Hold for one.
4,
Exhale 1.
3.
Last time,
Inhale deeply,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold for one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale one.
3 four.
Just stay in this internal space but you can breathe normally now.
Rest into your breath and ask yourself,
What is something that I used to like doing?
That was purely for fun and brought me joy.
And we'll start with something that you used to find joyful when you were a child.
We can span that age anywhere from like zero to 11.
Just let anything bubble up.
What brought you joy when you were a child?
And now,
Let's go to your teenage adolescent years.
From when you were,
Let's say,
12 to 18.
Was there anything that you liked to do in your teenage years that just brought you joy,
That was just fun for you?
Whether it was alone or with others,
But where you could feel the energy of joy arising in you.
And now let's take it into your young adulthood.
So regardless of how adult you are now.
We'll look at ages 18 and up.
And we'll look at the things that you used to do.
That were just fun for you.
What bubbles up?
Great,
And now take a breath in.
And a breath out.
And when you're ready,
Just open your eyes.
And I want to take just a moment now for you to just jot down anything that came to you,
Whether it's on a piece of paper,
You need to pause this,
Or you just jot it down on your phone.
Just jot down whatever came to you about play from these different zones.
You don't even have to separate it into ages.
Just whatever came up,
Have it there for you.
If you need to pause the video,
Go ahead and do that now.
But otherwise,
I'll give you just a few moments right now to write everything down.
Okay,
So now we're actually gonna go back into our practice.
So I'd like you to place a hand again over the center of your chest,
Another one over the navel.
And take a full breath in.
And a breath out.
Close your eyes again and drop in.
And to the count of three this time,
Inhale with me for one.
Three,
Hold for one,
Two,
Three,
Exhale one,
Two.
Again,
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
Hold for 1,
2,
3,
Exhale 1,
2,
3.
Last time,
Inhale one.
Two,
Three,
Hold for one,
Two,
Three,
Exhale one.
And three,
Just keep your eyes closed and stay in this internal space.
And now just ask yourself.
What is something?
Or even multiple things that I've been a little curious about.
That I haven't given myself enough time to explore.
Maybe I haven't even thought about giving myself time to explore.
Maybe there's something you've seen online or that you like looking up online or something you like to watch or do.
Or that you've heard about,
Or that brings you joy any time you engage with it,
But you don't engage with it that often,
Or enough.
And then ask yourself,
How can I plan more time in my life to engage with this thing more deeply?
How can I use my time and energy?
And the appropriate resources.
Or an abundance of resources if you'd like.
To engage with this thing.
In a more intimate way that expands your relationship to whatever it is you're curious about.
Then when you're ready,
Take a deep breath in.
And a breath out.
And open your eyes.
And you know what's coming,
Write it down.
Whether you need to pause this video or not,
I'm gonna give you just a few moments here to jot down what came to you.
So,
I feel so grateful for the time that we get to not just heal.
And grow and be productive and optimize our health and our fitness and get things done and all of the things that we're doing in ourselves to really become the best version of ourselves.
But we cannot forget that a part of us becoming the best version of ourselves is having a good time while we are becoming that version of ourselves.
And so I hope that this practice helps guide you in a way that hopefully doesn't land you where I was,
Which is being so serious about all of my spiritual and personal growth practices that I almost forgot the part of me that knew how to have fun.
So I am so grateful.
I would love to know what you're taking away from this session.
And I would love for you to leave that in the comments here.
I love seeing your comments of what it is that you're engaging with in your life.
And my big hope and big wish is yes,
That we all grow and expand,
But that we all continue to remember to play because it is so essential for our growth and fulfillment.
Thank you for taking the time to be with me today.
This is Justin Michael Williams signing out and we rise together.
Bye for now.
