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Do you play every day? What does it look like?
Episode Transcript:
What does it mean to play every day?
What does that look like for you?
I love the concept and the idea.
I posted a quote on my Instagram feed the other day that said: “you don’t stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing.” Because I truly believe that down to my core. And it reminds me of what kind of got me started on my healing journey.
When I suffered from burnout – and was really struggling physically and mentally – it was watching Mary Poppins and seeing her say, “in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun, you find the fun and snap the jobs a game”, right. And what’s amazing about that movie is that even though she shares that, originally with the children and sings spoonful of sugar and all that stuff, at the end of the film, the dad goes and sings it too, right?
And you can see how in him embracing the play the fun the innocence, he is able to shed a whole lot of stress and a whole lot of of his heaviness that he has been carrying around. And that ripple effect, changes their whole family.
And so it is such an important part of what, of how, I try and show up in the world. And what I work with my clients, whether they’re the children who it’s really easy to get them to play, or with parents who want to find ways to create more connection with their children, but they don’t want to get on the floor and play Hot Wheels for 15 hours, or play card games and board games over and over and over again, with kids who like to cheat (if your kids are like mine).
And so one of the ways in which I truly have embraced that idea of play, is to shift it from the mindset of playing means being childlike, or being irresponsible, to playing means how do I have fun?
What does it look like to do this thing that maybe I don’t want to do, or this thing that feels heavy and to do it in a way that feels fun?
An exercise for me, that was a huge part, it was really hard for me to get on my yoga mat every single day and to do a intentional Zen Yoga experience. But the second that I could bring play to it, the second that I started barking like a dog in down dog or imagining in Warrior pose that I was a surfer, those sort of those things that I learned from studying kids yoga the moment I started doing that for myself, and yoga became playful, it was something that was so much more easy to show up to do every day.
And I’m noticing during this period of confinement, that as my family is spending more time together. Because we have this playful mindset, because we have this fascination with how do we make this feel more fun. It has felt really easy for us. So when things get tense, when there are chores that need to get done that aren’t getting done, instead of trying to control the situation and starting to yell at each other and place blame – when you said you were going to do it, you didn’t do it – we get to get curious about how can we make this fun?
How can we make the discipline fun?
How can we get our kids to see this chore that we’ve asked them to do as something they can do that’s fun instead of something we’re telling them to do.
Because who wants to do what somebody else is telling them to do? Right? That’s not fun.
“Find the fun and snap the job is a game.” So as an example, the other day, it was bedtime and we went upstairs to tell the kids to turn off the lights and they had been in their room for already about 30 to 45 minutes reading books. And I was like “right, okay, time to turn off the lights.” And they’re like, “oh wait, I didn’t brush my teeth.” And old me would have been like, “What do you mean you didn’t brush your teeth? You know you’re supposed to brush your teeth! You know the routine!”
But instead because I have this, this mindset shift and I’ve kind of said…I was able to say like “how fascinating. okay, I see that you didn’t brush your teeth. Well, how can we make brushing your teeth fun, because we need to brush your teeth and turn off the lights.”
And I could shift my voice and shift how I spoke to them. And because it wasn’t coming to them from this place of power, it was coming more from this place of we’re on the same page, and we’re gonna work together, it was instantaneous. They were up and running to the bathroom to brush their teeth, not out of fear of me yelling at them, but probably out of fear that I was gonna start singing or annoying them until they did it. Right?
Finding ways to have fun finding ways to be playful, is a really a personal thing. Because at the end of the day, nobody can define fun for you except to you.
So what does it look like for you to play every day?
Does it mean grabbing a frisbee and going into the yard and throwing it around?
Does it mean playing a board game?
Does it mean breaking out into song every time you want to yell?
Does it mean telling a really bad joke because you want to see if people are actually listening to what you’re saying?
There are so many ways that you can play and it takes practice. Kids get so much practice playing. We’ve lost our practice for some of us.
What does it look like to play? I would love to hear what it means for you. Go out have fun. Take chances. Get messy. Make mistakes and play. Find the fun and snap, life will become more of a game you want to play!
Have a great day.
Transcription by Otter.ai – Disclaimer: this is a referral link. I get extra minutes added to my account if you sign up for one yourself.
About this “playcast”:
Life is messy. Kids are messy. Parenting is messy!
But, messy can be good.
To paraphrase Mrs. Frizzle, it means you’re taking chances, making mistakes, and learning.
Creative Spirit, Playful Discipline is a mini-podcast – a playcast! – for parents who want to embrace their uniqueness, shatter the “shoulds”, and find a rallying cry for their families so they can create fun, magically messy memories to last a lifetime.
