Playfulness👶
Possibility | Inner child | Play
Last week, I shared Les Brown’s teaching and his motto which I love: “Stay Hungry!”. This is insanely powerful to remember. This week, I will discuss the importance of being playful!
But first, thanks to the many people who have chipped in since the last letter, sharing with me what staying hungry means for them, a quote from an athlete they like, or something that reminds them of this idea. Everyone has a different trigger to recall those words, use your trigger! Anchor them again and again! Soon, you will realize that life is an all-you-can-eat buffet!
Talking about an all-you-can-eat buffet, it is interesting to reframe it through the lenses of abundance and possibility.
Spring is blooming. As I write those words, I look through my window and see a park full of life with verdant trees and shrubs all over and people sunbathing on the grass (yes, we sometimes have sun in the UK!!) It feels upbeat. Spring makes me think of the Vivaldi 4 Seasons where the beat is light, airy, zesty, happy, and fun. A playful time of the year.
The idea of playfulness is dear to me and one of the three affirmations that appear daily on my phone. Why? Because it feels that too often we take ourselves too seriously, we go into a rabbit hole, we have arguments that are nonsense, we burst into anger, we forget what is important, we feel stuck, we think life is infinite [….] you can complete with your own…
We often forgot that a pinch of fun and playfulness allows us to live better, take some of the weight off our shoulders, and can be a great problem-solving tool.
Check out those kids! Ask around you and many will say they cherish their childhood memories the most. The pure joy of life can be felt in a child as they laugh innocently, clap madly, and giggle without reason. Indeed, you don’t need a reason to be happy when you are cheerful from within.
My 18-month nephew is just like this. Kids are so agile in their thinking and so playful with what surrounds them that this is what makes them grow and live. Contrary to childhood innocence, adulthood is often described as mundane and tiring. While we cannot control age in terms of numbers, we can decide how we want to grow up! Your inner child does not have to die for you to qualify as an adult.
As I have already shared with you, I love improvised theater and have been doing it for many years. Last Saturday, I went to see some old friends on stage. It was magical. What is great about improvisation is that you cannot script it. It is built in the moment. It is a total surprise and the more you let yourself be surprised the better because then your reactions, questions, and engagement are even more natural and unscripted. Like life. True improvisation is hard and easy at the same time. Hard as you have no control and is about letting it go, easy cause it should be about being in the moment and playful with what our stage partner offers us.
Your view of the world is just your perception, you can never see it how it really is: the objective truth. So, how about you make it fun, a play, going all out, and see it as full of possibility?
Question:
How would your life be with a pinch more of playfulness in it?
What do you do to keep your inner child alive?