How Prioritizing Play Can Change Your (Adult) Life
As we grow up, we lose our sense of child-like wonder and begin to naturally harden to life’s circumstances. We realize the responsibilities, the societal norms and the obligations of adulthood and just become a bit rigid. Life takes a toll on us and over time and we sadly lose our luster.
But what if there was something we could do to break the cycle and start having fun again? What if we could use our imagination, run around, be messy and just play? If we could be fearless like our children?
You don’t have time for this? That’s not something mature adults do?
Oh really? Let’s stop right there. Let me remind you of this quote: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw
We’ve been programmed to follow the rules as we grow up. That we are supposed to act a certain way, color within the lines and get “good” at something in order to move ahead. What we do for a living becomes the definition of who we are and money is always the end goal.
Well I beg to differ.
About two years ago, I decided to do something I loved, everyday. Becoming a new mom totally turned my life around. Not in a terrible way, but in a way that I kind of lost myself. I didn’t feel like me, I no longer had time to be creative or work within any consistent schedule. I felt stuck, alone and frustrated.
And so, after about a year of struggling with this, I decided to pull out my paints again and everyday, just tinker. Even if just for a few minutes. In my mind, this was play for me. This allowed me to squeeze out some creative juices, try new things, experiment and just have fun. This tinkering eventually lead to the start of my Happy Day Beads, but that wasn’t the goal.
My goal was to find myself again by working freely, sparking my creativity and just having fun. And I did that by getting messy with my paints and having no real expectations. It was my therapy. The time in my studio became my playground. And that’s exactly what my soul needed to get back to me again.
The bottom line was that freedom to play was what I needed most, and I suspect you could use that too. And though creating time for this freedom can be quite difficult as we juggle our careers, children and relationships, it is actually the most important time we can give ourselves.
The freedom to do whatever it is that brings us joy and calms us down, is the most self-care thing we can do.
So how can you bring more play into your life, everyday?
It may mean waking up early to get a few moments of silence and peace to ourselves. It may mean scheduling and prioritizing “you” time each day or taking one entire day a month to just get out of the house. If we build these spaces for creativity and play consistently, they will become part of our routine, much like exercise. We can begin to rely on these moments as a time to check in with ourselves and refuel a bit.
It’s not easy to work through this alone, so let’s take this journey together! I’ll be diving deeper into this idea of play in my future posts and am always happy to speak one-on-one with you if you need some guidance along the way! In the meantime, if you haven’t already, be sure to sign up to my newsletter!
