On my fourth PLAY DAY I confirmed something about me and playing – I like to play alone sometimes (drawing, dancing, messing around in the water). But, playing is so much more carefree and reaches a whole other level when I am with friends who love life. For example, when I am with
one of my best friends we take random silly face pictures together in the car!! Or when I am with my nephews
and they pull me into playing in the snow, we enter a totally different dimension. So on Tuesday I went down to the beach alone and saw 2 young boys playing in the wash.
I was tempted to join them but chose not to. Instead I went further down the beach and started frolicking a little bit but serious thoughts kept invading my mind. I got out and drew in the sand and
invented a game of throwing small rocks at bigger rocks I had collected to see in which direction they would fly and how far. I felt moments of absorption, but mostly I felt like I was forcing it. I walked along the beach and found a dried palm leaf. I snatched it up and twirled it like a baton around my torso and under my legs. This was truly fascinating and the feel of the stick passing through my palms and the creative movement brought me 100% into the present moment. As I walked back from the beach, I reminisced in my mind about how much more fun I would have had if I had been with a partner in play.
I tend to push people away because I have things to do and I have been imprinted to believe that passing time with friends and community members is not an efficient and productive way to spend my time (luckily Ticos have bee slowly effective at changing this perspective). Today, with this experiment I confirmed what I have been reading in “The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World” with the Dalai Llama – happiness is very directly linked to our participation in the community surrounding us and interaction with others.
On day five, I woke up with a lot of adult thoughts swirling in my head. After 2 hours of yoga and
meditation, I set the intention to not take life or daily annoyances so seriously. This is something I
have heard over and over – people write books about not sweating the small stuff (and truly if we remember that we are on this earth but not of this earth it´s ALL small stuff). But, in practice, it´s not quite so simple. We have patterns of ways of being that dictate our reactions to every stimulus we encounter in the day and simply deciding to see the bright side of things is not necessarily a simple transition. I find that setting an intention for my day is very powerful and reminding myself often throughout the day of that intention keeps me in a space of mindful living. My intention to PLAY somehow has on various occasions actually annoyed me – ahhh I just want to write in my journal,
go for a hike or read my adult books … WHAT?? This is an ongoing thing I will be continuing to analyze – why does play seem to turn into “work” when we don´t have a habit of doing it and when we choose to consciously bring it into our life??
More props to having loved ones and communicating with them …
today a close friend forwarded me a letter that Kurt Vonnegut replied to a letter a high school student sent to him. It implored the students to do art every day for the rest of their lives – sing, dance, make faces in their mashed potatoes, etc. This plea was not to boost their creativity nor to make them famous one day but to “experience becoming, to find out what´s inside you, to make your soul grow”. What a great reminder on a grey rainy day when I was feeling rather uninspired to play!!!
Keep noticing, feeling and not judging what comes up! Play, after all is not a forced action but a random, passionate, inspired action that may just change the rumba of your day or your life :)
one of my best friends we take random silly face pictures together in the car!! Or when I am with my nephews
and they pull me into playing in the snow, we enter a totally different dimension. So on Tuesday I went down to the beach alone and saw 2 young boys playing in the wash.
I was tempted to join them but chose not to. Instead I went further down the beach and started frolicking a little bit but serious thoughts kept invading my mind. I got out and drew in the sand and
invented a game of throwing small rocks at bigger rocks I had collected to see in which direction they would fly and how far. I felt moments of absorption, but mostly I felt like I was forcing it. I walked along the beach and found a dried palm leaf. I snatched it up and twirled it like a baton around my torso and under my legs. This was truly fascinating and the feel of the stick passing through my palms and the creative movement brought me 100% into the present moment. As I walked back from the beach, I reminisced in my mind about how much more fun I would have had if I had been with a partner in play.
I tend to push people away because I have things to do and I have been imprinted to believe that passing time with friends and community members is not an efficient and productive way to spend my time (luckily Ticos have bee slowly effective at changing this perspective). Today, with this experiment I confirmed what I have been reading in “The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World” with the Dalai Llama – happiness is very directly linked to our participation in the community surrounding us and interaction with others.
On day five, I woke up with a lot of adult thoughts swirling in my head. After 2 hours of yoga and
meditation, I set the intention to not take life or daily annoyances so seriously. This is something I
have heard over and over – people write books about not sweating the small stuff (and truly if we remember that we are on this earth but not of this earth it´s ALL small stuff). But, in practice, it´s not quite so simple. We have patterns of ways of being that dictate our reactions to every stimulus we encounter in the day and simply deciding to see the bright side of things is not necessarily a simple transition. I find that setting an intention for my day is very powerful and reminding myself often throughout the day of that intention keeps me in a space of mindful living. My intention to PLAY somehow has on various occasions actually annoyed me – ahhh I just want to write in my journal,
go for a hike or read my adult books … WHAT?? This is an ongoing thing I will be continuing to analyze – why does play seem to turn into “work” when we don´t have a habit of doing it and when we choose to consciously bring it into our life??
More props to having loved ones and communicating with them …
today a close friend forwarded me a letter that Kurt Vonnegut replied to a letter a high school student sent to him. It implored the students to do art every day for the rest of their lives – sing, dance, make faces in their mashed potatoes, etc. This plea was not to boost their creativity nor to make them famous one day but to “experience becoming, to find out what´s inside you, to make your soul grow”. What a great reminder on a grey rainy day when I was feeling rather uninspired to play!!!
Keep noticing, feeling and not judging what comes up! Play, after all is not a forced action but a random, passionate, inspired action that may just change the rumba of your day or your life :)
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