The Power of Playfulness
You will love yourself for being playful. And, so will others.
Do you think you take life too seriously? Do you sometimes wish you could have handled a situation with a little more humor, lightness? Do you have a relationship that has gotten a little too heavy and serious? Do you catch yourself pursing your lips, shaking your head, thinking too negatively?
Would you just like to rediscover:
- Your sense of humor?
- Your sense of playfulness?
- Your sense of fun? Silliness?
- Your inner child?
- A joyful feeling of lightness?
- More laughter in your life? More smiles?
The Oxford Dictionary defines playfulness as
the quality of being light-hearted or full of fun.
What can playfulness do for us?
Playfulness unleashes our creativity.
Playfulness makes us feel happy, light, joyous, energetic, peaceful, and loving. It reduces stress. It makes us a better team player, family member, and friend. It makes us nicer to be around. Playfulness brings out playfulness in others and improves our relationships.
From his book, Playful Intelligence, Anthony DeBenedet, tells us
Play is an action. Playfulness is a set of behaviors. Play is the act of throwing horseshoes in your backyard. Playfulness is an inclination to smile or laugh while you’re doing it. One playful family I know often tells the story of their first trip to the circus — an act of play. Excited to capture the memory of their family outing, the parents ushered their children to a stage where families could have their picture taken with clowns. As the family stepped onto the stage, the youngest son burst into tears. Everyone — the parents and siblings, as well as the clowns and photographer — tried to calm him, but to no avail. Then the mother shouted, “Quick, let’s do grumpy faces!” And everyone frowned happily as the photographer snapped the photo — an act of playfulness.
Also, from his book, Anthony DeBenedet says
The five playful behaviors that seem to hold the highest value in adulthood are imagination, sociability, humor, spontaneity, and wonder.
How do we create more playfulness in our lives?
Playfulness requires intention.
Create the intention to be more playful. Sometimes just the awareness will make us think about it and act on it more often.
Share an embarrassing story with your friends, coworkers, and loved ones.
This will lighten you and everyone else up. Embellish it. Drag it out. An embarrassing story shows that we are human and don’t take ourselves too seriously.
I have a funny one I pull out about walking in to my first job one morning with my boss’ boss’ boss. It was raining and I was using a big umbrella that suddenly closed over me. I wrestled that thing, tripped over the curb, and fell down on the sidewalk. I lost a shoe, tore my dress, and got soaked. So much for trying to impress the boss! He couldn’t stop laughing at me!
Start a joke-a-day or silly story practice.
Share silly, funny stories and jokes with your family, friends, coworkers. Ask everyone to take a turn sharing a joke or finding one of those funny you’ll-never-believe-this-happened stories.
Make fun of yourself.
When you hear yourself being overly serious, repeat what you just said with sarcasm, a silly voice, or with a question mark at the end of your comment. Make fun of yourself!
Make a game of taking your seriousness to the extreme.
When you hear yourself being too serious, make a game of taking your seriousness to the extreme in your mind.
For example, the other day I caught myself wanting to react in a childish way. So, I stuck my lower lip out in a pout, talked in a childish whiny voice, and stomped around the room like a spoiled child. It was ridiculous. I laughed at myself and moved on. Major quick shift in my perspective!
Smile.
Catch yourself in a serious situation, pause, and smile. If you answer or respond to anything with a smile on your face, it will come out in your voice and make you feel lighter. Others hear the smile in your voice whether in person or on the phone.
Choose peace.
Catch yourself in a serious situation, pause, and choose peace and playfulness over being right. Breathe. Don’t argue. Choose peace. Say, “That’s an interesting perspective…” Or, give a non-committal “Hmm…” Or, just be quiet. You will feel much lighter.
Adopt an attitude of curiosity.
Shift your perspective to one of learning, being open, and interested in the person, the topic, the location, the park, the woods, your yard, an idea, a class, wherever you are that you are feeling needs to be lightened. Act as if you were a tourist on a holiday in a foreign country you’ve always wanted to visit.
Look and think with beginner’s mind.
Act as if you don’t know anything about the process, topic, person, relationship, assignment, and begin to ask beginner questions about it. Look for that eagerness, excitement, energy we feel when we are learning something new about something we are really interested in. Ask yourself, “How does that work?” Or, “Why?” Or, “Where/how do I start?”
Consciously adopt an attitude of playfulness.
Consciously adopt an attitude of playfulness for the week, for a meeting, for a discussion, for a family gathering, etc. Smile. Tease others. Be enthusiastic. Be energetic. Be spontaneous. Ask yourself, “How can I make this more playful?”
I challenge you to pick one of these suggestions, or an idea of your own, and practice being playful for the week.
Just practice.
You’ll be glad you did.
You will love yourself for doing this. And, so will others.
There is a correlation between how seriously we take life and how many problems it gives us. ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
I am a life coach. I help others get really clear on the life and work they would love to have, know that they can have it, and help them manifest it. Visit me at https://www.lauraraduenz.com