Make Play a Habit

Play is SO good for us and it shouldn't be a childish activity left for the young. Through play we can relax, let our imaginations have space to soar and we learn a lot, too.

Whatever your thing is, make time to play with it - and play often.

What's YOUR thing?

• Do you love taking pictures? Grab your camera and play with it. Find something interesting to shoot and take some pictures, not trying to get them "just right", but playing with angles and light, settings, etc.
• Do you love graphic design? Play around with some new background ideas, get some new freebie design packs and play with them on Canva, design yourself a poster for an imaginary event you've always dreamed of hosting.
• Do you love painting? Grab your paints and paper, some brushes and get to it. Splash, splatter, brush it here or there. Even better - Finger paint aimlessly! See how colors mix and match, layer up, etc. It seems messy, don't worry about that - it comes off with soap and water easily.
• Do you love words? Sit and write a story, jot down some feelings and turn it into a silly poem, write a letter.
• Grab some decorative paper and cut shapes, glue them onto a base.

Whatever you feel drawn to create, play with it. Whatever your talent or favorite media is, play with it.

Have you tried and just found you aren't "good" at play? Get to it and try again.

Play takes practice - we are talked out of play as we age, our society is a productive one that frowns on play and applauds productivity and money and lucrative pursuits of time. Scratch that!

Play is good for your mood, it's good for your mind and it will make all the super-duper important things you need to get done feel a bit lighter. It will super charge your creativity, your critical thinking in everything from your job to your relationships with others, problems in your home/family - everything!

Play!

Tip: You know when you're in the mood to do something and then you follow that up with, "Ah, I really need to _____", or "First I have to _______" or "A better time will be when ______" or "That will be too ________" {enter any resistance that pops up!} - IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, stop yourself and as soon as you can, play with your idea!

I'm not saying to throw your responsibilities to the wayside and be frivolous all the time. I AM saying that the "have tos" will always be there - there is never a shortage of them. You can and should sneak play in and doing that at least once per week for 30 minutes or so isn't going to hurt anyone, but will benefit you a whole whole lot.