Cultivating a sense of playfulness in your life may feel challenging, especially if you have spent most of your life stuck in patterns of perfectionism, control seeking, and feeling anxious in your relationship to uncertainty.
Perhaps it feels irresponsible to you to be more playful, lighthearted, and free-spirited in your life and relationships. Our society often discourages such notions and instead perpetuates the idea that we should be hard-working, serious, and constantly hustling.
However, an integral part of holistic wellness involves redefining your relationship to play and rest.
What Is Playfulness?
Playfulness can mean, look, and feel like something different for each individual. Generally speaking, playfulness entails creating the space and time in your days to be “childlike” — to reflect, dream, be creative, and relax.
Playfulness involves approaching life with more trust, ease, curiosity, and lightheartedness. These are experienced as a result of learning to make time for rest, accepting yourself and your life as it is, and trusting that you do not need to be busy all of the time.
The Benefits of Play
You may think of play as something only children need. However, you have an inner child that craves time to decompress, recreate, and relax. Cultivating playfulness in your life is one way you can ease symptoms of burnout, chronic stress, and anxiety.
Some benefits of play include:
- Reduction in stress
- Increased connection to self and others
- The ability to relax more easefully
- Increased energy
- Healthy relationships with yourself, others, and work
How to Cultivate Playfulness
Creating time and space to be playful in your life begins with creating space for it, including setting boundaries around how much time you give certain aspects of your life.
For example, carving out time to play and rest may require boundaries around work and prioritizing what adds to your well-being rather than what takes away from it.
To cultivate playfulness in your life, you might:
- Join a club or recreational sports league
- Daydream
- Research something just to learn about it
- Think about what brought you the most joy as a child and do it
- Approach life, yourself, and others with more openness, acceptance, compassion, and curiosity
Adding playfulness into your life can be like building muscle. It will take time, attention, and effort, which may be uncomfortable at first, but, with time, it will become natural.
Learning how to decompress and be more playful can be challenging. However, cultivating playfulness in your life can also lead to healing and wellness. At Avalon Malibu, we recognize how hard it can be to decide to begin recovery. We are here to support you each step of the way as you start learning how to live in alignment with your genuine self. If you are struggling and are ready to begin healing, we can help you recover. Call us at (844) 857-5992.
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