Play: How to honor the child within (excerpt from Your Vibrant Life)
A grownup is a child with layers on. - Woody Harrelson
SHEDDING THE ADULT ARMORAs you move through life, the experiences you have become a part of the story of who you are and how you show up in the world.With added years comes added opportunities for the challenges, stresses, and letdowns to build on top of one another, creating adult armor that protects your heart and innocence. This armor serves as a vehicle for you to carry your stories as scars. Imagine these experiences as layers building up to create a heavy protective suit of life, like the weight to a firefighter’s uniform. For example, let’s say that when Marie was 7 years old her parents got divorced and she was devastated, this is when she added her first layer with the thought, “I am unlovable.”She had a crush at 14 and got her heartbroken, and this is when she put the protective coat on, vowing not to let anyone get to her in that way again. In college, she failed a big presentation and energetically put on the helmet, beginning to identify with the idea she’s not good enough. At age 30, Marie lost a loved one and added yet another layer to protect her heart from future pain of loss.Suddenly, she finds herself walking through life with an extra 40 pounds of energetic protective clothing, creating a boundary between herself and the full experience of life.The good news is that as human beings we all go through this process.Everyone has a story.We are all walking autobiographies with our own unique scars and experiences that have made us who we are today.If you grew up in the city you will have different filters for your choices compared to someone who grew up in a small town. If you were raised in a big family your experience will be different from someone who grew up as an only child. These circumstances have helped shape who you are today, and can serve as fuel leading you to more light and expression, or they can manifest as weight and wounds tying you to your past.When you first put on this adult armor, the figurative adult steel cloak, you did so with the best of intentions. It’s reasonable to think you need to protect yourself in order to get by in the world when you’re carrying around the scars of feeling you are not good enough, not smart enough, or unlovable. If you believe these stories about yourself, you will create a life that perpetuates these lies, keeping you playing small and feeling safe.Bound to your past you spend energy maintaining the idea of who you think you are, and overtime, you begin to identify with that armor. We confuse ourselves with the labels we have aligned with: the employee, the failure, the peacemaker, the alcoholic, the boss, the mother, the father, the glue that holds everything together. If you take on these identities from past experience, you disassociate from your light and your true essence.When life serves you some pain and struggle, or even brings you to your knees, these times are the invitations to step back into your true self.The life-affirming choice is to shed your adult armor, transcend your past conditioning, and align with love, your true state of being.These are the times when the light gets in.STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONEWith enough life scars and protective layers you can build yourself a very safe life, steering clear of risk and vulnerability. This carefully managed way of living is life in your comfort zone.The comfort zone is created as the safe space our adult armor allows us to explore, staying within the confines of what feels good.
“Staying within your comfort zone is overrated. With change comes transformation, and with transformation comes evolution. Stop viewing change as good or bad, because all change nourishes your soul.” The Soul’s Journey- James Van Praagh
Part of living your most vibrant life is knowing when it’s time to move on, transform, and transcend. If you remain in this safe place of comfort in any area of your life for too long, you create stuck and stagnant energy, disconnecting you from vital, life-force energy. Your best effort got you to your comfort zone and it served you well at some point, but there comes a point when carrying energy of the past becomes draining.The trap is complacency.Simply put, you are either growing or dying. If you stay in your comfort zone for too long it will eventually start to deplete you rather than fuel your life. As modern day adults we have the luxury of technology and other advances that enable us to hide out in the comfort zone if we so choose. You don’t even need to go to your local grocery store these days and face people in the aisles because you can order all your groceries online and have them delivered in an hour or less.You don’t need to go to your neighborhood gym after work because you can stream a yoga class online. These advances are incredibly useful for busy life today, and they have also fueled our disconnection from others.If you choose to, you can infuse more connection and child-like play into these seemingly mundane interactions, and when you do so, you receive a shot of vital energy.Practice 1: Take off your armor.Even though we are speaking to a figurative adult armor as your protective shield, this practice is quite literal.When you get home at the end of the day, remove your clothes that carry the energy of your experiences from that day. Change into something clean, cozy, and comforting, something that makes you feel most like you.If you are working a corporate job where you are dressed in heels or a suit that isn’t your typical attire, throw on your favorite jeans and a t-shirt as soon as you get home.If you work in a hospital and are in scrubs all day but prefer to be dressed up, put on your favorite dress, wash your face, reapply your make-up, and put on the “armor” that feels the most true to who you are.When you physically change your clothes to be most aligned with what makes you feel in your element, you are creating an energetic shift that creates the space for more vital life-force energy to flow to you.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s not the ritual that matters as much as what you bring to the ritual. When you get home and choose to shed your adult armor, do so with full awareness for the power of this activity.If you have children waiting for you at home, give yourself the gift of several minutes alone to practice this activity with all of you present.Visualize shedding the hard exterior you carry with you throughout the day to step into the softer side of yourself.Ready to go deeper?Sleep naked. This is your most pure and vulnerable state.Create a sensual experience with your body at the end of the day. As you get to know and connect with that side of yourself, you open up the space to share it with your partner; whether they are in your life right now, or on their way to you.REMEMBERING THE INNER CHILDLearning how to live your most creative and connected life now is a process that requires your full participation. When you choose to shed your adult armor and stand fully in the present moment, you tap into a wealth of energy.The key is knowing that the light is always there.You can shift your mindset, behavior, habits, and thoughts and access the light that is always there and available to you. No matter where you are or who you are, you can tap back into more energy and abundance at any time, simply through the choice to do so. And that is what these practices offer to you.Think of a child. They naturally view the world with purity and innocence, and every moment is an opportunity to learn. Free from layers of protective armor built up over years of wear and tear, children enter into situations fearlessly with a desire to discover. The childlike part of your Self still craves a sense of adventure, discovery, and growth. This is where the opportunity enters. Through the practices highlighted in this section focused on incorporating more play and childlike wonder into your daily life, you can shift out of autopilot and have a new and renewed sense of your life. Through the practice of choosing to lead with an open heart and playful spirit you reconnect with your inner child and access the energy of pure love.As you become present to your inner child, you are free to shed your armor and fully dance in the light, allowing vital life-force energy to abundantly flow into your world.WELCOMING THE ENERGY OF NATUREWhen you were a child in grade school, you had mandatory time built into your daily schedule for recess. This time provided an opportunity for you to go outside, climb trees, run around on the open grass, breathe in fresh air, and break free of the routine of the school day by being immersed in the outdoors.Your body and spirit still require this daily release, connection to nature, and sense of play.As adults today, our schedules consist of getting in our car to drive to an office where we sit at a desk, watching email, controlled by a smartphone in concrete structures disconnected from the grounding energy of the Earth. These are modern day circumstances that lead us to live life in reaction to the world around us, instead of a life aligned with inspiration, freedom, and choice.Your life is busy and in that process, our bodies get stiff, our minds get restless, and our energy gets stagnant.Because of our focus on the daily tasks and items on our “to-do” list, we lose the vitality and power we possess that comes from being in touch with the natural elements of our Earth.Unlike most of our lives, nature is simple. It is here without us having to do anything, was around before we existed, and will live on long after we are gone.There is no rush in nature.It pulses with the life-force energy of Universal Intelligence and connects us to a power that is so much bigger and more expansive than our human existence. If you take a moment now to think about the top 3 most fun & joyful moments in your life, most likely, one of them, if not more, involves you being immersed in nature - soaking up the sunshine on a tropical beach, hiking in the mountains, camping under the stars, swimming or boating on a lake, or running through lush green grass. Nature has the ability to ground you back into your physical body in a deep and profound way. With this knowing, the question then becomes, how can you tap into more of this vital energy in your daily life?Listen to the beat of your footstep on the ground, stand barefoot in the grass, breathe in the sweet morning air, sit against a tree and feel the curves on your back, go for a walk and feel the sensation of being alive. Your opportunity is to slow down enough to be aware of these simple gifts.When you create the space in your life to cultivate this connection, you too tap into that abundant energy and Universal power within yourself.Practice 2: Go for a walk.
When you get into your car, shut the door and be there for just half a minute. Breathe, feel the energy inside your body, look around at the sky, the trees. The mind might tell you, 'I don't have time.' But that's the mind talking to you. Even the busiest person has time for 30 seconds of space.” –Eckhart Tolle
This exercise is as simple as shifting your awareness and opening up the space for connection with nature.When you notice that your energy is feeling out of balance, stressed, confused, overwhelmed, or scattered, go on a walk outside. When you are tired from a long day of work, just had an argument with the person you love most, or have spent the whole day surrounded by people, go for a walk outside.When you have the intention of creating connection with nature on your walk it creates an entirely different experience and energy than when you go for a walk to get to a destination or to burn calories.You see and experience the details of the plants, air and buildings. Your energy is focused, and therefore expanding.
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
Be conscious of your walk. Notice the connection of your feet to the ground with every step. Know you are walking and allow everything else to drift away for this time. See the trees around you, soak in the colors of the plants, feel the temperature of the air on your skin. Allow the support of nature to ground you back into your body and take your seat back in your center.By cultivating connection with the always present universal energy that is already abundant and all around, you are able to come back home to your body and experience, and move forward in a way that is true to you - balanced, centered, and aware.Commit to a minimum of 5 minutes at a time when you go for a walk and be aware of your breath as you put one foot in front of another. Breathe in and breathe out, knowing the universal truth that you are always guided, protected, and loved. Your only job is to remember that. Go on a walk and remember this truth.Looking to go deeper? Go barefoot. The studies of foot reflexology highlight that there are reflex points on the bottom of the feet that correspond to every organ, gland, muscle, bone, and system of the body. The bottoms of our feet actually contain a “map” that reflects our human anatomy. By placing our bare feet on the green grass of the Earth, not only are we connecting with the grounding, life-force energy of the roots under our feet, but you are massaging those reflex points. This sends Earth energy to the parts of your body that need healing or more life-force energy.The next time you are looking for a boost of energy, use Earth to fuel you.Walk outside, remove your shoes and place your bare feet in the grass. Feel the energy below your feet move up and through you. Take a few deep cleansing breaths. See any excess energy moving from your body down into the Earth. The Earth is neutral ground and will absorb that which isn’t serving you. Pull in the fresh new energy from the grass as you take notice of how each blade of grass feels as it connects to your feet.The best time to connect to the Earth with bare feet is early in the morning or at night when the moon is fully out. This offers the opportunity to connect with the grounding energy of the Earth, as well as, soak up the vibrant energy of the sun or moon rays.As you stand grounded to the Earth, allow the glow of the rays to move through you to flush any lingering unneeded thoughts or feelings. Stand under the rays for one to five minutes. Allow the rays to cleanse you.Take a few deeps breaths envisioning yourself as clear, white space. If you are holding on to something that isn’t serving you, visualize the shining light of the sun or moon shining directly into the part of body where you feel this. Tap into where you are holding this resentment, fear, confusion, or overwhelm, and see the beams of light shining into your space and cleansing this space. When you are ready to release, release to the power of the sun and moon, allowing the feelings to be washed away and replaced with the peace and strength of our Mother Earth.The exercise of going on a walk, grounding barefoot to the Earth, and soaking up the vibrant energy of the sun or moon rays, are all practices to harness the power and revitalizing energy of our Earth and bring them directly into your own body and life experience.Pop-out story: For a long time, I’ve been this girl: Wake up, drive to the office, sit in front of a computer for about 8 hours, sit in traffic to drive to the gym, workout for 45 – 60 minutes, drive back home, repeat Monday – Friday.As both a busy and organized individual, I compartmentalized my workouts just like I’ve done with many other areas of my life.Wake up and get ready: 7am – 8amLunch and walk dog 12:30pm – 1:30pmWorkout: 5:30pm – 6:30pmMake dinner: 7pm – 8pmBed: 10:30pmIt’s a system, you see, but hot damn, that routine can start to wear on you.I was feeling the pull for more time in nature, fresh air, movement, time to connect with myself, and open space without turning my whole world upside down. You can only feel something for so long until action must step-in and actually create change.So I jumped on my bicycle.Yes, the thing you used to ride around as a little kid, visiting your friends’ houses in the neighborhood and playing for hours. I started biking to work, biking to pick up groceries, and biking to my friend’s houses. Suddenly, I found that I didn’t need to rush to the gym after work because in my “play” I was actually working out all day, every time I got on my bike.I didn’t need to stress about what to eat for dinner that night because I began to pre-plan my meals, so 1 trip to the grocery store per week would have me set. I utilized the local delivery services and had grass-fed meat and veggies delivered directly to my home.I would wake up and bike to the office with the sunshine on my face, and bike home with the afternoon breeze. Sure, some times it was raindrops in place of sunshine, but I promise you, that will make you feel alive.This was FUN, and fun, I like! So, I took it a step further and went all in.I sold my car and started my adventure as a full-time bicyclist. And the really awesome thing, I have so much more time, so much more freedom, a stronger body, and a healthier bank account. I lost 3 lbs. in the first week without needing to or trying to. It happened because I was having fun and incorporating play and time in nature into my daily schedule.CELEBRATE THE GOOD.Quantum Physics has proven we are more than just a body, and the law of attraction, a Universal Law, proves that what we focus on, we expand. So often in the hustle of our day, we miss the sweet little moments to celebrate the kindness or beauty we have experienced. If you choose to see it, there is beauty in every moment, and when you celebrate those moments more space is opened to invite in even more.
Celebration is a way of honoring the gifts in life and shouting to the Universe, “thank you, more please!”
When you honor a moment, an event, a person, or a milestone through adding extra attention, you affirm light and beauty in your life, inviting more in. Through acknowledgement and delight in the smaller victories throughout the day, you start to build the energy of celebration.As usual, the key is to make it simple.Celebration can be as simple as fully accepting and rejoicing in the acknowledgement from a co-worker. Tell yourself you did a great job and let yourself smile. Let yourself FEEL good. Take joy in your wins.Set out goals for yourself and when you hit them, reward yourself. Create a plan that supports your goals and higher intentions and when you progress and create change, acknowledge the growth. This is your life - be kind to yourself and enjoy it! Looking for more resources on how to create a life that feels amazing? Check out The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte.In environments of scarcity and competition, self praise is often looked down upon, or viewed as bragging or arrogance, but it’s the furthest thing from. Self praise and acknowledgement is a form of self love and you can’t give anything to anyone else that you don’t already possess within yourself. Which means, as soon as you start showing yourself some love and praise, you create the space to share more of that with others.Imagine if each of our inner dialogues was one of love, peace, and compassion instead of the steady stream of hurtful things we often say to ourselves in the quiet of our mind, what a different world it would be. You & I can be the ones to start creating this shift by celebrating our personal wins and the wins of those around us.In a return to love, Marianne Williamson writes:
“There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
As you step into the beauty of who you are, acknowledge your accomplishments, and celebrate the amazingness that you are, you give others permission to do the same for themselves.How often in life do you shrink out of fear of being perceived as arrogant or pompous?When you share your wins and celebrate your successes, you open the space for others to do the same. People love to be inspired.The people who love you will be happy for you and will become co-creators in the process of inviting more joy into your life. Allow them that gift, invite them in. We are all mirrors for each other so if my brother is doing well, I get to love and celebrate his success, and as I do so, more flows to me. It’s the law of attraction.However, it’s important to watch our relationships and know when and how to share information. This is about being mindful while maintaining the expansiveness of celebration.If a person you choose to share with is not wanting to celebrate with you, that doesn’t mean you hold back on your celebration, it means that something is being triggered for them in their own experience based on their own circumstances and past.Bless them, be there for them as you want to be, and keep celebrating your light with those that do choose to support you.CELEBRATE YOUR BODY.Your body is your temple, and as you focus on and appreciate your body you are developing loving communication with your physical vessel that takes you where you need and want to go.Listen carefully to what your body is calling for and be keenly aware of how can you care for it throughout your day.Take the time to care for yourself before you go out into the world. Take a bath and cleanse yourself, exfoliate your skin and let your largest organ breathe, massage yourself with coconut oil and hydrate your body that is so good to you. Let your senses be engaged in celebrating you.Put in the extra time and attention to feel and look good. That may mean getting to the gym for one more class each week, or throwing out your favorite pair of jeans that you would like to keep forever but should have been gone long ago.Invest in feeling good.Dress up, do your hair, feel sexy. Let your outer appearance reflect your inner intentions of happiness, connection, beauty, and joy. How you look is a reflection of how you feel.What are you telling the world about who you are?ACKNOWLEDGE & APPRECIATE OTHERSEveryone wants to be seen and heard. When you genuinely acknowledge someone else with good intention you create more good.When you appreciate someone for who they are and the impact they have had on you, you unite with high energetic vibrations which uplift you both.The more authentically you share, the deeper it will resonate with the other and the more energy you harness and create.Tell someone you love them! Telling someone how much they mean to you is free. Get specific. Tell them how they contribute to your happiness and help make you a better person. Tell them how they are unique.See them, love them, and tell them. Vocalize it. Speak it or write it. Bring it to life.Pop-out story: This book and collaboration between Leah & I is purely the result of appreciation and acknowledgement of one’s gifts. Leah & I met at the Wanderlust Yoga Festival in the summer of 2013 after I took one of her power vinyasa classes. I was so moved by her grace, power, and knowledge about yoga that I ended up writing a blog post about how I was impacted by her class on that day. Through the power of social media, my writing made it into Leah’s hands and before we knew it we were meeting for coffee to share ideas and build a friendship based off our mutual respect and admiration for the other’s work. Within one month, we had designed and executed our first public presentation, “Eating for Energy.”Here is an excerpt of what I wrote honoring and appreciating her gift, “ Leah is a certified Baptiste Yoga Teacher 500-hour RYT and teaches Power Vinyasa Yoga. She brings vitality, openness and connection to her classes, as she encourages you to find your edge.She guided us through a flow class, emphasizing a foundation of steady, full breath and gratitude. She believes that practice is about deepening into your body and into the moment, and generating new possibilities and power on and off the mat.Hell yes! I totally loved her class! It was an 1 ½ hours of ass-kicking yoga that left me sweaty, stretched, and feeling stronger and more powerful than when I originally stepped on the mat. Leah is a phenomenal teacher and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for sharing her practice with me.”I had no intention of any outcome of that blog post other than to share the beautiful experience I had with my readers and express gratitude for a powerful experience. Through genuinely being open to honor and appreciate another person’s gifts, our partnership has taken on a life and mission of it’s own.Practice 3: Smile with the intention to spread light.Often, we experience joy that we forget to express in our outer reflection.When you express on the exterior, you share that joy with others and it becomes a ripple effect that comes back to you just like a boomerang.Think of the infectious sound of children’s laughter, you naturally gravitate towards it, being pulled in by the simple joy and innocence that spreads to others who are nearby.It is completely in your hands to be able to cultivate and express more of this loving, joyful, and expansive positive energy in the world.You can spread love and light, to yourself and others, through the simple act of smiling.In moments of stress and disconnection, sit with a big smile on your face and take three deep breaths.In moments of gratitude and abundance, sit with a big smile on your face and take three deep breaths.In moments of despair and lost hope, sit with a big smile on your face and take three deep breaths.
“Smiling stimulates our brain’s reward mechanisms in a way that even chocolate, a well-regarded pleasure-inducer, cannot match.”
Whether you are in a moment of contraction or expansion, smiling will allow you to invite more vibrant energy into your experience.Breakdown the barriers between you and the rest of the world by spreading the universal language of love with a smile. When you are rushing to meetings, picking up your children at school, or dining out with friends, bring awareness to the current moment by connecting with another human being with a smile.You have to be conscious of sharing this energy because it doesn’t just happen on it’s own.Happiness isn’t something that happens to you, it’s a practice, just as much as it’s a practice to learn to play soccer or an instrument.So many people say that their number one desire in life is to be happy but they are in a job they hate, eat fast food, and don’t put in the work to live an inspired life. Happiness requires your full participation. Smile with the intention of spreading light.Pop-out story: On one particular bike ride home from town during my time traveling in Costa Rica, I started to realize that person after person was biking by with a rather serious look on their face. Not that they looked mad, but that they didn’t look especially happy either.Before I continue, let me paint the picture of what was going on in this moment. It had just rained a little earlier so the temperature had dropped to a very pleasant 80 degrees, we were biking through the rainforest and the leaves, trees, and bushes glowed the most vibrant and alive color of green you have ever seen, on our left was the ocean; crashing waves, open white sand beaches, surfers, lovers, friends coming together in nature, on our right were cafes, restaurants and small bars boosting reggae tunes and signs out front for 2 x 1 drinks. I can assure you, there were good vibes all around.I knew my fellow bikers weren’t pissed but I assumed what I was seeing person after person is what could be described as “bitchy resting face.” Which got me thinking, do I have bitchy resting face? Maybe even in this moment are they thinking the same thing about me?So I smiled.Forcibly so because I was biking and focusing on steering straight and not running into any potholes, but I put that smile on my face and my whole being was uplifted. I sat up straighter, I felt better, and could sense the immediate shift in my energy.I wanted to share the love.So with each passing biker and car I waved my arm up in the air like a 4 year old that sees their parents sitting in the audience at the school play and shot them my biggest smile. And in that simple gesture, I watched their whole being be uplifted, watched them sit up straighter, and watched their energy shift as random strangers connected for a brief moment in time, a joyful moment.As the seeker that I am, I think, where else can I apply this principle to simply smile and allow the love, joy, and energy to be shared with others?I remember in the book, Eat, Pray, Love a Balinese medicine man tells Elizabeth that in mediation she should sit quietly with a smile on her face, she is told to smile with her face, smile with her mind, and even smile with her liver.
“Why they always look so serious in yoga? You make serious face like this, you scare away good energy. To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clear away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver.” -Ketut, from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love
So in those moments, at the bank, traveling, working on the computer, in meditation, on a phone call, or when you feel your energy slump and mood heading south, smile.Smile and clear away the “dirty energy” to watch a beautiful shift take place.It’s the simple things that make all the world of difference.ADVENTUREInviting a sense of adventure into your life creates the space to do something that scares you or that is new, therefore, allowing you to step outside your comfort zone.One of the greatest joys of traveling to a new country is the ability to view the world with child-like wonder as you experience a place for the first time.Just as a child gets on a bus for the first day of school and waves goodbye to his mother on the journey to a brand new destination, taking an adventure provides the opportunity for you to access a new way of life and come in contact with new energies, new traditions, and new ways of living life. These experiences are extremely expansive in your life.Do you create space for the unknown, or is your schedule so tight and compact that you know exactly what is going to be happening at 2:00pm the third Tuesday from today?Even if taking a month off to backpack Southeast Asia is completely out of the picture for you, how about checking out a new place for lunch or discovering a new route to work?As you open the space to try new things, you will begin to see the world through renewed eyes and access a different part of yourself.Tantra in Sanskrit actually means to grow past perceived limitations. As you bust through perceived or imagined barriers, you tap into and release new energy that was once stagnant in the body. This opens you to be available for more receptivity, creation, and joy = expansion & more vital life-force energy pulsing through your body.A child does not place limitations on life. Everything is open for creation as they do not have a stagnant internal compass that informs them to create limitations or regulations on how life should be, defining experiences as “right or wrong,” “scary or safe.” These are creations of your adult mind and build-up of adult armor.In the face of fear, choose adventure and expansion. If a child is fearful and runs to his mother, the mother embraces and then gently encourages the child to step back into the world. The mother doesn’t yell at the child, the mother doesn’t say you are stupid, the mother doesn’t freeze, pick up the child and run the other way. Rather, the mother sweetly and gently encourages the child to return to the experience, expand and grow. As an adult you are able to choose this and do this for yourself.When you start to feel the sensation of fear, take a breath and lean in. Feel and gently lean in.Create the space to dive into the unknown and connect with a renewed, revitalized, inspired part of yourself.Practice 4: Get Creative: draw it out.As children, we spent the majority of our time playing. Think about when you were young and your mom had to call you in for dinner after hours of playing games with your friends, and you still wanted more. You drew pictures, played make believe, created new worlds and friends who were figments of your creative and expansion imagination, all day, every day, year after year. And at some point, life got too serious to be creative anymore.You desired to be a famous musician, artist, inventor, chef, or writer, but life got in the way.This practice is an opportunity for you to get creative, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Need a release or looking for in-the-moment inspiration, grab a marker and piece of paper wherever you are. Even if you feel like you don’t have a creative cell in your body, the truth is that we are all creative beings.Use your hands to physically create something with bright colors, as a child would. Grab some markers, a piece of blank paper, and just start doodling, draw something, anything, and allow the built up energy to release.In the moment when you are are feeling overwhelmed, get off the computer and use your hands to connect with your thoughts on paper. Draw a heart, draw a star, or just some circles, eventually something will start to come together.Looking to go deeper?Take some time to think about what your creative outlet is.Do you love to cook, speak in front of groups of people, play music, or create art? Identify a creative outlet that you are most drawn to and create a space for it in your home.If you love to cook, make sure you have a nice, sharp knife to create with. If you love to play music, find a quiet section of the house you can retreat to that is just your sacred place.If you love to write, purchase a journal that you can document in each night that is your personal place to share.
“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” - Sophia Loren
Play in summary:
By changing your clothes when you get home at the end of the day, you are shedding your protective adult armor and connecting with your true self in a deeper way.
Going for a walk in a moment of stress, overwhelm, or disconnection will connect you with the divine, always-present intelligence of nature and create space for more vibrant energy to flow to you.
Identify your creative outlet and incorporate it into your daily schedule. Get off the computer and use markers and your hands to connect with your thoughts on paper, just as child would.
Smile. Smile with the intention to spread love and joy to those around you. Everything is energy and what you put out into the world will come back to you tenfold.