We need more play!

I think one of the biggest lessons I am here to learn on this earth is to STOP TAKING LIFE SO SERIOUSLY!

I have always been a a little more serious. I’m emotional and sensitive and those are qualities I’m proud of! But they do have their downside, which is that I can forget to take a breath, flow, laugh, and just enjoy myself. I was in my head, even as a child, and I’m learning as I grow older that life has it’s serious moments, but is meant to be ENJOYED. My silly side as a child was much more free and easy, but too early I lost her and I don’t even know why.

On the journey of self discovery, the message of play and laugh more have continuously come back around to me. It hasn’t been an easy road to do that. The patterns that I have built in my mind around how serious I need to take life run deeeeep. So deep that I did a past life regression once, (with the lovely Jessica Ramirez who was feature on our podcast Glass Full of Soul -Download HERE) and it took me back to a past life where I was enjoying life as a teenager driving with my best friend and we were horsing around on the road. From what I “remembered”, we got into a terrible accident and my friend past. I visited her parents shortly after and their grief hit me so deeply and my guilt struck me so hard that I held onto the belief that enjoying life can end in horrible grief and tragedy and it apparently stuck with me into this life I am in now.

Now whether you believe in past lives or past life regression or not, I am here to tell you, this story felt true to me. Even if it’s something my wild imagination came up with, it made me realize that I am carrying around a burden that doesn’t serve me. Whether it is real or not, my need to deeply self criticize and prevent myself from enjoying the moment, and not being able to be silly, playful, and LAUGH…those things ARE very real to me. After that session I vowed to take a deeper look into those truly self sabotaging behaviors and stop resisting feeling happy and good.

This happened to be at the same time my beautiful baby boy was around 3-4 months old. I was still transitioning into the new title “mama” and hadn’t quite landed my feet on the ground yet. As he started to interact and smile more…it was another wake up call to this notion that I take life too seriously. Gosh, babies!!! They just LOVE being silly and find such joy in simple things. The first time I heard him laugh something awoke in me that hadn’t felt in YEARS. It was that moment I realized I needed to let go and laugh too.

I truly believe our children (and animals) are here to teach us things and one thing I know Huck is here to teach me is how to play. I get to live life all over again and its AMAZING to do it through him (of course allowing him to be who he is at the same time). But it truly astounds me how all the things he discovers and learns I get to rediscover and relearn too. So because he is so silly and fun, I get to be that too. It was something I truly didn’t know I was missing until he brought it back into my world in such a simple and easy way. I’d do anything to make that kid laugh.

Although maybe my resistance to laughter and play may run deeper than yours (maybe not?), I truly believe that so many of us as adults believe that in order to be successful and be “an adult” we have to stifle away our playful sides. That things can’t be fun anymore. Society has spread this message and it’s a disease. The longer I am on this earth I realize how POWERFUL it is to find the fun and not just during our down time either. Fun can be found in our careers, our emotions, our decisions. It can be apart of our lives every day if we let it. I encourage everyone reading this to find more FUN in your every day life. Just because we have grown doesn’t mean that our spirits want us to be serious. Of course some times require seriousness, but the human experience is MEANT TO BE ENJOYED. I want us all to enjoy it a little more.