Just have fun with it

Welcome back lovely souls! Like previously mentioned, the purpose of this blog is to share my personal secrets on living happy and light; lucky for you I’m a woman of my word, so here goes everything! Maintaining playfulness is part of the foundation that makes for a happy happy life. When we hear playfulness we can't help but give attention to the prefix that is "play". As we ponder upon the word "play" we reminisce on anything between trips to the park or spending the day at our cousins' or bouncing on trampolines and even having bike races with the kids in our neighbourhood. Playfulness is a practice that I wasn't even aware I was practicing up until recently. The act of playing and/or being playful is not a trait we are taught to carry throughout our lives like we do responsibility, hard work and dedication. We are taught to grow out of such behaviours in order to take our place in the "adult world". And that’s when it all goes downhill...

Take a “That’s so Raven” moment to reflect on your childhood: your favourite activities, your friends at the time, barbecues, picnics, swimming lessons, summer camps, your guinea pig Fluffy etc. Now come back to the now. What memories are most memorable? What emotions arose from participating in those activities? And what experiences to do you remember vividly? The memories listed above is where my mind naturally drifts off to when attempting to investigate where the heck time has gone off to. When we say that we wished we were kids again, subliminally we miss the emotions that come with participating in these activities more then we miss the activity or even the people who were present. Here me out, the joy that came from meeting new people at camp and the fun experience we had canoeing across the lake, are at the end of the day (5 years later to be exact) just joyful moments. There are no names that come to mind of who was there, but all I remember is pure happiness. All that is to say that fun is not dependent on one person or a specific group of friends. I am not attempting to discredit the people in your life by saying that they’re replaceable, but simply making mention that fun is everywhere and in everyone. Search for moments to be playful and fun. Period. Don’t wait for familiar faces before turning on your fun-side. Nor should you wait until you leave work to hangout with your “real” friends to brighten up. As long as we are up and running, we have the opportunity to spark all those fun emotions where ever and whenever.

I am blessed enough to have a big family that always keeps me on my toes; always keeps me laughing, running errands, dancing, running, karaoke-ing and busy (in a good way). There’s a million things we can learn from our little human friends and it’s about time we follow them into the light we oh so desperately need in our lives.

I'm going to assume that if you're still reading this that you are no longer a kid and have probably distanced yourself from everything fun. No worries, this is my personal guide to inviting fun and play (and essentially happiness) to the party that is our lives:

Be Curious

Be open to learning new things, ideas and opinions. Be open to doing something new this weekend, eating at that little restaurant that just opened downtown, talking to strangers, asking questions or whatever it is that lingers on your mind. Let’s try and move away from being stuck in our old ways and thoughts and open ourselves up to new outcomes. Just imagine, instead of thinking (and believing) “Mondays suck, they’ve always sucked and they will forever suck! try, “What if it doesn’t suck?”, “What if today is the best day of my life?” and so on. Make your life unpredictable by being spontaneous with your time, choices and thoughts. A lot of good things come from going with your first instinct, so trust it when it speaks to you. (Psst, we all know that 10 year-old you never hesitated when it came to what you said and did, so why stop now?)

Laugh a little

Laughing is very very important. Laughing is essentially the proof that we are truly enjoying ourselves. Find moments to laugh all throughout the day (even if it's not aloud, find a way to tap into an inner smile and reside in a state of content). Don’t always wait on the appropriate time or people to experience laughter with, but steal little moments throughout the day. On days that I feel like I'm running low on laughs, I love love love watching stand up comedy specials, comedy sitcoms or talking to my favourite little humans about anything.

Get lost

Last but never the least, get lost in everything you do. Lose track of time doing something or talking to someone you love. Engage yourself, and I mean truly engage yourself in your job, passions and people that make you forget to check your phone (Psst again, purposely leave your phone at home or turn off your notifications when getting your happy on). Also, it’s important that when we fully invest ourselves in playtime, that we are completely immune to external opinions concerning what we're doing. As kids, we played without worry that we were too loud, too messy, too muddy. Let’s keep that streak going by unapologetically having fun with our lives no matter how it looks like!

Although we all have different definitions of fun, I want to focus on the sense of fun we had as kids. Just simple plain old fun minus the cellphones, the forced smiles and the wishing-you-were-anywhere-else-but-here vibe that we've come to accept as an enjoyable time. Just know that kids don’t have fun because they're kids, but because they act like kids. So let's tap into our inner child and get back to following our instincts, genuinely laughing and losing track of time because we are so busy investing it in moments and people.

So who’s ready to have some fun?

Bonus:

Affirmations

I have an exciting life

I live a life of adventure and unpredictability

I live a life full of laughter

I am an exciting person (and I welcome other exciting people in my life)

I invite play and fun in my life

I am open to all possibilities and outcomes

I trust and follow my instincts

I am able to fully express myself without fear

I deserve to be happy

I deserve to experience every good thing that this world has to offer