Happy August!
As Jodi and I were thinking about our Blog / Podcast theme for the month of August, we couldn’t resist but to explore PLAY! We got curious…. What is the role of play in a brilliant life?
Now Jodi is actually a way more playful person by nature than I am, and if I am totally vulnerable and honest here, play is something I struggle with. I grew up in a home where work and productivity were the highest value and I experienced a bit of awkwardness on the elementary school playground that I never seemed to recover from. I was really effective inside the classroom, but put me on the playground with a group of ‘cool’ girls, and I was pretty much a mess. All of this self-consciousness and lack of valuing of playtime has lingered with me all these years and it is only now that I am actually investing energy in reactivating my “play” instincts. It’s not easy.
To support this process, I decided it would be good to give myself a push by choosing PLAY as our theme for the month. As you know, I love the supporting research and it has become abundantly clear that PLAY is not fun but frivolous, it is actually fun and essential – essential for a happy and healthy life. For more, you can always check out the National Institute of Play and the National Museum of Play. And if you are a visual / auditory person, take 30 minutes and check out Dr. Stuart Brown’s Ted Talk: Play is More Than Just Fun.
OK, that’s great, but I have no illusion that I am going to re-activate my ‘play instincts’ by researching the topic. So instead,
I am asking for your help!
I would like to spend the month of August playing more (I am happy to have you join me if you like!) and I need some suggestions. What do you do for play! How do you play? If you have some fun ideas, PLEASE share them by commenting on the blog or by e-mailing me personally at adina@couragetobecurious.com. One idea that I have put together from one of our podcast guests that you will hear from this month is to go get myself a set of jacks and sit on the floor as I did for hours at overnight camp and play. I will commit to doing that and I would love more ideas. Please help me! And if this is an area in which you would like to grow too, great. Let’s do it together.