It’s a gorgeous spring day and I feel like ditching my work and going out to PLAY. Hallelujah. That means it’s time to connect with my soul and I am answering the call.
Kids are little smarticles. They know that playing and having fun is an essential part of being human. They all view grown-ups as the mutants we truly are since we have forgotten (duh) that PLAYING is where it’s at. I was doing research for this blog by asking everyone I know what they do for fun. The kids rattled off long lists with ease. Baseball, sports, parties, dancing, video games, TV, sunny days, going swimming, school vacation, Disney, spinning around until you barf. Ahhh, the good old days.
Most grown ups I asked looked at me like I had three heads. (Personally, I think having three heads would go on my fun list, but that is just me.)
The Fun Police
When I was a kid, all grown-ups were secretly designated as The Fun Police. You know, right when you get into something really juicy, sweet, mischievous, hopefully slightly illegal and maybe a little dangerous (Also known as Wicked Fun) the Fun Police show up.
“Get off that roof right now, young lady. You can NOT fly. Don’t give me that look….”
What a kill joy! When I was a kid, I hated the Fun Police. Now I am pretty sure, I am the Fun Police. My kids swear it’s true. At least I have the Fun Police surgically implanted in my brain by my own dear parents. I did a lot of research for this blog (hah) and I heard plenty of adults tell me all kinds of reasons why fun was off the menu.
“Fun? Do you think I have time for fun? This is tax season. Taxes are not fun. And we are in a recession. Not fun. Then I have a dentist appointment. It’s a root canal. After that, I am cleaning the house, doing laundry and going to WORK which is the opposite of FUN, ok? “ The Fun Police was turning pretty red by now. I was thinking maybe a stroke was immanent, but the FP was just getting warmed up.
“Besides fun is fattening. I am on a low everything diet. Low sodium, low carbs, no sugar, caffeine or alcohol. Also no gluten or actual food of any kind. I can eat cardboard, sawdust and celery. And dieting is not fun, it makes me cranky. Fun! Screw you!” I am pretty sure the Fun Police flipped me the bird at that point. Personally, I think flipping people the bird is fun too, but don’t tell the Fun Police or I’ll get a ticket.
“Speaking of cars, “ growled the Fun Police. “I drive a minivan. A. Mini. Van. That sucks all the fun out of driving, like a freaking black hole. Where is my Porsche? Where is my black Mustang convertible? And all I do is drive my kids around to their FUN events. Grrr!”
That was an AWSOME Fun Police rant! It’s quite honestly an interview with my own Inner Fun Police. Now you know.
So what do you if you fun muscle atrophied? I think mine has. Maybe it’s the running three businesses and having four kids. But it sure seems like I don’t have time for fun anymore. I feel quite sad about it.
The Price of Lack of Fun
I know that I have to make time for playing and having fun. If I don’t, I get all dried up and dusty inside. I get bitter, cranky and resentful. I start feeling like there is no room in my life for ME. If the Fun Police take over, they run my Inner Self like military coup, which we all know is low on the Fun O’ Meter.
I am pretty sure I am not the only one that feels this way. Lack of fun is a rampant disease of the spirit these days.
Often I give my clients homework for having fun and it’s surprising, shocking and tragic that frequently they don’t EVEN REMEMBER what fun is. When asked, they stare, blank faced, like I just asked them to pull a rabbit out of their ears.
“Fun? I don’t remember. I don’t think I ever had any. It’s been so long. Isn’t fun illegal now these days?”
Wowza.
As part of my vicious and evil plan to spread joy and fun through the world, I make them write a list of everything they think is fun and they have to pick one from their list everyday and actually do it. That is when I realized that I needed a taste of my own medicine.
Since our fun muscles are connected directly to our souls and our Divine Spark. When we aren’t having fun in our lives, we have lost a big part of our connection to our own spirits.
Fun is back in fashion
Ok, it’s time to reclaim fun. We have a motto in the Energy Medicine Institute that Rhys and I live by. I made it up. It is called “Having Fun Is Fun.” I’m thinking a bumper sticker. Our deal with each other is that if ever teaching in and running the school stops being fun for us and for the students, we need a course correction. Occasionally, if one of us gets too tightly clenched in the buttocks region (Ok, I confess, it happens) the other one says, “Hey, are you still having fun?”
If the answer is NO, then time to change something. Mostly the clenching of jaws and butt cheeks happen cuz we are taking things waaaaay too seriously, or getting caught up in ego stuff of drama, conflict or the pursuit of perfection. Basically, we are trying too hard. Ugh.
So here is a news flash. You can tell you are on your life’s path because it’s fun. And I mean fun in a giggly, life giving, joyful, kindhearted, playful way. Not the kind of fun where you need to have three shots of tequila to prime the pump. I am talking the spontaneous joy of being alive.
Folks, that is our natural state of being! It’s only the tremendous power of our unconsciousness and ego that can make you forget for one second that having a body and a life is FUN. Your soul LOVES life. It loves to be alive on this pretty bluegreen planet. And everything about being alive is fun, even the hard parts and the challenges. When you are in the Fun Alive Zone, even crying is fun. That whole range of feelings that we try so hard to get rid of, is a tremendous experience for us, the same way that roller coasters are fun.
The farther we get away from fun and play, the more distant we are from our souls. Our souls speak to us through our desire to have fun and play. And when we leap into this, we reconnect to our joy, our life force energy, our potential creativity and our unique life purpose.
Your soul is always guiding you towards your life purpose and if it feels good and is fun, it’s probably a clue that you are headed in the right direction. If you are doing something you HATE and it’s soul sucking, life draining and fun killing, then it’s a sure sign you are headed The Wrong Way.
Work CAN be fun you know. I am not saying play hookie from work everyday, (even though, that IS really fun…) I am just pointing that when you are doing a job that is in alignment with your life’s purpose, it’s fun! Mostly my work doesn’t feel like work, even though sometimes it’s hard. Mostly I show up and say “I can’t believe I get PAID to do this!” Don’t tell Rhys, but I would teach in the school this for free. In fact I would probably pay HIM to let me do this! ‘Cept he already knows and feels the same way.
Me and Mother T.
Did I ever tell you the story about Mother Theresa? This is for all you naysayers who still think that having fun is a sin and the righteous must suffer. When Mother Theresa came to India and started working in Calcutta, she got really sick. She was working hard in a city that has the most abject poverty in the world, taking people in off the streets so they could die in peace, rather then ignored and unloved in the streets. Tough job. Tough life purpose! But she would tell you that she loved it! And she did.
Anyway, she got very sick and an older nun came and nursed her back to health. It took her a long time to recover and the older nun taught her something very important. She said, “Hunny, if you are going to do this work, you must take time to yourself everyday to rest and have fun.”
She had Mother Theresa take time off every day from noon to 4pm. In that time, she was supposed to nap, rest, read, play, go out and sit in the sun. Anything restful and fun. It worked. Mother Theresa got better and ever after, all the sisters in her order had to do that.
MOTHER THERSA. Four hours a day. To herself. To rest and have fun. MOTHER THERSA. I am just saying.
She knew that they could not sustain the work they were doing without that. Now do I need to remind you that this woman was canonized as a saint? Do you think if Mother Theresa could do it and still be a saint, that you could take an hour everyday at least to have fun and play?
That should quiet they most righteous Fun Police out there, right? And it give us all the permission we need to play. So I throw down the gauntlet right now and challenge each of you to a Fun-off. I want to know what you do for fun, and how much you are doing it. And if you aren’t having any fun, here is your chance to reclaim that part of you. I promise you, it’ll be a blast.
What is on your fun list? Time to find out. I can tell you what is on my list.
- Yoga and Dancing. Sometimes at the same time.
- Walking the dog and riding my bike.
- Gardening.
- Watching back to back episodes of Supernatural. Love those Winchester boys. Yum. Yummy men are fun.
- Tubby, extra salt and bubbles.
- Reading stupid books (Self improvement books are awesome, but not always FUN.)
- Watching Spongebob with or without my kids.
- Movies of any kind.
- Dinner with my hunny and going on dates.
- Sex (see above)
- Adventure, day trips, going somewhere new.
- Plane tickets.
- Buying shoes.
- Zombies, vampires and werewolves. No one parties like a zombie. Dude.
- Napping in the hammock. Napping anywhere, really.
- The Mani Pedi
- Girls night out
- Spa activities and getting pampered. Massages. Hot tubs.
- Harvard Square and Northampton
- Any beach anytime
- Mountain biking, hiking and kayaking
- Going out to breakfast
- Seeing old friends and making new friends
- Birthday parties, presents and birthday cake.
So I am going to get off the computer now and start making way down as many of these items as I can! See ya!
