Finding Fun Again

One of the inescapable side effects of the holiday season is…STRESS.  There always seems to be more to do than we can fit in to a 24 hour period.

The result is we often feel squeezed, overwhelmed and behind so we force ourselves to run faster to keep up.

Unfortunately, this challenge is showing up more and more and not just during the holidays.  I’ve been feeling this energy ALL year and feeling it with my clients as well. It’s doubtful that this energy will reverse itself anytime soon.

As we move forward in our civilization and expand our technology we appear to be more “connected” (I use that word loosely). At the same time we expose our attention to a continual live feed of the everyday unfolding of millions of people. Of course comparison comes into play and frequently we measure ourselves against an artificial construct of someone else’s life.

This belief that we should have it all together and accomplish ridiculous amounts of things every day starts to creep in and eventually becomes our set point for success as we desperately try to figure out THE blueprint for fulfillment.  We even develop a strategy around it and use it as a metric for how successful we are (or not).

So we run and gun, pushing ourselves to keep the house of cards intact while feeling the minute moments of joy being squeezed from our existence.  Ok, that’s a little dramatic but you get the point.

We most certainly don’t stop, examine how insane our reality has become and decide to blow off the ‘to do list’ in favor of being 5 years old again.  And yet, ironically, that is exactly the best thing we could do to bring the joy, passion and aliveness back in.

I had a sampling of being a kid this past weekend.  Normally opting for work and serious endeavors of soul level transformation, I’ve become boring. I’ve let play and fun slip completely off the list when in truth it would serve me to have them at the top!

So this weekend I surprised my husband with an early birthday present, flying us to D.C. where he grew up so he could reunite with friends from high school and college.  There is nothing like getting besties together to watch the child like (read immature) behavior of 50 year old men letting their hair down while walking all over the city, just being and enjoying each others company.

I can’t remember when I’ve laughed that hard and I love to laugh.  We dropped all pretenses, gave up our agendas and let the day meander into silliness, spontaneity and fun. They were kind enough to include me in their perspective of the world and I was taken with how calm, peaceful and light I felt from having spent time in their magical energy. My soul was fully connected to JOY and the experience was priceless.

Jumping back into life and work when I returned, I was quickly reminded that we all struggle with taking ourselves too seriously. We have forgotten what it feels like to play and now more than ever, we could use an injection of fun.

As we wrap up the year, take some time to reflect on your life and how much you actually enjoy it.  Often we forget the WHY behind what we are doing.  There are many ways to bring in more fun and first and foremost it begins with the awareness that you can choose to create some.