Playful Spirituality

This is a guest post from the fabulous Play Instigator Sylvia van Bruggen who encourages us to get unstuck and to create a more awesome life through play. Enjoy!

This past year I have learned two very important things in my writing.

One is that when I play with words, I never lose. I always gain something fresh and new, something I could not have written before. Play teaches me my voice.

The second is that when I play, when I allow myself to get out of the realm of thoughts (aka the mind) into a complete state of “let’s see what happens when I just let my hands move over the keyboard”, I feel a smile bubble up.

I can feel that smile as I add more and more words to this blogpost.

This beautiful, playful attitude towards my work is giving me a wonderful gift, it connects me to my soul.

This may sound like gobbledegook to you, so I am going to do something to help you find play in the only way I can do it: by playing with you.

So let’s say you and I are sitting in a space, across from each other. We both sit with a big notepad or art pad in front of us, we hold pens in our hands, or brushes, or crayons. You pick your own, I think I will stick with my trusty 0.2 felt tip pen.

You look at the paper in front of you, and you say that you are ready to play. Immediately you feel something tug at your heartstrings. Someone. The fierce Inner Two Year Old, your strong, opinionated, imaginative, deeply creative self leaps forward from your heart and says, “Yay! Let’s!”

You take a deep, meditative breath, and you start to doodle, it can be words or drawings, everything you do in this state of mind is doodling. It’s play. It’s liberating.

The more the pen moves, the more a smile wells up in you, the more everything falls away until only that moment exists. Only that moment in which you create.

This is playful spirituality, and the only way it can express itself is in the smile as you doodle.

Do you feel your Inner Two Year Old inside of you bouncing up and down in utter, pure joy for being able to create with a smile? Or is she still a bit shy, afraid to come out?

No matter what, just whisper these magical words, and eventually she will come out to play. Always. The magical words are these:

“I am ready to play.”

There is another beautiful benefit in this. The more you play, the more your heart heals and the more pain you release. The more your Inner Two Year Old comes to the surface in your daily life.

And then you will find that everything you do, even doing the dishes, can be done with a smile that comes straight from your spirit.

How do YOU embrace the playful spirit in your life?

Sylvia van Bruggen is a Writer. Artist. Play Instigator. Nudger of the Stuck. Author of Ganesha’s Blessings and MindScreens. Hipstamatic addict. Fueled by green tea. Creator of #JoyNotesWriter, Artist, Play Instigator.