4 Levels of Family Care
“Never let the urgent crowd out the important.” ~ Kelly Catlin Walker. Families that play together, stay together. It is easy to get lost in the responsibilities of family life and forget self-care and play time. Here are four levels of family care to consider: 1. Self-care: Time for you to play and relax on your own, or with friends or people outside your home life. 2. Partner-Care: Time for your partner to play and relax on his own, or spend time with people outside the home. Action step: Make a list of things you would love to do for yourself and then share this list with each other. Discuss how to support one another to experience self-care regularly (ie, prioritizing, scheduling, sharing duties, asking […]
Fool’s Wisdom
“The moment you start seeing life as non-serious, a playfulness, all the burden on your heart disappears. All the fear of death, of life, of love – everything disappears. One starts living with a very light weight or almost no weight. So weightless one becomes, one can fly in the open sky.” ~ Osho. Yesterday may have been April Fools’ Day, but every day is an opportunity to heed the wisdom of your inner Fool. Your inner Fool has much to share. Are you listening? The Fool is the archetypal energy of the inner child. Through innocence and trust, it follows its heart, steps into the unfamiliar and plays outside the lines. It has no interest in being bound by social convention and expectations. It wants […]
Simplicity is Best
“Doing nothing is happiness for children and misery for old men.” ~ Victor Hugo. Children’s needs are quite simple. Adults make them complex. As a society we are addicted to doing. There is a tremendous amount of guilt if we don’t do. We must be a good parent, friend, lover or co-worker. We must cook, clean, solve, fix, organize, drive, make, tear down etc. It never ends. “Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.” ~ Richard L. Evans In our need to do, we forget that while doing may provide for the physical needs of children, being supports the emotional needs. Here are some examples of being: Listen and connect with them – truly […]
15 Ways to Support Children to Play with their Intuition ~ Engaging the Heart, Intelligence & Innocence of Children
“The best way to preserve a child’s vision is to let them see things their way rather than yours.” ~ Jacob Liberman. Intuition is… the knowing/sensing of something beyond time, space, reason, the use of prior knowledge and the five senses. It is the gateway to your soul. Intuition is your birthright. As children you freely connect to your intuition so naturally that you don’t even know it is intuition. It is an everyday awareness permeating your existence that you are intimately connected with and a part of. Life feels magical and your environment is filled with endless possibilities. It doesn’t take long before you lose this sense of presence and wonder. Soon you are more engaged in limited thinking and the responsibilities of life than […]
Magical Inner Child
“Today isn’t Monday. It’s a moment. A field of moments like a meadow of daisies. Every moment offers another chance to get present and choose love instead of fear. As you answer emails, go to the doctor, pick up the children: practice breathing in a new moment with new and infinite possibilities that exceed your mind’s limitations. It’s not Monday. It’s a stream of chances to be alive.” ~ Tama Kieves. This is the playful mindset from which our Magical Inner Child sees and lives life! Take a moment, and connect to the Magical Inner Child in You! Imagine allowing your Magical Inner Child to take the lead on this Monday. Imagine she held the reins. What would she direct you to do? How would she respond to your […]
The Disappearance of Play ~ 7 Reasons We Play Less Than Ever
“Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way.” ~Douglas Pagels, These Are the Gifts I’d Like to Give to You. Play is slowly fading away from our lives. Once a natural part of our existence, play is becoming the shadow of a world increasingly governed by unyielding complexity, technology and expectations. Society is increasingly trying to compartmentalize play and push it to the side. Just look at how we structure our week. We have weekdays and weekends. Five days are dedicated to work and only two for family and playtime. We have academic learning and play based learning. We have separated play from learning despite the […]
Flour Play ~ Creating Memories through Simple, Spontaneous Fun
“Please excuse the mess. Children are making memories.” ~ Anonymous What if play is less to do with obtaining new gadgets or traveling to new places, and more to do with creating fun with what’s right in front of us? And what if play is less dependent on time, and more dependent on our capacity to use the time we have spontaneously and joyfully? Then play is not so much about having or reaching what is “out there”, but rather our capacity to create from this very moment, see play possibilities everywhere, and be open, flexible and authentic in responding to the infinite opportunities always inviting us to “come out and play”! The picture you see above is of two children (daughters of two friends […]
Play Begins with Permission ~ Freeing Your Self through Simple Play
Play is not dependent on anything except our willingness. The very first play principle I teach in my playshops is Permission. Permission is recognizing we have the play instinct within, and allowing it to be expressed in every moment. When we allow ourselves to let go and be care-free just a little, play emerges naturally, and we surprise ourselves in how playful we actually are. Adults asks “How?” Children just play. When we assume we are not playful, we tend to ask “How do I play?” It is a question I hear quite often from adults. The fact that we ask How is a statement of how difficult play has become for so many of us. It is a sign we have lost touch with […]
Dreaming with Your Inner Child
“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.” ~ J. R. R. Tolkien. When you begin clarifying goals, intentions and dreams, your inner child wants to actively participate in the creative process. Imagine that your inner child is taking you for a walk…yes, taking you, not you taking her. She is leading now, supporting your dreaming process. Picture her holding your hand as you walk side by side. She has much to say, much to guide you on, for her voice is the voice of possibility. Children dwell in an eternally abundant world. Their innocence is a gift of purity of mind, an openness of spirit, an attitude of Yes! Nothing is impossible in their reality until we tell them so, until we […]