Just Follow Play Date
One of my playshop participants recently told me a great way to have a play date. Her daughter sent her a written invitation to play in her room at a specific date and time. A sign was placed on the door asking not to be disturbed during their play date. Once in the room, she simply followed how her daughter wanted to play. If her daughter wanted to comb her hair, she happily played along. Mom practiced The Spirit of Yes And and joyfully danced with her daughter’s playful agendas. Imagine how much this meant to her daughter. Set up a play date with a loved one and simply follow. Consider it a waltz into the unknown where the thrill of adventure lies; where control […]
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 […]
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 […]
Scheduling Time to Play
An Interview with the Caregiver Times ~ A Newsletter for People Who Are Caring for Family and Friends. SG: From your perspective as a life coach, how important is play and what role can play have in the lives of family caregivers? VG: Unfortunately, play can easily get set aside. Play is something we think is for children and not for us adults, but it’s actually something we need to make a priority and keep it in the forefront of our minds. Continue reading here… * * * Related Training: Remembering to Play ~ Inspiring Joy, Freedom & Self-Care Cultivating Intuition ~ The Heart of Healthy & Productive Decision Making Keynote information Related Reading: Flour Play […]
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 […]