by Alan McAllister, CCHt PhD-phys
As children we all have a playful aspect that we use to learn, grow, and explore the world around us. For really small children most of their time is spent in play. While adults tend to think of this as “just having fun”, it is a space where they learn a great deal about how to be in the world; it is the playfulness of spirit exploring the material.
Sometimes we loose our play space because it is overwhelmed by pain or anger or other trauma, and as we shut down we leave the play space behind. A few retreat into a detached, inner world, that is a sort of arrested play space. For most of us though our play space slowly evolves, becoming closer and closer to the “real world” of the adults we grow into, until we lose it with out even realizing it. Like the turtle slowly boiled alive.
We become busy, serious, responsible, and otherwise lose, give up, or put aside our playfulness, or relegate it to certain times of the day or week or year. We have help with the process, every time we are told we need to “grow up”. We also give it up because we assume we have to. Dualistic thinking judges something to be hot OR cold. If it is one it can’t be the other. People who are playful CAN’T be serious or productive.
Furthermore, certain concepts are clustered together, e.g. being responsible, serious, efficient, productive, orderly etc. Not only is it hard for us to consider that someone can be playful AND serious at the same time, but also that someone could be un-serious AND productive or efficient. We have given up our play space on the alter of those adult virtues deemed necessary for social and worldly success.
We have been told that play and imagination are things that we must outgrow, that they are not serious, or not real, that we shouldn’t expect to have fun or be enthusiastic, that humor and amusement are not appropriate for the work place; that if we want to keep these things we are being childish or possibly selfish. Leaving aside the interesting political aspects of this conditioning, let us remember what play space actually is.
It is a place where the rules are fluid, where imagination is queen, where it is all about having fun and being enthusiastic. It is a space that is close to spirit and very much about being present, even if the present is medieval Europe, or Hogwarts, or some distant galaxy. Play space is a place of learning, of exploration, of trying things just to see what happens. It is a place as full of creativity as imagination. Imagination, rather than being unreal, is the primary tool by which we create.
In contrast to the idea that play space is unproductive or inefficient, it is actually a place where we are most creative, effortlessly learning and exploring our world, coming up with new ideas and solutions. It is a place of enthusiasm and power, in which we are close to spirit and can step beyond all the dualities, combining things that we have been taught are contradictory. When you are effortlessly and enthusiasticly creating something, you are very productive.
So look back at all the times you were told to give it up and reclaim your play space. Allow yourself to have fun, be enthusiastic, use your imagination, just for now pretend that your world can be whatever you want it to be. You may well find that your dreams are not so far away as you thought. Find any area of your life that you can play in, or can reclaim as a play space. If necessary, create one from scratch. Remember what you enjoyed as a youth, or imagine what you’d like to do now.
The important thing is to feel what that space is like. It is a mental/emotional/spiritual state of being, and once you can experience it in one area give yourself permission to carry that state of being, that attitude over into other areas of your life. Be playful about the process, imagine what each new area would be like if you could play in it, or how it needs to be so you can feel that way there. It may not require as much on the ground, external, change as you had thought. Often when we shift internally, much of the external changes appearance, or shifts with us.
It is about having it all. Being able to function in the world and take care of ourselves and loved ones, can also be joyful, and full of enthusiasm, imagination, and creativity. It can be effortless and effective, intuitive and intellectual, playful and full of attention and presence. Balanced playfulness is actually the most effective and productive space we can be in. It’s really about bringing your spirit into your body; heaven on earth.
(© 11/2002)
