Day 11 comin' in a little sleepy! I for one am feeling the effects of so much playing yesterday. And I might note - not all of this play felt entirely fun to me.
How did it feel to play through CLEAR yesterday? Did you find CLEAR in a mental space? Emotional? Physical? Was it a quality you noticed you want more, or less of? I was super impressed with what I saw our playful community posting on Instagram yesterday around this theme, and totally inspired to incorporate some of the ways you shared playing into my own toolbag.
I spent the day in a few different modes of Play!
Video Games with CLEAR objectives (explorer, observer, competitor)
Biking out to Mystic Lake to watch the gusts of wind in the trees and enjoy a suspiciously warm (80 degree) and CLEAR October day (kinesthete, observer)
CLEAR up some space, specifically my room, to be more conducive to Play through an identified instrument of room arranging (kinesthete, observer, storyteller)
CLEARing emotions around inner child loneliness, and past play hurts that I noticed coming up - done playfully! (explorer, observer, creator)
Returning to video game space to CLEAR my mind, and hang in a zen garden world where I can be CLEAR about play without worldly problems and CLEARLY craft anything I can imagine (explorer, creator, observer)
At the end of my full Saturday of playing and in my reflection time this morning I found myself thinking about where I am mentally / emotional / physically today. I certainly feel CLEAR about how those moments of play helped me yesterday - and how they continue to RIPPLE endlessly outward today.
What is a Ripple?
This is the question I was asking myself this morning. I noticed that I was having a morning that had me simultenously feeling more energetic (I slept really well in a newly organized room!) and had me stumbling with various elements of getting this blog post written, the graphics transferred to the right places to be able to make the post, and really thinking about how clearly I can see my own need for rest right now.
A ripple always starts from a single moment. From every decision that we make, ripples are formed that travel outward and affect the world around us. This is not to start going down a path of "hey you should and shouldn't do this" but instead to remind you about the power of a single moment, and noticing what is right for you in that time and space. Sometimes ripples have unexpected power of shaking your reflection, or of colliding with an unknown object / idea / person. Ripples are wonders to watch, to track how outwardly expansive they are, until the point in time when they contact another object. Then - they begin to travel backwards. Sometimes as far back as the origin point.
Can you see what I'm doing here, causing RIPPLES of ideas with this metaphor?
Let me break it down using my experience in playing yesterday. I'll see how creative I can get with the visual layout of this explanation :)
DROP. I decide to focus on my Kinesthete play personality
RIPPLE. I realize that my Kinesthete is a stronger personality than I gave credit for
RIPPLE. I pick up my staff again. And my hula hoop. Dancing increases!
RIPPLE. My director sees this playing and wonders how we can film better
RIPPLE. Explorer starts researching technical tools
RIPPLE. I remember being teased for play moments as a kid. Lots of ouch.
RIPPLE. Observer takes these memories and asks Storyteller to reimagine for NOW
RIPPLE. Kinesthe uses dancing to rewire "hurt" dancing related neural pathways
RIPPLE. Director / Creator / Explorer get involved and gain confidence
Do you see how I can continue going with these RIPPLES endlessly? The one drop of that moment of choosing to focus on my Kinesthetic play has already resulted in so much. And we make drops with every decision around Play that we make.
Now - sometimes I get carried away on my RIPPLES. Like last night, I ended my play with a return to virtual video game space where I enjoyed the ease and clearness of the play. It's easy for me to get lost in these ripples - where one thing leads to another thing and another thing and then I drop into my Liminal Place and am in a Freely Flowing Fun space where I loose all sense of time and space and - uh definitely time because then it's all of a sudden 3am!
Momentum baby. Ripples build expansive outward momentum, and when we harness the rippling we are able to harness to momentum of play for positive change, neural pathway development, healing, relax, and release for ourselves. However keep in mind that that same momentum can travel backwards, inwards, and result in consequential momentum or a lack of forward movement.
How do we Harness the Momentum of a Ripple?
So obviously my late night video game playing rippled forward through my morning today, helped me find a lot of technical difficulties (is a last minute procrastinator a type of play personality? lol. How about a play type that hates mac updates?) and here we are at 2pm a couple hours late to writing this post! But you know - this in itself RIPPLES back and will affect the drops of playing that I choose for myself today.
What acts as the harness? Mindfulness!
But after 10 mornings of play mindfulness checking in, I'm feeling pretty confident that y'all are just about pros in the realm of awareness around your ripples. Either way - spend some time today looking for your RIPPLEs. Are there any that are coming backwards, inwards? Where are you RIPPLING outward and expansively? Where are you building and holding momentum? Your RIPPLE might be caused by a (drop) discovery you make in play, (drop) experience you have with a play instrument, (drop) simply choosing to play today.
Check out the panels for jumping off points, and let me know if you have any RIPPLING questions or feedback for the challenge so far :)
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