Define: Play
Stuart Brown defines play as “an absorbing, apparently purposeless activity that provides enjoyment and suspends self-consciousness and a sense of time. It is also self-motivating and makes you want to do it again.”
Excerpt from the Book:
Play is not serious, doesn’t require hard work, effort or struggle. The cornerstone of conscious play is that it is not serious.
From Above the Line
By Me:
I commit to saying what is true for me. I commit to being a person to whom others can express themselves with candor.
From below the Line
To Me:
I commit to withholding my truth (facts, feelings, things I imagine) and speaking in a way that allows me to try to manipulate an outcome. I commit to not listening to the other person.
Practice It:
When you feel the need to get serious or work much harder,
consider doing the following:
- Take a couple of minutes to argue for why you can’t have what you really want.
- Make up a country song title that describes your current issue and sing a line.
- Have a fifteen-second temper tantrum. Be sure to include your whole body and make noise.
- For thirty seconds, hop on one foot and flap your arms as you discuss your serious issue.
- Radically (and we mean RADICALLY) change your current body posture and then talk about your issue for one minute.
- Sing “I am right—you are wrong” to the tune of your favorite nursery rhyme.
Additional Resources
- Dear Past Self: Are you Having Any Fun?
- Time to Put it All Down
- Workaholism Quiz?
- 15 Commitments Book
