Playing Your Way to Presence & Vitality

"Today... I will be like a child on vacation allowing myself to move through my list of desires and needs with playful abandon and an open heart... When things cease to become play, I will stop and breathe."     from As I Lay Pondering: daily invitations to live a transformed life

This past Saturday I had the exciting opportunity to speak at Seattle University's "Search for Meaning" book festival. It was an honor and privilege to share airspace with the likes of prolific writer, Sherman Alexie, and Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael Chabon, as well as 40+ other brilliant authors. 

With so many esteemed writers and topics from which to choose, my inner critic went wild during my preparation time with thoughts like: "No one will show up for your talk," "You're not good enough," "Who do you think you are?" etc.

Ultimately, I was able to calm the chatty beast with my oft used mantra that exactly who needed to show up would be there. Nevertheless, I kept my expectations low and was comforted in knowing that a handful of faithful supporters were coming and I wouldn't find myself staring at an empty room. Needless to say, I was delighted (and somewhat astounded) to walk into a room filled with more than 60 expectant participants waiting to hear about "The Art of Pondering... playing your way to presence and vitality."

What I saw as I surveyed the room was not an audience clamoring to see me (as my ego urges me to think), but rather a group of people hungry to find meaning in play and laughter. (My hunch is they are representative of an even greater population). Our culture says work hard... be productive... find success. When we listen to those messages, the result is that play, exercise, rest, and presence easily get pushed to the wayside, and our burgeoning hunger expands.

Because the feeding of your personal vitality depends on you, imagine you could ingest one delicious thing today to nurture your hunger for wholeness and play. What would it be? Will you take a moment right now to pause and consider this?

Ask yourself what you can afford to spend timewise today. 5 minutes? 10?  Half an hour? More? On the flip side, what is the risk of NOT investing this time? 

I invite you to give yourself permission to play (whatever that looks like for you). Indulge. Express gratitude. Repeat. When things cease to be playful, stop and breathe.

(from my latest newsletter... for full disclosure and offerings to come play click here.)

Here's the audio version of my conversation at Seattle University...