371 thoughts on “Time to Play”

1. Naturally we are playful we are unique and expressive beings.. Just we have not been brought up, most of us, to extend and even grow that naturalness – only to form a certain way of being once we grow older as a child.. To be polite and live based on what is accepted by society and living up to a certain standard given. Whilst actually all that we need to grow from is from the playfulness we already have inside.

2. Thanks Jacqueline.. I love how this was brought to you by a simple message from a colleague. I too have spent most of my life being incredibly serious, and busying myself with ‘problems’ that I thought I needed to fix. It turns out that these were just problems I was distracting myself with so as not to have to just be me.. which is a whole lot simpler and more fun.

3. Yeah, I too have to remember sometimes, that life is but a game. It’s safe to play and have fun. It can be easy to get sucked into the vortex of serious life…but it’s not even real.

4. When we are serious life becomes dull and completely unnatural. No matter our circumstance we can learn to be light about it, this is something I am developing within myself…

5. Thank you Jacqueline, I have read this before but today you have got me pondering on the seriousness I still feel, and when I also may have shut down to my own playfulness? Thank you for the inspiration to look more deeply into this. Playfulness is such a natural part of me and when the cloud of seriousness descends it’s like it blanks out my light.

6. There is this natural joy and playfulness in us all until we take on responsibilities without truly feeling the power we have and our ability to stay with ourselves no matter what is going on in our lives. Or, I wonder, is it me taking on these responsibilities and make my life serious to avoid feeling my power and thus my natural joy and playfulness. Anyway, when I stay connected with my body and feel my inner strength there is no heaviness of having too much responsibility as I ‘walk in my own light and love’.

7. It is a great question and I am with what you came to to be more playful and have fun in and with life — “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day.”

8. I can relate with having blanked out my childhood, and so blanked out the naturally playful and joyful part along with that, ‘As soon as I blanked or shut down my ‘child’hood/part I lost the playfulness and fun and joy I naturally held as a child and slowly over the years, seriousness crept in.’ How lovely to embrace your playful and joyful side.

9. I too can put my hand up for having become too serious, even though I can feel I am naturally playful, ‘The truth is, I have forgotten how to play, how to have fun – how to play with others and enjoy life. It feels to me a very long time ago that I knew how to do this… how to have fun.’ This is a pattern for me to let go of, and start to embrace more fun into life.

10. When we take life on, we can become very serious and forget how to just be playful and fun, life can still be serious however there is always space to be playful and joyful, which makes life enjoyable no matter what we may be facing.

11. “Simplicity has removed the dark shadow of seriousness that I walked around in for a very long time “. I love these words, and I can say that I walked in the same heavy way for a very long time. It is amazing how when we live in complication that we often end up burying who we naturally are, becoming serious, losing our joy and not knowing how to play anymore. How beautiful that you have released the complication, embraced the simplicity and revealed the little girl who simply wants to play.

    1. Oh yes Ingrid, that little girl is so ready to play….

12. I can relate to taking life a bit too seriously at times. It can bog me down, but I realise when I allow this to happen its because I have become too heady and am trying to figure it all out fix everything the way I want it to be. I like your declaration at the end, – ‘It is time to be seen. It is Time To Play and have some fun.’

13. Time to read this blog again as I am not feeling the magic….having allowed the shadow of other things to cloud and take over and not keeping things simple….Not a time to self-bash or put down, but certainly a stop moment to reassess, take stock, prioritise, breathe gently, deeply appreciate how light and spacious I feel in my body and give space for all that is already there on my path to unfold graciously, (letting go of feeling impatient!) And a great reminder for me today, to keep life simple, super simple, smile and keep saying Yes to life, and Yes to all my Soul has prepared for me to continue evolving and deepening all my relationships especially the one with myself.

    1. I love this update Jacqueline. I feel it is so important to stop regularly and reassess. Giving ourselves space to feel is key as is appreciation.

       1. Thank-you Debra. I am living those keys to the best of my ability!

14. I often feel such joy bubbling up inside but have held it back if others around me were not feeling so joyfu. But what I am discovering more and more is that the joy cannot be contained any longer and when it is shared its amazing the affect it has on others around you too. Showing our natural joy and playfulness is infectious and allows the space for others to share in that too. When we are serious we are in protection and only sharing a very small glimpse of the real power and inspiration that is bottled up inside every one of us. So let’s play and allow our bodies natural joy and wonder be shared.

15. Being playful in life brings a simplicity and lightness that offers the space for others to feel they are equally this too.

16. ‘Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day.’ Gorgeous Jacqueline, and I agree if we keep life simple there is space for playfulness and it is such a joy to share the love we feel inside with people we meet everywhere.

17. Jacqueline I appreciated the connection you made between the loss of playfulness and the loss of being connected to who you truly are. It’s easy to remedy things like seriousness by identifying them and making changes, but true healing is simply in that reconnection to our essence.

18. I had a bit of a shock about 3 years ago at work where I was being playful with one of my team and he thought I was being serious! That was an uncomfortable and exposing experience which showed me that I had abandoned my natural playfulness and joy somewhere along the way, thinking that they didn’t fit in my positions of responsibility both in work and out. What a load of rubbish that is! The more we let ourselves express from those qualities we carry naturally within us, the lighter and more playful we become, and the responsibility we once felt as a burden becomes a joyful expression of who we are naturally so.

19. This phrase spoke volumes to me: “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life.”
    After a long held belief that playful corresponds with childlike and lack of responsibilities, and being a responsible adult corresponds to being serious, I am aware more than ever that when I am fully walking in the power of the light that I am, oddly enough as well as the immense love and power that I feel, I am also very open to being playful.

    1. Beautiful Golnaz. When we let of those old ingrained beliefs that we took on, so much space opens up within which allows us to be open, playful and joyful and not afraid to shine.

20. That feeling of not being safe if we let ourselves be who we are is so familiar, and so sad at the same time. What have we accepted as a form of conditioning and why would we have accepted that along the way?

21. When we connect deeply with our bodies we cannot but feel the joy in our movements and how this creates a ripple effect that magnifies like the ocean where we can let go and be playful and at ease as it is our natural way of being.

    1. Yes.. joy is absolutely something that comes from within and is amplified and cemented through our movements.

22. I do know that too Jacqueline, that life has become serious and full of sorrows, so completely different from when I was a child. Then I lived just day after day and enjoyed every day as much as the other without allowing the seriousness of life that was out there to come into my life. So why can I not live like that as an adult, why do I have to succumb to that seriousness that is all around in schools, our work and society in general? To me it is because I do not want to feel different to all the other people and allowed myself to step into it, the seriousness of the ‘real’ life. But what if this is not true at all, and that how we lived a a child is actually our natural state of being? I am now returning to living that how I was as a child and I can say that this is very possible and although not commonly done by the many, I feel now very comfortable with.

23. “I blanked out most of my childhood, not wanting to feel what was really going on in my family.” And the interesting part you are sharing here is that we not only blank out that what feels hurtful to us but also everything else, the joy, the playfulness, the ease in which we are with ourselves and others as children.

    1. Spot on Esther. In blanking out most of my childhood, yes I lost connection with everything else too, with my natural ability to be light and playful, and my natural ability to connect with others, and so I felt awkward in my body, disconnected and unable to relate or connect with others.

24. I love this- I find the same within myself- that I need to not take life so seriously at times and let go and have fun and enjoy myself.

25. Gorgeous Jaqueline, a beautiful reminder that nothing is ever but only ever waiting for our light to shine on it again.

26. This reminded me how I knew as a young child that not laughing with others would keep me distant from others and used it to show how angry I was as a kind of retaliation – but it was always me who ended up feeling even more hurt.

27. It is sad that the world encourages us, almost molding us to shut down to the child within, when it is sometimes through that, that the true expression of the innocence and yet magnificence of our essence lies.

28. So true Fiona, it is gorgeous to meet an adult who hasn’t forgotten to be playful…. it is lovely to be around this playful energy and is infectious and always lifts me if I have gotten a little tad serious, as that old habit likes to creep in when it can!

29. This is beautiful alive and very inspiring thank you. “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day.”So true and magical to read and know.

30. As adults we can become weighed down by our commitments i.e job, family, home life etc that we lose sight of how truly beautiful it is to live from our bodies connection and the flow in our movements. Re-connecting to our bodies and how we move brings lightness and playfulness and that is simply divine.

31. Jacqueline what you have shared is really beautiful and also so exposing: “Simplicity has removed the dark shadow of seriousness that I walked around in for a very long time.” It is a bit weird that most adults always love it so complicated . . .

32. Playfulness cuts through even the most heaviest of energies. Being playful brings a lightness of living and a feeling of joy and expansiveness.

33. Time to play and have fun, what a gorgeous reminder to enjoy the lightness of play. I have found of late that I have somewhat forgotten to express this lightness, fun and joy choosing instead to focus on the serious, heavy aspects of life. What I am reminded of here is that I have a choice; thank you Jacqueline.

34. Your comment put an even bigger smile on my face Joshua 😀

35. ‘Should I see if there are any courses or workshops on how to have fun?’ I laughed out loud when I read this Jacqueline as this would probably have been my response also. I can relate to being very serious about life and feeling it was all a slog. This is slowly changing and I am lightening up about life. There is a lot of fun to be had.

36. “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day.” Beautiful Jacqueline. i too know i can get too serious -, because of complicating my life. Keeping things simple frees everything up.

37. Enjoying life and what each day brings is only possible for me when I am being loving with myself. If I’m abusive of my body with food, or too much work, there is no space for fun or joy. So it is a package that takes a dedication to myself.

38. Fun was not something allowed in my childhood. As children in my family as soon as we started to have fun we were told to settle down before someone gets hurt. The more I develop a deep connection with my true self I have let go of the ideal and belief I had created that it is not ok to have fun and how different this made me feel to others. Letting go of this very isolating feeling I can feel just how I am naturally very loving and playful.

39. I can feel my seriousness at times and know that this is not the true me but the very protected me. When I am connected to myself fully I feel and live the joy. This is something i am working on!!

40. Thank you for unravelling the seriousness it is so easy to get caught up in. Life is serious in the way of the many responsibilities we have but serious does not mean that we cannot enjoy life and be lighthearted.

41. I can feel very well how joy is in simplicity and seriousness is in complexity, when we choose one we automatically recieve the other. It is deeply connected, and it is our choice to see the joy and simplicity over the complexity, that only we create through being serious about life and forget the joy that is there inside.

42. Taking ourselves too seriously can have a very dulling effect. A prescription for rekindling the the fun of childhood is to allow children to teach you how to have fun and play again.

43. ‘It all feels a little scary, after years living in the shadow, yet something from inside pulls me to walk out of the shadow and walk in my own light and joy.’ The shadow brings heaviness of taken on responsibility in a way that is not true, it brings a seriousness and we start to believe that life is hard. Now and then I can feel this heaviness creeping in, still a very familiar feeling in my body but I know this is absolutely not who I am so I now have a choice to let go of the shadow and choose the light in me that is there always.

44. I am naturally very playful but reading your blog this morning Jacqueline had me realise that lately I have become rather serious. This has occurred because I have taken on responsibilities that are not my own simply because of a false understanding I have had from a young age about responsibility. It need not be a heavy mantle across ones shoulders but can be approached and embraced lightly too, and with more than a little play mixed in. Timely reading for me thank you.

45. Beautiful to discover you again Jacqueline what a joyful sharing and so important in a world of more and more seriousness and the loss of true joy from within. Playfulness from keeping life simple allows a connection to the real us the playfulness and magical way we all know and are underneath.

46. Holding onto pictures of how we need to be or how life should be, keep us living with constant tension, angst and seriousness in our bodies as we are constantly trying to be something that we are not. Letting go of this allows us to connect to the simplicity of life and move with more ease and joy in our bodies as we are able to surrender and trust that innate wisdom we all know so well deep within us.

47. I do know that too Jacqueline, that life feels that serious now compared to when I was a child. So I was naturally playful when I entered this world, but something along the way made me become more serious and less playful over time. Interesting though is to look at what seriousness is actually about. To me seriousness is based on fear of doing the ‘right’ thing in order to fulfil the needs of someone else or an organisation. I have to fit in to a system we collectively have created and call society in which we live together, but somewhere we have lost something as I can feel that playfulness could be the answer to make a huge change in the way we live together. Allowing everybody to live there life in their own expression and to appreciate that diversity in expression instead of trying to squeeze everybody into the same shape of ‘seriousness’ that life actually is not at all, would allow and bring back playfulness into our lives again.

48. I was fed a big fat lie in that being responsible meant being serious. Those two things are not correlated.

49. I can relate to being too serious for most of my adult life and at times found others annoying for being playful, but one thing this blog has shown me is that we start to see playfulness as an inconvenience because it is asking us to lighten up and to take off the load we are carrying, and that it is healthy to return and re-discover that playfulness we once had as a child has a place even as an adult.

50. This blog is a beautiful reminder for me what really counts in life and that in spite or actually because of all the terrible things that are going on in the world it is so important to stay light and playful and in my heart as this is the ‘stuff’ that will bring true change.

51. “As soon as I blanked or shut down my ‘child’hood/part I lost the playfulness and fun and joy I naturally held as a child and slowly over the years, seriousness crept in.”

    An interesting observation Jacqueline! When we blank out a part of us a lot is lost and we often make that compromise that we loose something so precious just so we do not have to deal with the unpleasant stuff. However as you share it is so worth it to clear things out of the way and access this joy and lightness again that we knew as children.

52. Thank you Jacqueline for sharing so openly and honestly it reminded me of a time in my life where I also became quite serious as I felt that was how I needed to be. The seriousness made me feel quite miserable as I am naturally a playful and light person, so interesting when we choose to live in opposition to who we truly are – nobody wins.

53. Jacqueline, this is just the message I need to be reading for today. I can so relate to remembering to play. How and when had I forgotten this? We become heavy in life and discarding all that does not need to be there anymore is a great start to lighten up. So beautiful to give playfulness permission and authority back in my life.

54. This is a great blog Jacqueline, I feel we have thought ourselves to not have fun at a young age, as we didn’t get the joy we feel inside reflected by our immediate surroundings. Which feels very sad, as it continues this way when we don’t claim this back for ourselves and reflect something to the children we meet in our lives.

55. Thank you Jacqueline for a great re read, and a reminder to make life simple, be playful and have fun, I am not now as serious as I have been for most of my life, but I could bring much more off me into it and have fun expressing me. While writing my comments and reading others I have come to realise that I have my own unique way of expressing and that that is ok, and I can have fun with my expression.

    1. Yes Jill, have fun with expressing, as opposed to holding back our natural loving expression fearing reactions from others or making others feel uncomfortable….. give ourselves permission to have fun and the ripple effect is, fun is contagious and the best medicine to combat seriousness.

56. To resurrect our playfulness and ability to have fun and enjoy life holds such value!
    In fact if we would all act on that and make that an important marker in our lives, our world would look very different. We would never go to war or hit someone or even shout at them – just because, where is the fun in that?

57. Yes, i think that life got very serious for some of us when we made life complex and about the ideals and beliefs we held about responsibility. I am enjoying my moments of joy and lightness which come through me periodically now and can feel that simplicity helps in my expression of joy and fun. What a joy to feel my inner child again and to realise that it is never too late to play!

58. “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day”. I am learning to keep life simple, I need simply to stay connected to feeling my body as I go about my life, to trust what it and I feel. The key for me at the moment is to observe and be open to what I feel, not judge, just allow. All of these qualities belong to being playful. I appreciate that I am naturally playful and sooo young at heart. One can be wise and have fun! For today at least, I banish thee seriousness!

59. Same for me Monica, I am also using this word; ‘exploring’ which allows an openess in me like a child who has just taken their first steps as they begin to move and explore their world from eyes of innocence.. And there is no right and wrong, only learning, only exploring and playing with the magic that surrounds me.

    1. No right or wrong, just exploring the world through the eyes of innocence, that is magic Jacqueline, and what it is to truly live and be, and all the while we are learning to be more of the love we are in the world.

60. After realising that I had disconnected to so much of my childhood to save me from the stressful memories, I realised that I had also shut away the memories of fun and play that I as a little girl used to enjoy. In fact at one stage I wondered whether I had had any fun at all. But once I began to let the old walls of protection down I could see the moments of joy and could feel how I loved to play, and now remembered, I make a conscious choice to bring that play back into my life today, after all you are never too old to play.

    1. You are never too old to play….. these words resonate today as my body smiles and gives a big thumbs up!

       1. This is a great reminder for me to read today Jacqueline. Yes, we are never too old to play!

61. So true monicag2 that if we allow ourselves to get bogged down in seriousness we then look for relief in distractions rather than just connecting to our own joy in a playful way.

62. ‘Simplicity has removed the dark shadow of seriousness that I walked around in for a very long time.’ Love this antidote to being serious which I have spent too much of my life being in the mistaken belief that it makes me a ‘better’ person. As I have de-cluttered my life the joy and playfulness has returned and I feel so much lighter. Thank you for the reminder that there is always time to be playful.

63. Thank you Jacqueline, even the title to your blog brings a smile to my face. I too shut down from a very young age, and became serious for most of my life, now I too feel “yet something from inside pulls me to walk out of the shadow and walk in my own light and joy. this pull or call supports me to see that it is safe for me to reconnect to that part that I blanked out – my childhood, and the fun, the laughter, the playfulness that I now wish to express.” Yes, I want to come out and play.

    1. Those 3 little words; also bring a smile to my face as they resonate deeply within for it is definitely Time to Play!

64. I’ve found that it’s a healthy discipline to regularly review and pare back any complexity that comes into mly life. Simplicity takes up way less energy, it feels good and also allows life to flow more easily. It’s a great investment of time, space and energy to work at keeping life simple.

65. Thank you Jacqueline for offering up a way out of the seriousness and back to fun – ditch the complication and bring on simplicity.

66. That’s a great point Katie, that if we start to see that our reactions to life’s challenges or even things like corruption can be instead just observations, we start to notice the beautiful and joyful things happening all around us, instead of getting caught up in all our expectations or investments in things turning out a certain way, which inevitably lead to disappointment.

67. Thank you Jacqueline, I can really relate to what you have shared, I was told at a young age to stop that silly giggling, that caused me to shut away my playfulness, so I became serious, Being responsible and having fun did not go together. I have, over the last few years opened up to being more playful, not taking life so serious, learning to let go and have fun.

68. I can relate to what you have shared here Jacqueline, yesterday I was being silly and having fun with my daughter and she loved it and it was a beautiful way to deepen our connection. Thanks for the reminder to stop being so serious and enjoy being more play-full in life.

69. Don’t be afraid to have fun. Don’t stop doing that silly walk every once in a while. Don’t forget to smile with your whole body. Don’t stop beaming heaven to another through your sparkling eyes. Don’t stop celebrating the absolute joy of God in and through you. Harmony is fun. Love is fun. Are we having a ball yet?

    1. Gorgeous comment Lee Green, and a lovely reminder to, ‘not stop beaming heaven to another through your sparkling eyes….

70. Beautiful comment Cathy Hackett, and love the last line; with playfulness ‘normal service can be resumed’…..

71. Feeling responsible for what is happening whether it be in my family, my work or somewhere else is taking on a burden on my shoulders which is never mine and yes this gets and is a very serious job. I have resigned and took on the playful job of being me but I know there are occasions where I slip back in this seemingly ‘observing’ and serious job most of the times this is the case when I would like to belong to a certain group instead of feeling my quality is all that matters and bringing this out joy -and playfully.

    1. Love it Annelies and I say Yes to resigning from the burden of responsibilities that were never mine and taking on ‘the playful job of being me’.

72. ‘What if safety was not about how others did or did not react, but came from the absoluteness of our connection?’ Beautifully said Sarah it is always this quality we should focus on instead of trying to fit in with others and put recognition before the powerful connection we have with God.

73. Being silly is an art that needs nurturing in us all – the serious business of life and evolving is greatly enhanced by being playful and by silliness!

    1. To nurture silliness, how joyful and playfully innocent that sounds, feels lovely Helen to bring a good dose of silliness into our everyday lives; work and relationships to break the momentum of seriousness that we often get caught up in when we lose connection with ourselves.

       1. And the idea that piousness is godly doesn’t help either … no wonder we get caught up in believing that being serious is smart. What a nonsense that is, wherever did that idea come from?

74. Playfulness feels like being truly in life and to be seen, I love that. I feel that there is only room for playfulness if we are truly in the moment and respond to what is in front of us, just with all that we are. The moment we go into our mind and like you share, want to control things, than the playfulness is gone. You can see this with children, they live now, and are therefore very playful.

75. As I revisit this article I can feel the tears of sadness well in me for I can feel now how much it is a choice to actually shut this joy we are down. To say no to play, fun and silliness and instead embrace and swallow seriousness and control as a way of getting through the day – has not served anyone especially me. The joy is slowly returning and I feel that the heavy case filled with Serious Adult Business from a very young age – to be accepted and to take care of others – can be kicked to the side of the road. Done.

    1. And where did Serious Adult Business get us all anyway? All the good stuff we were doing in the sandpit and the playground anyway. Here here Lee.

76. So true Gina, I love the fact that my kids always held me accountable when I got to serious, I think they let me go for a while as it was too hard to try to remind me of my playful side but luckily once they saw it was still in me they became ruthless at not letting it go a second time. There are many giggles in our house now, a lovely balance to some of the more serious moments.

77. I am all for playfulness Jaqueline and therefore feel that this should be part of everyone’s personal medicine box. There are so many ways we can bring healing to ourselves and not all of them involve naval gazing and deep and meaningfuls, although there is a very important spot in the box for them as well. Truth is, swinging on a swing and feeling the freedom of playfulness lets our bodies expand and is memorable, once felt it leaves an imprint to want more.

78. Just what I needed to read today, thank you Jacqueline! I know I have made my life hard work at times, needing to lighten up and play. I do this with my grandchildren, especially the little ones, they help to show me it’s OK to have fun and be fun to be around, through their natural joy for life.

    1. Children can be our best teachers Roslyn! And it sure is OK to have some fun.

79. “In this expansion I see how simple my life has become, which makes me feel joyful and light. Simplicity has removed the dark shadow of seriousness that I walked around in for a very long time”.
    What a joy for you Jacqueline to rediscover the joy, laughter and lightness.
    What a gift from your friend and colleague.

80. Same here Brendan, I even love the word and the quality that this word, humble emanates.

81. And a lovely reminder of how simple my life really is now and how easy life flows, there is no longer a struggle with life or with people, but I do have to be aware that in this simple living I do not allow my head to create problems where there are none.

82. This reminds me of a birthday card I received when I was about 12 years old. It said on the front “to a good egg” and on the inside “come out of your shell and have a good time” or words to that affect. It is still true now that I can get too bound up in the apparent seriousness of what’s going on around me rather than feeling the exquisiteness of my inner world and let that radiate out, allowing the playfullness and joy to be lived.

83. I would agree Amanda, that is an important discovery and awareness, thank you for sharing.

84. Time to play and radiate our joy. Being this free and playful is such a powerful inspiration and healing at the same time. So lets dance and celebrate! :o)

85. I love how you wrote about ‘where to find fun’ – ‘do a course or a workshop’. Interesting that we as adults need to relearn this so natural of all things. Play and fun.

    1. Yes Lee this bit made me giggle as well, how often do we look for someone else to give us steps to be able to do what should be completely natural to us!! Dr Google has become the go to for how to fix ourselves but sometimes no internet is needed, the simple walk and swing in the park can work wonders for any crowded, serious head!

       1. Ah of course the swings how could we forget that as kids we could just play and play and play – nothing to do except swing all of our love for the world to see and feel.

86. I am so glad you wrote this blog, Jacqueline, as this is something I need to address too. I have not lost my playfulness and ability to have fun completely, but only allow it once everything ‘important’ has been done first, and all that has to be done seriously! How much more enjoyable life would be if everything we do was done in a fun and playful way – I definitely need to allow this.

    1. I could really feel the lovely connection with your brother Katie when reading your comment, and how the quality of playfulness truly does bring us home and brings us together.

    2. It’s amazing how we take on the belief that getting important stuff done and being playful can’t go together. Here’s to playfully connecting with whatever needs to be done.

87. A great, simple blog – when I’m faced with something like a question about how to have more fun or something else, like you, I would think – “where can I find out this information?” (google is my usual best friend in this!). But what you have shared is that a lot of the answers are actually already naturally inside us, we don’t always have to look to others/the internet for answers.

88. Playfulness has been something that has been missing in my life and reading your blog has supported me to re-visit some of the choices I’ve made in order to not draw attention to myself. Some of these choices involved shutting down my playful side. I am realising there are a number of things it is time to allow out from under the covers in order to expand and connect with others. There is much here for me to ponder – thank you Jacqueline.

89. I love this Jacqueline and can really relate to it ..”After the sadness came some resistance to letting go of the old, the familiar and the shadow, which I have hidden behind. For if I ‘let go’ I might be seen, and I’m not sure if I will be safe. It all feels a little scary, after years living in the shadow, yet something from inside pulls me to walk out of the shadow and walk in my own light and joy.” Yes and we must continue the walk back to the loving arms of playfulness and joy. Children and dogs have it in spades. Spend lots of time in parks connecting to them and there you will have ample opportunity to re-connect to that essence of joy inside of you!

    1. Thank you Irena, and yes ‘we must continue to walk back to the loving arms of playfulness and joy’, feels so inviting especially the loving arms!

90. A lighthearted approach to life is invaluable. You’re speaking my language with simplicity, humility, playfulness and magic. Another favourite for me is wonderment – to be in the wonderment of the magic at play in every moment is incredibly empowering while at the same time keeps my eyes firmly on heaven!

91. I get serious when I am trying. I can easily slip into trying when I lose connection with myself and give myself the self-care that is needed before I get into the strong pull I have to give to others. Trusting that I am enough and don’t have to be more is a big part of this pattern of behaviour I fall into.

92. ” … feeling that my environment did not support me to be me – to be all of the real me.”
    I too feel that I was not truly supported during my childhood and so have been looking at why that would have been created for this life … and I see it’s because I choose to not truly support myself.

    1. Super question Marian……. why that would have been created for this life indeed, what was the lesson on offer? I felt your answer at a much deeper level today; ‘I see it is because I choose t not truly support myself’.

93. Jacqueline this is a great blog and I can totally relate to everything you have written. I to hide not to be seen and I also feel I have forgotten how to have fun. I know it’s inside me and some days it really wants to come out but I hold it in. You have now inspired me to come out of the shadows and be playful at work.

94. What is so scary about being playful, I ask myself? And I find its as you’ve said Jacqueline, feeling unsafe, afraid of being seen, of ‘letting my guard down’ of appearing irresponsible. Playfulness to me has always suggested I need a playmate, what if no one wants to play with me? Ah, the simplicity of knowing that I can and have fun and be joy-full anytime, be truly play-full when my greatest playmate is me.

95. Without being able to be playful there is no joy in life and without the joy there is no true love. Yes, it’s time to play.

96. I love how you emphasize the connection between being seen and having fun!

97. A lovely sharing with us all Jacqueline – to describe all the words related to having fun, living in joy, playfulness etc leaves you feeling inspired and to behave in a way that reflects this feeling, a lightness in our bodies. This certainly leaves me wanting to live in a way to continue this wonderful sensation/feeling in my body, not just for me but for others to experience and share in with this too. Now, the opposite to that with the words like sadness, grumpy, withdrawn from life there is such a heaviness and it saps the body of energy. I know from plenty of experience it takes a lot of effort causing me to want to shrink away from living (under a dark cloud), not sharing and become something that I know I am not. It’s so lovely when another can speak openly and express and bring to our attention and ask ‘how are you feeling?’ that question alone can make all the difference for us to have a stop moment and break that pattern/momentum which we created, for us to then choose to truly feel and bring us back to connecting more deeply, bringing our thoughts/feelings out into the open and welcome the return of joy (if we choose to).

98. I have been reminded recently too to allow myself more playtime. What I realise is just to let go of the seriousness. So there may be a lot of ‘heavy’ things to deal with but why let them be heavy? Why not continually and consistently allow myself the space for more of me and my own natural playfullnes regardless of the situation. Lighten up from within and the ‘burdens’ do get lighter and feel like they are falling away.

99. Your blog can actually touch everyone, because it describes the sadness, that is hidden in almost everybody from shutting down a part of in our childhood. In your case it was the playfullness, in my case it was, if you wanna become specific, being me in my whole light and power. Instead I played small my whole life and didn´t want to grow up to the powerful woman that I am. In the end, it is all the same- it is really beautiful to reclaim what we left behind. It is not lost, it just need reawakening 😉 I could really feel you in your blog- thanks for sharing you.

100. Having fun is my most natural expression. It strucks me when I don’t have fun. How is this at all possible? We are all beings that naturally express fun. Yet that’s not what we see on the news. Good news is: Here we are creating media that presents people who reconnect to their fun.

101. Coleen, I also had a good chuckle when I reread what I had wrote; ‘What to do….? the absurdity of it indeed, I mean would you ask a child how do you have fun, children just are fun, playful and light as we adults are, but from time to time we adults need a gentle reminder.

102. Love your comment sjmatsonuk, ’55 years of being silly and I am just getting started’, here is one subject you have excelled in – top marks to you for not taking life so seriousely – and a gentle reminder to allow more silliness and laughter in my day.

103. I agree, being playful and openly joyous and silly means being seen, and Im beginning to be okay with that. I think part of the reason that Ive held that back for so long is that If I suddenly brought it out again I would have to feel that I haven’t been living like that!. and it would surprise some people that are used to me being serious and non-expressive all of the time. heres to being silly, and enjoying the fun of play and simplicity.

104. I love your blog Jacqueline, I can totally relate to everything you’ve shared. I too have found it difficult to connect to my joyful and playfulness. I seem to have forgotten how to access it but now I am learning to reconnect to who I am. I am very playful, joyful and loving. Why I have hidden this side of me? It is because of my hurts as a child but now I am extremely inspired to always live connected to who I am, not to hide it anymore, it is safe to come out and share my love with the world.

105. People have always thought I was fun to be around, as I wore the mask of the happy smiling and easy-going girl just wanting to have a good time. Now that I have dropped the mask and my old partying ways those closest to me refer to my seriousness instead. Thank you for sharing your key here Jacqueline, simplicity.. It makes sense as I can get quite heavy and serious filtering through my stuff and making it complicated, where if I come back to my naturally simple way of being I already am joyful, gorgeous, light and FUN! No mask needed, it is already me.

106. I love this Jacqueline! I remember a time a few years ago when I was all very serious and stressed and my then 5 year old daughter wanted me to play charades with her. It was the last thing I wanted to do as I was not in a playing mood. I did however and when I rolled my dice I had to pretend to be a worm. Lying on the ground wriggling around seemed so absurd to me in that moment and so far from where I had been I couldn’t help but laugh and let go of all the seriousness. I was also reminded of the fact that we are all naturally playful as my daughter so showed me that day. I now use this as my reminder if I go into my too serious mode.

107. I have been re-connecting with my playful side of late and it is great. Everything seems so much simpler when we can have a laugh about it.

108. a great reminder Jacqueline as i tend to be serious with myself still. I can at times be critical, go into doing and use responsibility as a burden. In these times i am losing my natural playfulness and with that my surrender to all that is so easily there. The balance between working hard and being responsible while at the same time be light-hearted and playful is for me a work in progress but when it is there the whole world and all of me opens up!

109. A much needed read for me Jacqueline. Thank you.

110. Innate to us all is the playfulness, fun and joy that we all enjoyed as children, unfortunately for most of us, we loose that and make life about seriousness and being proper as a way to fit in. We can give ourselves permission to be that playful and have fun it comes down to a choice.

111. A great sharing with us all Jacqueline – It does creep in that thing called ‘seriousness’ then fun goes out the back door. I find this happens when I allow tiredness and a ‘trying to achieve’ come into my day. Then something so simple as a beautiful butterfly fly past and the inner smile and the fun me returns.

     1. Exactly Marion, when I am tired and I go into task mode and what I have to achieve, my old companion is back; seriousness. Lately, I have been feeling so serious until I shared this with a friend and my serious mode got ‘outed’ with the lovely reminder that: that was not who I was! And a gentle reminder for me to keep aware of how easily seriousness can creep in the back door if I am not looking.

     2. Beautiful comment Marion. I love what you’ve shared, it reminds me to be playful, fun and to appreciate everything.

112. I felt this part: “As soon as I blanked or shut down my ‘child’hood/part I lost the playfulness and fun and joy I naturally held as a child and slowly over the years, seriousness crept in.” May we all be big kids, who just happen to get wrinkles and take ultimate responsibility for life.

     1. Love it Oliver: May we all be big kids, who just happen to get wrinkles and take ultimate responsibility for life. I am all for this!

113. Fabulous Jacqueline! My childhood was not a bed of roses either. I have some vague memories but I do know that at home I was measured, protected. Outside home (particularly with friends) I was much more expansive and I even have memories of real joy. Interesting that when I was at school, particularly my early years of primary school, I always felt very vulnerable and fragile (my first day of primary school I cried a lot when my father left, but it only lasted a minute when the teacher gave me a book that made animal sounds). I do remember various instances of me being vulnerable and fragile at school but living it as a problem, as some sort of shortness (and wrongness) from my side. Now that I write this, I realise that it was a feeling of ‘I can’t’ floating around throughout my life tainting it (not entirely but substantially so) and how much of my life was about learning to secretly manage this awful feeling. The truth that I can, if I embrace my natural being, was there all the time staring at me. My natural being, I know, is pure golden beauty.

114. Thank you for a very inspiring blog Jacqueline. I too lived a very serious life, which is no fun. So as you say it is time to be seen, it is time to play and have fun.

115. We can find so many ways to avoid expressing our joy and playfullness. But how lovely is it to feel this in another. Seeing someone freely expressing their joy is such a wonderful sight.

116. Great topic you’ve written on here Jacqueline. Like you, I can’t really remember being very playful as a child and when I was, it was never in front of anyone, it was as though I was ashamed of being playful, that something was wrong with me if I let myself have fun. Over recent years, since attending courses at Universal Medicine and as I have healed the burdens that I was carrying from a young age, I have found that my innate playfulness is coming to light (thank goodness). It feels lovely and light to be playful and certainly a quality that should be nurtured and cherished.

117. Thank you Jacqueline, for expressing that it is safe to be playful! It is crazy that this light and lovely way that we knew as children becomes lost to us as adults. But as you say, we can have it back, and play with life, living simply and from our heart.

118. I feel seriousness is an epidemic and people don’t know how to handle the seriousness’s of life. People tend to choose to add more things into their life to resolve the problem of seriousness but this never seems to work. SIMPLIFYING life I have also found to be a remarkable tool in supporting a more joyful life like you shared. I no longer watch much tv, I only really spend time with a small circle of friends where our friendship is continuing to deepen exponentially and when I come into intact with people I am more with life and bubbly with my interactions. It’s a lovely way of being all from choosing to simplify my life not busy it up with parties, dinners, a social calander that Is always busy, shopping trips, holidays, pub nights, Xbox playing, birthday parties, Xmas parties, Easter parties, Halloween parties! My goodness the list could go on … These thing are not for me. I choose to live simply and choose to rest deeply and in that more and more joy is coming through !! Just like you shared.

119. A wonderful, and timely reminder Jacqueline, to lighten up and have some fun, and even be a little but silly! I too have experienced many of the life events you have, and in turn also became rather serious, but didn’t realise it. Now I can feel how much joy is there waiting in every moment and the seriousness has finally been cast aside. Now life certainly feels much lighter and definitely much more enjoyable.

120. Thank you for the reminder. I can be so serious. It makes life difficult and misses the joy. Time for me to reconnect to playfulness.

121. It is crazy that there is an industry out there in teaching adults how to have fun and play when it is so natural and innate in us, as proven by how we all felt at one time when we were kids. Why or how do we forget how to play in that sweet, tender, harmless way that kids do so easily?

122. Wow Jacqueline! That’s a wake up call! I could always feel the burden of the seriousness that “helped” me to make way through life. Relying on a serious behavior gave me the security to “be taken seriously”. That people wouldn’t doubt my statements. That I had the safety to show “I can do it on my own”. That was my way to keep people out. Today I’m walking the path of learning to be the cheeky little lady again that loves to play!

123. I love to be playful, and actually, not only that I love it – I am it 🙂 Great to hear you are “back”!

     1. Me too Steffi! And I love feeling the joy bubbling up inside me. Great medicine!!

124. This is a good thing for us all to be reminded of, life doesn’t need to be so serious all the time and we shouldn’t have to make a point of being playful but if thats what we have to do,so be it, being light and playful is certainly got to be one of the key ingredients to a well balanced healthy wellbeing.

125. Yes, we do tend to forget as adults to play, address life playfully instead of seriously. Great reminder Jacqueline.

126. Let’s play with each other in the park Jacqueline, now that we live so close, I am there every morning. I love to play and be playful.

127. What an awesome declaration Jacqueline, and truly brave of you to heal and let go of the hurt of shutting down, is huge …….. but not as huge as the infinitely expansive feeling of allowing ourselves to simply be our full selves, beautiful.

128. I have swung from serious to silly on and off throughout my life and the silly could also turn into recklessness and irresponsibility. What I have now learnt is purposefulness and playfulness which is a much more even, loving platform to live from and one that has reconnected me to deep inner joy.

129. Definitely Brendan this seriousness is a serious disease. I agree being playful can be more about the spring in your step and the way we view life, than the comedy in our words.

130. How beautiful Jacqueline that one little line on a card inspired you to explore what was stopping fun from flowing for you.

131. I find I can lose my sense of playfullness when I am doing more than I can really handle, I get caught up in the world out there and lose my connection to myself and the wonder of life. I keep a set of juggling balls in my kitchen which had also turned into my office for a while – not necessarily a good combination – and sometimes I will pick up these balls and becoming very still first I begin to juggle and that breaks the seriousness I had allowed myself to be taken by. To be honest the ‘stop moment’ of being very still is probably enough but the juggling is definitely fun!

132. I love and relate to the thought about going to ‘learn’ how to have fun….such an adult response and such denial of what is there so naturally…

133. Yes! I agree, wholeheartedly. I am living more and more simple toooo and the more I do this the more I feel free to just be me!! The more space I have to feel me and be me !!

134. I can relate to this “…yet something from inside pulls me to walk out of the shadow and walk in my own light and joy.” I also blanked much of my childhood out for awhile, a numbness was there generally into my early adulthood and I felt a deep sadness when I allowed myself to feel it. The shadow tells us that it is bigger than us, but it is not, we can walk free and shine and have fun. Thank you for sharing.

135. The difference it can make to our lives when we choose to have fun is wonderful isn’t it Jacqueline. Being serious is a great topic to open up as I’m sure most of us know how to do it, all too well. You think that when you grow up, it’s time to get serious and be the adult. Sure we need to be responsible, but nowhere does it say, leave out love and play-fullness in the process.

136. Oh yes. Making life a serious and complicated thing, just like adults did when we were young. I’m loving your reminder to be playful like children naturally are, and to keep life simple and enjoy the magic that abounds – playfully so.

137. Childhood memories for me are few and far between, what I can remember doesn’t seem to be filled with joy. So my adulthood has followed a similar line. I can make jokes, see the funny side of life, I did this as a child as well, out of a need to be liked. When I make jokes today, it is clearer to me when they come from a need and are not just about having a laugh. Re-learning how to have fun is easy when I am present and aware, not so when I am feeling a bit off; in fact I can see how I revert to a bad habit of making jokes at an others expense, ouch! A work in progress.

138. A funny thing about ‘play’: as a biologist I was taught in university classes that play in young animals of ‘higher’ species is instinctive (i.e. wired in from birth) and is for developing physical prowess, hunting and social skills, i.e. it looks like fun, but is serious stuff. Animals ‘lower’ than mammals are considered to not engage in play, to not need it and to not even have the brain parts required to do it. Yet I’ve seen adult birds and fish playing as well as adult mammals, both wild and domesticated – and I mean REALLY playing for fun, not hunting, baby-training, parasite-removing or any other substitute explanation that a scientist might come up with. In humans, play is often considered only to be for children, and perhaps as a little silly. Perhaps these narrow views of play are the source of the reservation human adults feel about playing? There seems to be a fear that one will appear animalistic or juvenile or wasting time or not being responsible. And of course there are people who give ‘play’ a bad rap by definitely behaving in ways that are not loving or respectful. Beneath all these outer appearances, I feel that play and fun are universal, friendly expressions of communication and relationship between any two living beings, of any age, for no other reason than the feeling of joy and connection that comes from it, and it is of benefit to all. I reckon God is very playful and has a great sense of humour. Find God within and all the fun is there too!

     1. I love your comment Diane; very informative, enjoyable, and very playful. The picture of God being playful made me smile!

139. Dear Jacqueline, thank you for sharing this. I can very much relate to it, I too have taken seriousness to be my safe guard to go through life but am slowly letting go of it and opening myself up to the world to be seen and to play.

140. Bring on the fun! Wasn’t it good that your work friend was honest with you, supporting you, and now all of us, to look at whether or not we are being too serious. ‘ Don’t be afraid to have some fun’ ……. Ok!

141. Thank you Jacqueline McFadden, what a beautiful piece, I really responded when you spoke about simplicity, being playful and having fun…which just shows that something inside really wants this, and knows this is the natural me inside…yet, I can block with seriousness and getting caught up in ‘life’. It is interesting how our focus can shift to ‘getting through’: isolated and serious, rather than what it is all about: having fun, sharing ourselves and connecting with people. “How do I make playfulness ‘my way’ on a daily basis is my question.” Oh the best questions to ask. And thank you for the answer.

     1. Most definitley ariannekasi, something inside really wants us to express the natural beauty, and innocence inside each and every one of us, and as you state, what cuts us off to expressing what is naturally there is ‘seriousness’ and getting caught up in life.

142. I wonder why as adults many of us shut down to expressing that joyful, and playful place we all come from? I know at moments I will still skip down a corridor or in the street and sometimes do cartwheels ( when out for a walk or in the gym) then suddenly a thought will sneak in like I hope no one saw me, or I check to make sure no one is around first – crazy really. They are not all as big as this, it might be playing a game of hide and seek with or building things in the kitchen for the first person down in the morning to find, or just leaving little things in funny places around the house or even the way I dance, hug or speak to somebody. But less and less the playful feeling is too strong to hide or worry about what anyone else thinks ( I know comments have hurt in the past such as you are so childish, or grow up) when I know for a fact that playfulness is me, and it comes with such a natural innocent, joyful and hugely child loving way.

     1. Ahh Gyl I have a delightful sense of fun as I read the many ways you have to be playful in your day. I notice I have been a bit serious about things over the last couple of months or so. Reading your comment, together with Jacqueline’s blog has inspired me to open up to more fun and playfulness again – and I am very much looking forward to this.

143. I too have blocked out most of my childhood from my memory…I can hardly remember anything. It’s interesting what we don’t realise until another person points it out gently. Like the subtitle hint ‘don’t be afraid to have some fun.’

144. What a beautiful opportunity was offered to you by your friend’s card and that you took to this too! When I first read the words, “Don’t be afraid to have fun”, I too noticed myself reacting to that and thinking ‘I’m not like that’ – but I must admit that I tend to be way too serious at times, and usually this is when I am getting caught up in things and forgetting myself in the process. You are so right Jacqueline, that as children there is a lightness and playfulness that is naturally there – and this never goes away. It is simply about recalling this and tapping back into this as the playful adults we can now express as.

145. Time to play can be interpreted in so many ways. Playing can so often be mistaken for disregard or self abuse, all in the name of ‘fun’. Thank you Jacqueline for sharing that keeping life simple, staying humble, sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life.

     1. There is some fragility here for me to be felt around my expression of playfulness, or rather the holding back of my expression of playfulness and so thank you Jacqueline for opening this up. And I love your reminder Vicky to appreciate the joy and lightness that living simply and heart-fully offers.

146. Thank you Jacqueline, I can feel the joy and light-heartedness shining through the dark clouds – how very beautiful. And thank you for reminding me that whenever I lose my joy-fullness all I need to do is connect to that place inside, that I knew as a child.

     1. A great reminder to me also Judith, not to return to being a child, but to simply reconnect to all I felt as a child and the freedom in which I could feel and express…. it is children who often remind us not to be so serious, and I often find that even though my children are not so little anymore (young adults in fact), they are the ones that remind me to be playful and not so serious, and who also remind me how much fun I am to be around when I allow myself to connect to this place within. 🙂

147. Beautiful invitation to play and have fun. Letting go of ideals of how things should be and having to be perfect all the time helps me a lot. So freeing to simply laugh at myself when doing something ‘wrong’ and let it go back to the proportion it has: a speck in the Universe. I feel literally more space in my body in letting go of my identification with working ‘hard’ and life being a struggle.

     1. Hm i agree Monika, the ideals and perfection are a killer to the lightheartedness we naturally have and i find your ability to laugh at yourself fullheartedly a great inspiration!

148. Letting ourselves be seen is so much of a true delight we cannot help but be utterly playful. And if we really feel into if we might just remember that angels are very cheeky and playful too… Just like we are meant to be.

     1. I love what you’ve expressed Katerina.

149. Every now and then I look back on a couple of photos just to be reminded again how play-full, fun and cheeky I was, especially if ‘old seriousness Jaime’ starts to creep in.

     1. What a great idea Jaime – to me, it’s not the past per se that we are looking at, but that we are connecting back to what our true essence is… Something that is often buried or overridden as we go through life. This essence is what I feel is so natural in young children and why they are often great reminders for us to reconnect to this natural playfulness.

150. ‘Simplicity has removed the dark shadow of seriousness that I walked around in for a very long time.’ This is a gorgeous phrase Jacqueline and the reminder I need every now and then as it is sometimes easy to slip back into that seriousness, usually when I have complicated things! Making it simple works.

151. Responsibility doesn’t have to be serious, this one of the many many things I have learnt from the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. It is actually the opposite – the lighter I feel and the more responsible I become. Magical !

152. What a beautiful reminder Jacqueline, to stop and connect to that lovely playfulness and light that is inside us all – I can certainly get caught up in seriousness at times, but that playfulness is just below the surface ready to sparkle! 🙂

153. What a great topic and one we all seem to relate to. I for one have found children great for keeping it light and playful – working with kids is a wonderful reminder to be in the moment, be silly and playful. Life definitely loses it’s joy when we forget that we are all naturally playful.

154. This was lovely to read Jacqueline, I had an image of you walking through a cloud of darkness in to the sunshine; a hidden beauty emerges.
     My mother use to call me, ‘the thinker’ I was rather serious and very reflective as a child, although I distinctly remember feeling a lot of joy also, and loved playing with my sisters. Children always beautifully remind us when we may forget; to come down from our heads and into our bodies.

155. It is most definitely time to have some fun:))

156. I too relate to the seriousness that you a writing about Jacqueline and can get myself stuck in those feelings. I definitely went searching for things that would take me out of my seriousness, the likes of various courses and workshops around happiness and laughter, but they seemed such temporary solutions to something that had been lingering for a long time. It is very true what you share about simpleness. The more simple something is for me, the more I enjoy it and the more playful I become and I begin to feel that this is naturally me, not the seriousness that I can get stuck in.

157. Jacqueline, thank you. I can really relate to the call to step out of the shadow and be seen, and how scary it feels, but I find the call is stronger and definitely worth walking through the fear… I love to play.

158. I loved this blog. I can’t help but think it was about time for this reminder to go out 🙂 Everything, just about, can be done with a twinkle in the eye…

159. I can relate to your story Jacqueline, as I too replaced my playfulness with seriousness throughout my life – now it’s time to bring it back, get out of my head and don’t get bogged down with over thinking.

160. Jacqueline, I was so deeply touched by what you have written here, it was just what I needed right now.

161. Thank you Jacqueline for your awesome blog. I could feel myself reacting to the concept of having fun. Feeling life’s burdens and responsibilities from an early childhood having to care for my unwell mother, and now how I have continued to carry those old burdens around with me. Creating relationships with people where I felt needed, and then feel the recognition and approval from that person.
     I have even created a business fixing other people’s problems and then getting recognition from the outside, rather than feeling from within myself the amazing tender man I am. I feel my seriousness, and how I have mostly forgotten that little boy I once was, who was so play-full.

162. I too was raised with little joy in the household. Apart from being a party girl, I was pretty serious and complicated(sometimes still…)
     Pffff, so tiring to confuse depth and stillness with serious and dramatic!

163. I relate to everything you have written Jacqueline, and I have enjoyed the comments from the other bloggers. It is never too late to recapture the joy and playfulness we knew as a child, and staying present to the moment for me is a great way to feel free and safe. I love the simplicity of living this way.

164. What a light blog. An invitation to play and have fun all together. I am taking this wisdom into my day and week and…..rest of my life! Life is too short or long, however you see it, not to enjoy it and have playful fun.

165. This is gorgeous Jacqueline, “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day”. Reading this I am aware that I can be serious and want to get things done in a serious way rather than being playful and having fun, thank you for bringing this to my awareness.

166. I can relate to your story Jacqueline and how I too often flick the ‘serious’ switch on, which can often mean I am not really being me as it isn’t my true nature. Being serious is something I feel I have used to keep people at bay and not have to develop relationships or any connection with the people I meet, for it is far easier to keep someone at arms length if they see a serious face. Thanks for sharing this reflection, it is fantastic when we are given these insights by others, what a gift your colleague’s word were.

167. Thank you Jacqueline, this is such a powerful awareness-opener for me. Before this I hadn’t felt and asked why my playfulness is put aside for my serious side. It is wonderful to feel playful, being totally at ease with myself. When I feel the serious side come out now I’m going to check in and ask myself why? When I stop and ask why, I’m checking to make sure I’m not shutting down my natural expression because of something that may be going on around me. Making sure I’m not losing myself to a seriousness that is not mine to begin with.

168. Hi Jacqueline. I can relate to what you have written, as many years ago I had someone comment to me that I always appeared to be sad, and my first reaction was to reject their comment. However, it was true. Being able to let go of the past has been a challenge for me as I was my own worst critic. But now that I have, I am able to be playful and there is fun and joy in just being me.

169. Jacqueline, your blog is such a gentle and timely reminder to keep life simple and have fun.
     How easy and disconnected it is to slip into the seriousness of life, forgetting that our natural being is playful and fun.
     I just love what you have expressed here, thank you:
     “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day.”

170. Thank you Jacqueline for your story and sharing your experience. I could echo many of your words. On reflection now, I am still aware that I have to often remember to be ‘light-hearted’ and not so serious. I recall when first attending the presentations of Serge Benhayon at the hall in Ewingsdale, I sometimes heard different ones expresssing how joy-full they felt, and I would wonder where do you buy that – that ‘joy’. I didn’t quite know or rather I had forgotten what it looked like. Thank goodness for the presentations of Universal Medicine and the wonderful practitioners of the Esoteric modalities I know I recognize it now and playfullness comes more easily.

171. I remember being at school and seeing others kids have their natural expression of fun, silliness and playfulness squashed because “it’s time to grow up, it’s time to work, get serious and stop playing…” And so on. This went on in primary school and secondary school. The message is that there’s something wrong with being a child or childlike and apparently adults have all the answers!

     Even teens who still displayed playfulness were squashed down til they joined the majority of clone like serious “good” students who had had the life so completely knocked out of them, that there was a pervasive feeling of suppressed expression. Anyone who didn’t agree with this was considered naughty or a trouble maker. I still have this feeling of checking myself and pulling back from being silly or having fun as if it’s a “bad” thing. Great blog, thanks!

172. Great topic for discussion…..this is quite a ‘serious disease’ is it not 😉 Seriousness seriously caps joy doesn’t it? I know when I have my serious head on that joy just goes – really? I find it really hard to come out and play when you have that head on – can we take it off for a moment? pretty please? And when I do, gosh I love it. I was reminded the other day that when we dance we can feel the joy (and I know that to be true as when I dance, joy just bubbles out of me) and it is only because we are allowing it to come out – it is there all the time – wanting to play and be expressed but we allow it so little in this world. Thanks for the reminder of how it can cap us – when we choose it – and how to return to it through simplicity and humbleness and the gorgeous gift of children!

     1. I completely agree Sarah! Joy: “It is there all the time”.
        It’s quite a serious job to be serious, like seriously.

173. Playfulness feels like such a natural part of my expression especially in the bathroom in front of the mirror. It is so much fun to be me and I think my jokes are very funny and I laugh at them all the time!

     1. Love your playfull expression here Nicola. And laughing at your own jokes, or at yourself on a regular basis is great medicine. These days I prefer taking the laughter pill as opposed to my old one – the serious pill… !

     2. Playfullness feels so simple to be yet I can get bogged down in seriousness too and this blog made me ponder that some more… As adults we tend to put on a role – mother, doting daughter, perfect wife, funny friend etc and I feel that when we choose to act out these roles, it brings a tension and seriousness to how we naturally are…

     3. hahaha me too!!

     4. You are sheer gorgeousness Nicola. I’m laughing joyfully away with you while reading your comment. xxx

     5. Hahaha Nicola you are a crack-up. Finally someone who does the same!! 😉 (Haha just joking, I think this is spreading!)

174. A beautiful heartfelt blog, Jacqueline, thank you. It IS serious work trying to get things ‘right’, but by letting go and just enjoying being you is awesome.

175. I love to play and have fun, but I too know that veil of worry or stress that can creep over me and then the lightness is hidden, but it’s always there underneath waiting to come out and play in the most simplest and child-like, joyful ways. I know when I feel me I feel full of joy, life is simple and there’s an ease and everything becomes playful and fun – it’s working on keeping everything super super simple, and knowing that heaviness and worry is not me.

176. Lovely blog and you’ve reminded me of something really important: the minute I numb me in any way, because I don’t want to feel something, it works and I don’t feel anything or at least it’s muted, but the thing is I don’t feel my own love and joy either, or my playfulness. So you remind me to have courage to feel it all; something I don’t always do.

     1. Beautiful, Monica, this is so true.

177. Thank you Jacqueline for reminding me how playfulness can bring simplicity and joy into our lives.

178. It is actually quite common in adults to not be playful, as if we are grown up now and the next batch of fun will come when we retire. Of course some jobs, and professions require seriousness but we are not on the job 24/7 so there is no excuse to not be silly like we once were and still are deep inside.

179. This provided me with a great opportunity to reflect on how much I allow myself to express my playfulness also. ‘Life’ and it’s responsibilities can be serious and I can feel how I allow this to stifle me. What I felt when reading your blog is that I can take my playfulness to the responsibilities – work, parenting, etc – and that in doing so, I’m actually bringing more truth to what I am doing, as I am bringing more of me.

180. Jacqueline- I can really relate to not allowing myself “time to play” . I can feel that complication and time get in the way of “play” and joy in our lives, and simplicity and space can give us back this gift if we allow it to be!

     1. I agree Anne, and I know all about making life complex… complication and seriousness walk together side by side. Keeping life super simple has seen these old companions of mine walk out my door…

181. Let’s see if we can get a degree in ‘how to have fun’ -that could be fun!

     Or, we can just let life go and have a good laugh. I think I know which would be the cheapest – and most fun 🙂

     1. I’ll definitely be signing up for the Degree in Fun, Josh. Just imagining the syllabus makes me smile! Maybe I’ll see you in class.

        1. You make me smile Ingrid. I think we have both graduated before we have even attended the first class! Perhaps we could try for our PhD’s?

     2. I’m with you there Joshua…it’s about letting go, and there is no cost.

     3. How could you not smile when one reads your comment Joshua about a degree in ‘how to have fun’ – that’s really cool – that already makes me laugh.

     4. Keeping to the tune of playfulness Josh, I work in a school and maybe I should ask the management to add ‘a degree in how to have fun’ to the cirruculum… or maybe it could simply be,’ how to have fun when teaching’…now there’s a thought!

182. I can be very serious at times and yet I can be silly, but only occasionally. Reading this blog has reminded me, and given me an opportunity, to stay present especially when I am with my children, to not hold back, have fun and to bring this with consistency into my day.

183. Your blog got me thinking that I could not remember when my childhood got too serious and people started making comments like ‘cheer up it may never happen’ and I would scowl and think to myself, it already has – whatever it was.
     Now as an adult it is good to realise that it is ok to be playful and silly now and again, which is something that I have had to reintroduce into my life and still remind myself of from time to time.

184. Wanna play, Jacqueline? Yeah, let’s have fun! I can relate to: “most of my life had been serious – with having many responsibilities from a young age.” I often resented that I could not just ‘let it rip’ and have fun without any responsibility for other’s needs. But actually, no matter what age we are, we are always responsible for ourselves and what we do, as this affects others. Responsibility doesn’t need to have the fun sucked out of it though! It is true that it seems most adults are too serious and seem to have lost the ability to play with joyful innocence. When they do ‘play’, why is it so often actually self-harming or unloving in expression as a group (drunkenness, drug use, porn, food over-indulgence, competitive sports, derogatory behaviour towards other people who are different, etc.)? It doesn’t have to be this way, and I feel life could be much more joyful all around if there was a return to a true, loving understanding of play.

     1. “…. it seems most adults are too serious and seem to have lost the ability to play with joyful innocence”. It is so true Dianne, adults seem to make their fun complicated as in truth it is not.

     2. Yes I do wanna play Dianne, and I do want to have lots of fun! What jumped out at me in your comment was: ‘Responsibility doesn’t need to have the fun sucked out of it though!’ Oh, what a delight to read; the little girl in me is jumping for joy in the knowing that we can bring play-full-ness and joy-full-ness into everything we do,including all the responsiblites we hold…. it certainly turns the old belief on its head that to be responsible one must be very serious… and seriously now, that old belief is walking out the door!

185. Jacqueline, what a beautiful blog. I remember as a child being told to shuush up when the laughter got too much for my mum to bear, so sad, but then I did this too with my children because of my shut down. How wonderful to now have this awareness and to allow myself the freedom to be playful and indeed joyful once again 🙂

186. I can totally relate to the feeling of seriousness, I too have at times forgotten how to be playful and have fun, tending to choose to be in serious one on one deep conversations rather than having a playful moment. Thank you for the reminder to play more often. I now give myself permission to be a bit silly and let go of some of that seriousness.

     1. I too, Mary, sometimes need a little reminder that whatever it is I am doing, I can be playful doing it, and that it’s just a matter of choice to choose the quality I wish to express in in every moment: seriousness or playfulness… complication or simplicity…to let go or to stay in my hurts…to choose connection or separation… to choose the real meaning of love or the false emotional/romantic love… and I find that having the awareness of choice supports me in my choice of keeping life very simple.

187. Jacqueline – there is so much I can relate to in your blog. I learnt to be a serious child and I still struggle to be light and playful. I am especially inspired by your comment “Simplicity has removed the dark shadow of seriousness that I walked around in for a very long time.” There is a lot here for me to reflect on. Thank you.

188. I love that you have opened up a conversation on a subject that affects so many of us Jacqueline. As children, fun and playfulness is our living way. It is unnatural for us to be but this….and yet so many of us lose this natural ability to extract joy from the simplest of life’s moments.

     As someone who works with children, this blog has led me to question the part we as adults play in this process of outing playfulness and ushering in seriousness. What I frequently observe is the way in which a child’s joy and playfulness is only accepted to the point at which it challenges an adult. When an adult is uncomfortable with a child’s freedom of expression, when they don’t feel they can allow the playfulness in full for fear of the child not fitting into their agenda at the time (whether this be measuring up to an ideal of how a ‘good child’ should be or simply needing to get through a set program or routine) children receive the message that their joy and playfulness will not be accepted.

     A child can shake this message off the first few times, but after a while it begins to chip away at them and they start to change so they don’t need to receive the message that the way they are is not ok. Jacqueline described this beautifully when she referred to not feeling safe to express the real her…because every time we send a child the message that they are not welcome to express, we are actually telling them that it is not safe to be themselves in full.

     1. Beautifully shared Kate; your observations are spot on. Jacqueline’s blog has brought my attention to my lack of playfulness and I can feel it is related to being shutdown as a child and adult. Time to ‘keep it simple’, connect to the ‘natural living way’ of ‘now’, and take responsibility to express in full!

     2. Spot on Kate. Brilliantly expressed and so true. I can definitely relate to this.

     3. ‘Because every time we send a child the message that they are not welcome to express, we are actually telling them that it is not safe to be themselves in full’. It is also possible that we are silently telling the child that it hurts too much to see them (the child) in all their joy and fullness because we (the parents) are not choosing that for ourselves; thus the light that childern naturally emanate can be too bright for many parents.

189. Such a touching and inspiring account of your journey back to your natural playfulness. I also suffer at times from the ‘serious disease’ and it always feel so freeing to choose instead my natural way of joy and silliness. It’s actually a good marker that I’m not living in the present as my seriousness tends to be there when I’m thinking ahead or am living in the past….So thank you for the reminder!

190. Priceless. Jacqueline, I love your description of “the dark shadow of seriousness”, and can relate… Things that occurred in my own childhood also left me quite serious and somewhat shut down for many years. I realised later on, that this was from my need for everything to be ok, and how I’d become more of a ‘thinker’, rather than my natural very playful self, in order to constantly assess what went on around me.
     Here’s to reigniting the playfulness within us all, allowing ourselves to trust the flow of life, and yes, actually having fun! Am so with you on this journey 🙂

     1. It feels to me that playfulness/lightness go hand in hand with trust in the flow of life, everything always being in divine order.

     2. I agree Victoria, being in our natural state of playfulness certainly supports in allowing ourselves to trust the flow of life. Trust feels important, to trust oneself, for then there is no longer a need to control things, which creates space just to allow all to unfold as it should…. which keeps life super simple….and I like simple!

        1. Beautiful Jacqueline, yes. Trust in oneself, and trust in LIFE… Today I also trust deeply the support that is ever there for me, a support that inherently holds immense love and real, experienced and consistent joy!
           I saw a photo this week of a tiny boat (with some people inside), underneath which was an ENORMOUS whale, belly up, just resting there, and I felt this same depth of the enormity of love that is there for us all, underlying EVERYTHING. Not to ever be forgotten, and most definitely to play in its light, to express our innate selves in full.

191. Isn’t it the easiest thing in the world to become defensive when a trait is pointed out to us? Especially one that really makes us take stock of how we are in life.
     When I stop defending, and feel what lies underneath the wall of defence, I discover pearls – the sadness, the yearning for connection, and underneath all of that the child who is naturally at play with life.
     The beauty of this blog for me is that I can relate to every word. As I was reading I could feel what I was like as a little girl…when it was always time to play. A very wise child 🙂 whose attitude I welcome back with open arms.

192. It’s so lovely to re-connect to that joyful child within ourselves, what a lovely blog you’ve written, reminding everyone that life can be playful and light with that simple choice to re-connect. Thank you!

193. Great reminder, and a reminder to all; playfulness is NATURAL, and it’s not natural to be not joyful.

194. Thank you Jacqueline for your playful reminder to have fun – I too tend to become serious, way too serious at times, and if I can stay aware enough then I get to realise that being serious often goes hand in hand with not being with myself in tenderness. How simple that is then to remedy! Kids have a natural way of breaking this seriousness and I can truly cherish the way that my son helps me keep in the awe of the world and stay playful and have fun. Thank goodess for his lightness and presence which is there to reflect the joy and playfulness within me too!

     1. Yes, children do have a natural, effortless way of breaking seriousness because children are natural playful beings and show/teach me so much through this playfullness. I have the pleasure and the joy to be around their beautiful essence every day at my work… thus they are a great reflection and reminder for me if I dip back into seriousness.

     2. I like how simple it can be too and how you have found that for you it is when you specifically are not being with yourself in tenderness. It makes me think perhaps we do not need to reminded to be playful but to feel what else we might be caught up in when we notice we have become serious. How great to have this posting to consider and bring awareness to seriousness and play. For me the lightness of being and playfulness is a natural and lovely part of being more with and of myself.

195. Playfulness is a simple way of sharing our joy…. it can be difficult to be joyful when we become so serious about life….seriousness and playfulness do not mix!

196. Having my daughter has shown me how stuck I have been in the safety of seriousness. She loves to be chased around the bedroom at night and to giggle playing silly games like ‘roast chicken’ or ‘spider and fly’ that we have made up. It is so good for me to let go in these moments, knowing that there is time in the schedule for playtime together. I am sure that these are the moments she most cherishes with me. I can see more light in my face and eyes as a result! And as you share Jacqueline, playfulness is sharing of yourself and trusting in that.

197. Jacqueline, your words have reminded me of when as a little girl there were moments when I would express in the absolute joy of who I truly was. When I feel this little girl her essence is sweet, play-full, giggle-ly, and de-lightfull. Like you I too shut this down and withdrew back into the shadows. As I come to feel this essence once again through the love and support from Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine practitioners I am stepping back out of the shadows playing more with life also. Each day now has more fun in it and I can laugh more at, and with, myself and others.

     1. It’s gorgeous to read Liz the little girl in you is coming out to play and to express the sweet, playfull, giggle-ly part that all sweet little girls have. It has been lovely for me to re-connect to this part of me and like you I find I laugh more, at and with myself and others and that is pure de-light-full…

198. Thank you for this great sharing about having true fun. I always considered my life as full of fun, but it was basically related to partying, doing silly things and laughing basically around drinking lots of alcohol and taking drugs. Today I have a daily playfulness and my life is much more filled with joy and I am not looking anymore for those more extreme moments of fun, because everything in life is fulfilling. The laughter with friends does not weigh more than the laughter with work colleagues or clients, participants of a workshop or the person at the shop next door.

199. I often ponder why I get so serious and intense and feel I no longer have the natural ability to just be playful. Of course, as you describe Jacqueline, there are many reasons why we have blocked out what came easily to us as children, and they have to be named and cleared first before we can reconnect. Thank you for the reminder; it is no use “trying”, that is very false, but to remember to say “Now what is stopping me from being playful here, what is going on?” can open up the way to that beautiful connection we had as children.

200. I have been living very serious for a long time as well and reading your blog I can see how much more playful and light I live now. I remember sometimes people commenting on me being so serious in the past and I always felt very defensive, I can feel that came from what I could sense was true but did not allow myself to be playful and have fun because I had the constant feeling that I did not deserve that because I had done something wrong (whatever that might have been…). I am now letting go of that ingrained feeling of not deserving to have fun in my life and just bursting out with joy at times of how playful I am and how much fun I can have with life and others. Thank you Jacqueline it is definitely time to play.

201. I agree. Being so serious is exhausting and not our natural way to be. It’s a good indicator that we are ‘trying’ to be something – better at work, a better parent or whatever.

202. “Simplicity has removed the dark shadow of seriousness that I walked around in for a very long time.” I like that and I can confirm this – as soon as complications are there life becomes dragging and no fun at all. It is our responsibility to not allow complications into our lives and it takes responsibility to create and to hold simplicity, but it is so much more fun and worth a change. Great sharing!

203. We can all take life a little to serious at times and forget to have fun and be playful along the way

204. Indeed, having “playfulness” in life is so fun and it definitely helps me a lot to “understand” others (in my case). Thank you Jacqueline for writing this.

205. Oh Jaqueline, reading this blog tonight has been so timely for me. I too have recently chosen to be more playful. A friend of mine and I have recently put ourselves on a playfulness program.

     1. Hi Heidi, what a lovely idea; a playfulness program, maybe something for me too because I can be so busy these days, I forget to be playful…

206. Yes, even if we have allowed life to get heavy on our shoulders, we still have this very playful and silly nature, remembering that and letting go of the past, moving forward with a fresh start everyday is what can help me re-connect to that laughter and joy. Time to play!!!

207. I can totally relate to that feeling of “something inside me” pulling me to be playful, to laugh out loud, to enjoy and be silly (as I used to be). I also have become too serious, and I also have a very playful nature that is needing to come out, but life disappointments and issues have shadowed that natural childlike essence that I am needing to re-connect to. Moving on and having a fresh start leaving the weight of the past behind is a great way to re-connect with that joy. Much needed. Thanks for putting in words what I have been feeling.

208. Thank you for sharing such a simple message to what I have in the past perceived to be (or led to believe) was something beyond me or something long gone. Playfulness is a part of me, there is no ‘me’ and ‘playfulness’ being separate where I have to ‘be me’ before I can work on being playful. What I understand is that if I just connect I get both at the same time, no effort required.

209. I can really relate to what you have written here Jacqueline as I too lost my playfulness and sense of fun sometime in my childhood – probably at high school when it all got suddenly very important and serious! What I feel is challenging is honouring my responsibilities as a mature adult and a parent but still keeping it fun and light. I agree that simplicity is an important part of achieving this balance.

210. Great how you describe that living in the shadow is on one hand ‘safe’ and on the other hand serious in a boring way. To close down, to give up, to hide in the shadow – it has a price… And there will come the time where we all are no longer willing to pay this price anymore. Great to know that we are able to come back to playfulness and joy. Thank you also, for explaining a first step back to real joy: simplicity.

211. Yes, it is time to play, it is time to bring the enormous joy we all have inside back out to join us in our life again. We all need this as there is so much lightness that is initiated through expressing this joy and this cuts through any heaviness we feel. Life therefore becomes more naturally light and playful. A healing that is felt by all.

212. I know the seriousness affliction pretty well Jacqueline. When I’m busy I tend to automatically go into serious mode. Thing is I’m busy the vast majority of the time these days so I ask does that mean I need to be serious all of that time? When I’m busy I can make things more complicated which leads me to become even more serious because of an underlaying pattern that has me believe to get through all my work I need to be serious. This is a a heavy illusion – The fact is I can and do get more done when I keep it light, simple and playful.

213. Thanks Jacqueline, having fun is really good therapy.

214. I so agree Jacqueline, it’s time to play as being serious is no fun.

215. so cute : )
     I definitely can get too serious sometimes when my perfectionism comes in and I always love a reminder to keep things light, simple and fun – these qualities can be brought into our everyday activities

216. I can feel that for myself, this condition of seriousness is a very big identification and something I got recognition for in the past; somewhere I still harbour this notion that being play-full means that I am a lightweight.

217. I giggled at the thought of needing a workshop or course on how to have fun and be playful again, being serious is so over-rated!!

     1. This made me giggle too – but also because it is something I would do! I felt a bit uncomfortable reading this as it highlighted for me how serious I have been. I hadn’t connected to that also stemming from a shut down in childhood, I was still in the space of thinking it was just who I am.

218. Thank you Jacqueline for this beautiful blog. It is so beautiful to see and feel the joy that you radiate.
     It is so beautiful to feel that all those magical feelings and the wonderment from our childhood are still with us, even though we might have thought they were lost forever. Connecting to this once again is such an amazing process.

219. Nothing is ever really lost to us, it is just waiting to be reconnected to. The fun and lightness that we are, and always have been, emerges and becomes part of our daily life as we deepen our connection to the truth of ourselves, a truth (love, joy, fun, lightness and laughter) that was naturally expressed as young children. This natural expression can be subdued as we grow through life’s sometimes harsh experiences. I too have spent a great deal of my life being serious, and only in the last couple of years have I started to tap into, and appreciate, the light-hearted fun and playfulness within me.

220. It’s funny how we can make life so serious when it doesn’t need to be, thanks for the reminder.

221. I loved the way you described how playfulness comes from simplicity and humility, Jacqueline. You were prepared to look at where the serious way of being began, and to work through the sadness and resistance, and with that honesty you were able to feel safe to be playful again. Very inspiring!

222. We need the balance in life don’t we? “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” couldn’t be truer. I love your beautiful and powerful words, “It all feels a little scary, after years living in the shadow, yet something from inside pulls me to walk out of the shadow and walk in my own light and joy.”

223. A timely reminder that we all still need to have some fun and be playful every day!

224. Jacqueline, great reminder to be playful and how playfulness is a way of simplicity.

225. Thank you Jacqueline for this touching post. And I agree and can relate also that often our sense of lightness or fun is clouded by poor experiences of the past that mean we end up not only taking life seriously, but also actually looking the serious part too, or being aloof. It is joy to let this cloud go and allow the natural lightness of us shine through.

226. Thank you Jacqueline, such a lovely reminder to bring play into everyday life and to keep things simple.

227. Awesome Blog,
     I am reminded a lot to keep things simple. Too easy it is for us to make life complicated and serious. There’s not fun in that. Letting things flow, living simply and having fun, now that’s living!

228. I agree it is time for lots of fun and playfulness, just like we had when we felt free to as children.

229. Hi Jacqueline, thanks for the great reminder of how complexity can weigh us down with those serious thoughts, while simplicity frees us of those thoughts and takes us back to the playfulness of childhood.

230. Thanks Jacqueline. Indeed it is time to play! When I am with all of me, I love being playful. So many years have been spent with my head down, and somewhere else rather than right here right now. My body felt like an onerous burden, full of pain and suffering. Now my body (most of the time) feels light and ready to fly!

231. Amazing blog Jacqueline, I can so relate to what you say about shutting down already in childhood, and somewhere along the way forgetting how to have fun. As a grown up (actually already early teenages) my idea of having fun was usually without exception related to drinking alcohol. Utterly crazy, and thankfully I eventually realised it was not too late to turn my life around. And yes, having fun, no matter what age, is most definitely a natural part of our expression.

232. “Simplicity has removed the dark shadow of seriousness that I walked around in for a very long time.” That is a wonderful observation Jacqueline. Whenever I find myself in seriousness (which has been quite often) I get to see that it is because I have complicated things. It is so true, simplicity makes room for playfulness and lightness and fun! Great writing thank you.

233. Yes, taking on the responsibilities of life, never meant we should be serious. Playful is such a wonderful communicator in business with family and really anywhere. Playful does not mean immature, playful is expressing the joy of the moment with another.

     1. “Playful is expressing the joy of the moment with another” – I love this, Gail. This takes away any association with any specific activities to ‘play’ or to ‘have fun’.

234. While there is nothing wrong with seriousness when needed, when it gets stuck and goes on for hours, days, weeks, months or years even, the alarm bells should be raised. Something just isn’t right.

235. Thank you for sharing your experience Jacqueline. It is so clear to me that it is not natural for any of us to be serious. When you consider how many of us are serious all day every day it is obvious something is terribly wrong. How many people are on their death bed wishing they were more serious? Honestly, we all know that playfulness is as natural as it gets. What a great reminder to be playful this blog is.

236. A lovely blog Jacqueline. I love how you say to keep things simple and to live a simple life everyday…I too had a tendency (and still do at times) to take life too seriously and when I’m just being myself, I keep things light and playful very naturally…which is great for me and everyone around me.

237. Jacqueline, you have a beautiful friend to give you the gift of a card in appreciation of you and with the invitation to allow the laughter and light back into your life. I could feel the seriousness lifting as I read through your article and it is a reminder to me to stay light and have fun and not take myself or my life too seriously.

238. Jacqueline, that was a beautiful blog. What was once hidden can be reclaimed. A good reminder that life can be fun and light.

239. Its so easy to get lost in the seriousness of life and everything I have to do, I use it as a distraction of feeling how remote I sometimes am from the real me. But I can more and more take everything less hard or difficult, and enjoy my beautiful playful self!

240. I can relate to the safety in the ‘responsibility’ of seriousness, thank you Jacqueline.

241. When I read this I get a lovely feeling of trusting the inner-child who knows how to play and come out to express our joy and magic. Thank you for your beauty-full blog.

     1. Yes – and let the child out! I am feeling the same – remembering that joyful, bouncing delightful little human being I was as a child – and she is still in there wanting to play ! Thank you for the reminder –

242. Thanks, Jacqueline, this is really inspiring, especially how you have found a way that “supports me to see that it is safe for me to reconnect to that part that I blanked out”. I can appreciate the freedom you now have of feeling it is safe to come out and play.

243. Dear Jacqueline, you were actually the first Universal Medicine Student I met on the morning of my first course with Serge Benhayon. And we burst into tears laughing and having fun about such simple things that were just there. How great to read this blog now and to witness, how this spark in you spreads more and more in your daily life.

     1. Ah Felix, such fond memories, I am already smiling. I do remember sitting having breakfast with you with the conversation being very light, and then next moment we burst into so much laughter over some thing that was really simple even silly…. two small children having fun… Thank you for that lovely reminder Felix, I am going to take that feeling of fun and lightness into my day.

244. Reading your blog Jacqueline, I became aware of how seriousness can creep in like a “thief in the night” and steal our playfulness. But to retrieve it we just need to re-connect to it, start to love again and be willing to let go of our shield or emblem of seriousness and why it was chosen in the first place.

245. Jacqueline,
     what a great reminder of the importance of being playful ,and how for many of us over time shutting down ourselves and love has led to being serious, so for me the more i learn to love and accept myself the more joy I can let out – being playful instead of painful. 🙂

246. I was extremely playful upto my early 30’s then life became serious when we started a business and a family. It is as though there is a rule that to be a responsible adult means you are not allowed to be playful, and that there is no time to play. But as you say if we choose to connect, every moment of the day can be playful…… I’m ready to come out and play!

247. This blog is a great reminder to me that we never need to lose our playfulness as we get older as I quite often feel, I used to be so much more playful when I was younger therefore think we should have had our daughter earlier so I could play with her a lot easier. This I now know to be complete nonsense.

248. Thank you Jacqueline and I can feel your natural playfulness in your writing and also during the times I have spent with you. It’s all there inside us all… if we but reconnect and allow it – simple 🙂

249. Jacqueline,
     Wonderful to read your sharing about play and joy…
     I am discovering more and more that as I let go of the many ways I have tried to keep me in/hidden, the more I can feel this inner joy which wants to express out in play. It never leaves us but when we do things to not be who we are we can forget how to play; because we then can’t feel our Joy/Love! It is beautiful to have more access to this truth through my own process of coming home to me!

250. It is great that your friend saw the playfulness in you leading her to write that in your card. From experience up I have learnt that whatever our past we can always let our light shine and be the magic, playfulness and joy we really are and have fun. I trust you are finding this more and more for yourself .. in every moment .. expressing your natural joy and beauty.

251. Life should not be taken too seriously – but I have been known to fall into that trap. I love how you are starting to bring back more fun, appreciation and a lightness. It is all part of not holding back and accepting where we are at 🙂

252. Hi Jacqueline, your blog made me ponder….I, too became a very serious child and it wasn’t until I turned 12 or so that some inner silliness began to re-emerge in very expressive and sometimes overly dramatic ways. It was like I was counter balancing the confusion I felt, which led to my seriousness, when things began to go somewhat pear-shaped in my family. My naturally playful nature would only appear around younger children and it makes me wonder what it was about 2-3 year olds that made me feel safe enough to express my innate playfulness? Was I this young myself when I last naturally expressed?! More to ponder upon here, but lightly and simply as you suggest.

253. Beautiful and insightful blog and as the comments reflect, we all can relate to the disconnection to our playfulness to a lesser or greater degree. As you share, simplicity is such a powerful foundation to reconnect to it.

254. Great blog Jacqueline, thank you. I think you hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph when you say, ‘sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life’. Having lived most of my life not sharing ‘me’ and holding back, when I don’t hold back, the feeling I get inside of me is one of joy. Knowing I have expressed the ‘real me’ is very joyful which in turn makes it fun.

     1. ‘Having lived most of my life not sharing ‘me’, and holding back, when I don’t hold back, the feeling I get inside of me is one of joy’. I agree Tim, and for me it is still a work in process of not holding my expression back as it was an ingrained habit for so long, and like you when I express the ‘real me’, my body expands and I want to play and have fun with everyone… (having spent too long in seriousness).

255. I can so relate to this Jacqueline and I am sure many others can too. I remember when I first acknowledged that I missed the fun of my childhood, I looked to see what courses I could go on to ‘learn’ to be fun and even looked into clowning! I bought lots of board games, which just stayed in my cupboard – but now I know that true fun and joy comes from being me. It’s in sharing what I feel, in expressing from my heart and enjoying the dulcet tones of my voice and the ability we all have to just laugh at the serious stuff and the not so serious stuff. Fun is just living life with Joy!

     1. Dear Shevon, I laughed reading your comment especially the part that you also looked into courses to ‘learn’ to be fun and even looked into clowning. Where does that thought come from anyway, to want to learn to have fun, when playful and joyousness is something we are born with. But as you captured; ‘fun is just living life with joy’. Thank you Shevon.

        1. What a great question Jacqueline – where does that thought come from that if we are missing fun and joy in our lives that the ‘answer’ is to seek it outside of ourselves with someone telling us how to BE fun. Knowing that joy is a natural expression that we are born with, as you say, the other seems ludicrous.

256. I love this Jacqueline, ‘It is time to be seen. It is Time To Play and have some fun.’ Reading your article I can feel how serious I can be, I have a young son who is so silly and playful and I can really resist this playfulness, feeling that playing can be a chore because I need to get things done, but when I do make time to play and am not thinking about all the things I have to do, it feels so lovely and spacious and fun.

257. Very beautifully expressed Jacqueline. I have long noticed that being too serious doesn’t actually help situations but if we add the simplicity and playfulness ingredients life becomes lighter as if by magic.

258. My daughter has shown me how serious I can be at times, as she is naturally so silly and playful. It’s a constant reminder to not make a big deal out of little things too, but to keep things light. Also, through living a more simple life, it feels great to not need all the forms of entertainment and distraction that I used to need to numb the pain of missing me. To others it may seem like a boring life, but to me I feel totally content.

259. Thank you Jacqueline, I think we sometimes feel that to be adult and ‘responsible’
     we have to convey a sort of seriousness, and as a result we can become sort of ‘stuffy’.
     As you say, the fun, the laughter and the playfulness are important too!

260. Its wonderful how a comment made to us by a friend, relation or work colleague, or anyone come to that can be such a gift to us and our relation with ourselves and thus life. “Don’t forget to have fun.”
     Thank you for taking time to ponder on this and then share your story. Simplicity, humility and sharing from your heart, all of you.
     Yes, when I am connected in this way, I can feel the magic of life all around too, and playfullness and joy come easily.

     1. Yes, it is magic isn’t it, Elaine? And allowing ourselves to be ‘pulled up’ by the words of others instead of wallowing in self-pity or defiance has in my experience, opened me up no end….It reminds me of something I heard a long time ago that continues to pull me up to this day: “If you are not laughing then something is wrong!” There is a whole other level of awareness which allows us to feel the joy in all things – which is not to say we laugh at people but the situations we get ourselves into that seem so serious and complicated. It is all of our own doing and when I accept responsibility for this, I can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

261. Having not practiced being play-full for so long has been a serious drain on me (pun intended). Lately I have felt this seriousness to be more and more unnatural and the more I just allow me to be me, there is a feeling of lightness.

262. Gorgeous simple playful blog, thank you Jacqueline. I love it, and I so know what you mean, it’s so important to shake that seriousness and reconnect to the playfulness that is there and to go forth and feel the magic as Kevin expressed, lovely.

263. Hi Jacqueline, such a gorgeous piece, I can really relate to all that seriousness of trying to get life done. And where do we go with that? What is left? I completely agree with you about returning to simple humble living, and I too am finding that it is full of joy, if I just allow it to be.

     1. I agree Shami, I feel myself returning more and more to simplicity and humbleness. I feel more spacious and more joyful as a result.

264. Lovely, I felt the playfulness in your blog. It was an honour to share with you as you describe the process toward playfulness. Also there was a great learning for me as a friend because you were open to it and chose not to get defensive. These moments of opportunity are everywhere. Thank you for sharing a wonderful moment with us.

265. Beautiful just beautiful

266. This is beautiful Jacqueline, it feels like you have let go of so much and begun to really know and express your exquisite essence and beauty…. I just felt my body melt.

267. Another simple and great blog from you Jacqueline, you are so playful naturally from what I can gather from reading your blogs that it is a surprise to hear that playfulness is something you shut down for so long. What this tells me is how simple things are when we reconnect and its not a 12 week course in how to be playful but just relax, reconnect and be you. Very inspiring!

     1. I agree with you Vanessa, we are all naturally playful and don’t need a 12 week course, but it does require a willingness to look at yourself, take responsibility for your choices and let go of your hurts. For me it started with myself to really allow the feeling I am actually a ‘playful puppy who dances through life and wants to connect and have fun’.

268. Thank you Jacqueline for showing that choices made in the past can be changed. We never lose our playfulness but we are conditioned that playfullness is not acceptable and to ‘grow up’. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up… and I have retired twice.

269. Jacqueline, I relate to much of what you say in this blog. I too was a single parent and felt determined that I was not going to let that disadvantage my children. Long after my children had grown I continued with that seriousness, as it had become a way of being for me. With the loving support of my very playful husband and the teachings of Universal Medicine I have also been able to reclaim that playfulness. Thanks for sharing your story.

270. Definitely an awesome reminder. Thank you Jacqueline.

271. Wow, Jacqueline, the way you write about your relationship (or rather lack of it) with your childhood, how you closed down your ‘child’hood part and your playfulness, I can relate so much with you. Similarly the joy of regaining it and the deep appreciation to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for the support to do so. Thank you for sharing. Your portrayal of your unfoldment is very beautifully expressed.

     1. Yes Jonathan I share that feeling of joy I now have from regaining my playfulness that was lost to me for so many years.

272. I love the way even the smallest, simple things in life can be joyful. Life can get too serious at times but with the magic of signs everywhere, it can also be playful. Thank you for the reminder, Jacqueline.

     1. I agree Julie there is joyfull-ness in everyday life and it comes with appreciation in the smallest and simplest things.

273. That’s a beautiful reminder Jacqueline. Playfulness really brings us back to ourselves. It’s our natural state of being.

274. Lovely Jaqueline. I love how you bring it back to simplicity. I have begun to really feel how enjoying the simple things in life brings back magic and joy to life and then playfulness is never too far behind.

275. Thanks Jacqueline, I think we all take things a bit seriously at times and it is great to see you come out of yours. I swear by simplicity, go forth and feel the magic.

     1. “Go forth and feel the magic” I love it.. very play-full Kev!

     2. I love this Kev. Simplicity is magic and life becomes so much fun when we allow ourselves to feel this. Gorgeous. The simplicity and innocence of childhood all over again.

276. Thank you Jacqueline for sharing a lovely unfolding of your return to the natural silly inside. I relate to lots that’s been expressed and it seems like when there are commitments in life that I think have to be taken ‘seriously’ I then become serious as well as heavy in my body. The flow and lightness disappears so then I have no ability to be playful. So this is a great reminder of what can be – “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, this is how I can feel the magic of life all around me and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day.” 🙂

277. I have been doing a lot of healing with the support of Universal Medicine. It has been life changing for me. I am asking for more joy in my life as I have taken life too seriously in the past. Thank you for your insights on remembering our childhoods. I have looked outside of myself, all my life, now it is time to look inside.

     1. I have always looked and searched outside of myself hoping to find the answer ‘out there’, but never did, this only served in going round and round in circles, but never forward. Like you Ken, I have cleared and healed so much with the support of Serge
        Benhayon and Universal Medicine and now live with the understanding that life truly is a celebration…

278. A great lesson for everyone here, it’s so easy to lose that innocent childhood playfulness, but it’s still all inside. Thank you for the reminder….

279. So lovely to hear your sharing of finding your way back to playfulness Jacqueline. The simplicity you present is beautiful. I love this quote. Thank you.

     “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day.”

     1. I also love that quote Beverley. I have had the tendency in the past to complicate life and see it all as a burden with only small moment of fun in between. Jacqueline’s blog has reminded me that having fun and being playful is part of living life to the full.

     2. I absolutely love that quote too – what an amazing way to live life.

        1. Yes, me too – it’s really beautiful.

280. Great Jacqueline!

281. Thanks for sharing your experience Jacqueline. It’s interesting how easily we buy into the seriousness of the world as we get older and take on serious matters like going to university, chasing careers or other dreams and even more serious commitments like getting married and/or having children! Even if one has enjoyed a reasonably stable childhood, these hooks are ready and waiting to catch another person in the net of ‘seriousness’. I took the bait on most of these examples and lost myself in the process. Having two boys assisted with sharing many light and playful moments but they were only temporary. Deeper within myself I knew there had to be a way to re-connect with the magic of living in the moment and playing whenever I felt too, as I did naturally as a small child. Like you I have been drawn from the shadows back to the light through choosing to re-connect with living life with simplicity, listening to my body and others, and nurturing myself through food choices that support me – together with a good dose of Honesty mixed in with Love, I too have found how to be playful in life again everyday. Totally identify with your paragraph “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day. It is time to be seen. It is Time To Play and have some fun.”

282. Thank you for you lovely insightful blog Jacqueline. I could really relate and had a little giggle when you said “something from inside pulls me to walk out of the shadow and walk in my own light and joy”… Oh how splendid :-). I feel that small sweet child I know so well, laugh and clap hands with pure delight. How could anyone resist joining you in all that glory… Sounds like lots of fun to me!

283. “Keeping life simple, and living a simple life each day, staying humble, and sharing from my heart, sharing all of me and not holding back is how I can play with life, is how I can feel the magic of life all around me, and is how I make playfulness ‘my way’ every single day”, sounds like a great recipe for enjoying one’s life and a beautiful and inspiring way to be true to oneself in each and every moment of the day as well.

     1. Thanks, Judith, I couldn’t agree more. These words are priceless, and it is beautiful to feel the lightness of being Jacqueline now experiences in her daily life.

284. Let’s play together Jacqueline, and celebrate the freedom playfull-ness brings.

285. Jacqueline, that was so lovely just making life simple…

     I had also lost that playfulness that had always been a part of my life. I love that you said “yet something from inside pulls me to walk out of the shadow and walk in my own light and joy”. That is Living life.

286. Jacqueline, I too became a very serious adult, quite hard and stern in my ways. I have found the play-fullness of myself naturally started to re-appear as I re-introduced tenderly treating myself with Love and understanding. With the support I offer myself, I open myself up to feeling comfortable and at home in my own skin – there is no need to put on a face and control outcomes, and life is more simple and fun.

287. We are naturally playful and loving beings, and yet sometimes we allow the seriousness of life to ‘stick’ to us a little longer than is necessary. Returning to the playfulness we knew naturally as children helps us shake the seriousness off.

     1. Well said Jacqueline and Sally – it’s funny how when I get serious now, I always smile and something silly pops into my head. Before meeting Serge Benhayon and attending Universal Medicine events – I was generally exhausted and fed up with life – not knowing how to be and very unsure of myself – this unsureness led to me trying to control situations, others etc. which brought with it a seriousness.

        However, over the years of studying with Universal Medicine, my confidence has grown, beyond words, I no longer (in large) try to present an image to the world, I do not mind how others take me so long as I am being loving with myself and with them. I also now see that we are all equal, the same inside no matter what face we may be presenting, knowing this and connecting from here with others always brings a smile. Yes there are times when serious important things needs to be done but that doesnt meant we need to tense up our bodies, we can still stay our natural playful selves.

        1. Beautiful blog Jacqueline, and I love the comments here James and Sally. Ooh I don’t need to tense my body when important things need doing, so true and something for me to play with some more.

        2. Just reading your comment Monica makes me smile and giggle – it’s so playful I love it!

        3. Well said James! I too, find that I can see the funny side, even when I find myself sliding into seriousness.

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