Have you ever noticed how play can shift your energy and give you a renewed perspective on life?
Without even thinking about it, laughter and play can help you reconnect with your inner child to heal old wounds. In doing so, it creates more space for more joy, love, and inner peace. In this blog, you’ll learn about five ways you can incorporate more play in everyday life to help heal your inner child and experience more joy.
Why Play is Important
There are a lot of experiences that can seem dry or mundane at times. Taking care of tasks and attending to your responsibilities isn’t always fun. When too much time passes without you feeling alive and energized, it can deplete your energy and make you feel drained.
Qi Gong is the practice of working skillfully with your internal energy to transform stagnant energy and boost your vitality. In fact, “Qi” refers to life-force energy and “Gong” means to work with.
While Qi Gong is an extremely powerful way to shift your energy, everything you do impacts your Qi in one way or another. In other words, you’re always doing the practice of Qi Gong whether you’re thinking about it or not.
When you engage in play, it can have a profound effect on your Qi. For starters, play helps remove blockages so your energy can flow more fluidly throughout your body. This makes it easier to release stagnant emotional patterns you’ve been holding onto. In doing so, you’re able to move past limiting beliefs, resentments, and feelings of self-doubt.
Additionally, play can help activate elevated emotional states, including joy, love, and self-acceptance. Play inspires you to find beauty in the world in places you may have otherwise overlooked. This makes play a wonderful tool for helping you relate to life from a place of excitement and inspiration.
Here are five ways to incorporate more play to heal your inner child and live a more rich and fulfilling life.
1. Choose Activities that Create Joy
It’s easy to choose activities based on what others are doing or what you think you “should” do. If you’re like most people, you can probably recall being in situations you didn’t enjoy because others expected you to be there.
While it might be difficult to only engage in activities you naturally feel drawn to, you can try to be intentional about which activities you choose.
Try to reflect on which activities lead to you feeling lighthearted and playful. Gardening, dancing, art, and music are just a few activities that can enhance your sense of play.
2. Play Games
Of course, playing games and engaging in sports is another wonderful way to activate play.
In general, playing games requires you to focus your attention on a specific activity. It helps integrate the energy within your being and strengthens your connection to self. This brings you more fully into the present moment and helps you let go of stress or anxiety.
Additionally, playing games with others helps create positive, shared experiences with those you care about. Not to mention, certain games often lead to lots of laughter, which further increases your sense of joy and well-being.
3. Spend Time With People Who Make You Feel Good
Have you noticed that some people just help you feel good?
People who make you laugh and smile can help you reconnect to your sense of play. Sometimes, these connections are based on a shared sense of humor or common interests. At other times, someone might make you feel good simply because they carry themselves with a certain quality of energy.
Reflect on the people in your life that help you connect with your sense of play and make you feel alive. Reach out to them and try to spend some time together on a regular basis.
4. Find Joy and Playfulness in Everyday Activities
There are a lot of different external circumstances that can help you feel more playful, but it’s important to look inward as well.
There are many different ways to approach your daily activities. When tasks and responsibilities are viewed as a burden or inconvenience, you’ll likely feel bored or depleted. If you can view them with more aliveness, on the other hand, you’ll feel a greater sense of peace and contentment.
When you’re able to be truly present and connected to everyday activities, you can even discover that there’s a sense of joy and play that exists in otherwise tedious circumstances. The more you’re able to excavate this feeling within yourself, the more you’ll be able to let go of old energy and embrace your present-moment experience.
5. Try Practicing Qi Gong
Qi Gong offers powerful tools to help you shift your perspective, release old wounds, and connect more deeply with your inner child.
Most Qi Gong routines start with activating exercises which awaken your internal energy. Then, they often progress to gentle stretches and flowing movements, which help open your energy pathways and circulate Qi. The practice helps balance and harmonize your energy, allowing you to tune into the qualities within yourself that you want to experience.
Qi Gong helps you learn how you direct your attention and intention in a more skillful way. This allows you to be more empowered to find playfulness and joy throughout all of your daily experiences.
If you’re interested in discovering how Qi Gong can help you embrace playfulness more fully in everyday life, be sure to check out our kids routine below.