It’s Time To Micro-dose
With everything going on in the world right now and the impending Christmas pandemonium it’s easy to feel the weight of the world on our shoulders and to lose sight of fun.
Did you know that fun lowers cortisol levels, blood pressure and allows us to be more present and live more authentically?!
As we get older and spend more time adulting we spend less time, or even no time, in the cultivation of fun.
In the first year of the pandemic I realised I had lost sight of all of the things that helped connect me to fun. I had become obsessed with yoga, with teaching, with building my one-to-one business. I was also starting to feel like I had lost the essence of me.
I realised I needed to bring back into my life the things that really spark joy for me:
Dancing - spontaneously at home, at a club or festival or even learning choreographed sequences.
Dressing up - this is often also related to dancing too - who doesn’t love a good 80’s theme party right?
Being out in nature - swimming, surfing, running, cycling.
Being silly with friends. Connecting with those that allow my playful exuberant child to come out.
Being creative either colouring, making or baking something.
Swinging on swings, hand standing in the park.
And now skating!
Fun allows us to transcend our self critical mind, to expand our movement repertoire, to enhance neuroplasticity, and to find something new.
Kylie Rook Yoga having fun. Skating. Festivals. Dressups
In order to do this we need to seek out new or novel experiences or places. Learning something new, or being somewhere new, requires our full engagement taking us into present moment awareness which is another important aspect of fun.
When was the last time you tried something new or novel?
When was the last time you allowed yourself to suck at something?
When was the last time you felt truly free to be yourself?
We encourage our children to try new things, embrace challenge, make new friends, but how often do we do this adults?
When we step outside of our comfort zones and try something new it’s a chance for us to experience flow state, connection, playfulness and ultimately fun.
BUT we have to make space for it.
Just like self care, we need to allow time for pursuing our passions, interests and hobbies that enable us to connect to fun. They are essentially fun magnets.
What are your passions?
What truly lights you up?
I remember watching Bolero as a child and being obsessed with wanting to be like Torvill and Dean (I mean who didn’t if you grew up in the 80’s right?).
Starting skating as an adult took me straight back to that feeling I had as a child. It sparked pure joy in me. It’s challenging, it takes focus, playfulness and has allowed me to connect to a wide range of people, cultivating new friendships, sucking at something but then experiencing sheer delight when I achieve a new trick.
If you are not sure what might bring you fun, what interests or hobbies did you enjoy as a child? This can steer us in the direction of the things that will spark joy. Often the pressure of adulting made us give them up, perhaps even seeing them as a waste of time.
Connecting to those things that spark joy can also allow us to find our IKIGAI - our reason for being.
So how can you micro-dose on fun everyday?
Step one:- Create a list of the things that spark joy, light you up or that you have always wanted to do like learn to play the guitar, dance, sing, run, surf, crochet.
Step two:- Create a list of all of the things you enjoyed doing as a child. This could include the places you visited, the games you played, the things you ate or the stories you read.
Step three:- Create a list of the people that light you up, that spark joy or that you can have fun with and totally be yourself.
Step four:- Make a commitment to start doing something from these lists every week.
The more you allow fun into your life, the more you will experience gratitude, joy and connection.
This is one of the many practices in the library that allows you to connect to a sense of fun and flow.
So get out there and start micro-dosing on fun.
Books worth reading
The Artists Way - Julia Cameron