Day 17 self love

Day 17-don’t take everything so seriously! Ok wow! This has to be the best/toughest day for me! But stretch and challenge yourself in areas! I am a great believer that if something jars or feels uneasy, it definitely needs looking at! I live my life at such a pace everything feels important and therefore I struggle not to take things seriously. It’s something I’m working on-a work in progress-if you will?! Like singing I love it-but it’s so important to me I have found that if I’ve got an important audition/performance I’ll feel the need to take it so seriously I won’t have a drink for at least a week before, because it would be reckless to have a drink, or a late night, incase it ruins my performance. I have a tendency to spend too much time end-gaming and find that also helps me foresee any problems or potential pitfalls. Then I become almost over-eager to avoid them-by playing it safe. I realised in my playing it safe and taking things so seriously I was mainly being governed by fear and not love. And fear is a bit of a killer of fun! Then I realised I needed to play and be more childlike in my living, to truly experience life, rather than limit myself by continually spending time risk-assessing everything and preventatively acting accordingly. It wasn’t until I got a coach myself a few years ago that I even realised I was doing this. So now today the challenge is to be childlike-live with love in mind, obviously not recklessly, but with freedom from the fears that have sometimes kept me small. It’s like parents trying to wrap their children in cotton wool-they never get to experience life, the excitement and the freedoms. So here goes! What ways do you consciously, or perhaps even subconsciously hold yourself back? Allowing yourself to be governed by fear or by being too serious. In what ways can you healthily look at taking life less seriously and playing more? One of my favourite ways of playing is improvisation! I know this is some of my acting friends worst nightmares but I love the thrill of the unknown it gives and knowing that’s how it is supposed to be, makes it feel like a safe playground for me. I find it tough to play when I am considering consequences-which are often linked to the expectations of others. But I remember at drama school being told I was trying too hard to please my tutors and this wasn’t actually an interesting performance for them and had best feedback when I was just enjoying myself! Ironically it was the weeks I prepared for voice class they thought I needed to work harder and the weeks I didn’t bother doing any prep they said “see what hard work can do” so I believe sometimes for me-(when I know I can get in the way in my own head) less can definitely be more! So it’s best for me not to over think-instead to feel! Follow my heart and not my head! I think for this task I can play more in daily activities-I instantly imagine Mary Poppins singing “and then snap, the jobs a game” but how much more enjoyable would life be if we could live like that?? Where can you introduce more play to your life?