The art and necessity of Playfulness

Hello Sunshines,

Who doesn’t like feeling good, a sign of playfulness. Dancing silly is an act of playfulness. Getting lost in a painting is a playful mind in wonders. We also tease people we love as a smile and good laugh makes everything better.

Life is much easier with a cheerful attitude. You can walk the street in your thoughts looking at your feet or you can see little faces everywhere, admire the beauty of flowers, wonder about their perfect complexity, etc.

I entered painting through playfulness. First as a child, then explored oil painting young age, but my journey really started really around 2011 where I first started water color pencil drawing. There was a feeling of mischief and internal joy standing on my bed, drawing on the wall, and canvases started after moving houses where this wasn’t an option.

The most important elements for me are experimenting with tools and textures, get surprised by the results and pursue the exploration. Look around you and see what 10 tools you could leverage to paint. You’d be surprised by the possibilities as each tool has multiple ways of being used. See if you can make 5 different marks with each collected tools. As an example, a shower sponge, a hairbrush, a toothpick, a container, an incense stick, a piece of cardboard, textile, a toothbrush, explore other options. be curious, lighthearted by the result and willing to explore more. I also enjoy watching ink flow, doing its own thing within the pouring medium. Add more color, see what happens, maybe scrap some off to see what happens, move it.

One of the people I enjoy listening to for lightness on all topics is Sadhguru, an Indian yoga guru:

« Being playful always has been understood as irresponsibility ; the most responsible way to life is that you are playful with life ; It is an absolutely irresponsibility to carry a long face and walk on this planet with misery »

I love this so much. It isn’t always easy hence this is a good reminder to not be stuck into our own head too much, and be grateful, joyfully and playful for the better of all.

If you have 12mins, do watch his talk about Playfulness & Passion - It starts as below:

“When you are serious the world doesn’t exist for you, you and your nonsense. When you are serious it is just about you and your nonsense, the world and others lives do not exist for you ; Only when playful you can pay attention to everything. You can truly respond to everything in the world only if you’re playful, otherwise you cannot.

Science is telling you the whole world is just a dance of energy, it looks like the force that created this existence is always playful. Always in this culture has creation being describes as god’s play. The forces of creation are constantly at play, if they stop playing you are finished.

All the basic forces within the body itself they must be playing with full vigor, only then everything is nice; if they stop playing or refuse to play you are done. So playfulness not only in your attitude, this is the attitude of the creator, this is the attitude of the creation.

If you are in tuned with life, the creation, and the creator, being playful is very natural. […] “

Vulnerability

Hello Sunshines,

As I develop in age, I feel more confident about the path I wish to take. A path of creativity, happiness, connections. 

I have been absorbing so much content over the years around these and the human mind. Psychology, neurology, creative practices, dance, meditation, procrastination, goal setting, sustainable living, communities, to name a few. It fuels me and I believe each of you can benefit from these. 

Today, I’ll share about vulnerability, as sharing and writing isn’t something that comes easily to me. Perfectionists have a tendency to start tasks and let these slip, or at least I do. I delay kicking things off due to not feeling confident enough to deliver the perfect workshop, having the right voice projection, potentially deceiving people in delivery, but these are all barriers created my myself. 

Getting out there and sharing your knowledge is a duty some say. As for the delivery it will improve overtime. 

Some of the most amazing people out there, pursuing their dreams, have learned to live with being mediocre all the time:  whatever goal you set for yourself is achievable through small steps, and each of these steps may well require new skill sets ; so you are continuously improving and developing. Not letting these barriers stop you is primordial in developing.

I have increased the workshops i am undertaking for two reasons: learn from others and bless myself with leisure. Who doesn’t like dancing like no one is watching, sitting in circle over a cacao ceremony, feeling connected with others and within yourself, learning new things that are pleasurable or interesting to you.  For quite sometime now I believe my next path is to share my intuitive painting practice but feel terrified about the logistics of just doing it. The excuses and self doubts go from not having the space I envisioned, my shyness of public speaking, being self-thought and thinking everyone can just do it by themselves, some attempts that didn’t go to my envisioned plan (not even shared with the group prior), being unfamiliar with processes, feeling i can always do better and then I will be ready.

I am never going to be ready.  When I attend workshops I appreciate the human connection with that person, hearing them share their knowledge and somehow values. So why can’t I do the same ? The thing is I can. I now can as I have been planning towards expending my skills for some time, and while I keep wanting more I am in a position to give. 

Leaving space for errors will guide me to always be a better self.  You just have to turn up and let your learnings guide you. Make peace with any doubts, resentments, deceptions.

In my painting process I just turn up and let my curiosity and playfulness guide me.  For those of you wanting to create but feel vulnerable, know that there is not such a thing as screwing this up. The process is the benefit of intuitive art creation, whatever the final outcome. 

Brene Brown has spent decades studying the topics of courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and has meaningful and encouraging messages: 

Vulnerability is about courage ; the willingness to show up and to be seen even if there are no guarantees.

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change. 

Loving ourselves through the process of owning our story is the bravest thing we will ever do.