Many of us don’t have enough play in our lives. I am certainly guilty of this! It’s mainly being self-employed that does it for me – I find it hard to prioritise play!
Look after yourself first
I don’t skimp on spending time to look after my wellbeing – I take all the time necessary to shop for and cook fresh organic food to nourish myself, I spend 1-2 hours exercising most days, I am careful to ensure that I get enough good quality sleep and I keep my surroundings as toxin-free as possible. But I don’t prioritise doing stuff just for fun. If I make a commitment to catch up with friends then I will always stick to that but I rarely initiate catch-ups myself these days. I always make sure that I have some quality time with my kids – dinner time conversations, going to the footy, seeing movies we all want to see. But when I am left to my own devices I will spend every possible minute working! I am lucky because I do actually love what I do and am very passionate about it but I don’t love that I would feel somewhat guilty if I took a day off to go bushwalking or I spent the night just binge watching Netflix or taking an hour to have a bath.
Love Notes from the Universe
I began writing this piece and then got sidelined – for days – onto more pressing tasks and during that time the universe sent me 3 different sources of information about scheduling in downtime and fun to be a better version of myself.
Firstly I listened to an episode of Simplify podcast with scientist and novelist Alan Lightman extolling the virtues of ‘wasting’ time, or in his words having time that is unstructured and without a specific goal, especially if you can be unplugged from the constancy of internet connectivity for a while. Then I got a weekly email from Alexx Stuart of Low Tox Life suggesting that I might need to schedule myself into my calendar. In other words scheduling the unstructured time that Dr Lightman also recommended. Lastly, good old Facebook came up with the goods too when someone posted into a group that I’m a member of a suggestion to schedule each month with things such as lunch with friends, 24 hours digital detox, a day in the outdoors…seeing a theme here?!
Small Change
Anyway my life is about to change in pretty much all ways in about 2 weeks when I move house and begin splitting my time between two locations (one by the beach – yay!), my kids will no longer need to commute to school, I will no longer run my practice out of home…everything will be different and so perhaps adding in another new thing ie. scheduled fun, would really be pretty small in the scheme of things!
Fun Energy Centre
There are many different reasons why people like me don’t prioritise fun, and don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful for the flexibility that I do have in my life, but I suspect that a lot of us need to tap into and activate our 2ndChakra to get better at fun and being able to let go, even if it is only for a few hours each week.
What on earth is the 2ndChakra I hear you say? Well I’m so glad you asked! Chakras are the energy centres recognized by all traditional forms of medicine. There are 7 of them and they are each associated with different physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of being.
The second Chakra, also known as the sacral, or sexual, chakra is located in your pelvis, at the height of a few centimetres above your pubic bone and extending both to the front and the back. This chakra is all about creation. It is the energy centre associated with the reproductive system, as well as with creativity, passion, enjoying the good things in life. In other words it is the Fun Chakra!! It is also the energy centre most associated with partnerships and communication with others – ever noticed how we tend to have the most fun in the company of other members of our tribe??!
How to balance your 2nd Chakra
So what can you do to help to get your second chakra active and balanced? Well, the element of the 2ndChakra is water so all things water-related will be good – drink a lot of it, get into it – swimming, bathing – and be beside it – beach walks, river strolls, lake gazing.
The moon is also strongly associated with the 2ndchakra – the moon controls the tides, remember? So get yourself into moonlight too, if the time of month and the weather will oblige!
The colour of the second chakra is orange so having something orange in contact with your body could be beneficial. If, like me, you don’t like wearing orange then just keep something in your pocket or wear orange underwear!
Any physical activity that involves moving the pelvis is going to activate your second chakra too – walking, swimming, yoga, pilates, bike-riding. There are also crystals and essential oils that will be beneficial to the second chakra, but most important is to just get out there and have some fun!
This article was originally published on www.evenstarwellbeing.com