5 Things Happy People Do Every Day: Part 4 by Betsy Ringer

This blog series is focusing on five things happy people do every day. You’ll be glad to know you can CHOOSE to do these things!! If you missed the first three segments, visit our iBloom blog to catch up:
1. Find something to be grateful about.
2. Find your funny bone.
3. Let love ooze out of you.
4. Allow yourself to be playful; i.e. don’t take yourself so seriously.
5. Find something meaningful to do.

Allow yourself to be playful; i.e. don’t take yourself so seriously.

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato

Remember when you were young and in love? You were probably very playful! If you have young kids or grandkids you are probably playful with them. Does your playfulness show other times? Are you still playful with your spouse or do you just talk about things that need to be done? When was the last time you sang gleefully while doing housework or stopped by a lemonade stand?

My husband has a wonderful sense of humor. The things he says tickles my funny bone. They are actually kind of corny and I guess I could choose to just groan and go on. But instead I choose to be playful and allow myself to laugh until I get tears in my eyes. This has made a great impact on our kids over the years. Our boys, now young men, have often commented, “I hope my wife laughs at my jokes like that.”

One time a friend and I went to our church women’s retreat. Our husbands got to have some quality time with the kids. On the way home we stopped at a mall in another city. We were admiring all the prom dresses. Before we knew it, we scooped up a bunch of them and went into the bridal dressing room with a platform and tried on prom dresses. Yes, I was in my forties and she was in her thirties!! We laughed and had a great time. Then we went to the hat department and tried on hats and giggled again. Our next stop was the jewelry store. A clerk asked how he could help us. With a twinkle in my eye I said, “I’d like to try on the biggest diamond ring you have.” He knew we had escaped our normal routine and were looking for a thrill so he had a great time showing us lovely rings that I can only afford in my dreams!!

Life zooms by so quickly. Happy people renew their spirits by engaging in play. They cast aside, for a time, their to-do list and drink in the freedom that comes with dancing in the rain, swooping down a slide or picking wildflowers.

Oops! Gotta run. A goofy friend is outside! It’s a warm summer day and she’s here with the top down on her convertible. Going for a ride!!!

“Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.” Robert Fulghum

“Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesn’t taste good.”
Lucia Capacchione

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson


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