Queerly Beloveds, we are gathered here today for some juicy conversations about all things spiritually queer and clearly spiritual. I'm Sylvia will gather rainbow, spiritual life coach retreat hosts with the most, and drag queens, and I'll be chatting with the most amazing folks are simply sharing some wisdom on my own. If you like what I'm serving, please remember to subscribe so we can keep hanging out. Alright, let's get super wound together in this spiritually queer a cosmic container Hello, beloved, I am Silvia will gather rainbow, and I'm back for another solo podcast episode. And in this one, I'm going to talk about playfulness, one of my favorite subjects. Or I could call this the path of play to awakening, because I'm not just going to talk about how much I love to play, I'm going to talk about playfulness from a spiritual and personal growth perspective. So for my listeners, for you all, and especially for folks who have worked with me or have come into my retreats, or who know me personally, you might be aware that I am a pretty playful guy. And that I am, I would say, a champion of play, I care about it so much. And I bring it into my work, I bring it into my relationships. I'm the type of guy who, if I'm at some party, and all the adults are standing around drinking cocktails, and mingling, and I see a group of kids doing something imaginative and creative and fun, I will go investigate. And if they're open to it, I will likely join their game for a bit. I'm the type of guy who creates opportunities in group settings for people to just tap into that playful energy, be it an invitation to introduce themselves in a more unique way, or to play a quick game to break the ice. I'm the type of guy who hosts a weekly improv group with my improv troupe at my house, this amazing group of adults who come together, and we just play once a week. And the reason I love play so much is because it has such power to bring that light hearted energy, that joyful energy, that levity that we are so missing in life. Play has this powerful capacity to shift energy, and to allow folks to tap into a more enthusiastic, more spirited state of mind. And what I love about play is in accessing that fun, we are tapping into our hearts in this really natural, organic way. And when we tap into our hearts, we are tapping into our real spirit into our souls desires, we are tapping into the pure core of our consciousness. Because our heart is where that truth lies. It's our head that gets us confused, and gets us acting in ways that we feel like we need to act in order to conform in order to be liked and not disliked. It's our hearts where our true essence lies. Another way to put it is play and the fun and joyful, loving energy that it helps us tap into connects us with our inner child. And the inner child, when we think about it is this part of ourselves that we were before society taught us how we should be, it is the most pure essence of our soul. And so I love play as an access point to that part of ourselves. And I will use play often. For those of you who have come to my retreats that are focused on opening our hearts, you will know that I serve the medicine of play quite a bit. And what I find is that play in tapping into our open heartedness so quickly and so easily helps us connect with each other. So not only does play connect us with our hearts, and in so doing connects us with our true essence. But it also really breaks down all the barriers all the walls that we put up to separate ourselves and protect ourselves. It breaks those down so easy easily and effortlessly. And so it is a great medicine for bringing people into that heart centered connection. So in my retreats, I'll often go between some of the more challenging, you know, darker, scarier conversations, and then into a playful exercise to help folks move between those energies, and not get stuck in the dark, heavier energies. And I will say that, as beautiful and high vibe, as I'm describing all this play can also be a real growth edge for people, it can be a uncomfortable energy to step into, especially for those of us who have been conditioned to believe and still hold on to the belief that as adults play is not something that we should be doing, that we should be serious. I see this quite a bit with men who are trying their best to hold on to this masculine archetype. And within that archetype is this idea that men should be stoic and serious all the time. And so tapping into that playful energy threatens that. And for those of you who find playfulness, uncomfortable and see it as a growth edge, those are the folks who needed the most. And those are the folks that I love to play with the most. And to see them break through those barriers, those parts of themselves that are resisting, tapping in to this more free spirited energy that wants to move through them resisting perhaps because the person is afraid to look foolish, or to not look cool. And yet, there is something that wants to move that wants to change that wants to tap into the freedom that comes on the other side of letting go of that, and being playful and having fun and experiencing that playful joy. And so one of the things that I've found helpful when working with someone who seems a little resistant to that playful energy, or for folks who are interested in tapping more into playfulness, but don't know how to do that. One of the things I found helpful is identifying their play language. And this is a concept that I've just been playing with, which is similar to the love languages, right. So I'm sure many of you have heard of the love languages, which is essentially our preferences for how we give and receive love. So some examples of that are words of affirmation. So if that's my love language, then I love it when people are telling me how beautiful I am. Or I might like to receive words of affirmations. But the way I like to give love my love language for giving might be physical touch. So the way I like to show love is by touching my partner and caressing that, right. So identifying our love languages, our preferences for giving and receiving love can help us access, love and understand how we are with that energy more.
So similarly, I've been playing with the idea of play languages. And essentially, it's access points to that playful energy that people prefer and that feel more natural to people. And so just to give you an idea of some of them, I've identified creative play as a play language. So that's the type of play where people are maybe doing like improv theater and they're creating on the spot. Or maybe they're creating art, like playing in the visual arts, or perhaps creating music together. Like when a band gets together and jams out that's a form of play. Then another one is physical play. And that would be someone who loves ecstatic dance, or perhaps they are able to tap into their playful energy in the bedroom, right sexually in their intimate relationships. Another one is clever play. And that's for folks who like to be super witty, you know, people who love a word game. You know, the folks who are always playing Wordle they really access their playful energy through their cleverness. Another one is competitive play. And this one's a little bit of a double edged sword because when we get too competitive, we actually don't access the playful joy that we want to tap into. But I do find that a lot of people who are associated or connected to competitive play, they can tap into that energy in a balanced way. And it allows them to get out of their heads and be more present. And in general, I think play does have that capacity to help us be more present. If you think about being in a playful state, when you're super invested in that game, or whatever it is that you're doing, that is playful, that is fun, where you're laughing your ass off, those are moments of pure presence, you're not thinking about the past or the future, you're just in that moment. And so that's another beautiful gift that the medicine of play brings us is presence. And so again, these are all ideas of what we want to reach in the awakened states in the Enlightened states, right, what we're looking to reach, or I'll speak for myself, what I and many of my clients are looking to reach, are these states of presence are these states, of connecting with our hearts, connecting with our truth, connecting with the pure essence of our frequency of our unique consciousness, right, and play helps us access these things. It helps us access more cheerfulness, more levity, more spiritedness, more enthusiasm, it helps us connect with each other in these loving ways. And it helps us express more of who we are, right, there's so many of us who are walking through this world, in this serious adult avatar, because that's how we think that people expect us to show up and denying the sillier parts of ourselves. And in denying the sillier parts of ourselves, there's probably a bunch of other parts of ourselves that are being left, unexpressed. And so when we tap into playfulness, and uncover that part of ourselves, it also gives us permission to tap into these other expressions of ourselves that want to be revealed that want to be part of who we are, and how we show up. So that we're not just performing in this way that is based on how people expect us to show up and based on the conformity that society has imposed upon us. So playfulness, again, is a doorway to help us break free of that conformity, it's a doorway to help us access these parts of ourselves, that are a beautiful aspect of our fullest expression of self. Another gift of play, is that it helps us create. And when we look at that, again, from the spiritual lens, we are creators, we are made in the image of God, the the big creator, right, and God wants us to create God wants us to tap into that creative energy and create while we're here on the planet, and it doesn't mean necessarily to create art, though that is a fabulous way to tap into that energy. It could be many, many things, it could be creating a family, it could be the way that you create your life, it could be the way that you create a business. But there is something beautifully aligned with spirits plan for us when we tap into our Creator mode. And when we show up as the creators that we are meant to be. And playfulness helps us tap into that, because it's like a permission slip. You know, I mentioned earlier that I was playing with this concept of the languages of play. And that occurred to me as I shared that, that when you are playing with these concepts are these ideas you are creating with more levity. So rather than feeling like it has to be completely thought out and sorted, and definitive and calculated, I get to play with ideas and concepts. I get to brainstorm, I get to experiment I get to explore, I get to try things and discover, as I'm doing this podcast right now without any notes. I am playing in the energy and seeing what wants to come through. And so playfulness, again, is this access to permissiveness, to experiment, explore, and create on the spot. And when we talk about experimenting and exploring and creating on the spot, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the access that play gives us to pleasure. And so when we think about pleasure, and we think about play, we can see those as two friends who love to hold hands as they skip along. In the path together, because pleasure and play are such a good match. And so when we are experiencing pleasure in life, it's often well
complemented by bringing the energy of play into that experience. And so whether that is erotic pleasure that you're experiencing, or perhaps you're experiencing the pleasure of eating something delicious, consider how play can bring that high vibration experience even higher, and see how play wants to come and support that experience of pleasure, and help you discover pleasures that you didn't even know you had access to. So that is yet another way that play can provide us with gifts of experiencing life in its fullest, which is what spirit wants us to do. Spirit wants us to have the fullest expression of life and the fullest experience of life while we're here on the planet. So with that, I'll start to wrap up. And I would just love to hear from folks, if you feel so moved to share with me what your relationship is like with play? Is it something that you are challenged by? And why? Or is it something that you have easy access to, and what helps you access it? I know, for some parents, they are able to access play, because they've got kids that need them to play with them. For those of us who don't have kids, it can be a little more challenging to cultivate play in your lives. But I'd be curious to hear how you might do that. And so what I'll do is I'll put a little link in the show notes. So if you want to shoot me a little email, I would really love that. And in part, it's because I'm gathering information for a book that I'm writing about play. It's called the path of play. And I am enjoying that process so much. But I'd love to hear from you. So I can bring some of that information into this writing process as well. And so as I wrap up, yeah, I just want to thank you all for playing with me and listening to this. And being in my playful energy. In general, when I am hosting really beloved interviews, I love getting to play with my guests. And I love getting to play with you all. And so I thank you for the platform that is clearly beloved and all the playfulness that I get to experience through that platform. And I hope that you get to receive some playful energy through my expression as well. And I pray that you get to receive all the benefits of play the pleasure, the levity, the love, the presence, the creativeness, all of the beautiful magic, healing, and transformation and expansion that can come from the power of play. I pray for you to receive that. Much love to you Beloved's play on Play on play on. Oh, my goddess Beloved's What a joy it was to be with you today. Let's hang out again soon. Okay. And if you can think of a friend who would benefit from hearing this, please share it with them. Sending so much love and light to you today and every day. Until next time, peace