Rediscovering Joy: The Power of Play in Adult Life
Ever wonder why success doesn't always equal fulfillment? I'm Tim Salmons, and with 30 years experience as an actor and a career spanning work in the blue collar corporate medical field, as well as public service industries. I've seen and experienced the human condition at its best and worst. Here on powerful and unpolished, we will explore the everyday traps, draining our energy and hindering fulfillment. This isn't just another success podcast.
Tim:It's about breaking free from patterns that hold you back and limit your potential. Join me on this transformative journey as we explore and identify limiting traps, detach from draining patterns, and rediscover the power within, creating a life that is truly powerful and unpolished. Good day, everybody. Welcome to powerful and unpolished. I'm Tim Salmons.
Tim:I'm your host. And today is a day of adventure, I guess, is what we'll call it. I had a guest lined up. Unfortunately, they had something come up where we had to reschedule them, and this opened up the window to do another solo episode. And in thinking, I was like, what's inspiring me to do this episode?
Tim:And then I realized, screw it. Let's just play with this thing. We're gonna go out and play. So this episode is focused on the art and skill of play for a few different reasons. First reason is we're getting ready to fly to Florida and go to Universal Studios and enjoy all of the haunted houses that are taking place because we're going into the haunted festive fall season, Halloween, and all that good stuff.
Tim:So we're gonna go watch people get scared, and I get to watch people get scared, and I find it quite enjoyable because it's pretty entertaining. And every once in a while, I might get startled myself. You know, I I put myself in there as well, but, it is funny when you watch other people, kind of freaking out because it's eerie or scary and stuff like this. So we get to go play, and, my wife actually does laps around me, which I love because, you know, she'll start out in front, and then she, like, wants to be behind me. And then she doesn't like what's behind her, so she gets back in front of me.
Tim:And and so I just, you know, enjoy supporting her and having fun as well. So we've been doing this off and on. We haven't done it for a few years, but we used to do it about every year. So that's us letting out our, inner kid, inner child to come out and just kind of just be a kid, just to play. Life can be very, daunting and adultifying and, you know, I mean, I swear, you know, you hear the term adulting, and a lot of people understand what that means.
Tim:And, the unfortunate thing about adulting is it can oftentimes suppress, sit upon that inner child that we have inside of us. You know, we're being responsible. We're being, you know, whatever, which is fine. I mean, we should be accountable. We should be responsible.
Tim:We should have integrity. It makes us and our lives better when we do have that stuff. But there's also room for the ability to give ourselves permission to play, to to reach out to, I mean, quality leaders, true leaders that are out there in the world really understand, where levity and and good heartedness and lightheartedness can actually be influential. A lot of times what comes to mind as I think of when adulting kind of commands or, or, or managers, not really leaders, kind of command, you know, you should, you know, enjoy yourself, have a good time. It kind of reminds me of Joker from The Dark Knight.
Tim:You know, why so serious? You know, this kind of, you know, spoof on being serious, but the guy that's doing it's a huge villain and, you know, very threatening. And adulting can be like that to our kids, our in our inner child. So when I'm talking about the state of play or or what play is, it's it's and some people, unfortunately may not have a lot of examples in their life, bless their heart, and others may have a lot of examples. But play is something that your either inner child always hungered for, maybe considered, thought about, fantasized about something, or maybe actually went out and did in a fleeting moment, in a fleeting experience.
Tim:But the state of play is a gift that we give ourselves. It's really about giving ourselves permission in spite of what the world around us thinks. We can still be you know, have some integrity and be accountable and and, considerate, but we can also consider ourselves, and we can also play and not really worry about what the world around us thinks. Play really gives our essence the ability to kinda bubble up, to shine, to to, go into free flow, kind of a free flow energy. I mean, there's probably a number of people out there that may be listening to this that they've seen kids where, you know, on Christmas morning, you you get them this gift, and they spend more time playing with the box than the toy that came out of the box.
Tim:That right there is a state of play. I mean, I don't care, you know, whether what's in the box or the box itself. If you're having a great time, have a great time. It's, you know, give yourself that freedom that to improvise to to, you know, not not do the expected all the time. That state of play is a liberating gift that we give ourselves, and we don't often give ourselves that that freedom, that flexibility on a consistent basis.
Tim:One thing I think that does come up is when you are tapping into the concept of play and giving yourself the freedom in spite of what the world around you says, there's also an opportunity or an awareness of gratitude that, you know what? I'm going to appreciate myself right now. I'm going to appreciate that I'm gonna go fishing. I'm gonna go shoot hoops at the local park. I'm gonna go for a hike.
Tim:I'm gonna go for a walk. I'm gonna throw rocks across the water and see how often I can skip them. Things like that. You know what I mean? Whatever it is that you know, maybe you get, old, remote control cars and you take them out and, you know, act like you were when you were 10, 11, 12 years old maybe.
Tim:But letting your kid out, it can be like in sports. It can be I mean, in sports and and and the dynamic is just because you're playing sports doesn't mean you're at play. At play is when you just are really in the zone and having a great time doing what you're doing. That's the kind of play I'm talking about. Now you might be able to or you might be able to tap into it when you are playing sports.
Tim:Sometimes sports becomes so serious that it becomes sort of like we call it sports, and we call it playing a game, but it's really adultifying and sitting upon the experience of you know, it's really kind of fun to see, wow, if I if I can outrun someone or they can outrun me or I can outmaneuver someone or they can outmaneuver me. So it could be playing chess. It could be doing puzzles. It could be, what what do they call those? I know some adults will do this where they go into escape rooms.
Tim:So they're kinda, like, you know, checking their mind and and playing with their strategy, and, so that gives them the ability to play a little bit more. One thing that made me kind of think about this was, this last week, I shared with someone that, I was speaking with this couple at a restaurant, and they were in their probably late seventies, early eighties. And they have a home in Florida. I said, oh, we're going to Florida next week. And they're like, oh, really?
Tim:What what are you doing? And I said, well, my wife and I were going down, and we're going to the haunted houses, and we're going to the parks. And she's like, oh, you've got your kids. It's like, no. No.
Tim:We we've gotten we've got our kids inside of us, our inner child, but no. Not us. And then she this woman, her eyes lit up, her face lit up, got a big old smile. She's like, really? I said, oh, yeah.
Tim:We do this all the time. We go out and we have a great time and we play like this. She's like, I love that. That's awesome. She's like and then she looked at her husband.
Tim:We should do more of that. And he's like going, alright. You plan it. We'll make it happen, you know? And so it's, it's kind of nice to see her where she was like, and sometimes, you know, I mean, on a side note to that, sometimes when we do have kids, you know, little children or even grown kids that were little children at one time, when we have when we're around them and we remember them or we we're engaging with them as a little child, they can be that reflection to our inner child.
Tim:They can be that, oh, you know, remember when life was a little bit more carefree, hopefully, or, we were a little bit more creative when we were kids, you know, turning a box into a toy, an empty box, whatever. That's sort of the essence of the play that I'm talking about. Sometimes you can reflect it and see it in kids when they are in those moments, and life isn't saying, here, you have to grow up and you have to be responsible, all of this. And remember, going back to this this note again, you can always honor yourself. You can always be considerate.
Tim:You can always have integrity and accountability. Plain doesn't give you permission to treat the world around you badly. What it gives you is the ability to play with the world around you more abundantly, more enticingly. Maybe there's more possibility, things that you hadn't considered before. I mean, I just recently got turned on to, Frisbee golf.
Tim:And I know you know, I was speaking to someone at the bank that, oh, yeah. I have, like, 23 discs that I carry in a bag when I go play Frisbee golf. I'm, like, going well, I went and played with 1, and it was a big old, you know, fat one from the seventies. I don't know that it was as strategically of a of a tool that might have been for other Frisbee golf players, but I was having fun seeing what I I could do, almost losing the thing several times when I was throwing it crazy. But I, you know, given myself the freedom to play, I I was like, hey.
Tim:Let's give this a shot. Let's go try out this course that's close to my neighborhood. And, you know, it was fun for what it is. Doesn't mean I have to, like, make a lifestyle out of it, but giving myself that freedom, I encourage you to give yourself, to give your inner child, to give your the essence that's inside of you that wants a little bit more light in your day, a little bit more energy in your step, a little bit more permission to not take things so seriously. I call it free up the mechanism.
Tim:It can add vitality to your business. If you're a business owner, have fun with your clients. Have fun with your potential clients. Have fun with people who aren't your clients. Just enjoy discovering them.
Tim:Enjoy talking, you know, and and some of the crazy stuff you give yourself permission for. One area or one caveat I do wanna highlight, though, around the concept of play is oftentimes, we get beat down, growing up in this world. There's a lot of have to's. There's a lot of things that sit on us that make us stressed, whether it's work, whether it's our bosses, whether it's our clients, whether it's our neighbors, whether it's our parents, family, or friends, or a combination of all or a few, whatever it may be. And the caveat of this discussion is that some people think that play then is, I'm gonna go tap into substances.
Tim:I'm gonna go drink. I'm gonna go smoke. I'm gonna go and it's like going great. Fine. Use the crutch if you can manage the crutch, but realize it's a crutch.
Tim:I mean, we're talking about letting your inner child out, not letting your inner child go change their state of mind or state of being in order for them to feel a sense of freedom. And some people I understand. They that's their their pressure release. It's another way to access maybe that child that has become dormant or is a little bit more suppressed than others. And if it's something that frees you up, you know, it's your life.
Tim:It's your world. Do what you need to do, but realize too that when you can give yourself permission to access that inner child, to access that kid, to access that play energy that just makes you have fun because you're not worried about what other people think, if you can do that without substances, that is such an awesome gift of permission that you give yourself. And I'm I have nothing against if you wanna go have a couple beers or if you wanna you know? If you're in the if you're in the state where smoking pot is legal, then go ahead and partake. If you're in a state that is not in a state that is it's legal, then ignore my comments.
Tim:I'm having fun here. I'm just playing with this. It's like, you know, but there are ways to tap in. And if you wanna have fun and go do whatever you're gonna do, great. But I would just say to any and everybody that's listening out there, if you can give yourself that permission to watch that movie that you loved when you were a kid, to play with that toy that you haven't touched in years, or that's one of your your own kids' toys that's kind of fun to mess around with, Give yourself permission to go out and create a different state of being.
Tim:That's the play I'm talking about, where you give yourself permission to create a whole new energy of permission to let yourself be free, express yourself, to love yourself, and to nurture a little bit more of that play in your life. And when you do notice in your body, notice in your thinking, notice in your state of mind, does it free up some of that stress? Does it free up some of that to do's or have to's or having to consider other people's thoughts or thinking? Because the other great thing about play is this. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Tim:It doesn't have to be ideal. It has to be whatever you make it in the moment at the time that makes you feel good. So I just encourage you to go out, have this fun, have this play. We're actually gonna go, and I get to watch a lot of people freak out and scream because scary stuff's gonna be all around them. And, hopefully and I don't know.
Tim:I can't guarantee it, but, hopefully, I'll have more chuckles than I will screams. But, either way, we're gonna have a good time. We're gonna make it a good time, and, you know, just enjoy it day by day, moment by moment. So I hope you found this beneficial. I hope this reminds you that, you know, you are important.
Tim:You deserve to play. You deserve permission, not having to worry about the world and what they think about you. And, I wish you all the best in stepping out and allowing yourself to play. So until next time, I wish you all the best. I wish you a lot of playtime.
Tim:I wish you a lot of of joy and insight and enlightenment. If you found this useful, please share this with your friends. If you also found this useful and can do a review or a like, that would be hugely beneficial for us. We're just trying to be supportive of any and everybody out there who is seeking to grow and deepen themselves and their experience called their life and their soul. So until next time, cheers, and we'll talk to you soon.
Tim:Thanks for joining me today. If you've resonated with any of the stories or insights shared today, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. Your support means the world, so feel free to share your thoughts using hashtag powerful and unpolished podcast. Until next time, stay powerful, stay unpolished.
