More Suggestions for Play Gurus

Today we continue our exploration of play time in the Fifth House. This is all quoted from the essential classic (and not necessarily for women only!), The Woman’s Comfort Book: A Self-Nurturing Guide for Restoring Balance in Your Life, by Jennifer Louden. Try these, or adapt as you wish (ex: maybe a red clown nose instead of the top hat).  If you have additional ideas, please do share with us!

Water Rollicks
Play in the rain.  Play with a garden hose.  Play tag with lawn sprinklers. Play with water in the bathtub or ocean.  Slide in the mud. Make mud pies. Dribble water on paper and then trace the design with markers. Have a squirt gun fight with a friend.

Tastes, Textures, and Tones
Absorb the quiet of snow falling at night. Suck on a peppermint or squash a caramel in your mouth. Put on crazy music and move. Make sounds using your nose as an instrument.

Hugs
Hug a dog. Hug a tree. Hug someone you love, really hard.

Move Your Body
Skip. Jump rope. Turn a somersault. Throw a Frisbee. Roller-skate on a sidewalk. Roll down a grassy hill.

Play Dress Up
Wear a mask.  Have a costume party.  Paint faces on your toenails.

Field Trips
Go to the zoo.  Go to a park and swing on the swings. Find a secret place to hide for half an hour.

Fun Things
Watch cartoons [It’s not as easy to find light-hearted ones anymore, in my opinion, but they’re out there. – B.]. Buy a comic book.  Make a plaster hand print. Find a friend and draw each other’s silhouettes. Have a food fight with marshmallows. Watch fireworks light up the sky. Escape to a matinee.

Natural Antics
Dig in the dirt.  Press flowers. Go for a long walk in wet grass in your bare feet. Make mud pies.  Make a sand castle, then smash it.

Be Silly
Celebrate Tuesdays. Wear a tall black top hat to do errands.  Put on a disguise, go visit your neighbor, and act completely normal.

For the Greatest Childlike Comfort
Bake cookies and eat them warm, with cold milk.

Resources:
How to Eat Like a Child, by Delia Ephron (New York: Viking Press, 1977). Inspiration to help you feel childlike.

Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art, By Stephen Nachmanovitch (Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, 1991). This is the book to read, to convince you to play.

Recovery of Your Inner Child, by Lucia Capacchione (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991).  A myriad of activities for getting to know your child-self.