Permission Granted

I wasn’t a fan of going to school. I wanted to hurry up and be an adult. Silly, really. Perhaps I was already practicing what it was to ‘imagine better’ (See Imagine Better blog here).  Although scheduled learning wasn’t my thing, there are elements of school life that we could benefit from. One of those is play. The other—permission slips.

In her book ‘The Gifts of Imperfection’, Brene Brown mentions a study conducted by Dr Stuart Brown—a psychiatrist, clinical researcher and founder of the National Institute of Play. (It’s a thing people!). Brene references Dr Stuart Brown’s book ‘Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.’ saying ‘...[play] is at the core of creativity and innovation.’

“Have a secret affair with your art.”

In her podcast ‘Magic Lessons’, Elizabeth Gilbert spoke with a high school art teacher who helped others create art, but didn’t practice it for herself. She felt deflated and didn’t know how to move forward. Elizabeth’s advice—‘Have a secret affair,’ she continued, ‘Have a secret affair with your art.’  In essence Elizabeth was giving a permission slip to play.

Adulting is often busy and messy and more often than not it can push our passions out of our lives. I think one of the reasons this happens is that we, as a society, undervalue play. Busyness is the new black. Overscheduling has become a crown. And the pressure of having it all and doing it all can mean that we’re in a constant state of exhaustion with no energy for the things we love. I also think there’s a little pebble of guilt around our passions, like they’re self-indulgent.

One of the ways to address the guilt is to write ourselves a permission slip for some guilt free play. Do it for the love of it and see where it takes you.