10th perspective first view

“I’m not playing!” Ever heard that? Ever felt that? It represents a very important aspect of play that of stopping playing. To quit playing fundamentally belongs as part of playing. In so doing, we redefine our role. The role changes our behavior. Now we will explore not playing.

The first aspect of stopping gives us a break to catch our breath. We can reflect on the fun part; maybe notice we played with only part of our heart. Maybe we need to put our self in time out because we need to rearrange our breathing.

I like to think about breathing. Taking time out to savor our breath positively accentuates our experience. While we attend to breathing, we heal from any hurts we accumulate since our last break. The positive play of words and phrases like “taking time out,” and ”going out for a special time” use language to help us notice a change of perspective. Psychologically time out gives us an opportunity to take a break from any struggles we have inadvertently taken on. It seems typical that we think of time out as reserved for children: whereas, time out can serve as a deep reminder of our safety. From a safe perspective we value our own cadence. In renewing that sense of safety, we find comfort in a way that only we can give to ourselves. This place of comfort requires persistent daily cultivation.

Perspective Exercise #!: Breathe

Take a break from all the playing by taking a breath with awareness; center with breathing. I think we fear our breath and need to reclaim our breath through another type of play. Our breath clearly reminds us of the basic creative force of life. First let’s pay attention to how we normally breath. Do we favor the inspiration? Does the drawing in of the breath give us a sense of safety or security? What do we notice about the expiration? Can we savor a part of it? Did we notice the give and take as we switched from inspiration to expiration? Come to it with the next breath. The transition from expiration to inspiration gives us another perspective to savor.