When was the last time you treated yourself to a playful outing just for the fun of it?
It’s time to plan a personal playdate.
My inspiration for this tip (and so many other things) comes from “The Artist’s Way, ” Julia Cameron’s classic book. She suggests readers keep a weekly “artist date” with themselves, which I’ve come to consider a personal playdate. And while I don’t manage to fit them in weekly, whenever I do fit in a fun solo field trip, I do enjoy it.
So what counts as a personal playdate? Something that stimulates creativity and that you do for the pure pleasure of it, not any means to an end. (So mani-pedis don’t count.) And it shouldn’t be too expensive or time-consuming, because you want to be able to actually do it. You could walk around an art gallery, or:
— Check out an architecturally cool building in your neighborhood and marvel at it for a few minutes.
— Go to an arts & crafts store and allow yourself $5 or $10 to spend on the most intriguing things you can find.
— Ditto the dollar store.
— Spend time outside looking at the grasses and trees. How many varieties can you spot? What natural sounds can you hear? Give yourself a little nature bath and really tune in for a few minutes.
— Visit a garden store and admire all the different plants and flowers. Ditto a cooking store with all the various shiny and ultra-practical implements. Designers dreamed up all this stuff!!
— Go to the library and give yourself a half an hour to explore a subject that you’ve always been interested in but never looked into.
— You can do your playdate at home by playing (not video games). Play a musical instrument, play with arts & crafts supplies, play with one of those adult coloring books, glue interesting things to other interesting things. Have fun.
I think Cameron recommends this as a regular practice because otherwise it’s so easy to overlook and forget to nurture that spirited, creative part of ourselves, even if our jobs are creative!! Being creative just for its own sake is something most grown-ups hardly ever do. Remember playing with construction paper as a kid? We played with paper!
I still have more to learn about the relationship between creativity and happiness, but it’s easy to see how a little personal playtime — a few minutes or an hour to do what you find stimulating and fun — would boost your mood.
I’m committing to a personal playdate right here: Tonight, after “Jeopardy,” I am going to bust out that little embroidery kit I got at the bookstore and take my first stitches. (I better remember to do this. Let me put it in my phone.) (Ok.)
I’ll post my update here. And check out my other Tiny Tips here.