Why so serious...?
Fun, silliness, and creativity! It's the stuff that makes life worth living – our hobbies, interests, past-times...whatever you call it, it's what brings people together, creates laughter, and stimulates happy thoughts. It's also very good for our mental health – what good can come of being serious all of the time?
Often, people talk about the kinds of fun things that they did at kids. Many of us will be familiar with games such as hide and seek, pass the parcel, various sports such as soccer and netball – and sometimes, talking about these things precedes the phrase 'if only I was a kid again!' - and sure, it's easy to miss our primary school days, but there are so many great things that adults can do for fun as well.
Some people like art and music, while others enjoy rock climbing and extreme sports, and there are a bucketload of other great activities for people who are willing to give them a go. The trick is to keep yourself engaged in something, and to really let your passion take over, because it was always the passion and belief in the game which made childhood play so exciting. Get out there and have fun!
Want to chat about your own childhood games? Maybe you're looking for some tips on finding a new hobby or club to join? Whatever it is, come join us on the ReachOut forums on Mondaythe 15th of July, 8pm AEST – see you there!
***HAVE A PEN AND PAPER WITH YOU********
Real life example of serious people having fun playing games !!!
This week I have planned to make a skirt - Lincraft have a sale and got fabric at 1/2 price *score* so I've got that lineed up.
I think I might embark on a few other fun/creative activity too, will see how things pan out, but hope to try and learn to crochet again sometime in the near future 🙂 a lady in lincraft inspired me a bit 🙂
Thanks all for joining us and sharing your ideas on how to have fun and be creative
Summary
Being creative and having fun could definitely make our everyday a bit more interesting. For some, having fun means:
- Listening to music
- Reading
- Chillin’ at home
- Hanging around with friends
- Doing something outside the box
- Cross stitching, quilting
Fun games can change overtime as we get older. Some of the games we used to play as a child that should kick up again include:
- Elastics
- Painting with marbles
- Heads down thumbs up
- Playing a neglected instrument
- Hide and seek
- Fly (laying ropes on the ground and running to avoid them)
Coming back to present day, different people have different ways to have fun. Sometimes we forget to have fun due to
- A busy schedule
- Having the distractions of technology (TV, internet, smart phone)
- Too many things we “should” be doing instead
- Lack of energy
- Putting too much pressure on ourselves to have fun each day. So much pressure we get overwhelmed and don’t have the fun!
What we could do differently to insert some fun into busy week include:
- Making your normal routine (like travelling to school, work) fun. For e.g. struck up a short convo with the bus driver as you pay for your fare
- Plan out what activities you enjoy and slowly (day by day) incorporate it into your week
- Setting a regular routine before bed so your body knows it is time to relax and switch off. This can be no technology an hour before bed and doing some reading instead
- Write a to-do list and having fun ticking each task off as you completed them
- Write a list of fun things you could do after a task you need to do. It is fun and motivating to have a nice reward at the end
To add on top of forgetting to have fun, for some of us, may be bounded by some unhelpful thoughts. For example:
- Fear that the “fun activity” won’t turn out as fun as we hoped
- Feeling like having fun is a waste of time/ there’s no point
- Psychological boundaries when we feel we are not deserving to have a good time (which is not true, we all deserve to feel good sometimes)
However, it is interesting to note that fun and creativity can help your mental and physical health:
- Helps the mind refocus by changing tasks every half an hour
- It is a break to the stress and work accumulated over your day
- Allow us to step back and look at a situation in a different perspective, which could help with solving a problem
It is common for someone to forget to have fun. Advices you could offer to yourself and/or your friend/family/co-worker include:
- Be there to listen and not be judgemental
- Do a hobby and ask your buddy to join in
- Do some mediation or muscle relaxation. This factsheet have some tips http://au.reachout.com/Relaxation-training
- Get out of the house and spent some time with nature
Read this story by a young person who was struggling to find some me-time and how he managed it
http://au.reachout.com/Me-time
To wrap up this week’s GR, some fun and creative activity you could attempt
- Colouring-in like doing a mandalas (google for some pictures to colour)
- Take it easy, plan ahead then take a shower
- Taking some time out and have a walk + soak in the sun
- Play an musical instrument
- Work on a cross stitch
- Paint your room
- Listening to music (and maybe sing to it)
- Go shopping at a craft store
Here’s more ideas to have fun
http://au.reachout.com/11-ways-to-avoid-boredom-this-long-weekend
Thanks Bee and MM for joining, Dan and Soph for co-faciliating
Have a good week guys and have a good night 🙂
I'll definitely do some drumming at some point! Other than that, I'm currently painting my room - I'm not sure if I'd consider it fun (although some people might) but it gives me a chance to hang out in my room and listen to music. I'm fine with that 🙂
I would tell them to find something they enjoy and do that activity. It might be worth doing some relaxation exercises to enjoy the smaller things in life too. I know myself I enjoy things alot more when I'm not stressed out and worrying about this that and the other. SO I think deffinately some mediation or relaxation is good, can put you in a better frame of mind to enojy things more 🙂
That seems like a good way to approach it Sophie 🙂 if you offend them it's likely to make them want to spend less time with you...that wouldn't help.
For me, I'd try to see what they're interested in, and maybe show them a few of my own hobbies. I always say that learning a musical instrument is a great idea, and it's something you can do once a week or every day and still see improvements. Oh, and of course - it's fun!
Why is it for our wellbeing?
Doing something for a change helps the mind refocus (Bee and Soph was just speaking about it). It is a nice refresher, because all the bad feels accumulated over the day/week can be released. Otherwise I will just be bottling it all up and walk around like a time bomb
Doris, yes, to-do liss can get long and daunting, but I was more thinking like I'm not focusing, so I'll pick a creative task and do that for a while then try to focus on my school work. I think that might help me ore this upcomming term. But yes ticking off points on a todo lists is so awesome! 🙂
I don't drive myself but for people who do - things you could do in your drive on the way home might be... singing really loud!
For me I walk to work so I always listen to music but singing is not so easy... Sometimes I still do it down deserted alley ways!
I was talking to someone today who is really into colouring in! They have lots of things at the ready to colour in when they need it like mandalas... This is a mandala btw:
I used to colouring-in too. I also do those patterns (mandalas?) too. They take a lot of colour coordination
Doris, that seems like it would work really well 🙂 you'd get used to having fun again, if that makes sense.
Sophie - that's really cool! I wouldn't mind colouring something like that in myself.
