How to Prioritize Play
This past month, I’ve been sharing ways to transition from winter to spring. In March, we explored how creativity and play can help you connect with your purpose. Today, I want to take that deeper by sharing a story about a recent trip.
Last month, I visited New Orleans for the first time with close friends. From the moment I arrived, the city enveloped me in its vibrant energy. The warm spring air carried the rich, savory-sweet aroma of cigar shops. Sunshine bathed the streets, where music spilled from doorways and mingled with the melodies of street performers. Near-fluorescent colors danced across buildings, murals, and masks in shop windows. And the food was so fresh, I could taste it before it even reached my table.
New Orleans is a city that sings, moves, and speaks through its people and culture. Being immersed in this incredible place that I’d never been to, reconnected me with my sense of play.
Being present is play in its purest form. And our purpose is to be present in this life.
SDG Heal’s Manifestation Exercise
If you want to experience a new place, begin by imagining it. Visualize everything about it, from the walk, drive, or plane ride there, to the people you’ll meet, to everything you’ll experience and sense in between. You can even use Google Maps’ Street View to explore a place you’d love to visit.
What do you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel? The more vividly you experience it now, the more real it becomes. When you fully embody the experience, you naturally become more open to receiving it.
Travel has a way of waking us up. It pulls us out of routine and engages our senses. But if travel isn’t an option right now, you can change your routine in other ways:
Take a different route to the store.
Try a new dish at your favorite restaurant.
Share something vulnerable with someone you trust.
These small shifts create new neural pathways in the brain, making you more adaptable and open to new experiences.
This spring, I invite you to try something that sparks your sense of play. Notice how it feels to engage with the world in a fresh way.