#spiritchat

I would highly recommend that you all sign in to twitter on Sunday afternoon at 2pm London time and join in the chat with some dazzling and brilliant minds, none less dazzling and brilliant than Kumud....who is the owner and moderator of #spiritchat

Equally brilliant are @katenasser, @emeliasam...in fact, just log on and do yourself some spiritual good.  This weeks subject was Playfulness!

A Spirit of Playfulness

A lot of folks think, and rightly so, that being spiritual and thinking about spirituality is a “serious” business. In fact, a lot of the SpiritChat discussions in the past have had topics like self-discipline, equanimity, forgiveness, courage, our spiritual truths and may more. However, we have also had chats with “lighter” topics like friendship, prosperity, fathers, mothers and wellness.
I recently read an essay by one of my favorite authors (Swami Vivekananda) where he mentioned that spiritually advanced souls actually develop a “lightness of being” and become less “serious” as time goes by. This was a welcome insight for me because it also reminded me of this quote…

The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both - Buddha

So, this brings us to the weekend of September 1st - a three-day, long weekend in North America which marks, in some ways, the “end of summer”. A lot of folks may be traveling, meeting friends and family, and generally engaging in “playfulness”. It is an opportunity to perhaps take a pause, and get ready for the upcoming change in season, as we play out the last bit of summer (or autumn, if you are in the southern hemisphere :)).
We all have our favorite “toys” that we like to play with - for some it may be books, or music, or movies or hobbies that distract us from the mundane of everyday living and bring joy to our spirit. For some, it may be the simple act of watching children engage in creative play or birds playfully dancing around bird-feeders that invokes feelings of playfulness. What creates feelings of playfulness within you? What book/movie/music would you want to take on vacation? How can we create more playfulness in our communities?
I invite you to join the #SpiritChat community on Sunday September 2nd at our regular time of 9am ET / 2pm UK / 6:30 India as we explore some of these questions and create an atmosphere of playfulness for all…
Be well and play hard!
Kumud
Update: Transcript link for the Live chat on playfulness and questions (below). Thank you all for joining - feel free to add your answers in the comments :)

Ready to play? Q1. What feelings does the word #playfulness invoke within you? #SpiritChat

Q2. Do you think we play enough as adults? Why or why not? #SpiritChat 

Q3. Which people or what occasions inspire you to play more? #SpiritChat

Q4. What are your favorite toys to play with - do share with us :) #SpiritChat  

Q5. How does playfulness impact our mental and spiritual health? #SpiritChat 

Q6. Can we really incorporate playfulness into our spiritual practice? How? #SpiritChat

Q7. If you could play with any character in history, who would it be? Why? #SpiritChat 

Q8. How can we encourage more playfulness in our communities - online and offline? #SpiritChat 

Takeaway Q9. Will you incorporate more playfulness in your daily life? How? #SpiritChat