Let’s have some FUN.

Spring is springing here in Western North Carolina. There is just something about seeing flowers, buds, and my sweet little spring garden seeds sprouting that gives me life. After a particularly hard fall, winter, and let’s be honest, early spring with the wildfires, this sign of life is glorious. This spring energy got me thinking, instead of writing about something to work on or explore with yourself, today, let’s just have some fun. Fun is very important to mental wellbeing and honestly, an underrated way to be mindful. I bet you didn’t think of fun as mindfulness, did you? It is! It is pretty hard to have fun when you are not present in the moment. Fun is relief from the emotional, physical, existential, and spiritual stressors we all face. It actually helps you make more feel good neurotransmitters! Which improves mood, focus, and attention. Fun can also help decrease pain. Engaging in fun activities with others can also help you feel more connected in your relationships.

The cool thing about fun is it isn’t a feeling. Think about how we describe fun, we have fun, we don’t feel fun. You might feel playful which leads you to doing fun things. You can have fun when you don’t feel well. Fun is behavioral! You can choose to do something fun, which is incredibly empowering. Feeling anxious, stressed, down, sad? You can choose to do something you find fun which can ultimately help ease the emotional pain you were experiencing. In this way, fun can be a tool or skill to use for your mental health. I know it’s hard to make that choice when having fun feels like effort, unfortunately, most things in life take effort. Remember how important fun was to you as a child? It still is! Channel your inner child. You get to decide what is fun. Maybe it’s dancing around your house to music you love or reading that fantasy book you’ve had for years and haven’t touched. Maybe fun is going to a comedy or music show. Maybe fun is making up jokes and being silly with yourself. Maybe you have lots of fun just chatting with your friends. You can simply have fun on a gorgeous spring walk. Schedule it, let it be spontaneous, or do it when you feel down. Remember fun isn’t a feeling, it’s something you do. So no questions to ponder today because it’s time to just go have some fun. Spring is here to bring new life and energy. Use it, GO HAVE SOME FUN.