Well•come, kin. Pause, and take a deep, calming breath with me. In... and out... As you breathe, remind yourself of your innate wisdom and wholeness. With each breath—be here. Fully present, as we embark on this journey together.

LaShaun Here to help you feel good & function well in the most meaningful areas of your life. Because being stressed, striving and stuck in survival mode was never the goal. ​ #whensciencefeelslikemagic

Depending on how you read this it could contain parental warning energy
or it could be an invitation for something unserious.
​
What’s got me thinking about this is all the memes about frolicking and whimsy.

Have you seen them?
​
There's also a real idea underneath the frolic‑whimsy memes worth leaning into: play isn't the opposite of seriousness, it's how systems stay adaptive. Organisms, teams, and people that can't play can't experiment without immediate stakes. Get brittle. Easy to snap.
​
Play doesn't have to be productive.

And certainly not impressive.

And certainly not separate from the serious work of being alive.

But it is the signal that you're safe enough to do more than survive.​
​
Because when you’re stuck in survival mode, play is the first thing to go (and the last thing we'd think to protect).
​
Animals stop playing the moment they're hungry, sick, or scared. Humans...

We're trained to set play against productivity. But the actual antonym is the flat, joyless, optionless state where nothing feels worth doing just because. Which means a life with no play isn't a life that's getting more done. A life without play still functions, mind you. It pays its parking tickets. It answers on the first ring. It checks tasks off the to-do list. It just… dims
​
The first things that come to mind when I think of play are:
Playlist. Playdate. Plaything. Playstate.

Playlist→ play as curation and sequence (you assemble, you arrange)
​Playdate→ play as relationship (you need another body in the room)
​Plaything→ play as object (something in your hands)
​Playstate→ play as internal mode (just a shift in how you're holding attention)
​
​Playlist​
Build a soundtrack for a part of your day that has no soundtrack. Like, the commute, the dishes, the 3pm slump (I am so creating an afternoon slump playlist!). Sequence it like a story: where does it start, where does it land you?
​
Make a playlist of songs you loved at 14 and play it loud. No skipping the embarrassing ones :)
​
​Playdate​
Text one person: "Want to do something pointless with me this week?" Let the pointlessness be the whole point. Reclaim a kid's format as adults: a scavenger hunt, a fort, a floor-is-lava rule for the next ten minutes. Invite someone to play along.

Plaything​
Put something in your hands with no goal: clay, a deck of cards, a Rubik's cube, a pile of magnets. Mess with it for five minutes and make nothing.​
Buy the cheap, slightly absurd object you keep almost buying. Let it live on your desk.

Playstate​
Take a task you have to do anyway and add an arbitrary rule: only step on the dark tiles, narrate it like a nature documentary, race yourself. The task gets done; the framework shifts perspective.
​
Ask "what if?" about something with zero stakes for ten minutes. Let it be unresolved for 1 Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. What came up? Imagine what innovations will be revealed.
​
Play…
Write down the word: ’play’________
What comes to mind for you?

Here’s where it gets good!
​
At any age and the researchers checked. Among 210 adults between 50 and 98, playfulness tracked with life satisfaction and flourishing exactly as it does at 25. The whimsical 84‑year‑old is doing the most age‑appropriate thing imaginable: staying alive on the inside.
​
They even sort play into dialects: lighthearted, other‑directed, intellectual, whimsical. Basically, there’s no single correct way into play. Find yours.

If anything you’ve read here has been resonant, nourishing, or of service to you in a meaningful way, please do, share this email. I appreciate your reciprocity.

In sharing, you contribute to a bigger picture - a world pulsating with well-being and wholeness. I'm grateful for you!

Here are more ways I can support you.

• Feedback, love notes, and other inquiries? Just hit reply
• Want me to give a talk at your event or with your team? Workshops, consulting + speaking inquiries, apply here.​

p.s. Reader, don’t file this email under someday. The relaxed field is open right now, this very minute. Go be unserious for four minutes. I'll wait.