We did a thing at the Week of Biggification in North Carolina that was pretty great.
In addition to optional afternoon old Turkish lady yoga, we had optional morning classes that were … oh, unconventional is as good a word as any.
And on this particular day we played let’s turn the room into a jungle gym!
Because it’s there.
The idea was this:
Go somewhere in the room.
Use that spot as the setting for interacting with (some part of) your body.
Interacting could mean: stretching it, strengthening it, moving it, being in stillness with it, listening to it, touching it.
Then go somewhere else in the room and play with that part of the room.
It was awesome.
We turned the room into a jungle gym!
Which was a pretty unlikely thing.
I mean, fancy hotel conference room. There wasn’t all that much to play with.
Not like the Playground, which is full of blocks and toys and hiding places. A conference room.
But we used the walls. The stage. We flipped chairs upside down and rocked on them.
We leaned up against tables.
And pressed into walls and wriggled into corners.
Sometimes you would hear giggling as someone discovered the perfect way to play with something that seemed unplay-with-able.
Our breathing became deep and slow.
Each movement was intentional and playful at the same time. We were channeling that deeply creative, passionately intent silliness that is experimentation. Play through curiosity.
We were like kids and dogs. We were free.
Jungle gyms everywhere.
Right now I’m at another hotel, but in California.
The bathroom has a window seat and a spectacular view.
This morning I turned the bathroom into a jungle gym.
Sink and bathtub and closet. Walls and doors. Arrangements of towels.
I stood here and there. I went under and over.
But mainly I pressed and twisted and leaned and reached and bent and peeked.
But really, everywhere. To some extent.
Even on the plane, there are ways to be in jungle gym mode.
It’s hard. You have to be like a monk in a cell. Movement is limited. But how I get to interact with space is less limited than I think.
The play becomes more concentrated. How to move in small ways that are unobtrusive.
My focus draws inward: more about internal space. Breath. Vertebrae. Length. Roominess. Spine. Heart.
Many variations on wiggling of toes.
That’s probably my least favorite jungle gym.
But looking for unlikely options to interact with my body and the experience of being there is how I get through it.
Today I’m going somewhere that will be challenging for me.
Of course, I won’t be able to really play, because it’s not the kind of place that approves of that.
But I can sort of turn it into a jungle gym anyway.
By sneaking stretches in unlikely ways and unlikely places.
And I can turn it into a mental jungle gym by being curious and inquisitive. By experimenting with how I react to the video game.
By doing things that I wouldn’t normally do, to see what happens.
It gets easier I can remember that playgrounds are everywhere and playtime is there for me whenever I want it.
And if it sucks, I get naptime when I’m done.
Play!
More jungle-gym-ing! More ways to turn things into playgrounds! Yes?
And, as always, we let everyone have their own experience and we don’t tell anyone what to do, because that’s how we play here.
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Ooh! I love this 😀 I did a bit of this on the flight to Thailand, and it was so much fun… though sometimes I would get odd looks from fellow passengers and flight attendants. Like when I pull my leg up and out, and all of a sudden there’s this foot in the air!
Luckily the seat next to me was empty, so I wasn’t putting my foot in anyone’s face 😉
But the flight attendants were funny to watch; I’m not sure they approved, but they were too polite to say anything 😀
Ah, thank you. This was an excellent post for me to read first thing in the morning.
I too have a dy ahead of me that feels difficult. Finding the jungle gyms, the art supplis, and the juice and cookies (or pretzels, if you prefer) sounds like an excellent way for me to shift from what-ifs to what-is.
(P.S. and I will laugh at the typos tha happen when I use my smart phone to comment and can’t read my own tiny typing. Tee hee!)
Awesome concept! I love this post, but I MORE love your ‘like dogs and like children’ post, which I’d somehow never seen until you just linked to it. Seriously, that could not be more up my street without actually being in my house.
I hope the challenging thing goes well. xx
I might experiment with this idea at work tomorrow…I would say in secret ninja mode, but seeing as I have been known to randomly get down on the floor and start stretching…Maybe don’t really care if you think I’m weird ninja mode.
Ooo this totally reminded me of my days as an actress and and how we pretty much rolled around in every which way imaginable – turning our attention inwards (and outwards) without even noticing it because it was fun, because it was Exploration, because it worked and was easy. Ohhh focus and the bliss of being absorbed in the smallest moments. Oh God that was good! Working with the inside out and the outside in. Lovelyyyyyy!
Oh, yes. On the plane. I was between two basketball players and practiced Hiro’s sovereignty egg (that’s just what I call it) of building a force field, breath by breath. Amazingly, both dudes shifted *away* (in a comfortable way (as opposed to a this-woman-is-crazy-way)) as my force field got stronger.
Now I have a vocabulary for it!
“Many variations on wiggling of toes.”
love it.
I’m in stomach bug land, so that’s all I can go with now, but I have a feeling that even with full range of motion ability, toe-wiggles may be enough to activate jungle-gym-ness!
Thank you.
Oh yes naptime! There’s always room for more naptime. I will try the jungle jim at my meeting tomorrow night during the hour and a half of sitting. Thanks!
Tricia
*flaps hands excitedly* I am not the only one who does this! YAY!
Although, you put it much more succinctly and fun-ly than I would have, I think. I tend to explore the shape of the space itself more than my body within the space, and now I get to expand my playtime by trying it this new way.
Awesome.
I love it here. What a fun and usable concept! The jungle gym! Yay!
I’m inspired to go find something to play with “that seems unplay-with-able”
love it.
Havi,
I found your website through Chris Guillebeau and I’m so glad I did. This process is exactly the kind of thing we would do in theatre exercises and it is LIBERATING. People are designed for play. Seriousness is to egos what simple carbohydrates are to the obese. Play keeps us healthy. THANK YOU for this wonderful blog
James