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MMMMM take a deep breath of that EXPANSIVE Saturday air my friends. How are your INSTRUMENTS from yesterday doing?! What did you discover? Did you notice any particularly interesting interactions between INSTRUMENTS and SPACE?
What I realized yesterday is that I sometimes have so many INSTRUMENTS that I forget which one's I have where. I took some time to build a sort of waterfall of spaces I have access to > personalities these spaces encourage > INSTRUMENTS contained within each space and how each personality might use them . This is my Collector/Director way of inventorying and thinking through something that might feel like work, playfully. My INSTRUMENT of choice here is Canva, where I have been designing the Play Prompt panels and graphics every night for the past 10 days. This is truly a living art piece and every day I work with my instruments and tools to Play across multiple personalities in developing this challenge. Check out a piece of my process, below! And pardon the shameless TikTok advertising - reaching a broader audience is how my competitor personality is playing these days ;)
So how else can Canva be a tool, beyond my Artist-Creator, Collector, Director? Well my Explorer has just been itching for a turn with it. Visual brainstorming is a total favorite type of play that really helps me get CLEAR about what I like.
I started with doing a quick 5min inventory of what spaces I have the most access to every day.
Then, I chose one space which feels the most likely to have me spending ample time in it in the upcoming months, and broke it town further to look at what INSTRUMENTS I have available and enjoy playing with most.
This is just my visual way of getting to the core of "what are my most important INSTRUMENTS" so that I can
have a cheat sheet to turn to when I'm feeling uninspired to play in a day
figure out what my most important tools are, and allocate space to them accordingly
If you want to try this exercise, I will drop some empty templates that I built for you to use at the end of this post :)
Clear Way for Something Surprising
What I wasn't expecting to uncover in this exercise was full visibility on how I love to play at home by arranging spaces. This came up in two of my rooms specifically but totally applies to how I think about my apartment as a whole. Which got me to thinking.... Why do I feel so strongly about arranging space? And why does my space feel so BAD right now? Because although I know I like to do all of these things in the various rooms of my apartment, nothing in me right now actually wants to spend time in these rooms. They do not feel playful to me, or set up to play in the ways I want to. HELLOOOOO messy stressed disorganized brain who hasn't put the laundry away, or sorted through those old art supplies (which are currently in a pile taking up 1/4 of the room asking to be sorted through) and who just does not want to work in cleaning at the end of such a busy week. Who's got time for that?!
Well, it turns out I do. And i'm calling myself on this and building an entire day's prompt around it because I would be willing to be that there are a lot of other people out there like me. Sure your space is fine but does it feel CLEAR for you to really throw yourself into Play for the day? Or does it feel jumbled and unsupportive of the fun you want to have because of the looming pile of work involved in getting it there? Well, I'm here to tell you - and remind myself- that just on the other side of the pile of laundry is a wide open floor that is just dying to see you have a dance party on it.
Clearing a Void
For Day 10, our theme is CLEAR. What surprises you about your spaces, instruments, or play when they are CLEAR? What is able to grow from here? What are the blockers to getting there right now, and can we playfully work around it?
You see, it's in CLEARING a void that you make room for endless possibility to enter. You are setting the stage for the unexpected to sprout, for your instruments to wander, flow, and spark a playful moment.
Check out the prompt and panels below - I hope that they help you jump into an ever expanding void where you find some space / time / inspiration for your instruments to spark playful moments. I am challenging myself today to find the most playful ways of clearing a void in my apartment space so that I can spend the rest of the weekend and next week playing with more ease, and less pressure to go find playful moments elsewhere.
And as promised - here are some blank panels for you to fill out, along with some highlights from yesterday's INSTRUMENT challenge. Hit me up if you have any feedback for this living art piece, a Canva request for a blank template that fits your needs, or if you just want to say hello! As always, be sure to tag me @eastonsmith in your IG posts and in your stories, and slap a nice little #playyourwaychallenge on there while you're at it.
-- SHAMELESS WEBSITE & ART SHOP -- PLUG --
I am now opening up commissions for Reiki Art Objects which can be ordered from my SHOP page on the website. Each of these objects are custom made to the person ordering and include a 15minute consult to craft the perfect art object for you.
Pre-made shop pieces, and booking for 1o1 reiki sessions will be coming in November!