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Grow Younger: The Transformative Power of Play · Harder Than Life

• 0:00
  The kid inside of you never left. They're just buried under stress, trauma, bills, drama, chaos, responsibilities. The seriousness is killing your spirit. We traded fun for fear. And while we built businesses, bodies, and bank accounts, we buried the very thing that made life worth living. Okay.
• 0:20
  When you reconnect with that kid, something magical happens. Your stress dissolves, your creativity explodes, your joy returns, and your healing accelerates. Because play is medicine. Laughter literally lowers cortisol and boosts endorphins. It takes courage to laugh when life hits you. It takes power to dance when others are frozen. Play isn't fun. It's freedom. It's healing. It's happiness.
• 0:46
  Play hard, heal deep, laugh until your stomach hurts, and live happier than life. We grow older, but we don't have to grow colder. I'm Kelly Siegel, and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business, and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living. Welcome back to the Harder Life Podcast. We're continuing on with listener topics.
• 1:16
  Y'all pay attention and I am proud of you for it. Today's topic was perfect for the Heart of Life Nation and should resonate with us all. Reawaken your inner kid, play hard, heal deep and live happier than life.
• 1:31
  That's the topic. It came in different questions, different forms from several of you listeners who DM me on Instagram, kelly.segel.71. That's K-E-L-L-Y dot S-I-E-G-E-L dot 71 on Instagram. DM me there or send me an email at kelly at harderthanlife.com and we will gather the top votes and record topics because it's all about you, the listener. I want to pay this forward. I don't need to be doing this stuff, but I love it.
• 2:01
  love to do it. And I love when you guys message me and go, holy smokes. I listened to your topic, I implemented it, and it worked. Today's topic, reawaken your inner child, play hard, heal deep, and live happier than life. These are things that I struggle with at times.
• 2:17
  I'm always, always working on my inner child, but reawakening that little guy who never really had a childhood, who never really had fun, who was able to play hard and be happy because it was never safe. So, Harder Life Nation, let me ask you a question. When was the last time you played, like really played and had fun and belly laughed with people?
• 2:45
  I don't mean scrolling on your phone. I don't mean binge watching Netflix. I mean running, laughing, climbing, painting, wrestling, building, or just being silly for no reason. If you had to stop and think about it, that's a problem.
• 3:01
  Believe me, I don't even know the last time I did. I used to be a barrel full of jokes all the time, but for some reason, as life gets older, as I'm approaching my 50th birthday, everything got so serious. I used to have a lot of fun doing nothing, but I gotta work on this. So this episode is for me just as much as it is for you, because here's the hard truth. Healing isn't just done in therapy rooms.
• 3:23
  It's done in playgrounds. It's done in cars. It's done on the water. It's done with family and friends. The kid inside of you never left. They're just buried under stress, trauma, bills, drama, chaos, responsibilities, aka life. And if you don't let them out, you'll never feel the joy, freedom, and happiness that
• 3:49
  you deserve. We all deserve joy, freedom, and happiness. So today, we're going to reawaken your inner kid. We're going to play hard, heal deep, and unlock a version of you that's lighter, happier, and more alive than you've ever been.
• 4:04
  And if you listen to any of these listener choice episodes, we talk about it and then I give you the action plan and then we wrap it up and bring it home. So let's get real. Most of us were taught to grow up too fast. Remember it was cool? You gotta be strong, be serious, get it together, work hard, pay bills, shut up, repeat.
• 4:25
  work hard, play harder. But guess what? The seriousness is killing your spirit. Your inner kid is the most authentic, playful, and creative part of you. The part that didn't care what others thought. The part that laughed until your belly hurt.
• 4:41
  the part that believed anything was possible. I got a sneaky suspicion, this is why cannabis is so prevalent, because it allows you to do this, it brings down your masks and your guard to be able to do this. That's why I drank, it really was. I had the most fun in the world, but it just, the collateral damage that alcohol did was just not worth it, so. When you reconnect with that kid, something magical happens. Your stress dissolves, your creativity explodes,
• 5:09
  your joy returns, and your healing accelerates. Because play is medicine. Play is therapy. Play is freedom. As kids, play was our natural state. But somewhere along the way, life taught us, act your age. Stop being silly. Grow up.
• 5:29
  So we traded imagination for information. We traded fun for fear. We traded play for productivity. And while we built businesses, bodies, and bank accounts, we buried the very thing that made life worth living.
• 5:45
  We grow older, but we don't have to grow colder. And Hotter Life Nation, I'm guilty of this. I am so serious. This is why many people have called to me is, you're just too much. You don't let up. And I catch myself doing this all the time. But you'd be told winning is more fun than fun is fun to be.
• 6:06
  and helping you guys is fun. Learning is fun. These are the things I love to do, but real, true, authentic, let your hair down play is what we're talking about here. So why does play matter so much? Because play heals in ways nothing else can. Play releases stress and
• 6:29
  Laughter literally lowers cortisol and boosts endorphins. You can get this by going to a comedy show. Here's a little funny story. When my daughter was born some 16 years ago, her mother had high anxiety and they wouldn't release her from the hospital until her blood pressure went down. So I opened Google jokes and started telling her jokes. And what do you know?
• 6:54
  10 minutes later, not even 10 minutes, like two minutes later, her blood pressure dropped and literally she was released. So laughter really is the best medicine. It lowers that cortisol and boosts endorphins. Play also heals trauma, movement, creativity, and stillness, unlocking motions you've suppressed for years. Motion creates emotion.
• 7:16
  and releases toxins, man. I need to get out and do more of this. I literally want to stop the podcast, go run out, go have some fun. But oh man. Play reconnects relationships, families that play together, bond deeper, couples that laugh together, stay together. With my daughter and I, now that she's 16, she doesn't...
• 7:36
  It's not cool to be with dad, but we used to wrestle. We used to chase each other around. And I have some videos of it when we were leaving a little girl, and we used to sing and dance. And we have that bond still to this day. So couples that laugh together, stay together. Brittany and I are always cracking jokes on each other and having fun.
• 7:54
  Needling each other happens to be both Brittany and Ari my daughter both are super ticklish So I just pick up my finger and they start giggling right away And then if I can touch them in their midsection they this laugh and oh Heaven forbid if I touch their feet so play also sparks creativity innovation comes when your brain is relaxed and playful and
• 8:16
  Not stressed and rigid. Think of it as pruning the mind. This is also why meditation works so well, but this isn't as boring as meditation. Don't get me wrong. I meditate every single day. I don't play every day, but man, after recording this with you, I'm definitely going to make this a habit. So play is not childish. It's childlike.
• 8:38
  And childlike is where the magic lives. So how do we do it? Here are simple, powerful ways to let your kid back out. Move like a kid. Play tag with your kids. Jump rope. Climb something. Shoot hoops. Wrestle. Heck, you've seen these I fly things. I've watched people go and do indoor training.
• 9:00
  skydiving. A lot of times the cool thing, I like biking with my daughter. We just jump on our bikes and ride around things that we did during the pandemic. Create without judgment. Paint, write, dance, like I told you, build Legos. I've seen a lot of people do that. Make music, do it badly and laugh at yourself and laugh at each other. It is the best.
• 9:24
  Get curious again. Ask questions. Try new hobbies. Explore places in your own city like a tourist. Or better yet, go to a new city you've never visited and be a tourist. Laugh daily by watching comedy. You can go to any of your streaming services and get stand-up comedians. Make dumb jokes and don't take yourself so seriously.
• 9:52
  Siegel, Siegel, Siegel, take note. I absolutely think everything has got to be so serious. And I'm so grateful for the listener that messaged in and wanted me to do this episode. So gamify your goals. Turn workouts, chores.
• 10:08
  or business into a competition or challenge. When I was a kid, my stepfather used to send me to this store, and not just a clothes store, like a store a mile away that I'd had to get lots, like full groceries, and I hated it. So what I used to do is I used to pretend I was a transformer or a Power Ranger, and I had superpowers.
• 10:29
  And I would do these sprints and I would do them so fast. And the trip would go just like that. And you can do that now. Like my 500 workout challenge right now, 500 was a little much, but Andy Fisella has a 75 hard. Everybody's got something. If you Google it, you can find fun little workouts and chores. Go to ChatGBT and ask him, how can I make doing this business plan or into a competition?
• 10:57
  How can I do a workout competition? And just have fun with it. Gamify it. Your body needs workouts. Your soul needs recess. Do you remember when we were kids and we went out for recess? You'd just give us a ball and we would play dodgeball. We would just play, I don't know the name of this game, but we literally, whoever had the ball, we would just tackle them.
• 11:20
  They would just throw it up. So it was our version of rugby. Today's kids now, they don't go out post-COVID. So get these kids, get yourself outside. The sun, the air, it's some of the best medicine. I know what you're thinking. Kelly, I don't have time to play. I've got work, bills, responsibility, family. I need sleep, et cetera. Let me tell you something. You don't have time not to.
• 11:46
  When you skip play, you burn out faster. You get sick more often. You lose creativity. You crush your own joy. Is that what's going on with me, Kelly? Wow. I've been sick the last 10 days. I haven't been as creative. And I've been a little down lately.
• 12:03
  Could be what's going on in the world, but I need to have fun. I need to have fun now. My big problem was I don't know what fun is besides growth. So I got to go find some activities that are just literally fun. And if you think play is a weakness, let me flip it. It takes strength to be silly when the world says be serious. It takes courage to laugh when life hits you. It takes power to dance when others are frozen. Play isn't a weakness. Play is resilience.
• 12:30
  So here's what you've been listening for. This is my action plan. This week, it's your heart and a life challenge for this week. Schedule play. Put recess on your calendar just like you do meetings. Even 15 minutes counts. And if you can't think of one thing, grab a bicycle. Ride a bicycle out in the road. Play a video game.
• 12:50
  Go for a walk and look at trees. Just do something outside. Find your playground, whether it's a gym, park, court, art studio, wherever you can move or create freely. Play with people who get it. Surround yourself with people who laugh easily and live light.
• 13:10
  That is contagious. So get around people that are having fun, but make sure that it's productive fun. I used to have a lot of fun out drinking and partying, and I thought that was good, but it wasn't. So do something silly in public. Sing in the car with the windows down. Skip down the street. Let go of embarrassment. Guys, I do this.
• 13:31
  My daughter and I, the one thing she will do is still skip with me. So anytime she grabs my hand and wants to skip with me, you see my five foot nothing, 220 pound tree trunk skipping with my daughter. We just did it when we were in Massachusetts for a wedding.
• 13:48
  And I just laughed and smiled. This stuff works. And then as always, what you measure gets better. So keep a play journal. Write down one playful thing you did each day. Watch how your mood and creativity shift. Make sure to star that in your journal. Because if you go a long time and all of a sudden you're feeling grumpy and you're not as creative, go look and see how long it's been since you went out to play. If you're too busy to play, you're too busy to live.
• 14:14
  Is that really living anyways if you're not having fun and playing? How did Life Nation hear the truth? The kid inside you isn't gone. They're waiting. They're knocking. They're begging to come out and remind you how to live. Stop silencing them. Stop burying them under stress. Stop thinking play is optional. Stop saying, I'll play when I achieve this. Play now. Achieve this later. Because play isn't fun. It's freedom. It's healing. It's happiness.
• 14:43
  We all want to be happy. So remember, your soul needs recess. You grow older, but you don't have to grow colder. Play is not a luxury. It's a lifeline. And here's another challenge. This week, reawaken your inner kid. Play hard. Heal deep. Laugh until your stomach hurts. And live not just harder than life, live happier than life. I'm Kelly Siegel. I go outside and play.
• 15:09
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.