When was the last time you were naughty? You know – the cheeky, sneaky, deliciously childish naughty?
If your answer is “ages ago” then I’m going to set you a challenge of being a bit naughty.
We all have an inner child who wants to play. Or an inner rebel who wants to cast off the shackles of responsibility. Or that inner joker who has a wicked sense of humour and would be awesome at practical jokes.
Whoever your inner naughty child is, it’s time to come out and ask them to play.
You might decide to do something that is strictly not allowed in your usual daily life. Like having chocolate ice cream for breakfast. Or
You could be cheeky naughty and try mansplaining everything for a day.
You could be childishly naughty and try scaring the people in your household by jumping out from behind doors.
It doesn’t matter which naughty you choose. The aim is to generate that gleeful, child-like, responsibility-free feeling. If you feel gleeful, child-like and playful when you’re planning your naughty then you’re on the right track.
There’s only one rule for the naughties: it cannot be mean or harmful to anyone else.
Naughty or child-like is part of play. And play is essential to your mental and emotional health.
There are some properties of play that can make it difficult for adults to engage in, one being purposelessness. Now that we’re adults doing something purposeless can seem like a waste of time.
Play also HAS to be voluntary. If we feel pushed into it, it’s not joyful. Or playful. Again, as adults we’re more likely to think that other things (responsible things) should have priority, so we don’t choose play.
So we need to start choosing to spend our time in less responsible, more playful, purposeless activity.
I can’t wait to hear about what naughty you decide on. If you try it and have a really great time, tell me what you did.