Responsibility and Playfulness!

Posted on by Stacey Martino

I’ll get to “playfulness” in a bit, but first I want to talk about…

Responsibility!

Responsibility is awesome, there’s nothing wrong with responsibility.

BUT…when you start to feel responsible for everything, all the time, always responsible for every situation…it becomes a little…exhausting!

Balance…

There’s a part of you that’s responsible, there’s a part of you that’s playful, there’s a part of you that’s resourceful, there’s a part of you that’s FREE.

You are many parts; you are not just one thing.

As women, sometimes we get so crazy hooked on responsibility and care-giving that we exhaust ourselves.  We burn out.

And our men, if we let them, have a gift to bring us, to help balance us out.  They provide playfulness.

Men naturally bring playfulness forth to balance us out.

It’s not because they don’t understand all that we have going on, it’s because they DO.  They sense our stress and maybe even our overwhelm.  Their way of fixing it, serving us and providing for us is to “lighten the mood”, make us laugh…balance us out by offering playfulness!

Unfortunately, what I see most often is….women don’t accept this gift. (Because we don’t understand it.)  Many women get frustrated, annoyed and even angry with their man, for bringing playfulness in.

Often women will see a man’s joking or fooling around as unsophisticated, irresponsible, childish and unsupportive of all the serious stuff we are juggling at the time.

Sound familiar?

Also, we may feel his playfulness as opposite to our agenda of “responsibility”.

We may see him as causing more “out of control” when all we’re trying to do is “control”, handle and be responsible for everything in our environment.  So when he brings in playful energy, we can see this as him causing more “work” for us because he’s bringing us “out of control”.  Or HE is becoming one more thing we must find a way to control or handle.

But that is the gift he is trying to give.

At one point in our lives, perhaps the controlling part of us took over?  Maybe it has run-a-muck and it’s not serving us anymore?

Can you think back to a time in your life when you were more balanced?  When you were producing great results and still able to have fun and let go?  Perhaps your life was less complicated back then, but just take a moment and think back anyway.

What part of YOU was “running the show” back then?  That part of you understood balance, and it’s still in you.  It’s just not been “running the show” for you in a long time.

When we recognize that, we can call on a different part of ourselves, a more balanced part that can enjoy, appreciate and cherish the playfulness that our men bring to us.

And thus, we can begin to cherish the very thing that used to drive us crazy!

 

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15 thoughts on “Responsibility and Playfulness!”

  1. This post really resonated with me! Thank you for sharing your wisdom! I am going to look forward and visualize what balance looks like for me now because I cannot recall a time in my life besides childhood where I felt balanced.

  2. Wow Stacey…talk about hitting the nail on the head. I can think of so many times where my man wanted to just goof around — maybe dance in the kitchen for moment while I was trying to prepare dinner — and internally I was like "Get out of my kitchen! Can't you see I'm busy doing all the 'responsible stuff' while you get to spend your life goofing off?" And the second it happened…the moment I thought those thoughts I felt like such a small person 🙁 This is a wonderful reminder to live in the present and truly enjoy…what better way to manage all those responsibilities than to interrupt them with some fun every now and then?

    1. Wow Kris!! Thanks so much!!! And thank you for sharing such a vivid example! I think we can all remember moments like that!!!
      I'm so glad this is a reminder for you! And YES, I agree….what could be better then interrupting all that we manage with a little FUN!!!!! Well said!

  4. I love your post Stacey and you are SO right.
    In our house it works both ways though. With an introvert engineer I have to pull him out of his deep focused mind and remind him to forget about the serious stuff at work and come play with the rest of the family. In reward he does the same with me when I get lost in my work. Nothing melts me as fast as my man when he is in that playful mood. I just can´t resist him!
    Great post thank you!

  5. Very well said Stacey. You are definitly right. Eventhough I have more responsabilities( as we have child and so on), until where I will control with all details. Great reminder. Thank you So why not to have little fun! It gives more energy to continue the life we live. 🙂

  7. Perfect Stacey Martino! It rings true with me! I notice myself wanting to be in control and manipulate but once I get back into playfulness I feel much better. xo

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