Hello friends, if you were with me last week, you probably left the party early because something went wrong and my files were corrupted. And so if you're listening to this now, you are listening to the updated version. I'm gonna talk about the importance. Of levity, but I have a few notes to share with you before I present the corrected file. My intention was to go into Thanksgiving, rediscovering the joy of time with my family on board games and my plans. You know, you start with once and something else often happens, but I found myself doing some other things. Like puzzles and decorating the house, and these were things that brought me great joy. And while I may not have been laughing to the point of tears, I really believe in the content that I produced last week, but I'm definitely expanding. More my perspective on the importance of laughter and joy and levity and things that make you feel good. And not everything is tears of laughter and belly laughs. Some of it's really quiet but powerful joy. So whatever kind of joy feels the best for you today, I want to applaud any efforts you're making to. Celebrate that experience and and be the permission slip for people around you to do the same. So without further ado, here is the corrected episode

welcome back friends, if we've never met before. My name is Kris LeDonne and I'm the host of Picture Love podcast, and I wanted to have a brief but really important conversation with you today. I'm not here to talk about news or political views or the doom. Orange noise if you know, you know, are the collapsing structures. I'm not here to talk about all the things that stress us out and demand our attention'cause they are so loud and their package is urgent, when in fact a lot of it is just meant to keep us separated and dysregulated. I'm here to talk to you about the opposite. I'm talking about a higher viewpoint. Something that brings clarity and grounding and nourishing us and bringing us together, reminding us who we really are. And I really think that the noise is meant to distract us. So we forget to look within and know what we've always known all along. We've just kind of forgotten ourselves. So. Let's, let's zoom out. Let's take a bird's eye view. Let's fly a kite. Let's change our scenery and let's make space for what's real, and let's find some appreciation in something so simple. Any of us can have it in any moment, and all of us can help each other. Savor it and root deeply into it. And what I'm talking about is levity. I'm not talking about toxic positivity. I'm not talking about ignoring what's urgent and what some people are needing to deal with today. But I am choosing the topic of being selective about where we give our energy and where we give our focus. And I wanna focus on levity. And laughter and play and joy. And I wanna nourish my soul along with you today. And so today I'm talking about why joy and levity are medicine. And one of the most fun ways that I identify with joy and levity is through tradition that my family began when my kids were little. It was family game night, so I'm just gonna call it game time unplugged. We weren't in front of screens, we weren't in front of our smartphones. We weren't in front of computers or smart TVs. We were around a table with a board game, maybe some hot cocoa, maybe a glass of water, and the joy that came out of playing a game that changed the subjects, that made all that noise insignificant. It actually delivered us to a new space and it changed our reality. What if we prioritize that levity? What if we made it a ritual, the kind of ritual that families looked forward to when they're traveling to be together for a holiday? What if we made game time unplugged, meaning analog? You know, people around a table. What if we made that something so remembered that we romanticize less about the waking up to presence under the tree, if that's what your tradition looks like, and we make it savoring that feast to face time separation became normal for us. Gradually through different points in history, you know, those historic events, you know, the way it was taught to us, the way it was packaged for us, the way you know, the way boundaries were put in our lands and our cultures and our classes, the way we've been just separated, you know? And then when we were forced, most recently during COVID, we were divided by the separation of having to quarantine. We forgot. We forgot. One simple thing. We have forgot that we are actually all connected and still part of oneness. We're one race, one human spirit, and we're all facets of this spirit and this one world. What if we rediscovered are common denominators and it came through laughter and play. So let's ritualize this game. Will you join me? Will you join me? Set an intention to pull out a deck of cards or, or grab that card game that never got unwrapped or, or dig through the closet and find something old and dusty, a classic game, and sit down and give yourself the joy of setting up a board and having somebody join you. And if you don't have family nearby, maybe you have a neighbor that's waiting to become that family. I love to call them framily. When friends feel like more than family. When we gather like this, when we're face to face, something ancient wakes up in us. We notice the smile lines, the real ones, the earned ones. We realize which faces we haven't seen in a while far too long. We notice freckles, we notice dimples. We notice the tamr of the giggles and the snorts and the belly laughs. Each one has its own signature, its own vibration, its own love language. We feel bodies soften. Our nervous systems relax and unclench shoulders go back to where they belong. We feel the humming again, that natural resonancy. Humans forget that we have, and the things we thought were important, they seem to melt away like fog in sunlight, not because we ignore them, but because they were really never the core to begin with. We were just. Presented in that way. We were taught to be so regulated. We were taught to be quiet. We were taught to be small. We were taught to be separate. Let's rediscover that connection. Let's rediscover the connections through laughter and play. Our relationships can deepen roots, spread memories, grow vibrant, and actually stick in our minds, not just the camera rolls. And neighbors gathering strangers turning into the best of friends, kids, turning into our teachers, and the adults turning back into who they were before the world taught them to quiet down and sit still, and the things that we can all learn from each other in the process, in the exchange. Untapped potential waiting for all of us. And if you're sitting here listening to this and saying, we, we never stopped playing games. I applaud you. Please help me lead. Share a story about it. I mean, I have memories of drinks going through somebody's nose because they were laughing so hard, they'd swallow, you know, and. Cheers tipping backward from the leap of excitement and joy and the laughter that went silent, and we weren't sure if they were breathing anymore because they were laughing so hard we couldn't hear. The inhale I'm talking about nobody pours the wine to take the edge off because the edge is already fallen off by itself. Our cups are full of water, tea, nourishment, whole things, because the high is the joy. It's not what we sip or consume in our bodies. It's the nourishment that comes from deep connection and play is a magical way of opening that up and actually drowning out the noise. It's not numbing. It's awakening, it's remembering, it's not escaping. It's wholeness. Stepping back into our true wholeness. We're letting go of the distraction. Levity becomes medicine when we approach it that way, not distraction. This is connection as a ceremony. This is joy as a spiritual technology. This is the unexpected ritual that becomes the most anticipated moment in every family gathering that dares to try it. So what do you think? Are you ready to help rediscover the joy of playtime gone unplugged? I sure am. As a matter of fact, I've already unpacked all the board games that we moved with, and I'm gonna add a few more. I remember goofy, goofy memories of my kids playing this game with friends too called Telestration. And it's kind of like a Pictionary morphed together with like playing telephone. You know when you whisper one thing in your neighbor's ear and they whisper into their neighbors and it goes around the circle and it comes back and it's never exactly what it started out to be. But imagine in a drawing version. And I remember somebody's octopus drawing that looked more like a daisy because the tentacles were all the way around the head. Instead of hanging below and the misinterpretations and the roar of laughter that literally brought, brought on tears and bellyaches from laughing that hard. The reminiscing is just as delicious as the experience was to start with. So it's really a gift that keeps on giving that joy and levity and laughter. Um, that's a ritual ritual that I plan to reawaken as my family is getting together in person. I'm not thumbing my nose at anybody who still loves their digital games. Hey. That's fine, but there's something really, really special that happens when you get to see the person you're playing with. So if you need to do it on Zoom, that's cool. If you must have your PlayStation or your Xbox, maybe try doing it in the room with somebody and use that online as a backup. But human connection is so much deeper when we remember we are pieces of one. We are connected. And to support this fact, I compiled a list of games that are some of my favorites and others that were recommended to me, and I will link them up in the show notes. So if you are one of those people who's looking for some gifts, this might help your gift shopping. Season, and if you're not, I'd love to know. If it helps you discover something new, something fun that you just need for yourself, then all the better. But most of these games are for two players or more. I think there's a couple that are for one player, and I would love to know so much. I would love so much if you could share a story with me about how you have rediscovered and and deepened some relationships through joy, laughter, and play. And especially if it's through a board game, oh, I did include some card games as well. There's some classics and there's some new ones, but we are just here to foster that oneness. Let's heal through laughter. Let's see the stress melt away from our bodies, let our bodies regulate and let them heal themselves. Let us no longer need to numb out. Let us remember. We are pieces of this beautiful life that we're here not to finish, but to experience and to share. And whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, it doesn't matter. We are all here as part of that human experience and we have something to offer each other. So don't hide your light. Let's uncover it and let's share it with one, two, maybe more. And I hope that helps you picture love again in your days. Whenever you're listening to this episode, let's, let's honor fun and make fun, laughter and levity, a ritual that we return to again and again. See you next time, and thanks for listening.