Why Playfulness Is Actually Strength.

Some people think being playful means you’re not serious.

That if you joke around, laugh easily, or bring lightness into a room, you must not understand the weight of the world. But after everything I’ve lived through and everything I’ve seen in other people, I’ve actually come to believe the opposite.

Playfulness is a form of strength.

For me, it’s always been about balance. I know when to be serious and sincere, and I know when to bring humor into a moment. It’s really just about reading the room. You don’t walk into a funeral cracking jokes, and you don’t stand stiff and silent at a wedding when everyone is celebrating.

Life has different moments, and each one calls for a different energy.

But when the moment allows for it, I almost always choose playfulness.

Part of that comes from empathy. I’ve always tried to put myself in other people’s shoes, no matter what I might be going through in my own life. Sometimes people carry things you can’t see—arguments they had that morning, financial stress, heartbreak, health worries, trauma they haven’t spoken about.

You never really know what someone is dealing with.

So if I can be the person who gives them a moment of laughter or a break from whatever storm they’re inside of, that feels worthwhile to me.

Maybe someone had the worst morning of their life, and then they run into me and we laugh together for five minutes. Maybe that moment doesn’t solve their problems, but it reminds them that life can still feel light.

That’s powerful.

I’ve seen this play out countless times while teaching dance. Before dancers go on stage at competitions, the nerves can be overwhelming. You can see it in their faces, the fear of messing up, the pressure they’re putting on themselves.

In those moments, sometimes the best thing you can do is joke about it.

I’ll say something silly about accidentally inventing a new dance move if they mess up, or make a playful comment just to loosen the tension in the room. Suddenly the fear softens a little. People breathe again. They remember that the world isn’t going to end if they miss a step.

Playfulness breaks fear in a way seriousness sometimes can’t.

Even in life’s heaviest moments, I’ve found myself trying to hold onto that light.

When my mother was dying of cancer, she was in a hospital bed. My mother was a very strong, stern, sometimes cold person throughout her life. In those final moments, I remember asking her to smile. She lifted her hands in exhaustion, almost like she was saying she was done fighting.

I couldn’t put myself in her shoes. None of us truly know what it feels like to be at the end of life until we’re there ourselves. But even then, I found myself trying to bring a little light into the moment.

Not because I was ignoring reality.

But because light matters.

Life is going to bring pain. It’s going to bring stress, fear, uncertainty, loss. That’s unavoidable for every single one of us.

But if you can still hold onto humor, kindness, and playfulness in the middle of all that… that’s not weakness.

That’s resilience.

And honestly, I think the world could use a lot more of it.