Play as Practice: Why Joy Might Be the Discipline Your Spirit Needs
What if play wasn’t the opposite of discipline, but the very thing your spirit has been craving to grow?
Not the kind of play we “earn” after the work is done, but the kind that cracks us open in the middle of it. The kind that lets your body exhale, your mind soften, and your soul whisper, yes! joy is sacred too!
We live in a world that worships productivity. Discipline is often framed as grit, focus, repetition, and sacrifice. And yes, these qualities can serve us. But when discipline is stripped of delight, it becomes brittle.
In my own experience, the deepest breakthroughs haven’t come through discipline and control.
They’ve come through the moments I let myself laugh until my belly ached, dance without a plan, or follow an impulse that made no sense but made me feel utterly alive.
That is the language of spirit. That is discipline too. Just one written in the ink of joy.
The Tantric view of play
In Tantra, play is not trivial. It is a current of Shakti herself. Creative, flowing, mischievous, alive. The body’s joy is not a distraction from spiritual practice, it is spiritual practice. When you laugh, when you surrender to silliness, when you let life surprise you, you are opening to the divine just as much as when you meditate in stillness.
Tantra teaches that our sexual and sensual energy is not limited to the bedroom: it enlivens everything. In the same way, playfulness enlivens discipline. Without it, practice becomes hollow. With it, practice becomes devotion.
The inner child as guide
The child in us already knows this. The one who once ran barefoot, who found magic in mud puddles, who laughed until collapsing in the grass. That part of you is not gone. It’s waiting. Tantra calls this the Divine Child, the part of us that balances the seriousness of adult life with innocence, wonder, and erotic innocence.
When you integrate that Divine Child, you don’t abandon discipline. You let discipline become playful: a dance instead of a duty.
The marriage of discipline and play
True growth often requires both:
The discipline of showing up daily (Shiva, masculine element)
The playfulness that keeps your heart open and your soul nourished (Shakti, feminine element).
Without discipline, play loses its depth. Without play, discipline loses its heart. Together, they create a rhythm of life that is sustainable, joyful, and full of wisdom.
As Tantra reminds us, to live on purpose is not just to act with focus: it is to align with what lights us up. Play shows us what lights us up. Discipline helps us embody it.
So maybe your next breakthrough isn’t in more effort or more stillness, but in letting yourself get messy, curious, and utterly enchanted with the moment you’re in.
What if play is the missing mantra?
What if your growth is waiting for you in the giggles, the chaotic dancing, the wildness?
An invitation
Pause here, and ask yourself gently:
When was the last time I played without needing a reason?
Where might joy be asking to slip back into my daily practice?
How could my discipline become more alive, more mischievous, more enchanted?
Because maybe your spirit is not asking for more control. Maybe it is asking for more play… Something to think about…
Much love,
K xx
