What Is A Whimsy Practice?

And Why Your Nervous System Needs One

Here's something really silly. I recently started paying for my coffee with a 3D printed fairy wand.

It holds my credit card. It is iridescent and completely impractical and I am not even a little sorry about it. Every time I tap it on the reader at the coffee shop something in me just... lifts. For one small ridiculous moment I am not a nurse or a yoga therapist or a business owner with an endless to-do list. I am just a person with a fairy wand buying coffee and it is delightful.

That is a whimsy practice AND this is Yoga.

Maybe you're thinking you don't have time for whimsy. There are real things to deal with. Serious things. And fairy wands are not exactly studied in clinical trials.

I hear you. However, here's the thing. I work with burnt out nurses. I spent twenty years in healthcare. I have watched what happens to people who spend decades being competent and responsible and relentlessly useful while the lighter parts of themselves get quietly shoved to the side as the available space within our mind and body are filled with all of the really heavy shit we've experienced that we say we will deal with... later.

Except later doesn't happen. The cost of that is the slow leeching away of our true self. The fun loving self. The I laugh really loudly at weird jokes self. The I know how to sit still and enjoy quiet self. All the versions of you that make you the unique, magical, and amazing person that you are.

Really, what is a whimsy practice?

One moment. Every day or most days. It exists for no other reason than to make you smile or laugh.

Not to be productive. Not so that you are better at your job. Not even stress management (although it absolutely does regulate your nervous system, which we'll get to). Simply for the purpose of joy. The pure uncomplicated kind that you don't need to justify to anyone.

What that looks like is completely up to you. That's the whole point!

For some people it's skipping on the sidewalk when nobody's watching. For others it's the silly socks that nobody sees under the scrubs but you know are there. The ridiculous kitchen gadget in the shape of a dinosaur or cat. The fancy clothes that are massively not required for the errands you're running. The playlist that makes you dance so hard your car shakes at a red light.

For me it's the fairy wand.

There's no correct version. There's only the thing that makes your nervous system do that involuntary exhale. The thing that makes you feel briefly, genuinely, unequivocally alive.

What does this actually do to your nervous system

Chronic stress doesn't just exhaust you physically. It flattens you emotionally.

When your nervous system has been managing threat for long enough it stops allocating resources to your ability for emotional experiences. The lightness. The spontaneity. The capacity to feel genuinely delighted by something completely stupid and wonderful.

Those things don't disappear overnight. It's a long, slow, quiet process because survival has been demanding more of your energy for a really long time.

This was a profound moment for me when I realized that the person who I had been 10 or 15 years ago was much more fun and light hearted. She laughed. A lot! She enjoyed small quiet moments with friends in deeply meaningful ways. And I missed her.

Here's what nervous system education often leaves out. Regulation doesn't only happen through breathwork, somatic practice, and meditation. It also happens through play. Through laughter. Through the belly laugh that comes out of nowhere and the moment of pure silliness that makes you forget for thirty seconds that you are a person sitting elbow deep in the middle of someone's actual nightmare.

The fairy wand is doing real physiological work. I'm not even joking.

What it does for who you actually are

This is the part that matters most to me.

Our brain thrives on patterns. What we repeat often is what we become. The version of you that exists right now has been shaped by what you've been asked to be, rewarded for being, and trained to prioritize. For most nurses (most women) who have spent their lives being useful, capable, and endlessly responsible, the playful version of themselves got shoved to the side so often that we stopped noticing it happening.

Until one day you realize you genuinely cannot remember the last time you did something that had nothing to do with making someone else happy.

A whimsy practice is how you start letting her back in.

Not dramatically. Not all at once. One tiny moment at a time.

When you skip on the sidewalk you are not just being silly. You are sending a signal to the part of yourself that she is still exists. That she doesn't have to wait until everything is handled and everyone is taken care of. That you have finally earned the right to exhale.

She gets to exist right now. On a Wednesday. At the coffee shop. With the wand.

How I use this with clients

In Yoga Therapy sessions, I encourage every private client to create a whimsy practice.

Not because it's cute. Because I have watched what happens when someone who has been surviving for a very long time rediscovers their capacity for lightness. It is not a small thing. It is actually one of the most significant shifts I witness.

The practice is simple. One moment a day. Intentional. Completely dedicated to joy. The how is entirely up to them. I'm not prescribing anything. I'm just holding the space for them to remember what makes them light up and then reminding them to actually giving themselves permission to do it.

The permission is always the hardest part. It means looking at joy as medicine.

Somewhere along the way most of us absorbed the idea that joy is something you earn. That play for adults is selfish. That joy is a little indulgent when there are serious things happening all around us.

That idea is just so freaking wrong!!! It robs us of joy and quietly, over years, it takes a real toll on our nervous systems.

How to find yours

You don't need a fairy wand. Although I absolutely recommend it!!

This practice of using self care practices to create intentional joy requires one thing from you. One honest answer.

What is something that makes you light up? It doesn't matter how small, silly, or completely impractical? Remember this should not be another check mark on your To Do list. And not someone else's idea of what should bring you joy. Not what sounds like a reasonable self care choice.

What actually makes your heart flip? That brings out that I can't hide it smile? The belly laugh? The thing that makes you forget for just a second that you are a responsible adult with a very full life.

Here is your invitation. Find that thing. Do it today.

Not because it will fix everything.

Because you are a whole person. Not just a nurse. Not just a caregiver. Not just the one who holds it all together.

The part of you that knows how to play has been waiting long enough.

Give her the wand. 💜