what if I told you that you could "fake it til you make it" when it comes to vibing, whimsy, playfulness, etc
I promise you don't need to understand everything 100% inside and out in order to enjoy it
come on in, the water's perfect
it's not a serious discussion. you don't need to converge on definitions before jumping in. you can just catch the ball and throw it back without knowing what the "rules" are
when you were a kid, did you ever play with another kid who didn't speak the same language as you? and you found a way to play and have fun anyway, right? sharing toys, building structures together, co-creating w/o words. vibes can be *so* enriching and carry us such a long way
when I was in HS, one day my bestie called me out of the blue. instead of saying hi or something "normal", she started asking me if I had any green chairs for sale and that she wanted to buy a chair. she was giggling and putting on a voice. first I was confused, then flustered,
then slightly irritated. I tried asking what was up but she kept up the act. then I realized being irritated was all on me, and relaxed, and (quite awkwardly!) started throwing the ball back. I forget what exactly I said, but I could hear the delight in her voice when I started
you can literally just *holds up spork* 🤪 your way into vibing and being playful! it's perfectly okay not to have a "natural" feel for these things. frankly I'm not convinced there's anyone at all who truly "understands" it. a lot of it is a shared hallucination of sorts
it can be a little anxiety-inducing, esp. to those on the spectrum. but make sure you're not confusing "it makes me feel anxious" for "I don't like it, it's beneath me, etc"
because it is so, so rewarding if you just let go and allow yourself to have fun
that being said, OF COURSE there's nothing wrong with genuinely not being into it! it's not everyone's cup of tea and that's fine
but for those that are, and don't know where to start / believe it's inaccessible to them, hopefully this can serve as some kind of reassurance 💖✨
I don't always fully understand the playful things others say before responding to them. I get a general vibe from them, I spitball something to throw back at them, and then we work from there. it's so much fun
(am I ruining the magic slightly by legibilizing it? ✨ no.)