🎈 FUN
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw
Fun is the sparkle in the air, the glint in your eyes, the lift in your spirit when something just feels good. In the ADHD terrain—where life often feels like a constant climb, a battle for focus or a race against time—fun is not a distraction. It’s a lifeline.
So many ADHDers have been taught to suppress joy until the work is done. But what if fun is part of the work? What if it’s the recharge, the connection, the flow state that makes everything else more bearable—more beautiful?
Fun for ADHDers often shows up as bursts of play, novelty, mischief, humour, movement, creativity. It's spontaneous. It doesn’t always follow the plan. But it lights us up. And that light is sacred.
Honouring fun means giving yourself permission to follow what delights you, even if it doesn’t look “productive.” It’s letting yourself be silly, curious, or impulsively joyful—not as a reward for behaving, but as a right you never needed to earn.
🧭 The HOPE Trail Map
- Helps or Harms: Have I mistaken self-denial for discipline? Is there room for joy today?
- Own My Values: I want to be someone who makes space for joy, play, and spontaneity—even in the middle of the mess.
- People and Pursuits: Who brings out my playful self? What do I do when I forget to “should”?
- Enact and Evaluate: Today, I’ll do one thing just for fun—with no outcome except joy.
⚠️ Trail Challenges
- Chronic overwhelm may turn joy into an afterthought.
- Shame or trauma may disconnect us from the right to feel lighthearted.
- Executive dysfunction may make fun hard to start, even when we crave it.
🪧 Trail Markers: Small Steps Toward Fun
- Make a “play menu”—a list of small, joyful activities that don’t require much planning.
- Dance to one song, colour outside the lines, or tell a dumb joke.
- Say yes to something you normally postpone “until everything’s done.”
🔥 Campfire Questions for Reflection
- When was the last time I felt truly playful—and what allowed it?
- What do I secretly find fun, even if I’ve dismissed it as “childish”?
- How might my healing deepen if I welcomed more joy, not just more tools?
Fun is not a reward—it’s a rhythm. It’s the beat that keeps your spirit dancing through the wilderness, even when the map is unclear.
