Not sure if you have the energy to work on your well-being?

No problem. We’ve got you covered.

These five strategies are things you already know how to do. You started doing them naturally when you were little. Now it’s time to rediscover why they felt good then — and why they can create joy, focus, and connection now.

Practice one for a few minutes each day of the work or school week, or focus on one for an entire week or month. It’s up to you. Either way, Flop Balls help make the practice playful and put the learning into action.

Let’s get started...

Breathe

Have you ever focused so hard on something that you stopped breathing? Focus, especially when learning, is a great attribute, but not at the expense of well-being. With all of the time we spend online, screen apnea is on the rise. This is the temporary stopping of breathing or shallow breathing that can happen while working in front of a screen.

Time to step away from the computer and focus on your breath for a few moments. Why? Deep breathing helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which can calm the body and support a healthier stress response.

Try this: Stand up and flop to get your blood flowing. Start breathing from your abdomen as you toss. Try flopping slowly and taking one deep breath with each toss to get into a soothing, rhythmic pattern. How does that feel?

Play

We’re meant to play at all ages. In fact, it’s healthy for us to play. But at some point we learn that we’re supposed to stop playing and “get to work.” As play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith observed, “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.”

Not sure where to start? Look at children. Spend time with your kids, nieces, nephews, or friends’ kids and play. Or think about the ways you liked to play when you were younger. Was it physical, creative, building things, puzzles? Try different things until you find what you enjoy doing just for the sake of doing it — that’s play .

Try this: Pick up the Flop Ball and invent a trick. You don’t need a lot of skill to do this. Try moving it from one part of your body to another in a new way. Or add a fun sound effect. It doesn’t matter what you do — just make it fun and unique to you.

Laugh

Before playing with the Flop Ball, I learned to juggle. And it wasn’t pretty. Any time I started to get frustrated, I would put the juggling balls down. I preferred to neatly watch from the sidelines than feel awkward and messy as I literally dropped the ball.

Then one day, I watched someone else learning. She dropped...and laughed . She dropped again and laughed more. Confused at first, I eventually got curious and picked up a few juggling balls and tried it myself. Laughing when I dropped shifted everything for me.

It gave me permission to have fun with the process — and not to put pressure on myself about the “perfect” end result. That day, I juggled for the first time.

Try this: Learn a new skill with your Flop Balls. Maybe it’s a new flip like the front flip or the in flip. Watch a video online and then try it yourself. Know ahead of time that you’re going to drop, and be ready to laugh. How does that shift the experience for you?

Stretch

For me, not challenging myself to stretch and grow in new ways definitely correlates to that languishing feeling of “muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.”

So I start paying attention to what makes me curious. What do I want to learn more about? What skills do I want to develop for work? What might just be fun? Those are the directions I start stretching.

What are you curious about? What would be a stretch for you?

Try this: Use your Flop Ball as a reminder to stretch out of your comfort zone. Take a trick that you can already do and go higher or wider. Maybe add more flips or use your other hand. Be curious, play with it, and create something new.

Connect

Flopping is a great way to get out of your own head and reconnect with your body. By focusing on the learning happening in your hand, the whirling thoughts in your head often clear away. That focus can help clear the mental clutter and bring you back into the present moment.

It’s also a great way to connect with others. Find a friend or colleague and pass the Flop Ball back and forth on the backs of your hands. Start standing close together and then move farther apart. For an added challenge, try passing two at a time.

When playing, our authentic, childlike selves come to the surface. We are more present with each other. As the saying goes, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” From there, stronger connections can build.

Try this: Pass a Flop Ball with a friend and pay attention to if, or when, you apologize. When you’re learning a new skill, there’s no reason to apologize for dropping. It’s part of the process of playing, and everybody drops. We suggest saying “I’m awesome!” instead :)

The Wellness Pack was created by Dawn Daria, Education Director of Playful Campus and Co-Founder of Flop Ball. Her background in education and psychology fuels her passion for self-awareness and growth through experiential learning.