Remember When You Used to Be Fun?

Remember when you used to laugh so hard you couldn’t breathe? When a random Tuesday night turned into a dance party? When you didn’t need a Google calendar invite to have a good time?

Same.

Somewhere along the way, we started treating fun like it was a reward. A luxury. A line item we’d get to eventually if the dishes were done, the inbox was cleared, and world peace had been achieved.

Plot twist: fun is the medicine.

Fun isn’t a distraction from real life. It’s what helps your nervous system handle real life.

Neuroscience agrees. Play, joy, laughter, dancing—all of it triggers the “safe and social” pathways in your body. That’s regulation. That’s resilience. And that’s why your spontaneous karaoke night probably did more for your mental health than your 17-tab spreadsheet of coping skills.

But here’s the catch: many of us avoid fun because it feels… dangerous. Not like “cliff-diving” dangerous. Emotionally dangerous. Like: If I stop to play, I’ll fall behind. If I laugh, I’ll lose control. If I enjoy myself, I must be slacking.

It’s not true, but it is familiar. And familiar feels safe, even if it’s suffocating.

So we delay fun. We earn it. We shrink it. We adult ourselves out of it. And then we wonder why life feels gray.

Let me say this clearly: joy is not childish. It’s not frivolous. And it sure as hell isn’t something you have to earn.

Joy is your birthright.

Fun is your nervous system’s favorite language.

And this summer, you don’t have to wait until the stars align to feel good.

Start smaller:

Play music from the year you graduated. Eat dessert before dinner. Get in the pool without worrying about your hair. Text that one friend who always makes you laugh-snort.

Stop waiting for the perfect moment to enjoy your life. This is the moment.

And yes—fun counts as self-care.

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