Category: Play Now

The Beauty of Play

Have you ever wondered what happens when children play to their hearts’ content?

Now imagine what happens when adults get to play to their hearts’ content…

Wonder no longer! This is what we look like and what we sound like when a bunch of likehearted and openminded adults get together… we bring to life our full potential by tapping into our greatest individual and collective super power what Dr. Stuart Brown and I like to call True Play.

Playful Leadership: CREATION THROUGH PLAY ALCHEMY is a groundbreaking introductory course to the concept, practice and magic of Play Alchemy – a term coined by Portia Tung, the founder of The School of Play. Play Alchemy describes the process, tools and techniques for transmuting the seemingly insurmountable challenges we face into positive outcomes so that we can thrive and have fun making a living in a VUCA world.

JOIN US IN PLAYFUL LEADERSHIP ~ 7-9 May 2025

If you long to imagine at least six impossible things before breakfast and have realised a bunch of them by dinner time, this is the course for you. You’ll get to explore your relationship with play and creativity in community and experience deep joy as you regain your superpower of manifesting more of what you wish for like you used to as a child.

And we didn’t just co-write one song, we co-composed two! Special thanks to Stuart Cocks our music meister for putting music and video to our words of calm delight and sheer joy!

Song #1: Keep Calm Be Patient & Song #2: It’s Love Obviously #madewithlove #playfulleadership #playalchemy

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Happy 7th Birthday to The School of Play!

Play isn’t just an act of hope or faith. Play is an aria of consciousness. Play enables us to self-actualise through accompaniment and mutual support. This is why laughter is the sound of play. Laughter is the sound our heart makes when we are having fun.

It's Love Obviously

Having played for the past 30 years – both professionally and personally – for most of my adult life, I’ve discovered the golden key to game-changing transformation is by changing our relationship with play.

When our relationship with play changes, we change, the world around us changes. Play isn’t just good for us. Play is good for everyone.

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the Feast at the Party of Life as The School of Play turns 7 years old this week!

We made this to share with you. For each and everyone of us who yearns and learns to play the True Play way.

by Categories: Play Alchemy, Play Now, Play Your Life, Playful Leadership, Systemic Constellations

Are You Ready to Emerge and Play?

If so, we’ve assembled a gorgeous range of play adventures, be it in-person or online, that will inspire you to play well and play better – be it at work, at home or anywhere you go.

Playful Leadership

An exquisite and transformative in-person leadership programme held at beautiful Ashridge House, Berkamsted, UK

COURSE FULL: 8-10 May 2024 @ Ashridge House, Berkhamsted, UK

Four Seasons of Play

A highly enjoyable online play programme made up of individual one-off workshops designed to resource, restore and re-invigorate you through the Four Seasons

Begins 14 June 2024

PLAY THROUGH THE SEASONS

The Magic Circle

A 6-week online circle of like-hearted seekers who wish to manifest their playful selves through Play Alchemy

Begins 18 June 2024, every Tuesday for 6 weeks

MAGES ASSEMBLE

Play Alchemy

A deeply nourishing 3-day in-person introductory course to explore your roots of creativity

17-19 September 2024 @ Ashridge House, Berkhamsted, UK

ROOT TO RISE

Resonance Summit Recordings Package

You can hear Portia’s latest talk Play’s Hidden Symmetry: Constellations Through Play Alchemy by purchasing the amazing Resonance Summit 2024 recording package from Neuroscience Educator and Constellations Facilitator Sarah Peyton.

PURCHASE SUMMIT RECORDINGS

The Play Jungle Calls…

Isn’t it time you reconnected with your greatest superpower? If you long to answer the clamorous call of play, creativity or rejuvenation but aren’t quite sure how best to get started, why not schedule a chat over a virtual cup of tea with me and see what emerges?

One thing’s for certain, it’s never too late to start playing for your life or re-ignite your play brain. Let’s have a chat to get you on your way!

Tea Time with Portia the Play Alchemist

CHAT OVER A CUP OF TEA WITH PORTIA

by Categories: Play Alchemy, Play Now, Play Your Life, Playful Leadership

The Wheel of Time

“Can I read you a poem?” my new friend Di asks me just now as our video chat draws to an end. “It’s called Today by Billy Collins. I heard it on the radio earlier this morning and I thought you might like it.”

My heart giggles quietly with joy at being offered a poetry reading by an adult. I can’t, for the life of me, remember the last time this happened.

Meet Dianne Gammage, author of Playful Awakening – Releasing the Gift of Play in Your Life. I first came across Di’s soul-lifting book on play in the summer of 2023. The book resonated with me the moment it crossed my path and I’d been daydreaming about the kind of conversations we’d have over a cup of tea. So I wrote Di an email (I would have written her a letter if that were still fashionable) introducing her to my baby oak tree Querkie and telling her about my PLAY book.

As I move ever closer to completing the manuscript of my next book (next Thursday!), I cherish the many new and profound friendships I’ve made on my personal play adventure. It reminds me of what making true friends was like as a child. A time when I truly played and now that the wheel has turned – I am being invited to play again. And I extend that invitation to you.

You can find Di’s talk about Playful Awakening and play therapy here.

If you’d like to explore ways of experiencing more joy through play in your life – be it at work and/or at home, for you or with your team or with your family – let’s have a chat over a virtual cuppa.

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Lead from Your Heart in 2024 with Play Alchemy

If you’re looking to learn how to lead from your heart and have fun doing it, then you’ve come to right play space!

Playful Leadership is a unique, intuitive and deeply resourcing approach to cultivating your own leadership based on the powerful quintuplet of Play Science, neuroscience, psychology, coaching and Systemic Constellations. It is grounded in what Portia Tung, the founder of The School of Play, calls Play Alchemy which is made up of the process, tools and techniques for transmuting the seemingly insurmountable challenges we face into positive outcomes so that we can thrive, have fun and get more of what we want done in a VUCA world.

When asked how best to describe their experience on the Playful Leadership programme, participants unanimously agree with a smile and a cheer, “It’s not a course, it’s a PLAY-cation!” That’s because the word PLAY-cation sums up neatly that wondrous tingling feeling we get after a proper holiday from the routine and mundane and of having achieved a profound transformation that took barely any effort because it was so much fun.

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER NOW!

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Meet You Second Star to the Right

Dear Playmakers,

As this year draws to an end and we stand together on the cusp of a new year, I’d like to thank you for your warm interest, enthusiasm and commitment in leading more playful lives and enabling transformational change for greater good – be it at work, at home or wherever life finds you.

A Wise Owl Looks Back…

This year has been a rollercoaster ride of fun and growth as the Playful Leadership programme launched two brand new courses in the beautiful play space of Ashridge House, inspiration for Hogwarts, in Berkhamsted, UK.

In spring 2023, we cultivated greater emotional awareness and intelligence on Playful Leadership: Rejuvenation which re-connected us with some of our most powerful  inner resources to overcome the challenges we face.

In summer 2023, I splish-splashed with delight with Robert Digings on the subject of play and leadership in his podcast series Highly Relational – that play could not only be an approach to work but a credible and effective leadership approach I call Playful Leadership.

This autumn brought together the highest number of The School of Play’s alumni at a single event, along with new playmakers, as we accompanied one another on our individual journey back to our collective point of origin on Playful Leadership: Origination to increase our creativity by harnessing our passions, skills, wishes and dreams.

This winter we gathered in my home city of Milton Keynes for a 1-day workshop Glow in Prosperity to explore our relationship with giving and taking through techniques for manifesting abundance so it can percolate in different aspects of our lives.

Meet You Second Star to the Right in 2024

To celebrate the new year, we at The School of Play are merrily preparing a whole host of heart-warming and new ways for you to say “Yay!” to more play in 2024.

Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events by signing up for The School of Play newsletter-blog here.

The Play in Me bows to the Play in You and Those You Are Important To,

Portia

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From Christmas Dinner to a Festive Tea Party

Imagine the Christmas dining table as a clockface, where the first one to arrive sits at 12 o’clock. We continue clockwise as the next one to arrive sits on their left. Each of us continues to take our rightful place until the most recent joiner of the system pulls up a chair nearest to 12 o’clock to complete the circle. As you slowly look around the circle, beginning with the first to arrive in this system, how does it feel? How does your place in this system influence who you are and how you act – be it at home, at work, anywhere you go?

Now lean back a little and notice that this system doesn’t exist in isolation, rather it’s part of a greater whole. In the same way you are, being part of your birth family and all those who came before as well as being part of another system among newer loved ones, perhaps a family of your own.

As the Christmas season approaches its pinnacle, how lucky are you feeling this year? What if instead of trying to play our cards right at the Christmas dining table, we have a go at playing our cards better by making the most of the cards we’ve been dealt?

If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a merry one. If you celebrate in a different way, I wish you a merry one, too. And if you prefer not to celebrate, I wish you joy in the choice you have made.

Wishing you and your loved ones much love, light and laughter this winter season!

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Year 2022: Play – Make – Do You

What better way to celebrate what some are calling the “year of the new abnormal” by saying “Yay!” to play? You’re cordially invited to Four Seasons of Play, the School of Play’s freshest year-long programme where you’re invited to play, make and, most vitally, do you.

Through the unique practical mashup of the latest play science, psychology, neuroscience and coaching techniques, you’ll feast on fun and purpose towards transformative change, leaving each workshop feeling inspired and resourced to embrace all that 2022 has to offer. For you and those to whom you matter.

Enjoy each workshop as a standalone experience or as a combination of 4 modules in a year-long programme where you’ll learn about true play, innovative ways to cultivate your play intelligence and shift towards a play mindset as the seasons change. Play your cards right and you’ll grow as an individual and as a leader so you can thrive instead of just survive in what some folks are describing as “new abnormal” times.

Celebrate Each Season with Play

There’s no need to go it alone when it comes to creating the change you want to see or turning your dreams into reality. Experience the transformative power of play in the company of true leaders, adults who dare to play.

As American director and actor Orson Welles once said, “If you want a happy ending, that depends on, of course, where you stop your story.” Where will you choose to take your story?

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Laugh in the Face of Fear

Happy Beginnings Start with Proper Endings

Do you sometimes feel stuck in groundhog day in spite of your best intentions? Or perhaps you dream of escaping messy endings and long for better beginnings? According to one school of systemic thinking, the secret to happy beginnings are happy endings. Join us in a laughterful session on the secret to enabling happier beginnings and endings grounded in play science because transformative change happens when we laugh in the face of fear.

Upcoming Workshop: From Halloween to Festive Cheer – Towards Better Beginnings on 15 October 2021

Better prepare for new beginnings by joining us in a playful exploration of the vital themes of beginning, belonging and ending. In this highly interactive workshop you’ll have several chances to play at your edge on professional and personal topics of your choice in order to glean the necessary resources and learnings that make up the foundation of your new beginnings. You’ll be invited to explore core play memories that make up your play history and, in doing so, get the chance to reflect on, restore and resource your playful self. You’ll have the option to work on your own, in small groups as well as the whole group in order to identify and connect with what’s truly vital for you to flourish in your next beginning.

This workshop is part of the Four Seasons of Play 2021 programme. Each workshop can be enjoyed independently or as a combination of modules in a year-long programme where you’ll learn about true play, how to cultivate your play intelligence and shift towards a play mindset as the seasons change. Play your cards right and you’ll grow as a person as well as a leader by becoming more resourceful, resilient and real in these unprecedented and transformative times.

Workshop Takeaways:

  • Play Theory: Play Personalities from Dr. Stuart Brown, Play Learning Cycle by Scott Eberle and the latest play change theory Bobul Mechanics by Portia Tung
  • Systemic principles for enabling healthy relationships from start to finish
  • Increased self-awareness of your relationship with beginnings, belonging and endings
  • A powerful set of additional or renewed resources to create happier endings and beginnings
  • Increased resilience when dealing with professional and personal change.

This workshop is limited to a maximum of 8 participants.

Who would benefit from taking part in this workshop?

The Four Seasons of Play workshops focus on enabling individuals to develop the systemic mindset and skills necessary for an individual to lead effectively – be it yourself, your team, your family or your life. At each workshop, you’ll experience a range of eclectic tools and techniques you are unlikely to have come across before which you could then apply at work and at home.

Where do you sign up?

Join us for a taste of summer and delight your colleagues, family and friends with playful leadership by the seaside. Sign up for the workshop here!

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What a Wonderful World

New-Year-CourageEver since I can remember, I have approached each new year like Indiana Jones the Temple of Doom. For me, a new year is a paradoxical praline, a seductive chocolatey shell of adventure and challenge filled with a soft centre of unease flavoured with dread. And the only way to deal with dodgy chocolate? Run it off of course.

What I think about when I am running

As I set out from my doorstep, one foot pounding in front of the other, I thought about the gratitude I feel for my family. Of the freedom to do what will hopefully enable me to do my life’s work for long enough to make a difference.

And that’s when I remember one of the most useful lessons I learned in 2018: to welcome my Fear whenever, wherever and however it shows up. Then give it a hug.

And then I remember a curious riddle and answer I once saw while splashing about in a hotel swimming pool far away from home, spelt out in mini turquoise and white tiles: “What is the shortest distance between two people? A smile.”

Three Magical Words

And before you know it, instead of my usual greeting of “Good Morning!”, I find myself uttering a heart-felt wish out loud to each and every passerby: “Happy New Year!” First to a young couple out jogging together. Then to an elderly lady walking her cockapoo. And then to a family of father, mother and their grownup son. And then to an elderly man who seemed deep in thought.

In reply to my gift of a wish of “Happy New Year!”, that elderly gentleman said with deep sincerity, “I hope you make lots of money!” To which I reply with a challenge and a smile, “May be happiness!”

And that’s all it took, a simple wish of “Happy New Year!” from one human being to another to light up our faces and keep our hearts warm.

That’s when I remember what is probably the most beautiful song in the world: “What a Wonderful World” performed by Louis Armstrong. And my running adventure this morning was just like he sang, “I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do / They’re really saying I love you.”

And I’m reminded, “I hear babies crying, I watch them grow / They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know.”

What a wonderful world indeed. Happy New Year!

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