Yesterday I talked about the importance of goofiness, silliness, and joy in the post “Sometimes, when you’re a kid, you just have to be kind of goofy!” Remember, the point was that goofiness is NOT just for kids! Today, I wanted to take that a little further. Why? Do you know how to be goofy? I bet you have a couple ideas. Yes those, in the back of your mind! Let them come out and play! You see sometimes we forget how to be silly. Or at least we think we have, especially if we’ve been depressed, or too busy, or too focused, or (for lack of a better word) too adult. But I think you’ll see that being goofy is just like riding a bike – once you get going (past that part of your brain that says that adults aren’t supposed to be goofy), you’ll be just fine – and laughing your head off!

So, without further ado, here are 101 ways to be goofy! Please feel free to give us your ideas on how to be goofy too! You can always reach the counselors of Life Skills Resource Group Orlando at 407-355-7378, our website, or our Facebook page. We love hearing from you! Our team of counselors is also here for your individual counseling, adult counseling, child counseling, couples counseling, and other mental health counseling needs.

How to be GOOFY:

1. Paint your face

2. Dress up in costume (with just makeup you could be a zombie and walk around looking for BRAAAAAAINS)

3. Go to the grocery store (or anywhere else) in costume

4. Choose a theme for the day, like triangles or orange: maybe you’ll only buy things in triangular packaging – maybe you’ll only eat things that are orange

5. Play with your food (arrange it into a picture!)

6. Have breakfast for dinner

7. Spoil your dinner with ice cream

8. Play MASH (or Duck Duck Goose or Red Rover or kickball)

9. Do your hair in a ridiculous way

10. Temporarily dye your hair (I’ve always wanted pink hair!)

11. Go sledding

12. Go tubing

13. Roll down a hill

14. Sing at the top of your lungs (How about “Do you know the Muffin Man”)

15. Dance – maybe even a dance routine with a friend (matching outfits???)

16. Wear your clothes backwards

17. Wear shoes that are too big for you

18. Try to put on an old piece of your clothing – old uniform? prom dress?

19. Tiptoe when you don’t need to be quiet

20. Knock on a friend’s door and ask if he/she can come out to play

21. Call a sibling and say “Tag!  You’re it!”

22. Buy your pet a new toy and make sure it gets used

23. See how many marshmallows you can fit in your mouth

24. Host a talent show with friends – give crazy prizes to everyone (silly putty, slinkies, silly magnets)

25. Create your own Iron Chef: duel a friend in cooking with a mystery ingredient (recruit other friends to choose the ingredient and judge)

26. Cook or bake something that seems really complicated

27. When something goes wrong, look for what’s funny about it (maybe your chocolate souffle is a gooey mess – sounds fun and delicious!)

28. Have a food fight (in a place you can clean easily)

29. Put a bell or streamers on your bike – or better yet, a playing card in your spokes

30. Blow up a lot of balloons and draw faces on them

31. Surprise a friend – maybe fill the friend’s bedroom with balloons

32. Go to a pool and jump off the diving board – or the high dive

33. Do a cannonball

34. Paint a stick-figure self portrait

35. Put your art on the fridge

36. Make warm fuzzies and give them out

37. Make a caterpillar with Play-Doh

38. Spin in circles until you fall down

39. Race up the stairs

40. Play ball in the house

41. Build a blanket fort

42. Use sprinkles on food or glitter on anything else

43. Wear two different colored socks

44. Have a pajama party

45. Tell old stories with friends – if you’re not in the same place, use Skype or Google Hangout

46. Plan a ridiculous vacation (you don’t have to take it – just planning is proven to make us happy)

47. Paint your toenails with happy faces

48. Draw on the windows with window markers

49. Buy a silly toy in the dollar section

50. Wear a shirt that says “Free Hugs” – give out hugs all day

51. Run the bases at a local baseball field

52. Make up a new sport – make the rules as confusing as possible

53. Play a video game while laying upside down

54. Play a toy trumpet, harmonica, or other instrument all day

55. Do a cartwheel

56. Do a somersault

57. Do a handstand

58. Learn to ride a unicycle

59. Teach your pet a crazy trick and put it on Youtube

60. Organize a neighborhood pet fashion show

61. Jump in puddles

62. Celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th, mateys!)

63. Do a dramatic reading of a story – make up different voices for all the characters

64. Lick the beaters after you make a dessert

65. Write a song

66. Invite friends over for the debut performance of your song

67. Send snail mail just because you were thinking of someone – draw them a picture in the card

68. Write a haiku

69. Fingerpaint

70. Compete to see who can make the best Shirley Temple (or other drink)

71. Wear a wig

72. Draw your own comic strip

73. Photocopy your face

74. Make a poster to cheer up a friend

75. Decorate a friend’s car or house

76. Fill a friend’s lawn with pink flamingos

77. Have a staring contest

78. Make the tallest sandwich you can

79. Build a card tower

80. Start a tradition – maybe a birthday hat or a white elephant gift that gets passed around your family

81. Bounce on a trampoline

82. Sing into your hairbrush or toothbrush

83. Spray paint your old shoes

84. Put a puzzle together, write a note on the back, and then take it apart and give to a friend

85. Combine two of your favorite board games into one

86. Use your camera’s timer to take pictures of you jumping – see how many people you can get in the air at once

87. Make silly faces in the mirror (or at a friend)

88. Make up your own jokes – try them out on friends

89. Draw a flipbook

90. Play on a jungle gym or slide

91. Have a scavenger hunt

92. Duel with lightsabers – be sure to make the lightsaber noise

93. Take your stuffed animal for a piggyback or shoulder ride

94. Leave a Nerf gun out for a roommate with a note that you have yours and the game begins now

95. Run with your arms out like an airplane, yelling “Wheeeeeee!”

96. Climb a tree

97. Play hide and seek – or Marco Polo

98. Practice different laughs – an evil laugh makes people wonder what you’re up to

99. Keep silly pictures around (like you in a costume) and tell the story of the pictures frequently

100. Invite an acquaintance to be goofy with you

101. Write yourself a reminder that it’s ok to be goofy and put it somewhere you’ll see it