Adulthood Rebooted: How To Stop Being A Compressed Adult

Updated: November 2022

We’re doing adulthood differently these days. Are you in or are you out?

You see, there’s an archetype of the adult that is dying its death as we speak.

If you’re in that archetype, as you get older, you stop trying new things.

You stop sitting on the floor. You stop doing things for the fun of it. You stop playing in the carefree truest sense of the word.

You think that a part of ‘getting older’ is to develop aches, pains, and injuries. You are the person who starts “slowing down”.

You start becoming serious as your default mode. You start guarding. You start shrinking. You close up.

You go longer and longer without moving, thinking, or playing in a brand new way.

Your body starts rebelling. Your soul feels a little more squished. And you just figure… “guess that’s adulthood.”

And you accept it.

This is the Compressed Adult archetype.

Being an adult doesn’t have to be that way

There’s someone who bucks the Compressed Adult archetype. Maybe it’s you…

Maybe you’ve sensed that it just can’t be true. You feel something inside of you resisting what society tells you should happen to your body, your spirit, your energy, simply because you put another candle on the birthday cake.

If so, then welcome to modern adulting and being an Expansive Adult. 

It’s an option for you now and it’s blasting the old archetype to smithereens. Modern adulting is a way of living an expansive, uncompressed adult life.

An Expansive Adult cultivates a vibrant life of play, learning, adventure, and exploration – regardless of age.

They are capable of acting like an adult who can make responsible decisions while also maintaining a level of carefree exuberance, and “do it for the fun of it” attitude.

The Expansive Adult includes free play, adventure, and silliness, as a regular part of their life. Not just because it’s fun, but as I talk about in my book, because it can actually help alleviate pain and create a sense of ease in the body. 

But what if people think it’s weird

Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as having said, “People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”

If someone else thinks what you’re doing is weird, who cares? That’s on them, not you.

Have the inner strength to persist despite what others think. It’s a weak individual who sways at the first hint of a differing opinion.

It should be noted, being an Expansive Adult is not simply about throwing your life into the wind and all sense of responsibility with it. Rather, it’s about finding ways to bring lightness, curiosity, and joy into your life.

And while you can get those things by sitting on the couch watching your kids or grandkids simply exist, it is far greater to immerse yourself in the experience with your whole body.

Play with your kids or grandkids or fur kids. Try a new form of exercise. Dance in your kitchen. Take up a sport or a craft that asks you to use your hands and or your body. Walk along the curb like it’s a balance beam while on your daily walk, just like you would have as a kid. Explore, your own city or somewhere else, with child-like wonder.

Being an Expansive Adult is about the energy you pursue your life with.

It’s about being capable of holding space for handling adult-y stuff and still holding space for play, adventure, joy, and silliness.

It’s about noting the Resistance that you feel around trying something new and expanding yourself – and doing it anyways.

It’s about demolishing the old beliefs that you can’t feel good in your body past a certain age.

So which do you choose?

The antiquated archetype of the Compressed Adult… Or life as an Expansive Adult.

I know it can be scary to start shedding the layers of compressed adult-ness if you’ve been keeping that joyful, light, expansive adult under wraps. But I promise you, on the other side of that nervousness is freedom, happiness, joy, self-confidence, and yes even a body that feels better. And it will be far greater than any fear you felt.

Want to take an Expansive Adult approach to your workouts and lifestyle?
Join me in my Becoming Unbreakable Workout & Lifestyle Course and experience how fun and joyful it can be to serve as caretaker of your body!