The Value of Play in Your Life

Does it feel like you are caught in a never-ending cycle of more and more demands and time commitments with less leisure time? If you have found yourself on a path of increasing pressures and decreasing “play” hours in your life, you’re not alone.  Did you know that more than 30% of Americans don’t use all their vacation days?

“You can learn more about a society by observing the way they play as opposed to how they work.” ~ A. Bartlett Giamatti

 Our high tech life with its accelerated pace has fostered a culture that seems to be always working, always rushed and always connected. Although on the surface it seems we are always “connected”, we are conversely becoming more disconnected especially to ourselves. (Hold on, I’m surfing the web, writing this newsletter and need to finish a round of “words with friends” on my smart phone while feeding my dog, making dinner and dreaming of ways to make the world a better place). Sound familiar?

With everyone glued to their smart phones and iPads, laptops at the beach, internet connections at every other café, and home offices that beckon us all hours of the night and day, it’s hard to separate “play” from “work.”

We are constantly surrounded by challenges to turn down the external noise in order to tune into ourselves.  In order to maintain balance in our lives, and for our ultimate well-being, play is important.  That, I believe, needs repeating.  Play is Important!

“Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some”. ~ Robert Fulghum

A perfect opportunity to put those wise words into action and have an exciting chance to experience in the pleasures of “play” is a personal invitation for you to attend a joy-filled week to Move and Rejuve on the beaches of Mexico. Come and learn and enJOY life! 

Lenore Terr, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of Beyond Love and Work: Why Adults Need to Play, argues that play is crucial at every stage of life. In play, we discover pleasure, cultivate feelings of accomplishment, and acquire a sense of belonging. When we play, we learn and mature and find an outlet for stress. “Play is a lost key,” Terr writes. “It unlocks the door to ourselves.”

When we are completely involved in play, our cares and worries disappear. A yoga practice, playing a game of tennis, or being thoroughly engrossed in a good novel, we feel pleasurably alive and light-hearted. There is nothing like play that allows us to be present in the moment.

If you feel like you don’t have enough play time in your life (and who doesn’t), try these suggestions:

Turn-off. Turn off the television, computer, i- pad, mobile phone for at least two hours a day.

Let your mind wander. Recall what you used to enjoy doing or what you always wanted to do before we became so technology-oriented.

Include others. Invite someone over to play, just like you used to when you were a kid. Nothing planned, nothing structured. Let your play evolve naturally. (insert naughty pg-13 comment here ;))

Shhhhh.  Allow silence to nurture you.  Imagine 2-minutes a day when you diet from thoughts, judgments and the constant rumble of the mind. Practice listening to your breath or meditate. And play with possibilities! Ahhhhh….

Get  physical. Go for a walk, ride your bike, rent some skates, break out the croquet set from the basement, go for a swim or a run.

Come to the Move and Rejuve Retreat. You are invited to delight all your senses and immerse yourself in a joy-filled week long retreat in Mexico. Offering the opportunity for physical, mental and spiritual rejuvenation, through learning techniques and an abundance of “play”! Click here for more information. We will see you on the beaches of Mexico! Yahoo!

Any time you have the choice of whether to work “just one more hour” or give yourself over to play, consider what Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

What can you do to be more playful in your life?

Author’s content used under license, © 2008 Claire Communications