All Work and No PLay...

All Work and No Play...

There is a clear and obvious correlation between the fitness of children who engage in regular physical play and the lack of fitness of those who don’t. We’re not talking about sports here necessarily, though sport is an excellent way of engaging in purposeful play. When children play tag, skip or make up games outdoors they move without being aware of just how much they are moving. And they learn without even realizing that they’re learning. That’s why animals play. In fact, recently the government of Quebec voted to allow some rough play. That may alarm most parents but the fact is that some rough play makes children healthier and less afraid of the world as they grow up. Play is also an essential part of emotional health. Most of us know this. About our children. But it is just as true about grown ups. So, when was the last time you played? I don’t mean sport. Sport itself is great, but it is restricted play, it is competition with boundaries and rules. I don’t mean cards or board games. Those are fine, particularly if they involve using your mind. But again they are competition with boundaries and rules. Restricted play. I mean actually leave the narrow adult world behind and play. If you have kids or a dog then you may have been forced to play. And you may have found out how tiring that can be. That’s a good thing. So, if you don’t have a dog or small children, am I saying gather up your friends and play a game of tag? That would be awesome! But you probably won’t have much luck doing that without seeming looney tunes. But you could bring those aspects of play that we’ve lost as we’ve grown into adults back into your life. You can bring back exploration and discovery by going on hikes or just going for a walk somewhere where you’ve never been. You don’t have to push yourself all that hard. Just do something that you haven’t done in along time or go some place where you haven’t been in a while. I don’t mean a vacation. That’s important and good in its own way in that it removes you from your workaday world. But it’s not the same as a good active stroll or hike. You can rediscover laughter, I mean the kind of wide open laughter that children find in play, by doing or trying something silly, by failing ridiculously at something every once in a while. You can bring the mostly safe kind of danger that is involved in open play by risking being laughed at or by trying something that you do not understand or are not already good at. Try it. Play is good. Not just for children. For adults. Maybe more for adults even than children. So try find different ways of playing within your own life. Be silly. It’s okay. In fact it is very healthy.

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