Why you need to play (and play nice!)

In June’s issue of OCS, I discussed the importance of encouraging children to exercise and eat well. This issue is all about your passions and the importance of living now. It’s the middle of summer, and now is the prime time for outdoor recreation and play.
Play, as defined by Webster’s dictionary, is activity or exercise performed for amusement (as opposed to work). Yet Mark Twain once commented that play and work are words used to describe the same activity under different circumstances. Playing can be incredibly complex (the strategic move of a hit and run with a full count and 2 outs in a baseball game) or obviously simple (the crooked smile of an infant reacting to the voice of his father).
You can never play too much, but some of us don’t play enough. The exercise you do each day (and I know you exercise each day, right?) should be fun, enjoyable, and virtually playful. But at the same time your playing should be cerebral, inspirational and practically therapeutic. You increase your potential every time you play, just as you increase your potential with every healthy meal and an adequate amount of sleep. I am a firm believer in nap time for adults and children.
Find an activity you enjoy and do it. Set a date for your expedition and begin preparing. The Latin expression, carpe diem (which means seize the day), became incredibly popular after The Dead Poets’ Society, a movie featuring Robin Williams. Make your life extraordinary. You can start by working hard but playing even harder. At the end of everyday, a moment of play or enjoyment should easily come to mind. Playing has incredible attributes to the human psyche, and playing can transform and improve the health of someone quite dramatically. Just as a healthy diet can heal physical ailments, playing can do the same for one’s mental and emotional capacities. Playing nice (fair) can’t be stressed enough
Attunement play, body-play and movement, object play, social play, imaginative and pretend play, story-telling and creative play are the seven types of play. With so many types, there is no reason for any of us not to be able to play everyday.
Go to the park (there are over 50 in St. Johns’ county) with your family, play hide and seek with your children outside (or even indoors). Play dress up or imagine you’re an astronaut in space. When was the last time you played kickball or just threw a Frisbee with a friend?
If you don’t have children, or even if you do and you want time for yourself, go for a bike ride, run around the block, hike through the woods (Moses Creek Wildlife Preserve off of S.R. 206 is beautiful). Some of your most inspiring or cathartic moments can happen while you are playing. The point is to do something fun, and do it today. You owe it to yourself. Seize the day and go out and play.

visit: www.staugustinebootcamp.com or www.joshromaine.com