When’s the last time you played?
I’m talking full-on, delightfully silly, fun on fun on fun PLAY.
For most of us, it was probably sometime when we were kids. Maybe when we were teens if we were lucky. But as much as we relegate playtime to little kid stuff, it’s actually really important for us as human beings. Play enables us to create, improvise, imagine, innovate, learn, solve problems, be smart, open, curious, resilient and happy. It allows us to be better humans and reminds us of our better selves and of how happy we can be.
We need the chance to chase down that feeling of intense living.
We need to feel that wonderful lightness of just BEING.
Leisure researchers (yes, that’s a thing!) have found that play and leisure time is especially hard for women. And this isn’t just a modern woman thing. Historically, women have not really taken part in true leisure time and play unless it was something they felt was productive. So we feel ok if our leisure time is cooking or knitting or exercising because that’s contributing back to our responsibilities. But we feel a whole lot more guilty about true leisure time and play that has no purpose except to make us happy.
One of the women who signed up for the retreat in April sent me this message after she bought her ticket:
“This is all kinds of radical for me to take this kind of time for myself these days so I need to make this work.”
Deliberately choosing leisure time without children or family or obligations is nothing less than a courageous — subversive, almost — act of resistance. Choosing to play and feed your soul is an act of rebellion.
Step into your courage. Go out and play today.
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