Play

The other day, while I was looking over an article in the New York Times that a co-worker sent to me, I came across a reference to a new book called "Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul." A basic premise of the book is that play "is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. In fact, our ability to play throughout life is the single most important factor in determining our success and happiness."

I came across this book at the most perfect time. Exhausted from work and "training" after work, I kept desperately counting down the days to the weekend, struggling to get through the week. And I feel like this has become all too common lately. Monday through Friday is so scheduled, that I find myself longing for some playtime. Not in the typical little kid sense - no tea parties or impromptu baseball games in someone's backyard. Rather, just some unscheduled time. As much time as I want to go for a walk, or watch a movie, or read a book, or go to a museum, or do anything not involving some kind of exercise.

I haven't read the aforementioned book, but I imagine that what the author is getting at is that having a very scheduled life is not healthy. There needs to be unscheduled time, where you aren't, for example running to change out of your work clothes, eat dinner, throw all your swim gear into a bag, and rush off to swim practice. I think we have to remind ourselves of this from time to time. Because while all the training we do is great, we can schedule our lives so much that it is no longer healthy for us mentally. The end result is that we end up unhappy, when training for a triathlon or marathon or any other race is supposed to be fun and make us happy. Otherwise, why spend all that precious time doing it?