The Spirit in Play

Squirrels, cats, monkeys, and whales play.  Dogs, dolphins, and crows play. So do we humans.

What is Play?

It's natural. It's any activity during which we feel pleasure.

The pleasure we feel might be physical, mental or emotional. Since the seat of our emotions is our spirit, play is a spirit-related activity.

Play alternates with work, rest, and sleep. We work to provide for ourselves what we need to stay alive- water, food, clothing, and shelter. We rest and sleep to assimilate, recover and regain our strength. We play for pleasure and pleasure re-creates us. Pleasure renews our spirit, that which makes us alive.

The Necessity of Play

Re-creation, renewal of our spirit, is a basic necessity of life. When we do not play, we do not renew and replenish our spirit. We weaken our spirit and make ourselves vulnerable to illness and injury. We increase our risk of premature death.

We cannot not play. We naturally play just as we naturally breathe.

An article from Scientific American says this about play:

 “Free play,” as scientists call it, is critical for becoming socially adept, coping with stress and building cognitive skills such as problem solving. Research into animal behavior confirms play’s benefits and establishes its evolutionary importance: ultimately, play may provide animals (including humans) with skills that will help them survive and reproduce." You can read the entire article by clicking on this link

Here's a quote from an article from HelpGuide.org

"Playing can boost your energy and vitality and even improve your resistance to disease, helping you feel your best." You can the entire article here

Improving Your Game

It can be helpful to become aware of the activities we do for pleasure. Make a list of the things you do that give you pleasure.

When you play, be all in. Don't hold back. Play!

After you play, rest. Rest gives us time to soak in the pleasure of play and allow it to renew our spirit at deeper levels.

Conclusion

It's not much of stretch to say that our lives depend on play. 

The more we work, the more we need to play. It renews our spirit.