A note from Donna
As you read this, I am probably getting insanely excited about going to see David Tennant and Patrick Stewart in Hamlet in Stratford tonight. I saw King Lear last year with Ian McKellan and it was spell-binding, so I have high expectations of this one. I love to have a nice varied social calendar – from a music festival, to a day at the beach, to pizza and pictures, to Shakespeare. Marvellous!
Playtime
My home page for the internet is Louise Hay’s Affirmation page, so everytime I go online I have a nice affirmation there waiting for me. Today it was “I balance my life between work, rest and play. They all get equal time.” Hmmmm. How true is this statement in your life? Do you balance work rest and play? I realised (somewhat to my horror!) that play does not get equal time at all.
In fact, playtime pretty much comes in only if I’ve ‘booked’ time to play – like my day at the beach last week, or Hamlet in Stratford tonight – or if I have time ‘left over’ to play after I’ve worked and rested! The upshot is that playtime is getting about 20% of my time at most. RUBBISH! No more. It’s time to bump playtime up the priority list! I’ve got into bad habits lately, I’ve been busy and working quite a lot…and because I am good at self care, resting a lot too…but at the expense of playtime! Shocking.
And even worse, I know that I am better at this balance than most people I know. Many of them are very unbalanced (in terms of work, rest and play, not mentally unbalanced!), and the big missing ingredient is playtime. It’s heart-breaking to see, because playtime makes you come alive, playtime is fun, playtime is vital to you having a happy life – let’s face it, how much better do you feel when you’ve been on holiday? And why?
Because you’ve had uninterrupted playtime! Holidays are all about recharging your batteries and devoting yourself to having some fun…and then we come home and forget to play for another 11 months and 2 weeks. It’s foolish to neglect your fun muscles – if they get flabby you’ll get miserable. I’m sure I don’t really need to extol the virtues of play – you know yourself that when you take part in activities that you enjoy, you feel better.
So when was the last time you deliberately took part in an activity you enjoy and made a conscious choice to savour that playtime? Why not start tonight? Instead of sitting numbly in front of the idiot box, make an effort to do something playful and fun (if that’s tv for you, ok…but as long as you’re actively enjoying it, not just wobbed out in front of it!). You see people, it’s time to take playtime seriously!
Something to play with
Part 1: What is the balance of work, rest and play in your life? 60/30/10? 40/40/20? Have a guess at the proportions – your best guess will be quite accurate! What can you do TODAY to start restoring the balance (especially the playtime bit!)? Part 2: What do you do to play? Aim to get a list of 100 things (it might take time, but you can do it!). Part 3: Do something off that list DAILY.