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Guidepost 7: Cultivating Play and Rest, Letting Go of Exhaustion as a Status Symbol and Productivity as Self-Worth
This guidepost has two big elements.
First, play. There are a few key properties of play:
It’s time spent without purpose
It’s something you don’t want to end (lose track of time)
It dissolves your hyper-self-consciousness. You lose yourself in the action.
But Stuart Brown, author of Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, says “The opposite of play is not work, the opposite of play is depression.”
The same goes for rest. With great rest, I fully experiencing the moments of my days.
Start practicing:
Create regular time for unstructured play. Get physical. Dance. Play games. Throw a ball. Be with others, and let your inner child free! (Recommended reading: Play it Away by Charlie Hoehn.)
Practice bringing a playful mindset to the activities of each day. Ask: “How would I approach this if I were having fun?” Or “What would I do next if this were just a big game?”
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Many tweaks today as it argued against a straw person attitude of rest and play being put down. It also separates play from work, and rest from work, feelings I enjoy messing with: work and play can dance; and effort can be done in a restful way.
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