A few years back, I led a book club at DAS where we read the book Play by Stuart Brown. Play is time spent without purpose and it’s essential to our physical and mental health and well-being. I was reminded recently of the importance of taking time to play and how it is a powerful source of energy. Our quantity of energy comes from the physical sources of energy: eating, sleeping and moving our body. The quality of our energy comes from the emotional sources of energy: laughing, crying, venting, etc. We gain focus and ability to absorb information through mental sources of energy and connection and belonging from spiritual sources of energy. If you stop and think about it, play touches on all sources of energy.

So, I gave myself permission to play recently. Instead of reading books and articles and watching talks or presentations in my field of work, I watched some “fluff,” The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I laughed, cried and vented! And one of the quotes that keeps coming up in the movie has stuck with me.

“Everything will be alright in the end, and if it’s not all right, then trust me, it’s not yet the end.”

Well, I think it’s safe to say in many ways, things are not alright. And maybe the opportunity or energy in that thought is that it’s not yet the end. COVID is still with us. Cleanup from the fires is still going on. Uncertainty in what the future will look like is there. And that’s ok. All this means that we have opportunities for new growth. We have problems to solve that take new creativity and risk. We have new behaviors to learn and new connections to make. If it were the end, we might fall back into old habits and ways of doing things, and miss something great.

What have you learned about yourself lately? What has what you’ve learned revealed? What are you going to do now? I encourage you to take some time to play this weekend. And ask yourself these questions after you’ve had a good time and felt a surge of energy. We all may benefit from what you discover! Please share your thoughts with me, I greatly value the feedback I get from you.

Lisa