When did you stop playing?

I don’t mean organised sports, or board games, but just play? If you watch a young child, once they can move, they play.

Climb things, jump, run, chase, throw, catch. At primary school (5-11 years) its play time between lessons.

Then we “mature”, move up to main school, and it becomes break time.

We start to learn the language of work, of difference between work and not work. We stop playing. Even sports and activity becomes organised. We are silently taught the words and patterns that make us a convenient member of standard society.

But.

Play is where we learned skills, practiced relationships and gameplay, where we started to understand our bodies and what they are capable of. Flex, extend, twist, push, pull, squat, lunge, balance, throw, catch, run, play.

Start playing again. Learn new skills through sports. Learn planning and risk and opportunity through chess, backgammon, card games. But sometimes, when you can, get outside and play.

Change your perspective on the environment and turn it into a playground. Yes, as grown humans, we sometimes need a certain amount of support to be able to play safely, perhaps we can’t just pull on our battered trainers and run around, but you don’t need the latest gadget, the shiniest sneakers, the current brand of celerity endorsed athletic wear. We can start to explore our environment in a different way. Move non-linearly.

Curbs become balance bars, parks become play areas, trees become targets for tennis balls, street furniture becomes…. you choose.

Through play we can shift our perspective, find out what does, and doesn’t currently work in the body, then apply adult learning, knowledge and experience to improve it.

And by shifting our perspective into playing, maybe we can solve other problems as well, movement often frees the mind.

You evolved through movement, you continue to evolve through movement. If you can, move.