I had a good laugh yesterday, and the day before, too.  I seek out laughter as much as I seek out play. The two go hand in hand, so in looking for one, I find the other.

Scientific research has shown a correlation between laughter and health, but this one is a no-brainer.  I know I feel better when I laugh, both physically and emotionally.

When I was first struck with agonizing pain, I let laughter and play leave my life.  I was serious and dedicated to solving my health problem.  Laughter and play were frivolous, useless things that only people who were free of pain could afford.  My focus was entirely on my rotten luck, the terribleness of my situation, and my panic.

It took me several months to realize my victim stance was harming me instead of helping me.  Seeing myself as the victim made it true, and then I felt powerless.  I decided to stop being powerless, and so I became powerful.  Sound too simple?  It’s not.

I decided to become healthy by listening to my body and learning how my mind and body work together.  Never underestimate the power of intention!  As soon as I started listening to my body, I could hear all kinds of wisdom.  I felt compelled to find ways to play and laugh again, and realized that I’d had it backwards – I didn’t need to wait until I was healthy to have fun; I needed to have fun to create health.

Humor and play make life worth living.  What are you waiting for?  Find a way to play today, find something to laugh about, and share your story in the comments area below.   Decide what you’re going to create in your life.  Tell us about it!

It’s time to change the cultural belief that work comes first.  Play makes you laugh, laughing makes you feel good, and feeling good makes you do everything with presence, awareness, and love.  Now that’s the way to make the world a better place!

Here’s my playlist for today:

An intensely fun hour of hilarious talk with four great friends.
A ten-minute reading break over lunch.
A Mozart backdrop to my writing time.
A date with my husband.

Tomorrow, I’m taking my monthly play day.  That’s right – an entire DAY of play.  I no longer wait until I’m sick to take sick days, because sick days are no fun.  Now I take play days.  Which, come to think of it, has drastically reduced the number of sick days!  I’ve never been healthier in my entire life.  I used to have some kind of illness every couple of months – flus, bronchitis, sinus infections, etc.  In my journey to learn how to hear my body’s wisdom, this is the final piece of the puzzle.  When my body wants to relax, to play, and to hang loose, I listen.  I no longer constantly override its messages and put off playtime.

Here’s my playlist for my play day tomorrow:

A massage.  (Heaven!)
A leisurely swim.
Yoga.
My favorite TV show. (Bones!)
A pile of good books.
Snuggles with my dog.
A nap.

What’s on your playlist today?

I’m talking about play.

It’s an innocent, childlike, often overlooked magic weapon.

When you’re continually stressed out, your body is producing a lot of hormones and neurotransmitters associated with the fight or flight response.  Lots of things happen as a result – you get muscle tension, increased heart rate and blood pressure, shallow breathing, less blood flow throughout your body, digestion slows to a crawl, your body stores fat more easily, your metabolism slows down, and many of the biochemical processes in your body are in breakdown mode.  No healing happens, no recovery happens, and you begin to feel muscle fatigue and pain, overall exhaustion, and your immune function plummets.

When you are playing, it is quite the opposite.  A playful energy energizes and relaxes your body, allowing it to shift into the rest and digest response, fight or flight’s fraternal twin.  In rest and digest, your body is deluged with healing processes and everything takes time to repair, regenerate, and recover.  Your metabolism speeds up, your digestion speeds up, everything becomes more efficient, and you feel better.

Emotional work, thought work, mind-body work, and all those other things I talk about are all vital to your health.  But play deserves its own spot, front and center, as one of the most critical elements of healing.

Sometimes we have to do a lot of emotion and thought work to get to a play space, but once we’re there, it’s time to play like kids.  Literally.  Find a kid and study their play patterns.  Notice how they abandon themselves entirely to play.  Watch how they could care less about outcomes – it’s the actual process of play that brings them to life.  Delight in their vibrant good health as they play.

Then, bring play back into your life.  It’s much more valuable than we realize, so I’m banking on the experience, the feeling, the life energy flowing through you as you play to convince you that it is just as important (in fact, more so) than work.

This week, just ask yourself the following question to begin moving toward more play:

What feels or sounds like play to me?

Keep adding to this list all week long until you’ve got a page full, at least.  Then challenge yourself to come up with two more.  I’m serious about play!