This is Anne with your Coaching On The Go.

I want to wrap up the talk on play today.

It should go on forever because play is part of a happy life, but I want to just go over three more advantages to regular play in your schedule.

I am talking about three advantages today and the first is that play creates better sleep and physical health.

That makes sense, doesn’t it?

When you unplug from your technology, from the blue light, from being tethered to your desk or a couch for hours and hours, and you instead add walks or yoga or play or a ride to get ice cream on your bicycle, you have better overall health.

I’m not sure if the ice cream contributes to the better health, but it certainly contributes to joy.

By the end of a day with play, you sleep better.

The same principles that we talk about with the five-hour workday where you are working and playing in blocks, training yourself to shut off work when you go to play and shut down the play when you go to work. (oops, not totally though, because you want the creative aspects of play in your work.)

You get what I’m saying.

When you are working in blocks and focused on play or on work, you train yourself to disconnect and move on.

When you get to the next block and you’ve had variety, your being is interested in the shift.

By the time you get to bed at the end of a day you’ve been playing and working, doing a variety of activities, you are tired and your brain is ready to rest.

The second is when you play, you rediscover the joy of simplicity.

When you take time to step outside, take your shoes off, walk in the grass, or throw a snowball, it’s that simplicity of everyday activities like journaling, meditating, reading a book, or having a cup of tea out on the deck, that brings so much simple joy.

Taking the time to do that helps remind you how much beauty there is in life with simple pleasures.

The last benefit is that play encourages mindfulness.

Just like the other day when I was talking about connecting with nature through play, I mentioned how being in nature stops my overactive brain and sets me up to investigate something in the moment.

It causes me to be mindful of a particular wing on a dragonfly that is fascinating me, stopping time, and bringing full attention in the present.

That is why retreats are so powerful for people.

I know I’ve been discussing this over and over, but a retreat could be that break you’re taking between your two blocks of work.

And a retreat can also be a place you go where it’s easier for you to unplug, disconnect, and take that time for yourself and fully present in the moment without distraction.

Whether it’s meditating, reflecting, going for a run, riding your bicycle, or enjoying the leaves blowing around in the fall, playing allows you to slow down, and savor your life in a way that’s difficult in your tech-centric, noisy, screen-oriented, current life.

Play is underrated in our society and not taken full advantage of.

So be somebody who plays.

Be somebody who invites others to play.

The benefits are huge.

You will have a better life, more fun, more hunches, more connections, and more success.

Have a beautiful day.