Re-Create Your Mind Part 2: How Recreation Is Essential to Brilliance and Abundance

By: Michelle S. Fondin   

As children, we look forward to recreation time during the long school hours. Sitting is unnatural for a child, and recreation allows for the disbursement of pent-up energy innate to a young person’s growth.

     Even though my elementary school didn’t have a playground, my classmates and I were still excited about jumping rope or kicking around a dodgeball in the parking lot after lunch. However, recreation was mainly about the free time to talk with friends and use our imagination to build stories about being an actress or a hero. As we got older, it was about forging meaningful friendships and alliances, mostly against the boys, until boys became more interesting for us.

     While the elementary teachers likely considered recreation time a well-deserved break from students, the value of that time often far exceeded classroom learning.

Then we grew up.

     As grown-ups, we have responsibilities and must be more serious about life. We have bills to pay and obligations to meet. Often, we have the demands of a boss or family members who rely on us to perform. The more the weight of adult life piles up, the more we push down recreational activities as a priority in our overly scheduled lives.

     Adults often see recreation as frivolous and unnecessary. Some might say, “It’s nice to have when I have the time.”

I would like to propose that recreation is essential to living a balanced, healthy, happy and abundant life.

     A few years ago, I didn’t believe this to be true. I grew up with a strict work ethic. Some of that work ethic was self-imposed, as I saw my mother struggle with money while growing up. And the other part was because I saw my father work incessantly. As a result, my mind told me that if I wanted to make it in life, I needed to work hard and that play was optional.

      To that end, I’ve spent most of my adult life working hard and not paying too close attention to recreation or friendships. In fact, slowing down to take leisure time bothered me. I felt I was wasting my time. In the gaps of time I had where I wasn’t working, I felt guilty as if I should have been accomplishing something. Therefore, I never enjoyed my time off work. And my internal feelings went even deeper. I felt like a failure if I was non-productive.

Those deep feelings of inadequacy when you’re not being productive come from the infectious Western mindset of poverty consciousness.

     The “work-hard” mental mindset of the West, and most notably of the United States, shows a lack of trust in the abundant universe. It pulls you away from the faith and trust that “I take a step, and then God takes a step,” representing mindful balance.

     The work-to-the-bone mentality states, “I must do it all alone. If I don’t do it, then no one else will.” Or “If I don’t do it, someone else will take my job.” It’s all rubbish.

Recreation or re-creating the mind is about being more productive, abundant, and effective.

      When you allow your mind to relax and your imagination to run wild, you positively rewire your brain.

     For example, I notice that I get my best ideas for writing and videos while running on the beach. The beach is my sanctuary. I feel free and alive when I’m there. So it stands to reason that I get inspired in that environment.

Have you ever had a problem you couldn’t solve, no matter how hard you worked on it?

      Then you stepped away from the problem, did something totally unrelated, and the solution came to you?

     This has happened to me hundreds of times. I am known to be stubborn, and my parents had to constantly tell me, “Michelle, step away from the project and go to something else for a bit.”

    Our minds work better when given the time to relax and expand. Mental focus equals constriction, and recreation equals expansion. We need both to function properly.

     My moment of healing and realization on this matter came when I purchased an annual pass for Disneyland. As I mentioned, I am not one for free time, so for me to enjoy recreation time, I must unplug completely. Disneyland is the perfect place for me to do this. In fact, that was Walt Disney’s intention in building Disneyland. At the entrance sits a plaque, “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” In other words, leave your present mindset, worries, and troubles and let your mind wander.

     Recreation mustn’t be a lofty goal. It must be an integral part of your existence if you are to come to a place of enlightenment. Recreation must lift you out of what you routinely do and allow you to see things you usually don’t.

    We are recreating ourselves in every moment of our lives. But if we get stuck in the humdrum and the constant drone of routine life, we lose our zest and expansion that leads to fulfillment.

     In the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, the author suggests taking yourself on an artist’s date once weekly. The artist’s date is a place or a space that brings you pleasure and allows your mind to explore. You don’t have to be an artist to follow this recommendation. We are all artists in our own right. In other words, we are all creating something in our lives whether it be wealth, a career, a family, or a meal.

     Upon reading The Artist’s Way, I was excited to set up my artist dates. But then, you know, life gets in the way. A couple of days ago I solidified my decision to stick to my artist’s date and discovered a beautiful California State Park that is only ten miles from my home. Crystal Cove State Park will be my new recreational space when I need to get away and renew my thoughts.

     Scheduling in adult recreation might appear to be a lofty goal in your already busy week. But I assure you, your health and life demands it.

Here’s where recreation might lead you…

•  It might lead you to a new business idea.
•  It might lead you a new creative project.
•  It might lower your anxiety and blood pressure as a result.
•  It might allow you to meet new friends.
•  It might allow you to meet your soulmate.
•  It might help you get rid of the “someday syndrome.” (Someday I’ll go to that park, museum, ice cream shop, new town, etc.)
•  It might help you learn to live more in the present moment.

     And if you’re still not convinced, imagine if your child’s (or nephew or niece’s) school set a rule in place to exclude recreation time permanently. What would you do?

     If you would be upset and protest, why would you exclude recreation for yourself? Give yourself the gift of living life and not just doing it.

Wishing you a life of joy, laughter, and play.

Namaste.

Love,
Michelle