PLAY: The Direct Path to Health, Wealth and Happiness

Play is the HIGHEST form of research. -- Albert Einstein

Get serious.
Focus.
Do.
Take care of business, life, everything.
You have got this.
YES, you do.
YES you have amazing talents, gifts and brilliance to share with the world.
You are doing it.

AND, if you are ready for more fun along the way, ready to take the journey a little less seriously and regain perspective on what is important to you right here and now, I invite you on a journey. It's short and you can pick up all of your old ways when we are done but I double dog dare you to join me on this adventure.

Ready, set, leap!

Really, YOU ARE WORTH IT!

PLAY!

Play is for kids. It's so childlike, so immature you might be thinking. The mind doesn't believe in play. The mind needs to know the answers and there are no right answers when you begin to shift life from all work to all play. This doesn't mean you aren't productive, helpful and generous, it doesn't mean you sit and watch the world go by but it does mean you have a little more fun along the way and I guarantee your body and mind (and everyone around you) will thank you. Everything works better when moving from play rather than from push.

I'll share a personal story. I am one of those people who spent many years in the mode of "when in doubt go faster, harder, do more." I found the one minute of silence that started our elementary school parent meetings to be a profound waste of my time, goofing off was for unfocused lazy folks, not me. I only read books I could learn from, no fiction for this girl. I was focused and in control.

Then a variety of events helped me question all of it, "Who am I trying to prove what to?" I started to ask.

I started to look at life from the perspective of a wild adventure. I started to see the deepest answers came when I was out there having fun, not trying to figure everything out -- things like sipping tea with a trusted friend, hula hooping with my children, walking up a dirt trail, reading Harry Potter, doing art with my children were my greatest teachings.

I stopped looking to the confines of the mind for all of the answers and started to opening to the school of life to teach me what I really needed to learn.

Playing through life rather than plodding through transforms everything. Life becomes a wild, wonderful adventure to enjoy rather than a difficult, fearful struggle to muscle our way through. Playfulness brings a lightness to our spirit that affects our health on every level. Relaxation of body and mind are the best set-up for our immune system, the perfect environment in which our health and happiness can flourish. And if we are having fun we are able to accomplish so much more!

Are you ready to PLAY?
It's simple.
Are you willing, just a little bit?
Gift yourself 10 minutes right now to do whatever you want, no judge and no jury to say you should be doing it differently in any way. Deal?

Need a couple of ideas for these unplanned, no agenda, anything goes TEN minutes?
I'll share a few of my personal favorites:
Eat ice cream and taste every bite.
Sit still in nature, right in the dirt.
Draw for no reason.
Read a book that there is no time for.
Call a friend you have wanted to call for weeks.
Do nothing.

Let these 10 minutes of play nourish every cell in your body! And, most important of all, HAVE FUN!

And, if you give yourself this gift, please, share a report, we all learn from each other!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.