Act Your Age...

Have you ever heard the saying “act your own age”?  I have and I have to admit, I have used it on my children and have thought about it towards myself and others.   What does that mean anyway, really?  Perhaps we say it when are uncomfortable in our own seriousness.  Yet, youth knows no age. 

 

What I do know is that the more I let go of caring what people think of me, the younger I feel.   Wow, maybe I have found the true fountain of youth!  LET IT GO, LET IT GO!!!!!! 

 

The more I let go of caring about the grey in my hair the lines on my face or the age that I am, the more youthful I feel. Newsflash, youthfulness is not just for the young.  Youthfulness is also a matter of mindset.  I know plenty of young old people and a number of old young people. 

 

As the ancient teaching goes, as a man thinks or woman, they, or we become. I think I am youthful :)

 

My age is not a reason for me to give up on being youthful, or finding fun, playing and enjoying life.  My age is not an excuse to stop living in the moment like children playing in a sandbox or letting the wind blow through their hair as they swing back and forth one a rope tied to a tree.  Have you ever watched children engage in playing, they are completely surrendered to what they are doing?  My age should not stop me from doing the same.  I will choose to engage fully in the moment.

 

 

I am a child and an adult.  I bring every age with me into the next age.  Some years I forget this simple truth and I can look back and see that those years were the hardest.  Remembering that being young and enjoying my youth is a state of mind.  I try to remember that youth knows no age.

 

Today I will embrace my youthful side and enjoy living in the moment.  I pray for all my readers to do the same.  Life is to short to be to serious. 

 

 

 

 

Extra, extra, read all about it!!!!!!

 

 

 

10 Reasons why play can make you healthy and happy!!!

Play is not trivial; it's a basic biological drive as critical to our health as sleep or food.

 

1.      Play has been scientifically proved to be good for the brain: Play stimulates nerve growth in the portions of the brain that process emotions and executive function.

2.     Play teaches us to use our imaginations. Imagination is perhaps the most powerful human ability, letting us create simulated realities we can explore without abandoning the real world.

3.     Rough-and-tumble play teaches us how to cooperate and play fair. Research has shown that roughhousing is necessary for the development of social awareness, cooperation, fairness, and altruism

4.     Play helps us learn to be friends. This mutual play is the basic state of friendship that sustains us throughout our lives.

5.     Sometimes the best way to learn a complicated subject is to play with it. That's why kids often learn computer systems faster than adults; they aren't afraid to just try stuff out and see what works. Kids don't fear doing something wrong. If they do, they learn from it and do it differently the next time.

6.     Kids do better academically when they have recess. Middle schoolers who are more physically fit do better on academic tests, and grade schoolers who have more than 15 minutes of recess a day show better behavior in class than children who have less or no recess.

7.     Physical play delays mental decline in old age. Research on this is still in the early stages, but older people who get regular exercise are less likely to suffer cognitive decline. Doing crossword puzzles, brain teasers, and other thinking games seems to help, too.

8.     A little play can help solve big problems. Play is nature's great tool for creating new neural networks and for reconciling cognitive difficulties. When we play, dilemmas and challenges naturally filter through the unconscious mind and work themselves out. Even a few hours spent doing something you love can make you new again.

9.     Playing at work is not just useful; it's essential. When the going gets tough, the tough go play. Firefighters and police officers use joking around and dark humor to cope with the dangers of their work: It was OK to have some setbacks, admit failures, take the hit, and figure out ways to fix the problems.

10.  When we get play right, all areas of our lives go better. One of the hardest things to teach kids is how to make it past difficulty or boredom to find the fun. Making all of life an act of play occurs when we recognize and accept that there may be some discomfort in play and that every experience has both pleasure and pain. Advanced play, the black belt of play, comes when we realize this and act on it. Then, our work is our play and our play is our work.

 

 

So, remember the next time someone or even yourself tells you to act your age, invite them into a life of play and see how healthy you will help yourself and them become.  I believe God made us to play.

 

Thank you for stopping by.

Cris