By the end of the week, my brain has been feeling short circuited. The overload of how jam packed my days are starts to catch up with me. I spend the first half of the week being incredibly efficient and productive but by the time Thrusday afternoon rolls around, all I want to do is turn off the part of my brain that is prioritizing, managing, and assessing.
No matter how much I plan to cram into the last days of the week, I find that the motivation just isn’t there. Until recently, I would sit in front of my computer berating myself, “You have so much work to do! Get to it!”
Surprise – that didn’t work.
A few weeks ago, I started a new approach. Instead of fighting against my unmotivated state and feeling bad about all the things I should be doing, I’ve taken to playing solo games of Bananagrams.
My ten year old asked me just this morning, “What’s with the Bananagrams?”
Well son, mom’s trying to keep her head from exploding if that’s okay with you.
And yes, in some ways in seems like an incredible indulgence to sit around and play games. But this New York Times article is a good reminder that play is just as important as vacation, or rest. In fact, the two are quite different and with the busyness of our modern lifestyles, play, often is one of the first things to get cut. Not just for kids, but for adults too. When is the last time you did something just for the pure pleasure of play?
Because I am a nerd of the largest sort, I get great entertainment and pleasure out of words. If it’s not reading, then it’s word games. And while reading offers a certain kind of escape, word games bring me something else entirely. A challenge, followed by a solution, followed by an inflated sense of accomplishment.
If you’re not familiar with Bananagrams, it’s a word puzzle game that is typically played in a group but serious word lovers can play it alone.
The objective is to use all of the lettered tiles to build and connect words in a crossword type formation. There’s something about the process of picking letters and moving them around that is like a meditation. And when you’re able to turn off that controlling part of your brain, the words start to flow with little struggle.
Like just about anything in life, if you get stuck and try to force it, controlling the letters with brute force, you get frustrated. You hit walls. You want to quit.
Being a serious Bananagrams player requires a certain amount of flexibility, agility, and resilience. Which are also things you need in everyday life. When you think about it, Bananagrams is not just a life skill, it’s also something that could be used on one’s resume.
The next time you start to feel stressed out or overwhelmed, maybe instead of working harder, try play. Even Frank Underwood busts out the PlayStation every once in awhile.
Enjoy your play time. There will always be plenty of work to do.
When Kaly doesn’t have her nose in a book, she wrangles and referees two elementary age boys and blogs about her humorous efforts to lead a mindful, connected life. She’s the author of Good Move: Strategy and Advice for Your Family’s Relocation, a book about the craziness of moving with kids. Her writing has been featured on sites such as Mamalode, The Mid, In The Powder Room, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Scary Mommy to name a few. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
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