Before I go any further, let me apologize for my lack of blogging for the past month. I have been furiously trying to get our new website up and running. With much help I finally succeeded -- please visit it at http://www.fscaston.org. I also have my blog on the Franciscan Spiritual Center Blog as well. Come visit us there. When you go to the site be sure to visit multiple tabs. There is much to see and some are really fun.
Now for today's blog ---
A friend of mine gave me an old issue of the magazine Spirituality
and Health (May-June, 2011) and in it there was an article entitled “Your
Soul Needs Playtime” by Emma Seppala, PhD (p. 52-53). Dr.
Seppala says that the root of the word “enthusiasm” is Greek and means to be
inspired or possessed by divinity, it literally means “inside God”. Playing makes us like children who are fully
present – a state which is often equated with being one with divinity. She suggests that when our mind stays in the
past, it usually dwells on negative emotions, such as anger or regret. When it is in the future, anxiety and fear
arise. One of the reasons children are
filled with extraordinary amounts of energy and enthusiasm may be that they are
in the present moment. Play, more than
any activity, allows us to inhabit the present or another word she uses for describing
play is the “state of flow”. Flow occurs
when we are completely immersed in an activity—the state of being 100 percent
in the present moment.—and it is a state of great pleasure.
I have a friend who has had a long time battle with
Cancer. At one point she was very sick to
the point of appearing terminal and she relayed this story to me and I never
forgot it. In talking about her state of mind during a stage when she certainly
was appearing terminal she said: “Whenever I would think about not growing old
with my husband or not seeing my grand-children I would become extremely
anxious and afraid.” But she would tell
herself, “I have today; I can enjoy today.”
She reported that she felt great peace at that point. As she pondered this she said the lesson she
learned was that God only gives us the grace for today. When she moved into worries about the future
she didn’t have that grace yet. .
I think that’s a bit of what Dr. Seppala is also saying Flow or play, whether in work or relaxation,
is only found in the present moment. It
si a state we all find when we are fully engaged in what we are doing without
drifting to the past or the future. The
present becomes play. Play, like
meditation, brings the mind back to the present moment. Dr. Seppala uses a quote from Darshan Diaries in which an Indian
spiritual teacher Osho writes, “Playfulness is as sacred as any prayer or maybe
more sacred than any prayer, because playfulness, laughter, singing, dancing,
will relax you. And the truth is
possible only in a relaxed state of being.
When you are totally relaxed, in a state of let-go, the impossible
starts happening, the miracle starts happening.
Let-go is the secret of meditation….in play, the mind dissolves and
relaxes.”
Great post, Julie! I like that idea of play--especially since I tend to take things much too seriously.
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