Bloganuary: Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

I came across the Bloganuary prompt website, which gives you a writing prompt for each day in January. I’m going to try to do it here, and use it as more than a fun blog prompt. I plan to use it as a bit of a journaling tool, because that’s what I’m supposed to do here. So away we go.

Play is a great prompt because way too many adults don’t know how to do it. I’m not sure I do. I have things that you could say are equal to “play” for an adult, which I do—watch movies, purposefully watch television, cook, exercise, tinker with small hobbies—but are not actually “play” as I think it’s being defined here. So that’s what play is to me. It’s the act of taking time to yourself to enjoy activities you love because they are fun.

I view the things I mentioned as play that way because they are what I seek to do when I see free time on the horizon. As I get older, I am realizing that my free time is very important to my overall well-being. If I have some coming up, I tend to think of things I can do to fill it that will get me enjoyment. I plan for watching movies or a few episodes of television that I have been saving up. And they act as a catalyst for more fun in my mind—writing about it.

I have never been diagnosed, but I definitely have some tendencies that lead me to think I have OCD working on my brain. One of those tendencies is to think about how I’ll spend my upcoming free time to get done what I want. Maybe that’s housework, maybe it’s working on a project that needs a bit of attention, or maybe it’s just sitting around watching movies. I plan these things, and I have a personality that does not like deviation from the plan at all. I’m working on that, but it’s a real thing in my life. So what winds up happening is that “play” for me is scheduled downtime to get done the enjoyable things in my life.

Ultimately, that’s not really play. Again, it’s something I am working on. What I need to make myself do (without scheduling it) is give some time over to someone else who can help me program in some more fun. I hate that idea, though.

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January 02, 2024
Tags: bloganuary | playtime | journal | play