Feeling stressed out can be the result of several scenarios:1. You have more to do than you can handle.
2. Your energy level is so low that even normal tasks seem overwhelming.
3. Your whole day and the entire week consist of work. Even an outing with friends has become an item on your to-do list.
These scenarios are, of course, interconnected. Having too much on the plate and making no time for leisure often result in a drop in energy. A low energy level often results in working harder and enjoying life less.
My former friend Barbara, for example, was a full-time nurse at a large hospital for paraplegics in Hamburg, Germany. She also attended courses at the university. On rare occasions, we met for walks over the mudflats at ebb. Back on shore, she usually exclaimed, “Now I can place a checkmark behind it!” - The walks with me, the visits of the movie theaters, the hours at the cafés had mutated into chores!
What I remember mostly about her is her constant sense of utterly being stressed and her propensity to developing skin diseases.
We need to make time for mere play and fun. Not once in a while, but regularly. We need play time not only at the age of four, but also at the age of 40 and 80!
I remember my training in psychooncology with Dr. Carl Simonton. He taught us that helping a cancer patient to set up a plan for getting well needs to include time for play and fun.
I am not talking about getting an ATV or a sailboat and, by no means, I am thinking of TV.
My father was an artist who could barely provide for his family. We did not have a TV set or any other fancy gadget. My fondest memories are those of our Saturday evenings when we gathered around the kitchen table to play Chinese checker or other board games until deep into the night. There was hardly another time when I felt so light-hearted and carefree.
Unfortunately, nowadays the TV dominates the evenings, deadens family communication, and replaces story telling and play.
Do yourself a favor and get those games out of the closet! Bring your family together or have friends coming over and - play again!
When choosing a game, there are several features to consider:
- Some games make you more interact with each other than others! If – and when – you get your figures home with Chinese checker, for example, depends highly on the other players’ moves. With Yahtzee on the other hand, you basically play for yourself, rolling the dice in hopes to reach a higher score than the rest at the table.
- Some games can be played only with two people; others are more fun for a larger group. If, for example, it’s just you and your spouse, you may get bored with a game like Uno that is designed for more players. Monopoly, too, is more fun when played in a larger group.
- Strategic games like chess or Pentago require thinking and concentration; with others, only luck determines the winner. Losing a strategic game may strike your ego to a higher degree than losing in Chinese checker!
- Everybody wins sometimes and loses sometimes.
- The outcome of our actions depends highly on other peoples’ actions.
- We all are interconnected.
- Laughing at our need to control and kissing it good bye is a great way to de-stress life.
