CREATIVE PLAY

                                             

How we play, how we recreate, how we enjoy ourselves when not performing worldly duties, is dictated by this area of life. This is how we like to “hang out,” either with ourselves or others. It is what we do when we have no other responsibilities to perform. It also indicates our overall level of creativity. This field of living also determines our relationship with children (our own or others).

The word “recreation” suggests that play is necessary to help us restore and regenerate our psychological faculties and physical energies. If we used our spiritual nature more effectively, we would not need so much time for play; we would not take everything so seriously and get burned out pursuing goals in such a driven way. However, we live in a materialistic society where people “compete for turf,” and, in the process of doing so, get very tired. Thus, a great need for play arises. But tired people have an overall awareness which is also tired or dull, and, consequently, such people often lack creativity. They make mistakes in how they play: they drink too much or play too hard and, as a result, incur more stress through an activity which was supposed to relieve stress!

One reason we must learn the art of play is so we can raise our children well. A good parent can enter the world of children through a proper sense of play. When we are unable to play effectively, then there is no safety valve for releasing the constant stress to which the body is subjected and stores in the nervous system during the course of a week, month or year. This imbalance in the field of creative play can seriously damage our quest for happy, healthy longevity, just as imbalances in any of the other seven fields of living can do.

The eight Creative Play personalities are:

INTEGRATIVE: will only enjoy a form of play led or decided upon by them.

DEVOTIONAL: cooking, swimming, boating, reading stories. Mothering.

WARRIOR: adventure, risk-taking, dancing, excitement.

COMMUNICATOR: reading, games, puzzles, studying, taking classes.

GIVER: volunteering, helping out, mothering.

IDEALIST: music, arts, romance, poetry, the senses.

LONER: yoga, massage, solitude, silence.

REBEL: mysterious, hidden, unusual, rebellious, foreign travel.