Why is Time for Play Important in Your Relationship?

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Recently, Phil had been beating himself up for not accomplishing tasks; of wasting his time reading, relaxing, taking time out. True, it is important to watch for procrastination and all its little tricks that take us away from our important goals and accomplishments.

Yet we also need to show respect for our bodies and our minds. They need time off, time out, or time in other pursuits.

Individually and in our relationships we all need play time where we are not working on anything; not on progressing, not on taking care of business, and definitely not on achieving anything.

We recently had a marvelous and rejuvenating few days. These were days where we stepped outside our usual patterns and day to day projects and were just together having an intimate and lovely time. We didn’t do anything big and important. We were very present with each other talking, laughing, sharing. We are not referring to date nights, trips, or other planned escapades together. Here we are referring to spontaneous, unplanned, unscheduled, open free time.

It started when Maude suggested hanging out with each other with no goal other than that. We had each been so busy with our individual jobs and tasks or with mutual social events, that we hadn’t spent much time with each other just relaxing or having adventures. Those things that we enjoy doing separately can make us forget to spend time together, but time like that is important precisely because it doesn’t involve doing anything. It’s an opportunity to reconnect to ourselves and each other.

Individually and in our relationships we all need play time where we are not working on anything Click To TweetIt is a time for laughter, for creativity, for spontaneity, for unplanned nonsense – the substance of life. In “The Artist’s Way,” author Julia Cameron offers a wonderful course for connecting with your creative self. One of the vital components of this process is what she calls “The Artist Date”. It is essentially “…an excursion, a play date…” And she suggests that “A little fun can go a long way toward making your work feel more like play.”

We all need these times and our relationships need them as well. Refresh yourselves and your partners, and all that you want to accomplish and create will be that much richer for it. Changing our patterns and altering the way we fill our time wakes us up and keeps us from sleepwalking through our lives and our loves. All our efforts will be that much more when we replenish our spirits with play and laughter!

Tell your friends!