The Healing Power of Play.
Do you ever get frustrated that it takes so dang long to actually start seeing results. You may feel like you’ve been putting in a lot of effort, only to be stuck spinning your ties in the mud.
What if I told you there was a hack to get your brain and your body to learn faster?
That would be preeetttty aaa-mazing right?
It’s called PLAY.
You know, the thing we used to do as kids? Ever wonder how they can get so good at things so fast? Beyond the fact that their bodies are young and limber - there’s something else too and you can see it in their eyes…..it’s because to children, EVERYTHING IS PLAY. .
What exactly is Play then? And how can I incorporate it into my life?
Play basically comes down to the ability to learn through discovery and curiosity. So take your 3 year-olds brain for a second and remember how excited they were when they learned something seemingly mundane like: “Mom!! I just finished this puzzle, all by myself!!” And then it leaves you wondering how they could have figured out how to do it so quickly?
Play my friend, play. There’s no expectations of the results. Only living in the moment, fully living and experiences each step in the process, there’s no rush to do anything or get anything done.
I know it seems so opposite of what we’ve been told what will make us better. Instead of “Here are the 5 exercises you need to do every single day to improve your pelvic floor function” let’s change this language to “Here are 5 important exercises to learn how to do well in order to improve your pelvic floor function. Instead of focusing on the reps, I want you to be curious with how to movement feels within your body and think about how you can incorporate these feelings into your everyday life.”
See the difference? Or dare I say….Feel the difference?
With play, all of a sudden we’re bringing a totally different energy into the healing process. One that’s based off of your body and how it feels as opposed to some rigid structure. While sometimes I definitely advocate for “You just need to get the reps in” but even then it’s more from the perspective that you need to do more repetitions so that you can figure out how it feels to move that muscle in a specific way.
The other thing I want to point out is that your brain remembers things a million times faster when you are enjoying the process through play!!
Why?
There’s actually science behind it! When we are having fun and enjoying what we are doing, that releases dopamine which is a neurotransmitter which promotes the growth of neural connections. As opposed to doing the exercises from the standpoint of “I have to”. insert Eeyore voice
So as you continue on with learning about your pelvic floor health and are doing all of the new exercises, don’t forget that it’s supposed to be fun! Find a way to enjoy the process, and girlfriend, I guarantee you’re going to start seeing results faster.
