Playgrounds for Adults?

Climbing trees, dancing embarrassingly in front of your whole family, running and jumping and falling down, playing in the mud, rolling in the grass - when was the last time you did ANY of these things?

On another note, have you ever seen baby lions learning how to hunt? They practice stalking their mothers, they play fight and climb on things, only to quickly lose their balance and tumble adorably. Every day they learn how to become a killing machine, honing their skills into muscle memory.

Here’s where I think humans fucked up - When lions reach adulthood, what do they do next? Do they go off to Lion University, become a marketing manager and slowly develop their belly fat and nostalgia for when they used to be ALIVE? Not even close. Animals are required to maintain their bodies’ physical prowess because their survival literally depends on it. Fat, slow lions don’t get fed. They are wired to BE a lion until time inevitably takes its course with all of us.

How many of us can say we are actually in shape? Gratefully, I’ve been one of the lucky people who has been thin my entire life, still “waiting for it to catch up to me” - but thin does not always mean healthy. Just over a year ago, I felt OLD. My body felt stiff, frail, weak, my balance was off - mentally I felt angry, fearful, resentful, all of the negative aspects of aging I could identify with. Looking back, it is very easy to understand how I got there.

Once I graduated college, my regular physical activity took a back seat. For a while, I was able to run off of the foundation I had forged being in sports since childhood. Whenever I wanted to play some basketball or join a flag football team, my body was able to hold up compared to most of the other “normies.” Recovery, however, became a different story.

The soreness following physical activity was longer and more painful. Even during phases of Lesser Depression (super scientific term) or “getting back into working out,” I still felt like my body would never be what it used to be. Dozens of shoulder and ankle injuries have compounded into each other, my lower back was in excruciating pain every morning, every time I fell down (with increased frequency) I felt like my hips were going to break.

^{I want to make a special note here - I am an alcoholic (no longer drinking). For many years, every single day, from the time I woke up until I passed out, I had alcohol in my system. This resulted in severe depression, anxiety, guilt, shame, remorse, despair, hopelessness - the list goes on. I was an addict, so everything I did was to an extreme. When I am describing the effects of chronic cell phone/computer use or a physically inactive lifestyle (sitting/lying down all over the house), TRUST that I am speaking from experience.}

^{Addictions vary by fixation and by person, so sometimes it may take longer to reveal the negative effects of our daily habits. It took years for alcohol to destroy my life so significantly that I became desperate for change. When will you become desperate enough to change your life?}

Have you connected the dots yet?

We CANNOT STOP participating in human activities because our “survival” literally depends on it. Run, jump, climb, fall, swim, throw, dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge - GO outside. Sing, dance, draw, paint, build something, learn something, play a game with someone else. Plenty of science supports being around nature, dancing is proven to alleviate symptoms of anxiety, WORKING OUT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER (every single person who has ever been depressed around family just cringed).

And as the cookie crumbles, my life has been forever changed by adopting this simple philosophy. We are all people of the earth, and by reconnecting with nature our bodies can be reminded of what it felt like to be a kid all over again.

I thought about this while lounging up in the tree “chair” I found yesterday, just before watching a deer have a jolly-trot down the trail at sunset. We were on the same wavelength in that moment.

We need to save each other, in order to save the planet.

Start buzzing.