Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #14- Play, but first DO REAL WORK!
One big thing brought up in the Paleo world lately is the importance of PLAY!
I would never argue with this: PLAY is what mammals, including human animals, DO. It is part and parcel of our makeup; the interplay between members of a tribe of men, or a pack of dogs for that matter- this has huge importance to the development of interrelations of the various members of those groups, their mental and physical health, and also the layers of dominance. All really, really important stuff indeed!
But, let’s put it into context: Today you worked out, using virtual resistance, pushups, other body-weight moves like straight legged situps, hindu squats, gymnastic rings training (You own the eBook Perfectly Paleo Exercise, of course!), so you know just what to do!
And then, you went to work- probably a desk job- and now you’re home! You feel good, you feel energized; after all, you slept a good 8 and 1/2 hours last night, had a big glass of Paleo Green Smoothie along with your eggs this morning, a big salad for lunch topped with grass fed beef-
You feel pretty darn good!
So, should you just go out and play frisbee with your friends and family?? Or golf? Cards??? (Does anyone even play anymore?) Board games?? VIDEO GAMES??
Well, you sure could! You’ve earned the right... but, have you ever considered that you might be better served, as would the world at large...
IF YOU DID SOME REAL WORK FIRST??
Now don’t go crazy and get your back up! I know you’ve already worked an 8 hour day or longer, plus worked out in the early AM...
But really, have you done any real work??
Real work is physical in the real sense of the word: Moving, carrying, lifting - hard, physical, manual labor.
It is really becoming a concern that many, many folks in this modern, digital age, have really... never done any real, manual, hard, physical WORK- NEVER!!
Real, physical work, not just typing on a keyboard or talking on a telephone, is what we are really programmed to do! It’s the Yang to the Ying of meditation and physical culture- we create a calm, centered, rational mind and healthy body to.... work!
I don’t mean an assembly line of fake work- I mean accomplishing real tasks, and feeling great about it!
Last Saturday evening, I had spent the whole evening cutting wood, and moving it. Exhausting, tough labor- but very rewarding when accomplished! The next day, I moved it all where it needed to go- pushed the brush piles off the beaten path for the deer to shelter in (the tractor did this for me, mostly!) Luckily, I got it all done, but then had batter trouble with the tractor...
Just now, on Tuesday evening during this incredibly cold Winter that absolutely PROVES that we should be much more worried about a NEW ICE AGE than we should about a politically motivated global warming scare, I got my old Ford F100 pickup started and had to rescue my John Deere with a dead battery...
And you know what?
I feel a heck of a lot more satisfied with doing all of that than if I had just skied, then paddle boarded, and then played ultimate frisbee followed up with tennis!
Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that fluffy stuff! It’s fine, as long as we first ground and center ourselves around real work.
And, after you do real work, you know what you will really feel like doing?
MAYBE a little play, like toss your kids or grandkids around, or play a board game, or play some music on your guitar and sing, or play cards...
But I think ultimate frisbee, paddle boarding, snowboarding, and kayaking will not beckon to you at ALL-
You’ll just be to tired, and also, just too... content!
