So we had a B-E-A-Utiful weekend of sunshine, spring is in full swing and we’ve even had a little taste of the summer. As classic Brits, I’ve even smelled the first few BBQs of the year and seen people prancing about with their arms and legs on show – all I’m saying is, where are you going to go when it’s 30 degrees in June guys…
But it’s lovely when the good weather rolls around and I see this sudden efflux of people from their homes, out into the Great British countryside. I too ventured out and made the most of the sunshine and treated my very lucky mother to 15 miles (well I only planned 11, but the coast path is notoriously unreliable in terms of planned distance to cover what with the odd cliff fall, diversion and perhaps me getting lost on the odd occasion – you’d think it would be easy to just keep the sea on your right, right…) along the south west coast path from Westward Ho! to Clovelly. We saw many happy walkers out on the path, which was great, but as per usual, we also had plenty of giggles at me turning the entire walk into my own personal playground.
You see, when I look around, I love wildlife, I love nature, I love the sounds and the smells and the sights, especially of big green open spaces and massive spans of open water. But what my brain tends to do is look around and say “what can I play on?”. Trees make excellent climbing frames and what I love to see out on my travels is rope hanging from trees – someone before me has clearly also identified an excellent potential playground!
What does Veruca want to do?
Most of you know I’m a huge fan of the work by Professor Steve Peters and his book now famous among entrepreneurs, self-improvers and athletes everywhere “The Chimp Paradox”. It explains the concept of the various different “brains” we have, or rather the different levels of consciousness and thought, in a really manageable, digestible way, which we can all use to do a little bit better in terms of achieving our goals and managing our behaviour and progress. As any of my coaches, mentors, friends, family, work colleagues…okay anyone I’ve ever had human contact with, will tell you, I’ve had my fair share of fights with my own “chimp”. It’s the bit of your brain that drives you through emotions. It’s irrational and easily agitated. It’s not particularly smart at the best of times. My own “chimp”, I have named Veruca. As in Veruca Salt. The spoilt brat from the Roald Dahl classic, who I believe was identified as a “bad egg” after one memorable meltdown in attempting to acquire a goose laying golden eggs, who simply could not be told “NO”. My own chimp is very similar: “I DON’T CARE HOW, I WANT IT NOW!” cue foot stomping, scowling and shoutiness.
But she’s also a memory of my childhood. She’s fun, she’s playful. She wants to swing from ropes, spin around in blankets, hang upside down…and also eat party food and play in the water fountain. She’s an orangutan straight out of the nursery. She’s a bit naughty, but she’s super fun and although she doesn’t like authority, what comes with that is an independent sense of adventure and silliness, which we often lose so easily as adults.
But perhaps we should all learn to let go and let our inner “chimps” or our inner CHILD out to play a bit more!
When you were a kid, did you ever think “Eurgh, exercise, what shall I do to stay fit…”? No. You probably got outside with your mates, rode your bike, played in trees, rough-housed, got into scrapes and ordeals and just did whatever was fun. It could have been bouncing on the trampoline or jumping over waves in the sea. As a small children, we love to move. Look at toddlers – best athletes in the world still have to keep tabs on them because they are ALWAYS on the go, looking for mischief and adventure. It’s only as we get older and we have to experience exercise in a regimented and restricted format that we start to see it as an ordeal. Heck, some kids I know are bored of PE by the end of primary school, before that even. Why? Because they’re not doing what they see as fun. They’re not doing it functionally.
As humans, we move well because we use our locomotion to explore the world. We’re designed to walk, climb, swim, we have more adaptability across more environments than most creatures on the planet. We can adapt to infinite types of terrain and move around in any environment we choose! We’re completely nuts! And perhaps it’s when we start to see exercise as a chore, a necessity without purpose, that we lose the fun and the joy in it. Perhaps that’s why we become sedentary.
Everyone always tells you that the key to making exercise habitual, is finding something you enjoy. Then they list off all the different ways you can enjoy the leisure centre; group classes, swimming, gym time…
But what about the playground that nature gave us? What about the natural environment we were designed to move through? There’s most likely a reason we feel so relaxed and happy when we get out in nature – we were designed to be there! I’m not saying you have to go and swing through the trees – but if you can, why not?! – I’m saying that if you think back to what you did as a child, go and do that again. Find a way to enjoy movement, without thinking of it as exercise. Explore, find hidden tracks and paths, go to new places, find the independent coffee shop at the end of the path you’ve never been on, go to the seaside and jump over the waves, get your feet wet, laugh when you fall over. Go and walk through the trees and look UP instead of down! Take binoculars, look around, jump down the steps instead of walking and laugh when you fall in a puddle.
GET OUTSIDE AND HAVE FUN.
They’re right, exercise shouldn’t be a chore and you need to find a way to enjoy it. But perhaps the way to do that is not think of it as exercise at all, but just think of it as playtime and rediscover that intense joy you found everytime the bell rang and you could run out onto the grass as a kid and just enjoy being there with your friends.