The recession can bring significant additional stress to one’s life.  At the top of everyone’s list of worries in these trying times are financial concerns, from losses in a retirement account to the real or potential loss of a job.  In addition, the recession often causes people to work harder and put in longer hours.  This happens for a number of reasons.  For instance, as companies cut back, the staff that is left needs to make up for the lost headcount by doing additional work and taking on more responsibility.  And sometimes, in order to make ends meet, people need to take on a second job.  All of this extra work may leave little time to do other things in life, particularly anything having to do with, play, enjoyment or fun.

But of all of this extra work and stress can be detrimental to your success.  In order to be at the top of your game you need to get enough rest and set aside some time to do things for no other reason than just for enjoyment.  In other words, you need to have some fun.  By taking the time to play you will be more creative, more energetic and better at focusing on the tasks at hand.

Some people feel guilty about enjoying themselves at a time when others are suffering and going through difficult times, but this is the wrong attitude.  Stuart Brown, author of the book Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, warns that a life without play if a life of rigidity and lacking in creativity.  He explains that play is not the opposite of work, but of depression.

Brown has studied the effect that lack of play has in people’s lives and the results can be devastating, leading to unfulfilled lives and sometimes serious dysfunctional behavior such as substance abuse and psychotic outbreaks.  In an interview with the USA Today, Brown explains how this is particularly significant in perilous times like we are living today:

“Play is particularly important during periods that are sustainably stressful, like now where we don’t see an end to this economic downturn…If we’re going to adapt to changing economic and personal circumstances the way that nature armed us to do, then we have to find ourselves having some play time virtually every day.”

Play does not necessarily mean spending lots of money on lavish vacations or expensive entertainment.  Play can be as simple as finding a sport that you enjoy and making the time to practice it just for the fun of it.  The important thing is that is has to be just for fun, instead of some other purpose such as competition, getting in shape, or any other goal that may put you under stress.

The key here is to lighten-up.  A lot of it has to do with putting yourself in a state of mind where you can just enjoy an activity without worries about time, commitments, goals, or anything else that resembles pressure or stress.  This does not mean that the activity can’t be arduous.  If you love playing basketball, playing the game for an extended period of time, even if it makes you physically tired, can be good for the mind.

Thinking about play time as an important investment for your success may help eliminate any guilt that you may feel about seeking enjoyment in such trying times.  If you are out of a job or have suffered significant financial losses in this recession, don’t think that you can’t have fun.  In fact, building some fun time into your schedule will likely help you maintain an important mental balance that will ultimately help you accelerate your recovery and achieve success.