One day in the spring of 2018, I was sitting on the NJ Transit train making my usual commute to Manhattan for work. At that time I was traveling back and forth between Montgomery and Broadway five days a week, and it took me two hours to get there for work and two hours to get home. While I really did like my sales job and the people I was working with and for, I felt sad most of the time. My life consisted of work, commuting, and trying to stay healthy without much free time. I felt like something was missing. 

As I was looking out at each town we passed through, I received a text from a friend asking if I wanted to join her softball team. At that moment, I felt a spark inside of me that had been missing for a long time. I wasn’t sure if it was nerves or excitement, but I decided to follow the feeling anyway. I was definitely nervous to join a new team, since it had been over three years since I’d played an organized sport and six years since I’d played softball, but I didn’t let that stop me. I was hopeful following that spark would lead me to finding what I’d been missing from my life. 

Joining the team turned out to be one of the best decisions I’d made in a long time. After the season started, I commuted to New York City much less because I wouldn’t be able to make it back in time on game days. I started working from home more and realized that I actually did like my life in Upstate NY. Playing softball again made me feel alive and I had just as much fun on that field as I remember having as a kid. 

The three years I spent without sports were very dull in comparison to the years before and the years since I’ve included it back into my life. 

Recreation, by definition, is something that is activity done for enjoyment when one is not working. I used to think that work was the most important thing in my adult life, but I’ve found that I am not my best without a little fun in the form of athletic competition. 

My life has changed tremendously since that summer, and now I not only play recreational softball and soccer, but also coach both sports at the high school varsity level. Adding recreation back into my life completely changed how I live, and I am a firm believer that it’s important for us to continue to do the things that bring us joy, even once our playing days are “over.”

I’d like to say that I’ve been great at adding this into my life and it’s been an easy process to learn that I need to slow down and have fun sometimes, but it hasn’t. I’ve spent many sessions in therapy working through my belief systems around my self-worth attached to my work performance, and through this process I’ve learned that recreation is not only important, but it is the time when our spark gets reignited, our joy is replenished, and we are able to come back stronger to our work and other responsibilities with a new sense of life. 

Don’t be afraid to take a little time off to participate in an activity you enjoy outside of work because you will re-create yourself in the process, not only helping yourself but those around you.

Xoxo

Coach Maggi