Who wants to "work"-out? Let's "play"out instead!

Working out sometimes just seems like so much…..well, work! Don’t we already work all week? Let’s play instead. I like to think of exercise as play, as an exploration, an adventure. I try my best to put on the “child’s mind” where everything is curious and new and we are excited to take it all in.

I try to make everything I do (exercise included) an adventure. The “pack a rucksack with an army knife, some flint, a bit of pemican and a water filter (yeah they had those in pemican days) and hit the open road on my trusty steed” type of adventure. I imagine I’m a painter exploring which colors capture the exact feeling I’m trying to express on my canvas, or like a scientist designing an experiment and investigating what it reveals. Working out is not work! It’s an adventure, and I love adventures.

Adventure is really all around us. We don’t need to spend a lot of money going to faraway lands (although I highly recommend immersion in foreign cultures/lands if you can afford it). One way I like to explore is by pushing myself out of my personal comfort zone, by putting myself in places and spaces I have never been. For me life is an adventure of learning and of self-discovery.

I feel most alive when I am moving my body, my mind is quiet (finally). I am so focused in the moment, in my body that my “physical brain” takes over. So it is no wonder that I find myself at one of the best events Santa Cruz has going for it “Salsa By The Sea” (SBTS). SBTS (https://www.facebook.com/SalsaByTheSea/) is a social salsa dancing community that comes from all over the Bay Area to enliven us and share with us the music and dances of Mexico, Central and South America; salsa, cumbia, merenge, and bachata to name a few (https://www.britannica.com/art/Latin-American-dance) .

You don’t think dance is exercise? Well get out there and try it. I am by no means a master but I give it my best shot. As someone who grew up in a culture where social dance was not really a part of my life, I am really attracted to it (in part because I find myself on an adventure to slay the demons of my cultural programming which are constantly shooting me with arrows of self-judgment).

At SBTS, I love how for the most part people just want to celebrate life through dance and enjoy a sense of community together. It seems like no surprise to say that in my culture (my immediate family and/or in general white culture), we don’t integrate dance and music into our lives in quite the same way as other cultures, or if we did it got lost a long long time ago. Without the opportunity to move my body, learn about myself and learn about others that SBTS offers, life would be way more boring! No adventure=no fun!

Check out this video to get inspired. Get up and move your body! After all we only have one life. Why not make it an adventurous one?!