Game Face

I have this friend whom I adore. Flat out adore. She is a lifer and we know it.  Simply put we can finish each other's sentences, talk each other off the ledge with one single word, one hug, one look, or one luke warm cup of coffee. She has a sense of style all her own and is a true individualist. We belong to each other.

When I get a wild, crazy notion to do something- she is the one I call to talk it out. She tells me, I'm crazy and then says, LET'S DO IT. We share inside jokes and too many "isms" to count. So when she sent me a text about the latest book she is reading and says this: " The Gift of the Sea, written in 1955, it's brilliant. She was talking about what u + i call 'game face'"; I stop what I am doing. Like drop it like it's hot and start writing. It makes sense- it makes me feel alive. It makes me feel connected. To write. 

Game face. We put them on when we are in an uncomfortable social setting, or need to get a job done, or conquer a fear, or even GOD forbid do something we -don't -want- to -do -but -we -have- to -do- it -so- just- smile- and GET IT DONE. That my friends is a game face.

Why do we do that? According to Anne Murrow Lindbergh, in her book Gift from the Sea she tries to explain it. This is good stuff. We are a generation of people that glorify busy. We are always doing something and going somewhere. We may not want to do it...it isn't feeding our soul  or completing us or energizing us.  IT is just making us tired and worn out and always having to put that game face on. Lindbergh goes on to say that "instead of stilling the center, we add more ...activities into our lives -which tend to throw us off balance."  This is so good.

Here's the deal on a Friday night after a long  (but no doubt fulfilling) week at school and the kids are in bed and I am reading or catching up on my DVR and I say no to an activity or chore that isn't going to "center" my soul, I will feel no shame in taking off the game face. I will guard my time and be careful to not fill it with things that make me feel less authentic and true to my one self.

"The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere" Lindbergh wrote ...I would have to agree. Shed those masks. You don't need the game face- Put it away. Bury it under the mounds of laundry or something... Stop the glorification of busy. Find your center and stay there. If, I mean when, you get out of balance, just start over and start searching for the sweet nectar that makes your heart sing.

This post is my second birthday present to myself...  my first is this book!!!  I am going to relish in the sweetness of doing nothing and not feeling guilty about it  And then I will try and try again.

      

borrowed from Quora.com