Are you experiencing “play deprivation?”
Yes, it’s a real thing.
It happens when adults don’t take time to regularly participate in some sort of voluntary, pleasurable activity. Good old-fashioned play time may be more important than you realize.
To play means your eye isn’t on the clock.
You’re relaxed and at ease.
You’re much more interested in engaging in the activity, game, or interaction than the outcome.
When was the last time you did that?
Some people just naturally get it. Or perhaps they just never lose it.
They prioritize time to hang with friends, goof-off, chill-out, and joke around.
They know how to put aside their cares and give themselves permission to operate creatively, in a less confined, more unstructured way.
Studies show that people who know how to have fun just for the sake of fun, enjoy a release of endorphins, your body’s feel-good chemicals, and usually reap a host of health benefits, including:
- reduced stress
- lowered blood pressure
- less depression and anxiety
- boosted vitality and immune system
Consider the following ways play is thought to improve your mind, environment, and relationships:
Cognitive flexibility and general well being
If you want more mental clarity and stress relief, play time can help get it done in the following ways:
- Improves brain function. Play often presents cognitive challenges by way of strategic games, puzzles, and memory practice. Mental stress and depression are also often alleviated by routine, playful interaction.
- Enhances imagination and creativity. Play helps teach “in action.” In a relaxed, engaged play environment, imagination, adaptability and problem-solving abilities are used repeatedly and improved. Play allows the creative portions of your brain to overcome psychological blocks and inner sensors that may stymie your best work.
- Refreshes vigor and vitality. Play time helps elevate energy levels. Research indicates an improvement in disease resistance and pain relief due to play-related endorphin release as well.
Occupational/community investment
Companies like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo understand how much play can do for the mature mind. They incorporate play at work because it increases innovation and cooperation. Play also promotes the following:
- Enhanced, productive connections. A playful attitude or nature in a work community, among neighbors, or within academic environments can lead to more empathy, understanding, trust, and sharing among members. Play helps ease interpersonal tension, bridge personal and professional differences, promote teamwork, and instill a desire to form alliances and productive relationships.
- Job satisfaction. Whether you work for a cool dot.com company or somewhere without a foosball table or yoga studio, play can help work seem a lot less mundane. Use your breaks and lunch hour to spend a few moments doing something you enjoy. An enjoyable work experience is one less marked by low morale, absenteeism, and dissatisfaction.
Play time for closer relationships
Play time does wonders for invigorating our personal relationships. Often marked by humor, variety, and spontaneity, play keeps interactions interesting and vibrant. Playing promotes trust and resilience as well as the following relationship benefits too:
- Social skills. Verbal interaction, healthy boundaries, and teamwork are all enhanced and refined through play and playful communication.
- Cooperation. Play reminds us to take ourselves less seriously, tear down relationship barriers, and enjoy each other.
- Emotional healing. Creating positive experiences through play can soothe negativity or conflict. Play and humor effectively draw people to each other and help them see past differences with compassion and increased communication.
Play is a simple and effective way to feel better.
Why not hop on the swings at the park and swing hard?
Go high just because it’s high. No goal to meet just the delight of it.
Go ahead, have fun.
It’s the healthy, grown-up thing to do.
